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World News Quick Take

■ Philippines
Gunmen kill girl
Six people, including a six-year-old girl, were killed in an attack by unidentified gunmen in the southern Philippines, officials said yesterday. The victims were attacked on Wednesday night on their way home in Alamada town in North Cotabato province, 960km south of Manila, after selling a truckload of corn and other crops. Alamada Mayor Ernesto Concepcion said two women survived the attack by hiding in the bushes, but were in a state of shock. Police said five of the victims died on the spot, including the six-year-old girl who was shot in the head, while one died in a nearby hospital. The assailants took cash and other valuables from the victims.

■ Malaysia
Survivor told she's pregnant
An Indonesian woman who was plucked from the sea after clinging to a palm tree for five days in the wake of a devastating tsunami heard on Wednesday that she is 18 weeks pregnant with her first child. "I'm very glad, very happy," 25-year-old Malawati said from her hospital bed in the northern Malaysian island of Penang after doctors gave her the news following medical checks. When the waves swept her out to sea, Malawati clung to a sago palm and lived off its fruit before being rescued by a passing Malaysian tuna-fishing boat last Friday.

■ Hong Kong
Legislature rejects censure
A motion to censure the Hong Kong government for ignoring public demands for full democracy in the territory was defeated on Wednesday by pro-China legislators. The motion -- introduced by radical Legislator Albert Cheng (鄭經翰) -- demanded the government put forward a proposal for constitutional reforms. Cheng's motion also sought to urge the legislature to express "deep regret" for a recent government report that rejects demands for direct elections of Hong Kong's leader in 2007 and all lawmakers in 2008. Top officials had said such demands were "impractical" because they contradicted a ruling in April by Beijing that rejected any quick democratic reforms in Hong Kong. But pro-Beijing lawmakers defeated Wednesday's motion with a vote of 28 to 24.

■ Hong Kong
Smoke-free pub prosecuted
The manager of Hong Kong's first non-smoking pub said yesterday he was being prosecuted for making smokers step outside to satisfy their cravings. Noel Smith, manager of the Irish-style Dublin Jack in Hong Kong's trendy Soho area, said he was issued a court summons for obstructing the pavement, by making people smoke outside. The Dublin Jack made headlines last year when it became the first pub in the former British colony to introduce a blanket ban on smoking. Smith said the pub may be forced to scrap its non-smoking policy.

■ China
Migrant numbers at new high
China's migrants now total 140 million, the government said yesterday, making their numbers equal to the entire population of Bangladesh. More than 10 percent of China's 1.3 billion people are on the move, having left rural or less developed areas for new opportunities in the cities and more prosperous coastal regions, Xinhua News Agency said. China's migrant population, which was 70 million in 1973, hit 140 million in 2003, Xinhua said, citing the State Commission for Population and Family Planning. About 70 percent of China's migrants are aged between 15 and 35, it said.

■ France
Official faces extradition
A former German defense official accused of taking a bribe in a party financing scandal could be extradited soon, after the prime minister signed his extradition order, French officials said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin signed the extradition order for Holger Pfahls, a former deputy defense secretary, on Dec. 15, the prime minister's office said. Pfahls, arrested July 13 in Paris, is accused of accepting 3.8 million marks (US$2.57 million) in a party financing scandal that tainted former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. He allegedly accepted the money from the German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.

■ Egypt
`We have no nukes'
The UN nuclear watchdog is investigating Egypt for small, undeclared nuclear experiments that could be related to atomic weapons development. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit swiftly denied that his country had done anything counter to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). A diplomat said the experiments were "small stuff, nothing and goes back in history all the way to the 1950s. These are small sporadic experiments which have been done over the years. This is not Iran, this is not South Korea."

■ The Netherlands
Fight flab with a subsidy
A Dutch health insurer will reimburse policyholders who consume certain cholesterol-reducing margarine, yogurt and milk products in a bid to fight heart disease, it announced. VGZ, one of the largest health insurers in the Netherlands, said this was the first time an insurance company would be subsidizing food rather than medicine, and said it hoped to cut drug and hospital costs.

■ United Kingdom
Girls think they're ugly
Forty percent of Britain's teenage girls have considered the prospect of plastic surgery, while fewer than a tenth say they are happy with their bodies, a poll by a youth magazine said. Of the 2,000 girls questioned by Bliss magazine, just eight percent were content with their bodies, while a quarter admitted to having suffered from an eating disorder. Of the girls quizzed, who were aged 14 on average, more than two thirds said they felt pressure over their bodies from both celebrities and boys. Only three percent of those asked considered themselves "beautiful," 29 percent said they were "attractive," while 15 percent found themselves "very unattractive" and seven percent "yuk."

■ France
Coke smuggler dies
An Italian woman trying to smuggle cocaine into Europe died on a flight arriving at Paris when one of 77 latex bags filled with the drug she had swallowed burst in her stomach, police said on Wednesday. The middle-aged woman died of a lethal overdose on an Air France flight landing at Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday after the long flight from Santo Domingo, the capital of the Caribbean state of the Dominican Republic, despite the best efforts of the crew to save her, they said. An autopsy revealed the drugs hidden in her stomach. The woman had been on her way to Milan, Italy. Police said such fatal incidents were rare, though flights between the Dominican Republic and Italy were known to be frequently used by narcotics smugglers.

■ United States
`Who's Your Daddy?' flops
Amid a chorus of protests from child-adoption advocates and sneers from critics, the general reaction of viewers to the controversial Fox special Who's Your Daddy? seemed to be "Who Cares?" The tear-soaked 90-minute special, featuring an attractive young woman picking her biological father from a lineup filled out with impostors, proved to be a ratings flop, according to preliminary figures on Tuesday from Nielsen Media Research. Critics roundly panned the show as tasteless and exploitative.

■ Colombia
Heroin hid in puppies
Colombian drug traffickers surgically hid heroin in puppies' bellies in a plan to evade international customs controls, police said on Tuesday. Acting on a tip-off, police found six puppies with scars on their abdomens at a rural property near the city of Medellin in northern Colombia, the Colombian Police said in a news release. Ultrasound scans revealed bags of liquid heroin hidden inside the living animals. Police said traffickers planned to retrieve the drug once the dogs had passed customs abroad. "The lust for money leads criminals to commit acts of great cruelty," the police said. The puppies were recovering after the heroin was removed by veterinarians.

■ United States
Roo caught in Wisconsin
Authorities in rural Wisconsin on Wednesday caught a wandering kangaroo after receiving calls from residents who spotted the animal this week. "He was just hopping on the highway," said Cheryl Martens, one of many witnesses. "It was a big fella and looked to be in good health." Sheriff's Department dispatcher Jim Harrington said deputies corralled the kangaroo in a barn Wednesday after a resident spotted the 68kg, brownish-red animal. The department had been receiving calls about the animal since Monday. Authorities don't know where the kangaroo came from.

■ Canada
Drug bill could kill trade
Canadian health officials are drafting a proposal to prevent Internet pharmacies from selling mail-order prescription drugs to US consumers, a spokesman said Wednesday, a move that would essentially kill a US$700 million industry that has become increasingly popular with patients south of the border. The three-pronged measure being considered by Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh would prevent Canadian doctors from countersigning prescriptions for US patients without examining them in person, spokesman Ken Polk said by telephone from India. It also would prohibit prescriptions for foreigners who are not present in Canada and create a list banning certain drugs that are widely used by Canadians from being exported, Polk said.

■ Canada
Monk auctions off temple
A Buddhist monk in western Canada stunned his congregation by putting his temple up for sale, in a bid to raise half a million dollars for victims of the Asian tsunami tragedy. "Life is very precious and the loss of life and property during this tragedy of unparalleled proportions is so enormous," said abbot Thich Nguyen Thao. "This is the least I could do to provide some comfort to the victims who are suffering unbearably. Their need is urgent and greater than our own," said the abbot as he touted the temple in a Vancouver suburb.

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