■ China
Father gives right arm
A father in Jilin Province literally gave his right arm to keep his son in university. The 60-year-old from Changchun scraped a living by fluffing cotton and used the money to pay for his son's college education. Last week, his right arm was badly mangled in the fluffing machine he used and he faced a choice of amputation or expensive surgery to save his arm. Surgery would have meant taking his son out of college so he opted for amputation. His son, a student at Zhengzhou University in Henan Province, broke down in tears when he heard of his father's sacrifice by phone.
■ Thailand
Tsunami list at risk of abuse
A former senior police officer, facing an 18-year prison term for sex with underage girls, couldn't appear before an appeals court because he went missing when the tsunami struck southern Thailand two months ago, according to his lawyer. But the official charged with tracking down some 3,000 missing persons from the tragedy said yesterday that the name of Police Lieutenant Colonel Sakda Changrua hasn't appeared on any list of the missing.
■ Hong Kong
Nudists out in the cold
Nudists have been frozen out in their plans to set up a naturist colony on a desert island off Hong Kong. A 440-members nudist association wanted to set up Hong Kong's first nudist colony on Kau Tung Wan, a remote island off the eastern coast of the rural New Territories. It would have included 80 beach huts, a barbecue site and boating facilities and would have been a tourist attraction for Hong Kong, the association argued. However, villagers living near the island opposed the plan and two powerful rural committees are vowing to quash the idea. People living in the area were conservative and the idea of a nudist colony on their doorstep was "disturbing," Lau Wan-sei, head of one of the rural committees, said.
■ Indonesia
Smoke blankets Sumatra
Haze from forest burnings and ground fires blanketed parts of Riau province on eastern Sumatra yesterday, disrupting flights due to the limited visibility, officials said. The haze, which had covered Riau province for the past several days, also forced local government administration to shut down schools to prevent students from suffering respiratory-related ailments caused by the hazardous smoke. The haze is often blamed on farmers and other landowners who set fire to scrubland and forest to clear them for cultivation, and is an annual phenomenon in Indonesia that worsens during the dry season.
■ United States
Man finds python in toilet
A Florida man found a 2m python rearing its diamond-shaped head out of his toilet bowl, the St Petersburg Times reported on Thursday. Shannon Scavotto immediately grabbed his camera phone, snapped a few shots and called for help. But the reptile expert from animal control was out of town and a snake rescue company wanted US$150, so the St Petersburg resident lassoed the African rock python out of the toilet himself, the daily said. He then called work to say he'd be late, but his boss found the story a little hard to swallow, until Scavotto showed up at his office with the snake.
■ Scotland
Man bites guide dog
A partially sighted man who allegedly bit his guide dog on the head and kicked it has been charged with animal cruelty, Scottish police said on Thursday. An eyewitness reported seeing the 34-year-old bite the Labrador and kick it repeatedly at a shopping mall in Edinburgh on Feb. 8, a spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Police said. Officers arrested the suspect on Feb. 10 and charged him with animal cruelty and a breach of the peace, the spokeswoman said. She refused to name the man and didn't give a date for a court appearance. Police took the 8-year-old dog into protective care and handed it to the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.
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