■ Japan
Police seek cat killer
Police in the western Japanese prefecture of Osaka have launched an investigation following the grisly discovery yesterday of 17 dead cats dumped in a city park. The unfortunate felines are believed to have been poisoned elsewhere before being scattered along a hiking route in the park, according to officials of Ikeda city in Osaka, where the park is located. Under new laws for animal protection, those convicted of aggravated animal cruelty or knowingly inflicting severe pain and suffering face a maximum of three years in prison or a ?500,000 (US$4,700) fine.
■ Hong Kong
Rat scratch prompts suit
A Hong Kong mother is seeking HK$50,000 (US$6,400) in compensation from fast-food giant KFC alleging a rat in one of its outlets scratched and hurt her two-year-old son. Tsui Fung-fai said a fist-sized black rat dropped "from the sky" onto her son while they were eating at a KFC restaurant in Hong Kong's New Territories area last year. She said the rodent landed on top of the boy's head and then slid down his cheeks and his thigh before running away. The boy's face was scratched and they both had suffered recurring nightmares ever since and had to seek psychiatric help, she said.
■ Pakistan
Militants blow selves up
Two suspected Sunni Muslim militants blew themselves up with explosives after being cornered by Pakistani security personnel in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said. The militants traded gunfire with police for more than 30 minutes, throwing at least two hand grenades in a bid to break a cordon round their hideout in a congested part of the city, said Rafi Pervez Bhatti, a deputy inspector general of police. "One of the militants kept the police engaged in gunfire while the second detonated the explosives," Bhatti said. Police were trying to identify the dead men, who are suspected of belonging to the outlawed Sunni Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
■ Australia
Dogs get high on toxic toads
Dogs in Outback Australia are getting hallucinogenic "highs" from licking the backs of cane toads, a vet in the Northern Territory town of Katherine said yesterday. Megan Pickering said she was getting used to dogs being brought in that had developed a taste for the poisonous secretions. "We have had quite a number of cases of dogs that are getting addicted to the toxin," Pickering told the Northern Territory News. "They lick the toads and only take in a small amount of the poison -- they get a smile on their face and look like they are going to wander off into the sunset," she said.
■ United Kingdom
No loose nukes: regulators
A civilian nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in northwest England cannot account for enough plutonium to produce seven or eight nuclear bombs, but regulators said Thursday it was due to bookkeeping errors and no material had left the facility. "This is material that is unaccounted for, and there is always a discrepancy between the physical inventory and the book inventory," said a spokesman for the British Nuclear Group which audited the plant, confirming a report in the daily The Times that some 30kg of plutonium could not be traced. "There is no suggestion that any material has left the site," which is located in Sellafield, northwest England, she added.
■ Spain
Kenyan penises rebuilt
Two Kenyan boys whose penises were cut off to be sold for making anti-AIDS potions have had them reconstructed in Spain, the doctor treating them said. The adolescent boys, from a remote region near the border with Uganda, were mutilated after being given drugged food or drink by strangers. "They had attacked them to cut off their penises to sell ... for making a type of potion which according to a local belief cures AIDS," Doctor Pedro Cavadas, from the Levante Rehabilitation Center told radio station Cadena Ser. One of the boys also lost an ear trying to fend off his attackers after regaining consciousness during the mutilation.
■ Russia
Space station to get support
A Russian cargo ship filled with extra food, water and equipment to repair and upgrade life support systems is being prepared for launch to the International Space Station, NASA officials said on Thursday. The supplies will not only build up the reserves for the station's live-aboard crew, but help prepare the outpost in case it needs to serve as a temporary shelter for visiting space shuttle astronauts. NASA plans to dispatch in May its first shuttle to the space station since the Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia accident grounded the remaining fleet.
■ United Kingdom
Inquiry urged on Iraq deaths
The families of six British Royal Military Police soldiers killed at a remote town in Iraq in 2003 called on Thursday for a public inquiry into the deaths. They described as a "whitewash and a cover-up" a Defense Ministry investigation that concluded the deaths of their loved ones could not reasonably have been prevented. At a news conference in a central London church, Tony Hamilton-Jewell, whose brother Simon was among those killed, said the families were not satisfied with the results of the official investigation.
■ South Africa
Reactor to be built
South Africa's department of environmental affairs said it would not appeal a court decision suspending a government plan to develop a highly advanced nuclear power reactor near Cape Town. Instead, it said it would address the court's concerns, which include allowing environmental groups more time to make their views heard. The ruling last month by the Cape High Court followed objections from environmentalists to the proposed multi-billion rand project and a court challenge from lobby group Earthlife Africa in November.
■ Canada
Suspected terrorist released
A judge on Thursday released a Moroccan man accused of having links to al-Qaeda's terror network, saying he no longer posed a threat to Canada's security. Judge Simon Noel gave Adil Charkaoui, 31, conditional release while he faces deportation procedures. The father of two, who lives in Montreal, was arrested May 21, 2003. The Canadian intelligence service suspected that he spent time in an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 1998, which he has denied. Canadian authorities have refused to release evidence against Charkaoui to the public or his attorneys, citing national security concerns.
■ United States
Bird sex in the city
Pale Male and Lola, a pair of red-tailed hawks, have been spotted flagrantly mating all around the neighborhood of the ritzy Fifth Avenue apartment building where they were evicted, then restored to a brand new, architect-designed love nest. "It's hard to miss them now. They're seriously trying to propagate," bird-watcher Marie Winn said. The mating was front-page news for the tabloid New York Post, but Winn said that the only question was whether the hawks would take to their old nesting site, which was rebuilt in stainless steel and protected by spikes. A media frenzy erupted over the birds' eviction by wealthy residents angry over the droppings and half-eaten pigeons littering the elegant building's entrance.
■ Peru
Coca spraying hurts three
Three children have been taken to hospital with symptoms of poisoning and possible chemical burns after coca growers in the world's No. 2 cocaine producer said their crops were being sprayed. Unlike in Colombia, the world's top cocaine producer, Peru's US-backed war on drugs relies on manual eradication of coca plants and the government has denied reports for several days by growers that crops are being sprayed with chemicals from the air. But Humberto Arce, emergency room doctor at the hospital in Tocache in Peru's northern jungle, told reporters on Thursday three children aged 8 to 13 were treated for apparent poisoning and possible chemical burns in recent days. No one at the Interior Ministry,
■ United States
Kerry pushes vote reform
Failed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and fellow congressional Democrats offered a bill on Thursday to address voting problems like those reported last November in the pivotal state of Ohio. President George W. Bush won the state by less than 120,000 votes among the more than 5.5 million cast as he captured a second term amid a crush of claimed irregularities in Ohio. Complaints included ones of partisan election officials, voter intimidation, long lines and an inadequate number of voting machines in neighborhoods that favored Kerry.
■ United Kingdom
Frog tone to become a song
The "Crazy Frog" mobile phone ring tone, loved and loathed in equal measure in Britain, is to be released as a pop single. Television adverts plugging the "tune," featuring an animated frog wearing motorcycle helmet and goggles, with a broad smile and a visible tiny penis, have made it a huge success. The tone has been downloaded a million times. "You either love it or hate it -- there's no in between," said BBC Radio 1 DJ Wes Butters, one of a group of DJs and producers who have formed the group "Pondlife" to release the song.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not