■ Hong Kong
Candidate registration opens
Opening the way for a fierce battle between Hong Kong's pro-democracy and pro-Beijing politicians, electoral officials began accepting registrations yesterday from candidates in the September legislative races. Pro-democracy politicians are expected to be big winners as voters vent their anger at Hong Kong's unpopular leader, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), seen by many as a puppet of Beijing, which has held back on moving toward full democracy in the territory. After hundreds of thousands of people marched on July 1 to demand universal suffrage, the government's allies are bracing for an upset in the Sept. 12 elections.
■ Hong Kong
Kid's call busts randy dad
A five-year old's innocent call to his mother blew the whistle on his father's cheating ways, leading to a vicious cat fight between here and the man's young mistress, Hong Kong police and media reports said yesterday. "Mommy, daddy brought a woman home and they are on the bed," the boy told his mother in a phone call, according to an interview with the mother in Apple Daily. The mother, 32, sepa-rated from her husband, left her son in the father's care every morning when she left for work. After receiving the phone call, she rushed home to find her husband and his 20 year-old mistress canoodling on the sofa. The mother claimed that in the ensuing brawl her head was struck by a hairdryer and a remote control handset. The mistress' foot was hurt by broken glass.
■ Japan
Fischer fights deportation
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, wanted by Washington for defying sanctions by playing a match in Yugoslavia in 1992, is fighting deportation from Japan and wants asylum in a third country, a friend said yesterday. Fischer was detained at Narita airport last week when he tried to leave for the Philippines on an invalid passport. Miyoko Watai of the Japan Chess Association said Fischer, 61, was appealing the move to deport him. Fischer arrived in Japan in April, unaware that his passport, reissued in Switzerland in 1997, had been revoked last December, Watai said. "He took really good care of his passport and there were three years left," she said.
■ Thailand
Bird flu invades Bangkok
The resurgence in Thailand of the deadly bird flu that ravaged Asian flocks earlier this year has reached the outskirts of Bangkok, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said yesterday. Suspected cases of the H5N1 virus were being investigated in two southern provinces not affected by the bird flu epidemic earlier this year, Yukol Limlaemthong, head of the ministry's Livestock Department, said. Fifteen of Thailand's 76 provinces have been hit by the disease, which killed 16 people in Vietnam and eight Thais. "Bird flu is confirmed in three districts of Bangkok," Yukol said.
■ Japan
Knife-resistant children
They may not look cool, but knife-resistant kid's sweatshirts and coats are the latest products aimed at providing parental peace of mind in a Japan horrified by a series of gruesome attacks on children. The sweatshirts, and coats that look like plain waterproofs, are made from the same fibers used in police and military knife-proof and bullet-proof vests, according to the maker, Madre. "We created this product so children would be okay, even if they went off to play by themselves," said a spokesman for Madre.
■ Colombia
Counterfeiting plant raided
A clandestine money printing plant that mastered the art of converting former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein into US founding father Benjamin Franklin has been discovered and seized by police in a southern suburb of the Colombian capital, Bogota, authorities said on Wednesday. The house contained reams of old Iraqi banknotes bearing the picture of Saddam that counterfeiters used to convert into US$100 bills.
■ United Kingdom
Sick dog betrays smugglers
A British man and woman were found guilty Wednesday of attempting to smuggle over 1kg of cocaine from Colombia in the stomachs of two Labrador retrievers. The dogs had 21 canisters of the drug surgically implanted inside their abdominal cavities. One dog had to be put down after a vet found that the canisters had fused with vital organs. Gregory Graham, 27, and Kaye Chapman, 20, were convicted on Wednesday. The pair were arrested after a sting operation last September. British police were tipped off by vets at Amsterdam's airport worried about the sick animals.
■ United States
Dry food cooks in urine
US food technologists have invented dried rations that soldiers can rehydrate by using dirty water or even their own urine, the British weekly New Scientist reports. The ration is surrounded by a plastic membrane made of a nanofiber that, according to its inventors, can filter out 99.9 percent of microbes and the most harmful toxic compounds, allowing only clean water to get to the food. So far, only chicken and rice has been tested, but the menu could be expanded by the Combat Feeding Directorate, part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts. Two years ago, the same agency came up with an "indestructible sandwich" that could stay fresh for three years. The goal behind the latest gastronomic breakthrough is to reduce the amount of water that soldiers have to carry.
■ United States
Free facelifts for soldiers
The US Army has long lured recruits with the slogan "Be all you can be," and soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlarge-ments, on the taxpayers' dime. The New Yorker magazine reports that members of all four branches of the US military also can get facelifts, liposuction and nose jobs for free something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills. Between 2000 and 2003, military doctors performed 496 breast enlargements and 1,361 liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents, the magazine said. An Army spokeswoman as was quoted as saying, "the surgeons have to have someone to practice on."
■ Sweden
Soap swilled, not sudsed
Some people at a three-day music festival got more than just clean hands from the liquid soap in the portable toilets. Since the detergent was 62 percent alcohol, some users used it to spike their sodas. A 14-year-old girl was hospitalized with a stomach ache after she put too much soap into a carbonated beverage during the Baltic Sea Music Festival in Karlshamn. Most of the soap, although locked in dispensers, disappeared over night, said Anders Persson, whose company provided 65 portable latrines. "I suspected something was wrong because the soap went like hot cakes," he said on Wednesday.
■ Canada
Lesbians seek divorce
Two Toronto women who were among the first same-sex couples to marry in Canada are now seeking what may be the first Canadian same-sex divorce. The women were married on June 18 last year, a week after a landmark court decision legalized same-sex marriage in Ontario. They had been together for nearly 10 years, but separated after five days of marriage. The women are now seeking to change Canada's divorce law, which still applies only to marriages between a man and a woman.
■ United States
Alligator attacks landscaper
A 3.6m-long alligator attacked a landscaper behind an island home in Sanibel, Florida, dragging her into a pond before a neighbor and police officers yanked the woman from the animal's jaws. "It was kind of a tug-of-war," the neighbor, Jim Anholt, said. Part of Janie Melsek's right arm had to be amputated. She was also severely bitten on her buttocks and thighs, but doctors believe she will walk again, her family said. She remained in critical condition. Melsek, 54, was trimming a tree when the alligator attacked.
■ Israel
Sick monkey `evolves'
A young monkey at an Israeli zoo has started walking like a human following a near death experience, the zoo's veterinarian said on Wednesday. Natasha, a small five-year-old black macaque monkey at the Safari Park next to Tel Aviv, began walking exclusively upright on two legs after a stomach ailment nearly killed her, zookeepers said. Monkeys usually alternate between upright movement and walking on all fours. A picture in the Maariv daily on Wednesday showed Natasha standing ramrod straight like a human. Two weeks ago, Natasha and three other monkeys were diagnosed with severe stomach flu. After intensive treatment, Natasha's condition stabilized, but she exhibited strange behavior, and a day after was released from the clinic, she began walking erect like a human being.
■ Slovakia
Voter triggers anthrax scare
A voter who wore surgical gloves to show his disgust with the choice of candidates in presidential runoff elections -- but triggered an anthrax scare instead -- has been cleared of any wrong-doing, an official said Wednesday. The proceedings against the man were dropped because he had not broken any law, the general prosecutor's spokeswoman Svetlana Husarova said. The man identified only as Julius G. became well known in Slovakia for his symbolic protest during the April 17 presidential runoffs pitting former authoritarian prime minister Vladimir Meciar against and his one-time ally, Ivan Gasparovic. Along with his ballot, the man also put a message in an envelope detailing his displeasure with Slovak politics.
■ United Kingdom
Violent crime on the rise
Violent crime in the UK soared last year, official figures showed yesterday, a disappointment to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has pledged repeatedly to be tough on law and order. While the total number of recorded crimes crept up by 1 percent, offences involving violence shot up by 12 percent, Home Office figures showed, while other serious offences were also on the increase, such as an 8 percent rise in rape. The figures were released just days after Blair launched a new crackdown on crime and anti-social behavior, saying in a speech that he wanted to see "the end of the 1960s liberal consensus" about crime.
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