■ Hong Kong
NY Times researcher held
A Chinese research assistant in the Beijing bureau of The New York Times has been detained on suspicion of revealing state secrets. The research assistant, Zhao Yan, was detained on Sept. 17 while in Shanghai on personal business. His family received formal notice on Sept. 21, from the Beijing Bureau of State Security, that Zhao was "in criminal detention under suspicion of illegally providing state secrets to foreigners." "We are deeply, deeply concerned about the detention of Zhao Yan," said Susan Chira, foreign editor of The New York Times.
■ Hong Kong
Money denied to widow
The wife of the first doctor to die of SARS in Hong Kong has been refused compensation from a government fund to help families of workers who die in the line of duty, according to a report. The widow of private pediatrician James Lai Tai-kwan is seeking to overturn the government ruling, according to the South China Morning Post. Lau, who died in April last year from SARS, was one of eight doctors to become victims of the disease. The families of all the other doctors have received compensation from the fund with applicants receiving about HK$3 million (US$384,000) each. A government spokesman said the fund could not establish that Lau had contracted the disease "in the line of his duty."
■ Hong Kong
Transsexual jumps to death
A transsexual jumped to her death from the top of a 37-story apartment block after a 90-minute stand-off with police and firefighters, a newspaper reported yesterday. Sasha Moon, 31, made an emergency 999 call to police on her mobile from the top of a Mid-Levels block of apartments on Thursday, the South China Morning Post reported. During negotiations with police, Moon refused to move away from the edge of the rooftop and said she wanted to see her boyfriend. When the boyfriend arrived shortly after 10am, Moon jumped, landing beside an air cushion inflated by police.
■ China
Club for bald men opens
China has opened its first club where bald men can let their hair down. More than 150 million Chinese men aged between 25 and 35, or 40 percent of the male population in that age group, suffer from baldness, the Xinhua news agency said on Friday. "The club provides a chance for alopecia patients to draw on each other's experience in medical treatment and compare notes with experts on successful therapy at home and abroad," the agency quoted Professor Hou Xianzeng, an adviser to the club in southern boomtown of Guangzhou, as saying.
■ United States
Court backs Schiavo mate
The Florida Supreme Court unanimously struck down a law on Thursday that allowed the governor to reinsert a feeding tube that had kept a severely brain-damaged woman alive for 14 years although her husband fought to let her die. The court said the law violated the Florida Constitution's separation of powers between the three branches of government. The measure, passed by the state Legislature last October, gave Governor Jeb Bush the authority to decide to reinsert the tube and override years of court decisions in favor of Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael. He had been fighting his in-laws in the case, who sought to keep their daughter alive after she suffered a heart attack in 1990 that deprived her brain of oxygen. The court gave both sides 10 days to ask for a rehearing.
■ Brazil
Slain activist honored
The late environmental activist Chico Mendes was declared a "national hero," according to a decree published on Thursday in the Official Daily. The law granting Mendes hero status was approved by the Brazilian Congress. Mendes, killed in 1988, gained world fame for his struggle to preserve the Amazon forest and won the Global 500 prize awarded by the UN. Hacienda owners objected to Mendes' proposal that the Amazon could be protected while at the same time exploited. Mendes was killed by Darci Alves on orders from his father, a landowner in the Amazon state of Acre.
■ Guatemala
Pros protest football ouster
A football team made up of prostitutes cried foul after being ejected from a tournament, they said on Thursday, because of their profession. "When they found out we were prostitutes, they tossed us out like cockroaches," said the team captain, Valeria, who did not give her last name. Her team, the Stars of the Line, lost 5-2 to the Blue Devils, fielded by an exclusive girls' school in the Guatemalan capital, and were ejected from the tournament after Monday's game. Officials cited the use of foul language from the team's fans as the reason. "Being prostitutes does not mean that we are violent, because we are well disciplined," Valeria said. The Stars had been training daily.
■ Italy
Police probe license scam
A year-long investigation by Italian prosecutors has uncovered a widespread driving licence scam, in which scores of learners, and drivers who have been banned, have paid for documents. So far, 28 people have been arrested, including 13 transport ministry officials, and there are fears that those who have paid for "new" licences include some of the country's most dangerous drivers. Under the scheme, a 2,000 euro (US$2,456) bribe would secure an official driver's document.
■ United States
Two survive airplane crash
Two days after they were reported killed in a plane crash south of Glacier National Park in Montana, two Forest Service employees emerged from the wilderness, astonishing their relatives and baffling rescuers still picking through the charred wreckage. Jodee Hogg, 23, and Matthew Ramige, 29, were spotted along a highway on Wednesday, nearly 48 hours after the fiery wreck killed three others, officials said. Dupont said the aircraft went from more than 160kph to zero in less than 12m. "Who can survive that?" a sheriff asked. The fire "literally melted everything," he said.
■ Nigeria
Rebels threaten oil wells
A rebel commander in Nigeria's Niger delta threatened on Thursday to attack oil wells and pipelines in Africa's top oil exporter unless the army halted an offensive against rebels. Helicopter gunships fired on rebel strongholds last week in the latest phase of a two-week drive to hunt down warlords who have been fighting increasingly bloody turf wars in the southeastern state of Rivers. "If this war on the Niger delta people is not stopped, oil installations will be attacked," Commander Abiye of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force told reporters by phone.
■ Iraq
Al-Sadr accused of crimes
Justice officials are processing 350 criminal charges against the radical militant Shiite preacher Moqtada al-Sadr, ranging from torture to murder, a police official said. Many of the alleged crimes took place in July and August, when al-Sadr and his followers holed up inside a mosque in Najaf. After al-Sadr's militia withdrew from the holy part of the city late last month, many bodies were found in the cellars of the buildings used by his supporters as "court houses." Members of the group insisted that the bodies were those of militia fighters who had died in clashes with the US and Iraqi soldiers.
■ United States
Muslim detainee discharged
A Muslim interpreter convicted of mishandling classified documents from the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay was given a bad-conduct discharge Thursday -- but won't have to spend more time behind bars. A military judge announced the sentence after a hearing in which Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, 25, made an impassioned plea for leniency. He told the judge keeping the documents was a mistake and said he would never do anything to hurt the Air Force or the US. The former supply clerk pleaded guilty to wrongfully taking pictures, lying about it and mishandling classified information. In exchange for al-Halabi's plea, the military dropped an attempted espionage charge.
■ Belgium
Ovarian-transplant baby born
The first baby conceived after an ovarian tissue transplant was born in a procedure that could one day allow women to delay motherhood beyond menopause, a British medical journal reported. The birth took place in Belgium on Thursday and was announced yesterday by the Lancet. It marked the first time that fertility has been restored to a woman after doctors cut out and froze some of her ovarian tissue and transplanted it back into her body years later. The technique has worked in monkeys, but until now has not resulted in a successful pregnancy in humans. The operation, long hoped for by fertility specialists, has been developed in recent years to help women whose ovaries are damaged or destroyed by cancer treatment or other major surgery.
■ United Kingdom
Woman inherits rare book
An English housewife has inherited a first edition of Shakespeare's plays in good condition from a cousin whom she had never met, the Times reported yesterday. The First Folio of the Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, dating to 1623 was previously unrecorded. It is one of about 300 that survive from the 600 originally printed. Anne Humphries, 48, from near Manchester said: "I hope it will go to a museum or a university." The Folio is to be auctioned on October 7. A complete version in 2001 sold for around US$7.4 million at current rates, the Times reported.
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
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