■ China
Eleven criminals executed
Eleven convicted criminals were executed in China on Wednesday after being paraded in a stadium where the rejections of their appeals were publicly read out, state media said. The death sentences for armed robbery, murder, aggravated assault and procuring were pronounced by the intermediate people's tribunal in the eastern town of Wenzhou, according to the town's municipal Web site. One of the men, Chen Yongfeng, a 21-year-old villager, was found guilty of murdering ten rubbish collectors in Wenzhou. Another man, Zhao Airong, 35, a migrant from central Hubei province, used rat-poison to kill his partner's ex-lover. His girlfriend was given a two-year stay of execution.
■ Hong Kong
Photographers scare croc
A runaway crocodile that has eluded capture in suburban Hong Kong for five months was spotted "sunbathing" on traps laid out for it before being scared off by a boatload of photographers, reports said yesterday. The crocodile was seen crawling around a riverbank in Yuen Long, near the Chinese border, and lying on top of several traps for at least two hours. Government animal catchers thought it was finally going to slip into one of the traps until a boatload of press photographers hoping for pictures of its capture showed up and scared it away. Three tourists who said they were crocodile hunters from South America are the latest to offer to try to catch the beast.
■ Vatican City
Vatican sees red
The Vatican on Wednesday described as unacceptable the arrest by China of a 69-year-old Roman Catholic bishop as the Holy See's relations with the world's most populous country plunged to a new low. Bishop Jia Zhiguo, head of an underground church in Zhengding city, Hebei province, was arrested on Monday, a US-based human rights group said. Jia was taken away by four government security policemen who appeared at his home, the US Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement. Jia, who was ordained as a bishop in 1980, has refused to participate in the Communist Party-administered Roman Catholic "patriotic church," which does not recognize the religious authority of the Vatican.
■ Malaysia
`Ghosts' haunt toilet
Exorcists were called in to get rid of ghosts allegedly haunting a national service camp in Malaysia after 20 students became hysterical claiming they had seen apparitions. Sixteen trainees were treated in hospital after claiming to have seen ghosts and panicking Sunday night in a toilet block at their camp near Port Dickson, about 70km south of Kuala Lumpur, the New Straits Times said. Instructors at the camp called in a faith healer and his crew, who spent several hours "cleansing" the toilet block. The leader said "he had caught the spirits and thrown them into the sea."
■ Japan
Man dies at school
A man killed himself on the grounds of a Tokyo high school, police said yesterday, following what is believed to have been a showdown between yakuza crime syndicate gangs. At the time of the incident, some 320 freshman pupils of the Fuji High School were meeting inside the school gym to mark the start of the new school year, but no one apparently noticed shooting sounds, a police spokeswoman said. The school incident followed reports of an earlier shooting in Tokyo's Kabukicho red-light entertainment district.
■ Turkey
France erects EU roadblock
Turkey's hopes of launching EU accession talks soon took an unexpected battering yesterday when France's new foreign minister insisted Paris would oppose its entry "under current circumstances." Addressing the French parliament, Michel Barnier said France would reject Turkey's application because it failed to meet the requisite political criteria. "Turkey does not respect the conditions, even if it is preparing to do so," said the politician, echoing similar sentiments in the European parliament. The remarks, less than a week after his appointment, come at a critical juncture as the world tries to persuade Greek and Turkish Cypriots to accept a UN power-sharing plan. Turkey's reformist government is widely seen to have gone out of its way to agree to the deal.
■ Iraq
Urban warfare bikes on sale
Feeling unsafe driving a car in occupied Iraq? Then try one of 1,497 Russian 650cc Ural motorcycles on sale now and easily adapted for urban warfare at the local welder for a little extra cost. The once-feared Saddam Fedayeen militia and the Jerusalem Army paramilitary force ordered the Urals just before the US invasion of Iraq as part of a defensive strategy that relied on high mobility but was scarcely implemented. By the time they arrived, say officials at the state-owned General Vehicle Company, Saddam had been overthrown and the rugged combination motorcycles with sidecars had to be sold off.
■ Canada
Baby walkers banned
Canada on Wednesday became the first country to ban the sale of baby walkers, blamed for a score of injuries among infants. "Canadians must know about the dangers posed to infants through the use of baby walkers," Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew said in a statement."It is the safety of our children that is of the most vital importance." Canada is the first country in the world to ban baby walkers, which allow infants not yet on their feet to get around. But critics say the devices easily run out of control and could send babies tumbling down stairs.
■ United States
Dog-kicker charged
A man was arrested on charges of killing his neighbor's 17-year-old dog by place-kicking it like a football. Chad Daniel Crawford, 23, was charged with cruelty to animals and vandalism Tuesday in the death of Gizmo, a 1kg miniature Yorkshire terrier. Crawford was freed on US$25,000 bail. Jalani Lewis said he was in his apartment complex when he saw one of three men holding the dog like a football and then saw Crawford kick the animal. Lewis said the dog flew through the air in a high arc, hit the pavement and rolled under a parked car.
■ United Kingdom
Britons have it pretty good
"Britons work too hard" has been the refrain of trade unions since the Thatcherite revolution, but a new study appears to confound this widely held belief. A study of 2,000 adults found just 5 percent of the population felt it had no free time, pointing to the increased use of labor-saving devices, including ready meals from the supermarket and Internet banking, as the reasons why. Almost half -- 49 per cent -- said although they were mostly busy, they still managed to relax. Those saying they were short of time came in at just 8 percent -- the smallest group.
■ United Kingdom
Libya in shooting probe
Britain and Libya will conduct a joint investigation into the killing of a British policewoman whose death led to the severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries 20 years ago, the Foreign Office said Wednesday. Policewoman Yvonne Fletcher was killed by a shot fired from a window of the Libyan Embassy in London on April 17, 1984. Britain and Libya restored diplomatic relations in 1999 after Libya accepted responsibility for Fletcher's shooting, apologized and agreed to pay her family compensation. London's Metropolitan Police said the goal now would be to find who shot Fletcher and bring the killer to justice.
■ United States
I'll halve deficit: Kerry
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, portrayed by Republican critics as a tax-and-spend Massachusetts liberal, is promising to hold the line on federal spending if elected president. Kerry said on Wednesday that he would cut the deficit in half in four years and cap spending at the rate of inflation, except for homeland security, education and the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs. He acknowledged that he would have to cut some of his campaign promises to meet the goal. But Kerry's pledge to abide by spending caps could open him to criticism that his campaign promises cannot be trusted.
■ United States
Cross-dressing row erupts
What started as a dull runoff race to field a Republican candidate for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives has heated up due to a controversy over cross-dressing. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Tuesday photographs of candidate Sam Walls dressed in women's clothes have circulated among political leaders in Johnson County. Walls, 64, who describes himself as a fervent Baptist, said that he will not drop out of the race due to a campaign of blackmail. He said his family had "dealt with" the issue of his cross-dressing and that he asked for forgiveness.
■ The Netherlands
Eyeball jewelry new trend
Body piercing and tattoos make way. The latest fashion trend to hit the Netherlands is eyeball jewelry. Dutch eye surgeons have implanted tiny pieces of jewelry called "JewelEye" in the mucous membrane of the eyes of six women and one man in cosmetic surgery pioneered by an ophthalmic surgery research and development institute in Rotterdam. The procedure involves inserting a 3.5mm wide piece of specially developed jewelry -- the range includes a glittering half-moon or heart -- into the eye's mucous membrane under local anaesthetic.
■ United Kingdom
Ideal car thief jailed
An obsessive car thief who carefully cleaned the vehicles he took before returning them to their owners in perfect condition has been jailed by a British court, a report said Thursday. Colin Sadd -- described by one judge as "the man you would most want to steal your car -- received a six-year sentence at a court in Sheffield, the Daily Telegraph reported. The 41-year-old contract cleaner, who has 155 previous convictions for mainly car-related crimes, admitted to five counts of stealing cars. The court was told that Sadd would dress smartly and pose as a customer at vehicle showrooms before snatching keys and driving away in a car. After driving it for several hours, he would wash and polish it before returning it undamaged to its owner.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese