■ China
Needles removed from brain
Doctors in China have removed three sewing needles embedded in a man's brain for nearly 29 years, state media reported yesterday. The man, surnamed Guo, and his parents had no idea how the needles got into his head, but doctors who performed the unusual operation said someone likely stuck them through a membranous space in his skull when he was a baby. "It's not possible for a needle to penetrate the skull otherwise, because the skull is extremely hard," said Zhang Zhiqiang, a neurosurgeon. Guo only found out about the needles after an X-ray in 1994 for a brain injury. Till now, no one had dared carry out the surgery. Guo has been in normal condition since the operation.
■ South Korea
Heaviest snow in 100 years
The biggest snow storm in March for 100 years blanketed the central region of South Korea overnight, forcing schools to close and bringing traffic to a standstill on Friday. The storm, which began late on Thursday afternoon, dumped more than 18cm of snow on the capital Seoul, the largest one-day snowfall in March since the Korea Meteorological Administration began recording data a century ago. Nearly 50,000 workers were mobilized in the capital to clear frozen roads and treacherous sidewalks. "The snow is still drifting and we may get another 5cm to 10cm in Seoul today," the meteorological agency official said on yesterday.
■ Japan
Thieves make huge heist
Two men robbed a jewelry shop of gems worth ?3.5 billion (US$31.5 million) in broad daylight in Tokyo's upscale Ginza shopping district, police said. "Two men visited the shop as customers ... One of them threw some liquid over a store clerk and punched him while the other broke into the showcases ... with a hammer," a police officer from a nearby station said. They stole several items including a diamond necklace priced at ?3 billion from the Le Supre-Diamant Couture de Maki store, according to the store's manager. The 21-year-old shop clerk sustained minor injuries to his face, another officer said.
■ Hong Kong
Thieves steal `sacred trees'
A gang of thieves suspected to be stealing "sacred trees" from rural Hong Kong and selling them in China has been arrested, police said yesterday. The gang is suspected to have stripped hillsides of Buddhist pine trees, or Podocarpus macrophylla, which are revered in China and can fetch up to US$6,000 each. Eleven men aged 17 to 48 were arrested after a sea and land chase off the coast of Hong Kong's rural New Territories on Thursday, a police spokesman said. They were being questioned yesterday. The past year has seen a surge in thefts of the trees, which are believed in China to have mystical powers.
■ China
Chemicals flood river
Nearly 1 million people in southwestern China were without water after chemicals spilled from a factory into an important Yangtze River tributary, state media and a government official said yesterday. Authorities shut down water supplies Tuesday after a combination of synthetic ammonia and nitrogen from the Sichuan General Chemical Factory leaked into the Tuo River in the densely populated province of Sichuan, the Chinese-language Shanghai Morning Post reported. Water supplies for four residential areas were severely polluted, and could remain cut for several days, the report said.
■ Brazil
Corruption probe blocked
Allies of Brazil's ruling party said on Thursday they would block a congressional probe aimed at unearthing illegal political funding by gaming operations, the charge at the center of a scandal shaking the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Leaders of parties in the ruling coalition in the Senate said they would not appoint members to a congressional enquiry into bingo game operations. The opposition is demanding a separate probe specifically into the scandal itself, which erupted on Feb. 13 when a gambling boss revealed a video showing the then head of the Rio de Janeiro state lottery demanding a bribe and campaign funding for a candidate of Lula's Workers' Party in 2002.
■ Greece
National elections tomorrow
Nearly ten million Greeks go to the polls tomorrow to decide who will run their country during the August Athens Olympics and the years beyond to 2008. The last polls published two weeks ago showed the opposition conservatives with a three-point lead over the ruling socialists, closer than ever to winning back power after eleven years. But the ruling socialists hope to come from behind to win an unprecedented fourth term in office. Any incoming government will have its work cut out for it. Deadlines to complete preparations for the Olympics and to see through talks to reunify the divided island of Cyprus, in which Athens is involved, are pressing.
■ United Kingdom
Virtual parish launched
The Church of England on Friday announced the creation of its first "virtual parish" and invited applicants for the position of "Web pastor." The purpose of the Internet church, according to the Web site, "is to provide a Christian community for those who wish to explore Christian discipleship but who are not able, or do not wish, to join a local congregation." The move comes at a time when the Church of England is suffering from declining attendance -- down to about 2 percent of the nation on any Sunday.
■ United Kingdom
Rapist gets life sentence
A 49-year-old former British railway worker was sent to prison for life on Thursday for a horrific string of rapes and assaults on women and girls aged 10 to 52 in southeast England. Antoini Imiela, nicknamed the M25 Rapist because most of his attacks took place near the motorway that rings London, had claimed at his trial in Maidstone Crown Court that he was actually a homosexual. Jurors rejected that argument, declaring him guilty of seven rapes between November 2001 and October 2002 plus the kidnap and attempted rape of a 10-year-old girl in Birmingham just before his arrest in December 2002.
■ Brazil
Crook leaves trail of blood
A Brazilian crook shot himself in the foot while trying to burglarize a bar, then left a trail of blood that led police straight to his home. Police in the town of Petropolis in the mountains near Rio de Janeiro said they had arrested Carlos Henrique Auad, 29, on Wednesday at his home about 100m from the bar. They said Auad had broken into the bar several days earlier and had stolen a television set. He broke into the bar through the roof again on Tuesday night, but fell and accidentally shot himself in the right foot, police said. He left without stealing anything and went straight home failing to notice the blood track in the darkness.
■ Germany
Retrial for Sept. 11 convict
The only person in the world convicted in the Sept. 11 attacks on the US won a retrial on Thursday after an appeals court faulted Washington's refusal to allow testimony from a key al-Qaeda captive. Mounir el Motassadeq, a Moroccan, had his year-old conviction overturned, leaving German prosecutors with little to show for their efforts to pursue helpers of the Hamburg cell that included three of the suicide hijackers.
■ Russia
Scientists stranded on ice
Twelve Russian scientists were stranded on a disintegrating free-floating ice pack near the north pole Thursday night with dwindling power and food supplies, after 90 percent of their research base was destroyed when the ice pack it was built upon began to fragment and sink. A high-risk rescue operation using the world's largest helicopter to pluck the men off the ice is being planned, but rescuers say the task will be dangerous and highly dependent upon weather conditions. Artur Chillingarov, the rescue team leader and a seasoned Arctic explorer, said it was possible to begin the operation as early as yesterday but warned that the scientists' location -- 725km north of Norway's Spitzbergen archipelago -- was generally considered inaccessible for helicopters and planes because it was so remote.
■ Israel
Jewish bomber arrested
Israeli police said on Thursday they had arrested an ultranationalist Jew who had confessed to a three-year bombing campaign against Arabs and to plotting the assassination of Israeli Arab lawmakers. Police said Eliran Golan, 22, had begun his attacks soon after the start of the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the only casualty of the 10 homemade bombs he planted was a woman injured in an explosion at a mosque. Golan was arrested at his family's home in the northern city of Haifa, where police found an explosives laboratory and more than 30 bombs ready to use. Police said Golan had confessed and they now wanted to find out if he had acted alone.
■ United States
Paintballers convicted
Three American Muslims accused of training for holy war against the US by waging paintball battles in the Virginia woods were convicted of conspiring to support terrorism. Prosecutors said on Thursday the three were part of a "Virginia jihad network" that used paintball games in 2000 and 2001 to train for holy war around the globe. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the group allegedly focused its efforts on defending the Taliban. Two of the defendants were accused of traveling to Pakistan to train with a terrorist group.
■ Israel
Sharon losing support: poll
Battered by multiple scandals, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a fresh blow yesterday when an opinion poll in Israel's biggest newspaper showed that for the first time a majority of Israelis want him to quit. The former general has vowed to weather the storms kicked up by allegations of corruption and misconduct that he denies. But much will depend on whether prosecutors now weighing criminal charges against Sharon decide to indict him. The poll in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily found that 53 percent of those surveyed believe Sharon should resign as a result of the scandals, while 43 percent wanted him to stay on.
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather in July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad. Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm. The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other
CODIFYING DISCRIMINATION: Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in prison, while same-sex relations could land a person in jail for more than a decade Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the