■ ChinaSo how about `Dotcom'?
Officials in central China have refused a father permission to name his son "@" a news report said yesterday. The father from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, wanted to name his son after the computer keyboard character used in every e-mail address, arguing that the symbol was now in common usage. However, the police station where names are registered refused to allow it, saying all names must by law be capable of being translated into Chinese, the South China Morning Post reported.
■ Pakistan
Nuke-capable missile tested
Pakistan said yesterday it successfully test-fired a medium-range, nuclear-capable missile that could hit most cities in neighboring India, but defense officials said the exercise was not intended as a message to the South Asian rival. "The new version of the Ghauri V missile, which was test-fired today, has a range of 1,500km, and can hit most cities in India," a senior defense official told reporters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pakistani authorities had informed India and other neighboring countries beforehand about the test, and that it was not aimed at inflaming tensions in South Asia.
■ Philippines
Prison raid nets TVs, guns
It looks like prison life wasn't too tough for some of the Philippines' most notorious inmates. Authorities said Monday they had seized late-model flat-screen TVs, DVD players and stereos, assorted firearms and mobile phones from jail cells in the national penitentiary compound in the Manila suburb of Muntinlupa. Bureau of Corrections Director Vicente Vinarao said he ordered the swoop after an upsurge in the electricity bill, and in line with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's order for all government offices to save on energy. More than 900 assorted weapons -- swords, knives, live ammunition, improvised guns and machetes -- also were confiscated, Vinarao said.
■ Pakistan
Hostages' release sought
A tribal delegation sought yesterday to secure the release of two Chinese engineers taken hostage by al-Qaeda-linked militants near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The engineers, who were working on a dam project, have been held since Saturday in the remote South Waziristan tribal region where hundreds have died in battles between security forces and al-Qaeda-linked militants since March. Abdullah Mehsud, the leader of the kidnappers, threatened on Monday to kill one of the hostages unless they and the kidnappers were allowed to join him in a nearby area. But Pakistani officials said negotiations for the release of the two men had continued beyond deadlines set by the kidnappers on Monday.
■ Pitcairn Island
Defendants to challenge UK
Seven Pitcairn Island men being tried for rape and underage sex have been granted the right to challenge Britain's jurisdiction over their remote South Pacific island, a British official said. The trial of the descendants of 18th century Bounty mutineers has been underway for almost two weeks before a makeshift British court inside the remote island's community hall. A spokesman for the British High Commission in Wellington, which administers Pitcairn, the last British territory in the South Pacific, said he had been told by defense lawyers that leave to appeal to the Privy Council had been granted.
■ United KingdomSpiders top list of fears
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