■ Australia
Obesity affects fertility
Australia's staggeringly high obesity rate could slash fertility rates by half within a decade, specialists warned yesterday. Obesity researcher Robert David said an increasing number of women were suffering from the pre-diabetic condition of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), which affects many overweight women. Australia's fertility rate has been steadily falling over the past 40 years with women now having an average 1.7 babies while 28 percent of the female population will not have any children. Fertility specialist David Knight said women suffering from PCOS had irregular menstrual cycles and often did not ovulate.
■ New Zealand
Spies held on passport scam
The government is still waiting for Israel to explain why two alleged Israeli secret agents were in New Zealand illegally applying for a passport, Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday. The pair, Urie Zoshe Kelman, 30, and Eli Cara, 50, pleaded guilty on Friday to a charge of trying to obtain a false The Wellington government suspects they are spies attached to Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence service, and Clark has demanded that the Israeli government explain what they were doing in New Zealand.New Zealand passport. The pair are to be held in custody until their sentencing on July 15. The maximum sentence they face was not immediately clear. Clark said yesterday she had to receive a response from the Israeli government.
■ Japan
`Sararimen' to shed suits?
Japan's buttoned-up politicians and executives, often referred to as sararimen, are dressing down this summer in the latest bid to fight global warming. With temperatures topping 30?C and humidity edging towards unbearable, bureaucrats and businessmen have agreed to do the sensible thing by removing jackets at the office -- something of a revolution in Japan's ministries and corporations. The idea is to stay cool naturally rather than use energy by cranking up air conditioning. Ministers hailed the new dress code as a sign that they are serious about achieving Japan's pledge to cut carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases by 6 percent from 1990 levels before 2012.
■ Cambodia
Angkor Wat gets upgrade
Cambodia's celebrated Angkor Wat temple complex, the country's most treasured landmark, has been removed from UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger after 12 years, the UN cultural body announced yesterday. The Angkor site was one of three taken off the list at the ongoing World Heritage Committee meeting of the UN's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou.
■ Japan
Abductee to meet family
A Japanese woman abducted to North Korea decades ago and repatriated in 2002 will be reunited later this week with the family she left behind in the reclusive communist state, Japanese media said yesterday. Hitomi Soga will meet her daughters and husband Charles Jenkins, who Washington says deserted to North Korea 40 years ago while on patrol in the Demilitarized Zone, in Indonesia on Friday.. Jenkins, 64, who married Soga in North Korea, feared he would be handed to the US military for a court martial if he came to Japan. Indonesia and the US do not have an extradition treaty. The family will be reunited in Indonesia for an unspecified period.
■ United Kingdom
Abortion pioneer speaks
David Steel, the former Liberal party leader who introduced Britain's modern abortion laws, has called for a dramatic reduction in the legal limit for most terminations from 24 to 12 weeks. Steel called for Britain to follow the example of certain European nations in the light of medical advances that allow some premature babies to survive at 22 weeks. Steel's Abortion Act of 1967 legalized abortions until 28 weeks of pregnancy. The 1967 limit was cut to 24 weeks in 1990 amid concerns that a 28-week-old fetus could survive outside the womb.
■ United Kingdom
Free meals for Khan kin
Being able to prove descent from Genghis Khan, with the aid of a simple DNA test, will in future buy a free meal at London's two Mongolian restaurants, the Times reported yesterday. The restaurants, both called Shish, are located in newly trendy Hoxton in the East End and in Willesden Green to the northwest. The Mongol leader, who died in 1227, is thought to have around 17 million descendants worldwide. Relatively few of them, however, are thought to live within range of the restaurants. Among those who could claim a free meal are members of Britain's royal family, the deposed Iranian royals and the family of Count Dracula.
■ United Kingdom
Films for MRI patients
In a move that brings new meaning to the term medical screening, patients having MRI scans may soon be able to watch films projected inside the chamber to take their minds off the experience. A method for bouncing images inside the tube used for the scans has been developed in an attempt to ease the stress of the process, which requires patients to be strapped motionless for up to an hour inside the bowels of a powerful magnet. Up to 20 percent of MRI scans have to be halted because the patient suffers severe claustrophobia or a panic attack. Headphones fitted into the earplugs patients wear to protect them from the deafening noise of the MRI machine complete the ultimate surround-sound cinema experience.
■ Austria
President in heart scare
Austrian President Thomas Klestil had to be resuscitated after his heart stopped yesterday, just days before he was due to step down from the largely ceremonial office after serving the maximum two terms. The Austrian rescue agency OeAMTC said Klestil was flown by emergency helicopter from his Vienna residence to a hospital in the capital, Vienna. "The heart failure and resuscitation took place in his villa. His bodyguard resuscitated him and called for emergency doctors," a spokesman for OeAMTC said.
■ Turkey
`Honor killings' banned
Turkey is poised to introduce mandatory life sentences for those who carry out "honor killings" in an effort to combat a crime which has marred its quest to join the EU. Wide-ranging changes to the penal code will end the practice of allowing murderers to plead family honor to justify murder. The reform comes amid widespread revulsion at the growth of honor crimes in the country. Girls as young as 12 have been stabbed, stoned or bludgeoned to death for talking with strangers or "dishonoring" relatives by being raped. Experts believe that, with many murders passed off as suicides, up to 300 take place every year.
■ Iraq
Saddam kin aids insurgents
A broad network of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's extended family is helping fund and arm the anti-US insurgency in Iraq, US government officials and a prominent Iraqi said. The network operates in part from Syria and Jordan and actively smuggles weapons, fighters and money into Iraq for the cause, according to the Times. One of the leaders is Saddam's cousin Fatiq Suleiman al-Majid, described as a former officer in Iraq's Special Security Organization who fled to Syria after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Times reported. At least two other Saddam cousins from the Majid family who now live in Syria and in Europe are also involved in the operation, US officials told the Times.
■ United States
`Freedom tower' begun
A 18-tonne slab of granite, inscribed to honor ``the enduring spirit of freedom,'' was laid at the World Trade Center site as the cornerstone of the skyscraper that will replace the destroyed towers. The ceremony on Sunday marked the start of construction on the 533m Freedom Tower, designed as a twisting glass and steel tower that evokes the Statue of Liberty, including a 83m spire resembling her torch. Its height in feet is to symbolize the year the US gained independence from Britain. Organizers say it would be the world's largest skyscraper -- but it's not clear whether it would hold that title by the time it's scheduled to be completed in 2009. The current largest skyscraper is Taipei 101 in Taiwan at 50m, which this year surpassed the 452m Petrona Towers in Malaysia, according to the Web site of The Skyscraper Museum in New York.
■ United States
Cheney doctor drug-addled
Vice President Dick Cheney's personal doctor, who four years ago declared Cheney "up to the task of the most sensitive public office" despite a history of heart disease, was battling an addiction to prescription drugs at the time and has recently been dropped from the vice president's medical team, according to officials at George Washington University Medical Center where he practiced. The doctor, Gary Malakoff had treated Cheney since 1995. Hospital officials said Sunday that they had known since 1999 of Malakoff's problem. But he was permitted to continue working, they said, while undergoing treatment and monitoring, including urine tests, by an independent board. But in May, when the board concluded Malakoff was too impaired to care for patients, he was relieved of his position as director of the medical center's general internal medicine division, they said.
■ United States
Pilot saved
A 25-year-old pilot was plucked safely from Rockaway Inlet off Brooklyn on Sunday after he was forced to ditch a single-engine plane he had flown over the holiday beach crowds of Staten Island and New Jersey with aerial advertising in tow, the authorities said. "This was a very fortunate young man," said Captain Martin Zweig of the US Park Police, which patrols the Gateway National Recreation Area and the section of the bay where the plane went down at 3:55pm. He said the pilot, whose identity was not disclosed, was pulled from the water almost immediately by the driver of a motorized water scooter and transferred to a park police boat. Zweig said the cause of the accident remained under investigation.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was