■ New Zealand
Euthanasia activist guilty
One of New Zealand's leading euthanasia campaigners, Lesley Martin, was found guilty yesterday of attempting to murder her mother by injecting her with 60mg of morphine. Martin, who could be jailed for several years, was released on bail until she is sentenced in the High Court on April 30. In a case closely monitored by advocates of mercy killing, a jury deliberated for nearly six hours in this city south of Auckland before reaching its verdict. It found the former nurse not guilty of a second charge of trying to suffocate her mother with a pillow in May 1999. Although Martin had denied the charges, prosecutor Andrew Cameron said she could not claim she did not intend to kill her mother while also taking on the role of the "personal face" of the euthanasia campaign.
■ China
Civil servants punished
Authorities have punished a total of 3,798 civil servants for negligence during the outbreak of SARS, state media reported yesterday. The punishments were meted out in the course of a broader nationwide campaign targeting officials shirking their duties, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the Ministry of Supervision. Xinhua did not specify which kinds of punishments were handed out, or describe the nature of the civil servants' negligent acts. Until China decided to come clean on the SARS epidemic last spring, it appeared to be government policy not to acknowledge the extent of the outbreak.
■ Japan
Body found in refrigerator
Police said yesterday they had found the body of a woman inside a refrigerator that was floating in the water at a Japanese port. "We initially received a report of illegal dumping of a refrigerator, which was found floating in the port," said a spokesman for Niigata prefectural police. "Port workers picked up the fridge and landed it on a wharf. They noticed something like human hair coming out from the door of the fridge. When they opened the door with police officers, they found a woman's body inside," he said. The body was found at the Kashiwazaki port in Niigata prefecture, 230km north of Tokyo.
■ China
Woman grows extra breasts
A woman in central China who paid for breast enlargement surgery ended up with an unwanted bonus -- two extra breasts. The 24-year-old woman found the extra breasts growing on her stomach one year after she underwent surgery in a clinic in Hunan Province. The extra breasts grew and grew until the woman was forced to undergo a second operation to get rid of them, according to the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily yesterday. The initial operation was carried out at a small beauty salon which was unauthorized to carry out breast enlargement surgery, the newspaper said.
■ Australia
Mine faces legal action
Government officials are planning legal action against the world's second biggest uranium mine after a leak sent 150,000 liters of contaminated water into the river system of the world heritage-listed Kakadu national park. The Ranger mine, operated by Environmental Resources Australia (ERA), a subsidiary of the British mining giant Rio Tinto, supplies 10 percent of the Western world's uranium. Sited in the middle of Australia's biggest national park, it has been a subject of controversy since it opened in 1981.
■ Brazil
Natural condom passes test
Brazilian scientists have given a thumbs-up to a prototype condom made from natural latex found in an Amazonian rain forest reserve, where the government wants to erect a factory in a bid to cut its rising condom import costs. A study conducted by the National Institute of Technology and the University of Rio de Janeiro had led to the creation of the new environmentally-friendly prototype condoms which passed certain quality control tests with flying colors. It is hoped the natural rubber condoms will lower the state's health bills.
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