■ Hong Kong
Drug syndicate busted
Hong Kong customs agents have made a record seizure of the party drug ketamine and arrested four Singaporeans and three Malaysians. In an operation at the Hong Kong International Airport and other locations in the Chinese enclave, authorities seized 87.5kg of high-grade ketamine with an estimated retail value of US$3.8 million. They said they had "smashed a transnational ketamine syndicate." The statement did not name the suspects but said they will be charged with trafficking dangerous drugs, which carries a maximum term of life in prison. Ketamine is an animal tranquillizer that has become popular among nightclubbers.
■ India
`Couch culture' exposed
One of Bollywood's favorite villains was filmed apparently offering a woman help with her acting career in return for sex. Shakti Kapoor denied any wrongdoing and accused a TV network of framing him. The clip purportedly shows Kapoor in a hotel room telling the undercover reporter: "I want to make love to you ... and if you want to come in this line [of business], you have to do what I am telling [you] to do." Kapoor tells the woman he will put her through acting and dance classes before introducing her to top directors and names three Indian actresses who allegedly had sex in exchange for roles. "So you have to do it just once," he says. In the last two months, the fledgling channel has aired footage of Hindu holy men sexually harassing female devotees and former MPs sleeping with call girls.
■ United States
Pedophile pleads guilty
A 61-year-old man has pleaded guilty to having sex with underage boys in the Philippines and producing child pornography and is expected to be sentenced to 17 years in prison. Edilberto Datan, a retired state real estate auditor from San Diego, acknowledged that he had sex with eight boys, ages 14 and 15. Datan had faced four criminal counts after he was arrested Nov. 4 at Los Angeles Airport while returning from a trip to his native Philippines. Authorities found about 200 sexually explicit digital images of teenage Filipino boys in his luggage. More child pornography was found in a search of his home. Authorities said Datan paid Filipino boys for sex with money, clothing and food.
■ Hong Kong
Hacker transmits to China
The Falun Gong spiritual movement yesterday dismissed accusations that it had hacked into a satellite to beam transmissions into mainland China. Xinhua reported that Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co Ltd (AsiaSat) said Falun Gong interrupted transmissions on Monday on several provincial channels to broadcast information about the group into China, where Falun Gong is banned as an "evil cult."
■ China
Parks halt `gory eating'
Safari parks in China have agreed to stop feeding their lions and tigers large live animals such as horses -- at least in public. The gory eating habits could lead visitors to believe that animals, both hunter and prey, were only human playthings, said the deputy general manager of the Wild Animal World in Chengdu. "The bloody scene could also have implanted violent tendencies in youngsters," he said. But the safari park agreement only restricts the release of large domestic animals, such as oxen and horses, during the presence of visitors. "Feeding when the park is not open is permitted. Parks are allowed to continue to sell small birds for visitors to feed the wild beasts."
■ United Nations
Darfur deathtoll raised
The UN now estimates that about 180,000 people have died in Sudan's western Darfur region as a result of violence, disease or malnutrition since October 2003 -- 2 1/2 times the previous estimate. UN emergency relief officials believe the rate of death has recently decreased because of increased humanitarian aid and improved access to the vast region, but the Sudanese government hasn't given a green light for a new UN mortality survey. Last week, UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said that far more people died in Darfur than the 70,000 reported since last year. But this week Egeland came up with the 180,000 figure -- about 10,000 deaths a month.
■ Italy
Guerrilla woman sentenced
A woman from ultra-left guerrilla group new Red Brigades was handed a 16 year prison sentence Tuesday by a court for the 2002 killing of a government labor consultant. It was the second conviction this month for Cinzia Banelli, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing another senior government adviser in 1999. The defense asked for a reduced sentence for Banelli due to her collaboration which led to arrests, and for her public denouncement of terrorism. Authorities last year discovered detailed hit lists kept by the new Red Brigades, targeting numerous prominent Italians including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Banelli told the court last month that she had decided to spill secrets about the group to give her son "a more or less normal life."
■ United Kingdom
Flesh-eater gets life
A convicted killer who told a London court that consuming human flesh was like "eating forbidden fruit" was given a double life sentence for killing two men. Peter Bryan, 35, had told investigators that he felt "comforted and relaxed" when he cut up bodies as part of a voodoo ritual. Bryan killed his friend Brian Cherry, 43, during an outing from a mental health unit. Alerted by neighbors who had heard screams, police found the defendant preparing to eat his victim's brain and body parts, which he had cooked in a frying pan. His second victim was a fellow mental hospital inmate.
■ South Africa
Lion mauls cocky teen
Lions mauled a South African teenager who came too close to their enclosure while trying to impress his girlfriend in the breeding section of a park. Sixteen-year-old Dane Kieser, his girlfriend and his mother were having lunch with the lionkeeper when he ignored advice and went off with his girlfriend to see the lions in the park's breeding section. The boy went into an off-limits area and touched a lion through the mesh fence. The lion quickly sank its teeth into his arm and dragged him under the fence before the curator came, drove the four adult lions in the enclosure away and rescued the teen.
■ United Kingdom
Old man axed to death
A 37-year-old man was charged with murder, accused of hacking a pensioner to death with an axe in a busy London street. Joseph Sheehan, a waiter, was arrested by police who found him standing over the body of 67-year-old Brian Messitt. Witnesses said the attacker appeared calm as he bludgeoned Messitt to death in an affluent north London neighborhood during the morning rush hour. Police said Sheehan did not resist arrest and his weapon -- a 60cm axe -- was recovered at the scene. Police have not suggested a motive.
■ United States
Student sells dope brownies
Police in Florida on Tuesday arrested a student for selling brownies baked with marijuana outside a school cafeteria during lunch time. The student, identified as 18-year-old Andrew Perrault, was selling brownies without authorization for US$5 each. A school official confronted Perrault, a resident of Weston, a town north of Miami. Perrault admitted baking the brownies with marijuana himself. He now faces up to 15 years in prison and a US$10,000 fine if convicted.
■ United States
Pond alligator kills man
A man found dead in a pond was the victim of a nearly 2.7m alligator that was captured and killed, the Florida medical examiner's office said on Tuesday. Officials did not know what Don Owen, 56, a truck driver from Bartow, was doing at the pond about 19km from his home. He had been missing since Wednesday when he was seen at a convenience store. On Saturday his remains were found by several men fishing in Six Pound Pond. An autopsy determined he had been killed by the 2.67m alligator, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. Trappers caught the alligator on Monday. Owen's forearm was found in its stomach.
■ Colombia
Top woman rebel caught
Colombian police on Tuesday captured a top figure in the urban guerrillas of the leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Luz Mery Lopez was arrested in downtown Bogota by Dijin judiciary police agents, a spokesman said. He said Lopez is an explosives expert and led attacks against the Bogota prosecutor's office in November 2002. Lopez, also known as "Valentina" or "La Negra," is one of the leaders of a FARC urban commando blamed for numerous deadly attacks in the Colombian capital. She is romantically linked to Jose Hurtado, known as "Carlos Huevo," who was arrested last year and then informed on her.
■ Canada
Women pay more: legislator
Most women, accustomed to paying more than men for goods and services like clothes and hair cuts, simply shrug it off as part of life, but an Ontario legislator hopes to end all that. Lorenzo Berardinetti wants to brand so-called gender-based pricing a human-rights violation and he has introduced a bill in the Ontario legislature to make the practice illegal. Berardinetti said on Tuesday he was shocked when he and his wife took clothes to a dry cleaners and she ended up paying more for similar items. Berardinetti said that opened his eyes to an experience women have long learned to deal with, namely higher prices for clothes, shoes, hair cuts and other services.
■ United States
Sex shops make comeback
Sex-related stores have made a comeback in New York City's Times Square 10 years after an anti-smut campaign carried out by city authorities cleaned up the area frequented by tourists, news reports said. Times Square, where most of the Broadway theaters are located, has seen the biggest resurgence, with the number of adult entertain-ment shops increasing from six to 18 in the past 18 months. City officials said the new shops have circumvented zoning laws, which prohibits sex shops in residential areas and near schools, or are willing to pay high rents.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
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