■ Indonesia
Aid rice reportedly seized
The Agriculture Ministry'S quarantine agency has allegedly impounded more than 22,680 tonnes of World Food Program (WFP) rice imported for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami because it did not have the required paperwork from the Trade Ministry, a report said yesterday. The state-run news agency Antara quoted the head of the quarantine agency as saying that "Although the rice was imported for humanitarian purposes, it is still subject to standard quarantine requirements." WFP officials in Jakarta, however, said they were unaware of any cases in which their food had been held up by the government.
■ China
Icy death for a Romeo
A love triangle ended in tragedy when the two young men waded into a freezing river to decide who would win the girl, a news report said yesterday. As the girl could not decide between her two suitors, they staged an endurance test to see who could stand for longest in the icy waters of the Oujiang River in Zhejiang Province. The two men, both in their early 20s, stood chest-high in the water for 40 minutes with the girl standing on the shore as referee until finally one of them passed out with the cold. His rival and the girl pulled him out of the water but it was too late to save his life, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported.
■ Hong Kong
Incense could pose risk
New Year worshippers might be putting their health at risk if they burn too much incense in temples, a news report said yesterday. Tests by Hong Kong's Polytechnic University on incense sticks showed seven out of 10 brands sold in Hong Kong gave out more carbon monoxide than is allowed under the territory's environmental guidelines. Six brands also gave out formaldehyde, a potentially cancer-causing substance, including one Singapore-made joss stick which was found to give out double the recommended Hong Kong limit. Researcher Frank Lee told the South China Morning Post that people should avoid burning large joss sticks and open as many windows as possible when setting light to them.
■ New Zealand
Squatter spies on church
Parishioners at St. Annes Catholic Church in Harihari, South Island, have been told their confessions remain secret despite the fact that a squatter has been living in the roof for years, it was reported yesterday. Police were trying to remove the man who was refusing to come down from his hiding place, the Newstalk ZB radio station reported. It said he was believed to have been hiding over the sacristy for up to seven years. The man was discovered when the priest saw a hand come out of a hole in the roof, but he retreated when he realized other people were in the church. Church officials believe the ceiling is too thick for anyone to hear what was said in the confessional.
■ Pakistan
Province hit by two bombs
A homemade bomb exploded on Monday inside the headquarters of the provincial government in Quetta, while a second explosion damaged a portion of a railroad in Baluchistan Province, injuring at least four people and disrupting trains, police said. The building, located in a heavily guarded part of the city of Quetta, was empty at the time because the secretariat had closed for the day. The second bomb exploded on a railroad bridge near Sibi, a town about 160km southeast of Quetta, blowing up about a 1m portion of the track.
■ Iraq
Five US soldiers killed
A Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolled into a canal during a combat patrol north of Baghdad, killing five US soldiers and wounding two others, the military said yesterday. The soldiers from the Army's 1st Infantry Division were pronounced dead on arrival at a military medical clinic. One of the two wounded soldiers was in serious condition, the other was stable, a military statement said. The M2 Bradley rolled into a canal during the patrol near the town of Khan Bani Saad on Monday night.
■ United Kingdom
Adoptee finds MP dad
A British lawmaker revealed on Monday that a daughter he had sired in the 1960s but never known had tracked him down after 36 years, using an Internet site for tracing acquaintances. Stephen Pound, a Labour MP, said he received a letter from the daughter, identified only as Lucy, whom he had apparently fathered while serving as a sailor in the Royal Navy. Lucy's mother apparently never told Pound about her pregnancy, and had put the baby up for adoption. But Lucy managed to track down her biological mother and then, using clues she gave her, find Pound through the Web site Friends Reunited. The mother had known only that Pound was 18 at the time, called "Precious" -- his school nickname -- and was a sailor who was "a nutter who died at sea in the 1970s."
■ Romania
Reporter fired for fake story
A Romanian tabloid said on Monday it had fired a reporter for making up a story about a couple who named their son Yahoo as a sign of gratitude for meeting over the Internet. Bucharest daily Libertatea published a story this month saying two Romanians had named their baby for the popular Web site and printed a picture of his birth certificate. The news was published internationally, including by Reuters. "It was the reporter's child's birth certificate, which he modified," said Simona Ionescu, Libertatea's deputy editor-in-chief. "We fired him." She said Ion Garnod, who had worked for the paper for several years, had admitted inventing the story to look good.
■ South Africa
Police probe slaying of kids
Police were on Monday probing the brutal murder of five children who were found mutilated in a car wreck in the country's KwaZulu Natal Province at the weekend. The children, four girls and a boy aged between three and five years, were found in a car outside a neighbor's rural homestead at Msinga near Greytown on Sunday, Sapa news agency reported. Parents and neighbors spent Saturday searching for the children after they went missing while playing in a field near their homes. Post-mortems were being conducted, television reports said. The bodies were found with their tongues cut out and some of their teeth and body parts removed.
■ United Kingdom
Harry `should be tried'
Britain's Prince Harry, who caused outrage by wearing a Nazi uniform to a party earlier this month, "would have been tried and sentenced if he had done the same in Germany," Auschwitz survivor Wladyslaw Bartoszewski said here Monday. If the young prince "had turned up at a party in Germany dressed as a Nazi, he'd have been taken to court, given a suspended sentence or fined, and been given a criminal record," said the former Polish foreign minister. "That's how people should be educated," he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of