■ Shanghai
Toxic tide hits coast
Shanghai residents should avoid seafood because of a massive concentration of toxic algae off China's eastern coast, state media said yesterday. The growth of algae -- known as a red tide -- affects an area up to 20,000km2 off the coast of neighboring Zhejiang province, and is one of the biggest in years, the newspaper Shanghai Daily reported. The dense growths of bacteria and algae are increasingly common due to heavy pollution from sewage and industries along the densely populated east coast and the Yangtze River, the report said. The microscopic algae affects the nervous system of fish and seafood and is toxic to humans.
■ Hong Kong
Maid battles for residency
Hong Kong's government tried but failed to stop a Filipino maid's request for residency in a court battle that could have implications for thousands of foreign workers here. Hong Kong typically requires foreigners to live here for seven years to get permanent residency, but it doesn't allow foreign domestic helpers to count the time they work here toward residency. Julita Raza has lived here for 12 years -- 11 of them working as a maid -- and recently sought residency but was rejected. Raza then filed a lawsuit in the High Court that says the rules unfairly discriminate against maids, but Hong Kong asked Judge Michael Hartmann to throw out her case. The judge refused on Monday, though he told Raza to first pursue her claims before a local tribunal that handles residency matters, Raza's lawyers said by telephone yesterday.
■ Hong Kong
Suspect gulps down knife
A man in western China swallowed an eight-centimeter-long knife and walked around with it lodged in his throat for eight months, a news report said yesterday. Mao Qiang gulped down the knife as police searched him after he was arrested in Chengdu, Sichuan province, last year, according to the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily. The folding knife, which was 1.5cm wide, lodged in his trachea and was eventually removed by surgeons, the newspaper reported.
■ China
Suicide fines introduced
Threaten to kill yourself, pay a fine. Trying to stop a rash of suicide attempts, a western Chinese city says it will fine or jail people who seek help for personal problems by threatening to jump from high-rise buildings. Police in Xi'an say such incidents, which often attract crowds, "disturb public order and produce a negative impact on society," the official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday. Violators will be fined up to 200 yuan (US$24) or jailed for 15 days, Xinhua said. The fine is equal to more than a week's pay for many Chinese.
■ Australia
Tourism campaign launched
Australia moved to project a more sophisticated image of itself to the rest of the world yesterday with the launch of a A$360 million (US$245 million) tourism campaign featuring art, literature and fine food. Shunning the knockabout appeal of Paul Hogan's "put another shrimp on the barbie" ads in the 1980s, the new campaign attempts to sell Australia as more than a destination for sun, surf and partying. Under the slogan "Australia -- a different light," the campaign features a range of personalities showcasing what they love about Australia. Most are global unknowns, except veteran British broadcaster Michael Parkinson, best known for his Yorkshire roots than his connections Down Under.
■ United States
Cash held from Halliburton
Pentagon auditors have recommended withholding nearly US$160 million in payments to Halliburton Corp, saying the company charged the US military for thousands of meals in and around Iraq that were never served. US Vice President Dick Cheney's former company released a statement on Monday night saying it hoped to persuade Army officials to reject the auditors' recommendation. The alleged overcharging for meals last year is one of several suspected improprieties with the contract work in Iraq of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root.
■ Russia
Double ambush kills 12
Chechen rebels killed eight Russian soldiers and four pro-Moscow police in a double ambush in the restive province, security officials said yesterday. The rebels attacked the policemen when their vehicle hit a mine near the town of Urus-Martan on Monday, a Chechen police spokesman said. An armored troop carrier with eight interior ministry troops went to their aid, but ran into another mine and also came under fire from the rebels. In Moscow, a spokesman for interior ministry forces confirmed eight Russian servicemen had been killed in the ambush.
■ United Kingdom
Sniffer dogs hound kids
Police sniffer dogs are being regularly used in more than 100 secondary schools in England and Wales to search children for drugs, according to an investigation by Drugscope, the UK's leading drugs charity. The use of drug-sniffer dogs in schools was unheard of three years ago, but 12 police forces have now taken up the scheme pioneered by the Kent force in southeast England, which is now taking dogs into primary schools as well, for demonstration purposes. Head teachers who have called in the dogs in an attempt to implement a zero-tolerance policy on drugs told Druglink, the charity's magazine, that they regarded it as the "soft option" compared to the random drug-testing policy advocated by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
■ United Kingdom
A royal lapse in security
Security for Britain's royal family was in the spotlight again yesterday after two people gained access to Windsor Castle when a man impersonated a policeman. The man and a woman, believed to be his girlfriend, were arrested on Monday inside a public area of the castle -- an official residence of Queen Elizabeth 48km west of London -- a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said. No royals were present at the time. The security alert came just 11 days after a high-level report recommended better protection for the royals.
■ Nigeria
Coffins cause offense
Jos, one of the centers of recent violence in central Nigeria, has banned the open display of coffins and caskets by their producers. Jos was embroiled in ethnic and religious violence two weeks ago, leading to the loss of several lives and the destruction of property. An official said the ban became necessary as the open display of caskets and coffins connoted doom, despair and sorrow, which could frustrate tourism. Before the outbreak of violence, Jos, the capital of Plateau State, was a favorite with tourists, but all that has evaporated after recent killings in the area.
■ Iraq
CIA denies abuse report
The CIA on Monday denied a New Yorker magazine article about the roots of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners as "fundamentally wrong," saying it had no program with the Defense Department (DOD) to humiliate prisoners. "The New Yorker story is fundamentally wrong, there was no DOD/CIA program to abuse and humiliate Iraqi prisoners," CIA spokesman Bill Harlow said. The Pentagon has also denied the magazine report that said the abuse of Iraqi prisoners grew out of a secret plan approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to toughen interrogation methods to fight a growing insurgency.
■ Iraq
Saddam unpopular: poll
Four in five Iraqis believe former president Saddam Hussein was guilty of murdering and torturing civilians in their country, according to a recent nationwide poll in Iraq. The Gallup Poll of Iraq found that Iraqis have grown increasingly impatient with British and American troops in their country, but they have no nostalgia for the rule of Saddam. ``As much as they are looking forward rather than backward, Iraqis still want justice for past crimes,'' said Richard Burkholder, director of international polling for Gallup. When asked whether they thought Saddam was guilty of murdering Iraqis, 84 percent said yes; when asked whether they thought he tortured Iraqis, 83 percent said yes. US authorities will eventually turn Saddam over to Iraqi authorities to face trial.
■ Iraq
Russian hostages freed
Two Russian workers taken hostage near Baghdad last week were released Monday, as their electricity company vowed to stay in the war-ravaged country. "They were released in Latifiya [south of Baghdad] after tribes intervened," police Lieutenant Abbas Ali said. "Al-Janabi tribe called us today and we went there. We found the two hostages in the house of a sheikh and we brought him to the [Russian] embassy," Ali added. A correspondent saw the two energy contractors leave the embassy -- their clothes dirty -- but clearly pleased to be walking free.
■ United States
Ultimate omelette for sale
It is so exclusive that nobody has ordered one yet. But that has not stopped Norma's, a restaurant in the Le Parker Meridien hotel in New York, offering diners -- and breakfasters -- the ultimate in extravagant eating. The dish, already known by the hyperbolic nickname "the Zillion Dollar Frittata," is an omelette. But this is no ordinary omelette. For a start there is the US$1,000 price tag. And then there are the ingredients: 10oz of caviar and an entire lobster. Customers tempted to splash out in anticipation of a super-sized omelette may be disappointed: it contains just half a dozen eggs.
■ Mars
Opportunity scans crater
The Mars rover Opportunity began scanning a stadium-sized crater for clues to what the Red Planet was like before volcanic eruptions covered its surface in lava, NASA scientists said on Monday. Opportunity is one of two robotic geologists that arrived on opposite sides of Mars in January to discover whether the arid planet once held enough water to support life. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, announced in March that Opportunity had found evidence that a salty sea once covered its landing on a flat plain known as the Meridiani Planum.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing