■ Thailand
Aid workers eschew meat
The gruesome task of retrieving the bodies of tsunami victims has turned many Thai rescue workers vegetarian. The leader of a team of 70 aid workers in Khao Lak where about 4,000 people, more than half of them foreign tourists, were killed on Dec. 26, said, "After we turned to vegetarian food and lighting jossticks to the spirits asking for help, the job has become much easier." Vegetarian food was all the rage in one nearby village, where a makeshift relief kitchen produced about 1,000 boxes of meatless food a day. The newspaper quoted a survivor as saying that the smell of death had put her off meat.
■ Australia
Nude musicfest to open
Organizers of Australia's first nudist music festival are promising to turn away single people and eject those who start dancing. "This is not a swingers event," Australian Nudist Federation (ANF) spokesman Raice Nicholls said. "Which is why we say `couples only' because we don't want people coming along thinking this is some kind of sexual thing." Nicholls said enquiries had come in from nudists around the world about next week's Nude Performing Arts Festival at Elephant Rock near Brisbane. He said the aim of the three-day festival was to dispel myths about nudism. "Nudists are very educated people a lot of the time," he said. "Nudity is a great leveller. You don't have to put jewellery on or garments."
■ Hong kong
Woman fined for lost key
A Hong Kong housewife has been fined nearly US$200 for littering after dropping her housekey near her home. Lau Shiu-fun, 55, accidentally dropped the key when she fumbled in her purse for change and suddenly found herself surrounded by litter patrol officers. "As soon as I started to reach down to pick up my key, four male officers totally blocked my way and forbade me from picking up my key. They claimed I had committed littering. For God's sake, who would litter with their own home's door key?" she said. Hong Kong has launched a crackdown on littering in the wake of the SARS outbreak last year.
■ Malaysia
Boxer beat for good looks
A Malaysian army boxer is suing nine other soldiers who he said beat him up because they envied his good looks. Private Mohammad Suhaimi Abu Bakar, 22, said he was suddenly cornered by his colleagues who hit him with metal rods and threw him into a nearby toilet. Mohammad told a court the beating left him in a coma for three months and as a result of his injuries, Mohammad is seeking unspecified damages for losses, pain and hardship, saying he could no longer get married and lead a normal life.
■ Germany
Poo flags baffle cops
Baffled authorities in southern Germany issued an alert Thursday concerning unknown persons who have been sticking small US flags into piles of dog droppings in Bayreuth public parks. "This has been going on for about a year now, and there must be 2,000 to 3,000 piles of excrement that have been thusly `adorned' during that time," said the parks administrator. The series of incidents originally was thought to be some sort of protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq. When it continued it was thought to be a protest against US President George W. Bush's re-election campaign. Bayreuth police say they are completely baffled. "We have sent out extra patrols to try to catch whoever is doing this in the act," said a police spokesman. "But frankly, we don't know what we would do if we caught them." Legal experts agreed, saying there is no law against using feces as a flag stand and the federal constitution is vague on the issue.
■ Germany
Bat spit may be medicinal
A company developing stroke treatments based on the saliva of vampire bats is seeking to raise up to US$90 million to fund trials of its potential drugs. Paion's most advanced drug, Desmoteplase, is in trials to help stroke patients just after they have suffered an attack. A stroke is caused by a clot blocking the blood supply to the brain. Vampire bat spittle contains a substance that prevents the blood from clotting, so the bat can feast on its victim for longer. The drug could help stroke patients by dissolving the clots to restore blood flow more quickly.
■ Iran
Nobel winner in hot water
Iran's judiciary has ordered 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and human-rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi to appear before the feared Revolutionary Court or face arrest, Ebadi said on Thursday. Ebadi, who has riled religious hardliners in the Islamic state by defending many high-profile political dissidents, was not informed of any charge against her. "They have summoned me to the Revolutionary Court," Ebadi said. "It was mentioned that if I don't attend within three days they will arrest me." Ebadi, 57, the first Muslim woman and first Iranian to win the Nobel Peace Prize, said she still had not decided when she would go.
■ Netherlands
Van Gogh killer re-charged
Dutch authorities have brought a further charge carrying a possible life sentence against the alleged killer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, prosecution officials said Friday. Mohammed B., the radical Moslem charged with the Nov. 2 murder, will also face the charge of hindering a parliamentarian in the course of her duties. The letter pinned with a knife to Van Gogh's body threatened Somali-born member of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Hirsi Ali, who cooperated with Van Gogh in making the film Submission, was flown out of the country on Nov. 10 for her own safety.
■ Russia
Plane wreck kills 9
All nine people aboard a Russian plane that went missing on Thursday have been killed, an Emergencies Ministry spokesman said. The wreckage of the aircraft was found early on Friday near an airfield in Siberia. It was not clear what caused the plane to crash, but officials said there would be an investigation. "The black box (flight recorder) has been found."
■ United States
Cruelty law gets first test
A pit bull enthusiast who sold videos of dogfights and dogs attacking a pig became the first person on Thursday to be convicted under a federal law banning depictions of cruelty to animals, prosecutors said. Robert Stevens, 64, of Pittsville, Virginia, was found guilty in a Pittsburgh court of selling three videos a jury decided violated the ban on depicting the intentional maiming, mutilation or torture of animals or any wounding or killing. Under the law, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1999, prosecutors must also prove such videos have no serious educational, historical or scientific value. Dog fighting is illegal in all 50 states.
■ United States
Church holds protest
In a protest against the Episcopal Church's refusal to allow same-sex marriages, the leaders of a church in the stately East Rock section of New Haven, Connecticut have announced that they will perform no marriage ceremonies at all. The decision, conveyed on Thursday in a letter from the priest to the 115 families of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, is a novel challenge to the social and religious barriers to marriage between homosexuals. Some Episcopal churches have sidestepped the ban by offering gay couples a blessing ceremony that is not legally considered a marriage.
■ United States
Soldier faces murder charge
A US soldier faced charges of murder at a court martial in Iraq yesterday in connection with the killing of a severely wounded Iraqi teenager in a Baghdad slum district during a Shiite uprising last year. Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban of the 41st Infantry Regiment, from Fort Riley, Kansas, is charged with murder under the US Uniform Code of Military Justice. He is the second US soldier to be court martialed over the incident. Last month, Staff Sergeant Johnny Horne was sentenced to three years in jail, reduction in rank and dishonorable discharge from the military after pleading guilty to charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Alban and Horne were accused of fatally shooting an Iraqi man who suffered severe abdominal wounds and burns. US military officials have described the incident as a "mercy killing."
■ Haiti
Man murdered at his funeral
A young man who was not dead at all was apparently murdered by his gravediggers at a funeral home in Haiti, just hours before he was to be buried, local media reports said Thursday. The Haiti Press Network reported that the 23-year-old man, given up for dead, was probably stabbed to death on Tuesday at a private morgue where his relatives had taken him on Jan. 2. According to witness accounts, the man was thought to have died on Jan. 1 and was taken to the La Conscience funeral home. At the chapel where the funeral was to be held, the family realized something was wrong when they saw blood dripping from the coffin. After opening the coffin, they found the man's body showing signs of having been beaten and stabbed.
■ United States
Aid to Serbia to be withheld
The US government will withhold US$10 million in aid to Serbia and Montenegro because of its continuing lack of cooperation with a UN war crimes tribunal, a US State Department official said on Thursday. There has been no improvement in Serbia and Montenegro's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the US said.
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