■ 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.
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
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