■ Japan
Couple to be reunited
A Japanese woman abducted to North Korea decades ago headed for Indonesia yesterday to be reunited with the former US soldier she married and left behind when she returned to Japan two years ago. Hitomi Soga, 45, wants to persuade her husband, Charles Robert Jenkins -- who Washington says deserted 40 years ago -- and the couple's two North Korean-born daughters, aged 21 and 18, to come and live with her in Japan. Jenkins fears he would be handed over to the US military for court martial if he did. Soga, who was spirited away from her homeland in 1978 by North Korean agents, returned in October 2002 with four other Japanese abductees. All five had to leave their families behind but Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won the release of the others' five children in May at a summit in Pyongyang.
■ China
Loansharks want kidney
Talk about extracting a pound of flesh. Alleged loansharks tried to force a Shanghai man to sell one of his kidneys to pay back a 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) debt, the Shanghai Daily reported Thursday. The two men kidnapped habitual gambler Lu Ronfeng and demanded doctors at a city hospital remove the organ, the Shanghai Daily reported yesterday. Turned away, they decided to take him to the inland province of Anhui for the operation, but Lu escaped in the hospital parking lot and ran to a policeman. One of the alleged loansharks, Li Shenghe, was arrested on the spot and has been charged with illegally holding Lu, it said. Li denied trying to make Lu sell his kidney. His accomplice escaped.
■ Cambodia
Miracle slobber for sale
Thousands of ill Cambodians are flocking to a northern village to be licked by a mystical cow named Preah who is curing their complaints, its owner has claimed. Farmer Puch Pich said up to 400 people have been turning up daily for the past fortnight to be slobbered over, after the 13-month-old white beast apparently cured his wife Kong Mich of a chronic illness. They have been braving Cambodia's notoriously bad rainy season roads to travel from around the kingdom, paying 500 riel (US$0.13) per person for four licks on the limb or body part of their choice. "The cow won't lick people who don't put in their money ... and if he doesn't think you believe in his powers, he won't lick you either," Puch Pich quipped.
■ Hong Kong
'Queen of Piracy' nabbed
A Hong Kong housewife suspected of running a multi-million US dollar software and computer game piracy syndicate has been arrested, customs officers said yesterday. The 49-year-old woman -- nicknamed "Queen of Piracy" -- was arrested along with one of her three sons in an operation that began Wednesday. Pirated discs and copying equipment worth US$2.5 million were seized by a team of 150 customs officers who raided more than 10 locations around Hong Kong. The housewife is believed to be the mastermind of a family-run syndicate which made US$30,000 a month profit from manufacturing and selling pirated discs. The syndicate is believed to have been running for four years and has an annual turnover of millions of U.S. dollars. "We have arrested the mastermind and she is a housewife," Customs spokesman William Chau said.
■ China
China-Russia games set
China and Russia will hold joint military exercises next year, state media said yesterday. The games emerged from a visit to Moscow by Guo Boxiong, vice chairman of China's central military commission, but the scope and timing of the exercises had yet to be decided, the China Daily said. The two country's navies held their first joint exercise in October 1999 when a Russian destroyer and a cruiser visited China. Guo said the exercises would "jointly confront current challenges to safeguard world peace."
■ Canada
Guide dog dodges rule
A blind French-speaking student barred from an English language course because his guide dog understands commands only in French was admitted after the University of New Brunswick reversed its decision. The move Wednesday allowed Yvan Tessier to take a course during which students may only speak in English. The university had insisted that Tessier could not attend the course unless he promised to speak English to the dog. Tessier said it would be impossible to retrain the dog and that it would have been dangerous for him because the dog might not respond properly to a command.
■ Italy
Secret Medici crypt found
A secret crypt of Italy's Medici family was discov-ered by scientists on Wednesday after a hunt reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie. The vaulted chamber was found under a stone floor in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. American and Italian researchers have been digging up the bodies of 49 Medicis buried in the church. Researchers opened the tomb of grand duke Gian Gastone de' Medici and were astonished to find it empty. In trying to locate Gian Gastone, they stumbled on the secret crypt, which held several other bodies.
■ United Kingdom
Tomb speaks for dead
A US inventor wants to patent a way of sending a message from beyond the grave -- a video-screen tombstone. New Scientist reports in tomor-row's issue that a Californian has designed a hollow headstone housing a computer with a hard disc or memory chip that allows the deceased to relay a video message via a flat LCD touch screen. "They might relate their life stories ... or worse: they could confess to lurid indiscre-tions," the story says. To avoid disturbing other visitors, people could listen to the message through wireless headphones.
■ United States
Jackson seeks dismissal
Michael Jackson's lawyers asked a judge to throw out his indictment on molestation charges, claiming prosecutors bullied witnesses. The motion was released Wednesday after being heavily edited by Judge Rodney Melville. One witness was identifiable as Russell Halpern, the lawyer for the father of Jackson's teenage accuser. Halpern accused District Attorney Tom Sneddon of withholding information, saying, "I found the D.A.'s office to be hostile when I called." Halpern added that Sneddon is improperly using a gag order to silence him. ``Mr. Sneddon has misused his powers as district attorney to try to keep me from talking at all. I am not a potential witness, and his description of me as a potential witness is disingenuous.'' Jackson, 45, has pleaded not guilty to committing a lewd act upon a child and several other charges.
■ Cuba
US Congress scoffs at rules
The US House of Representatives dealt an election-season setback to President George W. Bush by voting to overturn restrictions his administration has issued on the gift parcels that Americans can send to family members in Cuba. The 221 to 194 vote Wednesday would block new rules that took effect July 1 barring people from shipping clothing, seeds, veterinary medicine and soap-making ingredients to Cubans. Under the new Commerce Department rules, no items at all could be shipped to people how are not immediate relatives such as parents, grandchildren or spouses. And non-food gifts cannot be shipped more than monthly to each household of relatives -- down from the current limit of once a month per individual relative.
■ United States
Why won't Johnny read?
The reading of books is on the decline in America. A report released yesterday by the National Endowment for the Arts says the number of non-reading adults increased by more than 17 million between 1992 and 2002. Only 47 percent of American adults read "literature'' (poems, plays, narrative fiction) in 2002, a drop of 7 points from a decade earlier. Those reading any book at all in 2002 fell to 57 percent, down from 61 percent. NEA chairman Dana Gioia, himself a poet, called the findings shocking and a reason for grave concern. "We have a lot of functionally literate people who are no longer engaged readers," Gioia said. "This isn't a case of `Johnny Can't Read,' but `Johnny Won't Read.'" The likely culprits, according to the report: television, movies and the Internet.
■ Russia
`Free Speech' ended
One of Russia's most popular television hosts has been pulled from the air and his show canned after speaking out against the Russian government -- the second such sacking in the last month. Savik Shuster, host of the highly rated Svoboda Slova (Free Speech) television program on the channel NTV, was relieved of his duties and offered a behind-the-scenes post of deputy general director, less than a week after criticizing politicians for refusing to debate new legislation that replaces social benefits for veterans and the poor with cash. Shuster said yesterday that while he was surprised by the decision to cancel the show, he wouldn't comment until he had decided whether to accept the new position.
■ United States
Mechanic scoops story
The American political scoop of the year came not from some hotshot journalist, but an airplane mechanic in Pittsburgh. Bryan Smith, a 39-year-old US Airways employee, found out that Senator John Kerry had chosen Senator John Edwards as his vice presidential candidate several hours before journalists -- and even before Edwards was asked Tuesday. On duty Monday night, Smith rode a golf cart through a hangar where Kerry's 757 was resting, waiting for a trip from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis the next day. He was later told the hangar was off limits. He looked in and saw "Edwards" decals being attached to the airplane's fuselage, then quickly covered up with brown paper and masking tape. Smith later went home and posted a one-line message on USaviation.com, using the code name Aerosmith: "John Kerry's 757 was in hgr 4 pit tonight John Edwards decals were being put on engine cowlings and upper fuselage."
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