Print

Mail

wiki links

World News Quick Take

■ Japan
Anti-crime clown arrested
A man who dressed as a clown and handed out stickers in a high-profile anti-crime campaign has been arrested for allegedly molesting elementary-school girls, police said yesterday. "A 59-year-old man was arrested ... on suspicion of enticing two girls to come to his home and committing obscene acts with them," a police spokesman in Osaka said, without identifying the suspect. News reports said he was Hiromi Yamamoto, who had become a television celebrity for his "Stop the Evil" campaign in his Osaka neighborhood. He allegedly snared little girls by giving them free stickers or bells, the reports said.

■ Hong Kong
Salon leaves dog bald
A pampered pet Shih Tzu dog was left bald after a Hong Kong salon accidentally shaved him when he was taken in for a grooming, a news report said yesterday. The two-year-old lapdog called Dou Dou is now so embarrassed by his appearance he can no longer bear to look at itself in the mirror, according to its owner. Owner Bonnie Louie told the South China Morning Post her pet dog was "very self-conscious" as a result of the shave.

■ Hong Kong
Triad crackdown continues
Hong Kong police staged a fourth night of raids on suspected organized triad gangsters, despite a report that gang leaders had apologized for a recent wave of violence. Police have arrested 60 people for various crimes including obstructing police, drug possession and claiming to be triad members. The crackdown follows months of escalating violence in Kowloon district and suburban New Territories. Two leaders of one of the city's biggest gangs, the 14K, had apologized to police for the trouble and promised to punish the troublemakers in a bid to end the raids. A police source said the force is intent on wiping out the triads' "family tree," a reference to the gangs' family-based hierarchies.

■ Thailand
Policeman denies killings
A police sergeant accused of murdering two young British backpackers last year pleaded his innocence and said, in remarks published yesterday, that the killings were actually done by his informant. "It wasn't me, it was my informant," Somchai Visetsing, 40, told the court, the Nation newspaper reported. Somchai is standing trial for the Sept. 10 shooting murders of Adam Lloyd, 25, and Vanessa Arscott, 23, near the bridge on the River Kwai in western Kanchanburi province. Thai police have said Somchai confessed to the shootings, but blamed Lloyd for starting a row. Somchai testified Wednesday that although he did not own a gun and had to borrow one from his colleagues, his informant had a revolver, the Nation reported.

■ Vietnam
Human trafficking tackled
Police and governments of six Asian countries agreed yesterday to collaborate to end human trafficking from the Mekong region, where criminals mostly target women and children. "The Mekong region is a hotspot of human trafficking in the world," Jordan Ryan, the UN Development Program representative to Vietnam, told a news conference. Officials from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam said they would collaborate "on the investigation and prosecution of traffickers, and on supportive systems of repatriation and assistance to help trafficked victims return home."

■ United Kingdom
Hey presto! No rabbit
A thief stole a British magician's black top hat and white rabbit in the middle of one of his performances and then staged a disappearing act, police said on Wednesday. The Great Velcro -- whose Web site boasts "Have Rabbit will travel" -- was half an hour into his show at the Komedia club in Brighton on England's south coast when a man who had been heckling him got on to the stage. He swiped the magician's hat which had his rabbit Georgina inside and fled. "At first people thought it was part of the act," a police spokeswoman said. The audience chased after the man when they realized he was stealing the props, but the thief disappeared.

■ United Kingdom
`Gay disease' found in UK
A rare disease found in gay men in the Netherlands two years ago and since reported in France, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and the US has now found its way into Britain. The disease, lymphograunuloma venereum, attacks the rectum and if not treated early can affect part of the immune system, the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections said. It said 34 cases had been reported in Britain -- all in gay men of whom more than half were HIV positive and a handful infected with hepatitis C. It is a genital bacterial infection caused by a particularly aggressive strain of Chlamydia trachomatis, the journal said.

■ United Kingdom
Sexy yeast performs better
August Weismann, a 19th-century theorist, proposed that sexual reproduction speeds up natural selection by allowing good genes to spread quickly through a population and bad genes to disappear faster. Although generally accepted, Weismann's theory has been difficult to prove in the lab. But a team of British scientists has at last shown just what is so good about sex -- in yeast, at least. Yeast comprises tiny organisms that reproduce both ways -- sexually and asexually. Scientists in London made two versions of yeast -- one that reproduces both ways and one that only performs asexual reproduction. They found that under normal conditions, both sorts of yeast fared just as well. But under extreme conditions, the sexy yeast did better.

■ United Kingdom
Blair riding on economy
British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday placed his party's economic record at the center of his campaign to win a third term in an election expected within weeks. He was to hold a special Cabinet meeting yesterday where he was widely expected to confirm plans to call the election on May 5. Blair used an article in yesterday's Times to focus attention on domestic issues, particularly the economy and public spending. Blair, who won big majorities in 1997 and 2001, is tipped by many analysts for a third win.

■ France
Renoir painting stolen
A painting by the French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, valued at about US$260,000, has been stolen from the famous auction house Tajan in Paris, police said on Wednesday. The auction house informed the police of the missing painting on Tuesday. The theft of the artwork, entitled Tjte de fillette (Head of a little girl), occurred while it was on display in a room of the auction house, and not by breaking and entering the premises as police first reported. Police did not indicate when the painting disappeared, saying only that it happened recently.

■ Brazil
Tourist-killer arrested
Brazilian police have arrested a man who has admitted killing two female European tourists -- one from Germany and one from Spain -- because they refused to have sex with him. The bodies of Spaniard Nuria Fernandez, 27, and German Marianne Kern, 49, were discovered in northeastern Maranhao state earlier this month. The suspect, 39-year-old Jose Vicente Matias, said he had killed both women by hitting them on the head with a bat. He said he was under the influence of drugs when the crimes were committed.

■ Mexico
Iraqi immigrants detained
Mexican officials said Wednesday they have detained four Iraqis with false passports trying to enter the US. Under secretary of Interior Armando Salinas told reporters the Iraqis were "undocumented and some had committed crimes such as counterfeiting official documents in third countries." A National Migration Institute spokesman said the four Iraqis had been arrested upon arrival at Mexicali's airport in northwestern Mexico, 2,700km northwest of the capital. They were being interrogated by Mexican prosecutors, the spokesman said.

■ Canada
Anti-Sikh comments blasted
A Canadian radio station was formally reprimanded on Wednesday after one of its presenters insulted immigrants to Canada and then said the Sikhs of northern India were "a gang of bozos." The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said the item on Montreal's CKAC-FM was "abusive and unduly discriminatory" and ordered the station to make a public apology. In a show broadcast in December 2003, CKAC-FM presenter Pierre Mailloux told listeners that immigrants who came to Canada should abandon their habits and traditions. "You cultural communities come from a wacko country. You live a wacko culture. Don't bring it with you. That's the message to convey," he said.

■ Canada
Nuke plant to be closed
Canada and the US announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at closing one of the last reactors producing military grade plutonium in Russia. The memorandum is meant "to assist with the permanent closure of one of the final operating weapons-grade plutonium production reactors in Russia," the countries said in a statement. Ottawa will contribute C$9 million (US$7 million) to the US Department of Energy's Elimination of Weapons-Grade Plutonium Production program. Under the deal three Russian nuclear reactors would be shut down and replaced by fossil fuel burning plants.

■ Colombia
Mass graves uncovered
Investigators uncovered five mass graves in northern Colombia containing the bodies of 36 people -- many showing signs of torture -- who were killed by suspected right-wing paramilitary fighters, authorities said Wednesday. Forensic experts have begun the painstaking work of identifying all the victims, who apparently were killed over a span of several years. Four suspected paramilitary hit men have been arrested, the attorney general's office said. Relatives seeking news of missing loved ones located the burial sites near San Onofre, 600km north of the capital, Bogota, two days ago before calling on authorities for help in digging up the remains.

This story has been viewed 2433 times.