■ China
Teacher commemorated
Some 100,000 people in Nanjing turned out to commemorate a teacher who was killed by a speeding car after pushing her pupils out of its way, while thousands lined the streets to pay their respects as her hearse passed by. She was credited with pushing "six or seven students" out of the way of the speeding car that sent her flying 25 meters down the road. Yin, 52, was escorting several hundred pupils to cross a street on the way to a cinema. On Thursday, several hundred children from her school knelt down at the spot where she was killed and cried for her.
■ Papua New Guinea
PM demands an apology
Papua New Guinea has frozen a US$613 million dollar aid package it is receiving from Australia to protest the treatment of its prime minister by security staff at a Brisbane airport. Papua New Guinea has demanded Canberra apologize after security staff ordered Prime Minister Michael Somare to remove his shoes as he transited through Brisbane airport last month on his way home from New Zealand. Australian Prime Minister John Howard refused to apologize, saying his wife Janette always removed her shoes at Australian airports.
■ Australia
Man handles baggage badly
Qantas Airways yesterday suspended a baggage handler who was caught on video opening a passenger's bag which contained a camel costume, donning the head and wandering around the airport tarmac. The costume's owner, David Cox, said he was waiting inside the terminal at Sydney Airport when he glanced outside and saw the baggage handler wearing his camel head. "I obviously was flabbergasted, my jaw dropped to the ground," Cox said. Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said a security camera had recorded the baggage handler, who had been suspended and could be fired pending further investigation.
■ China
Unlucky name causes strife
The husband of Su Danhong, the same Chinese name for the cancer-causing Sudan 1 red dye, came home one day and told his wife "Your name is unlucky and would bring disasters to our family. I heard the whole country is after people who are called Su Danhong." The couple had a heated argument after Su refused to go to the registry office to get a divorce. The couple's noisy row drew the attention of neighbors and local officials, who explained to them the news surrounding the food scare. Su Danhong's husband expressed his regret over his ignorance, hit himself on his ear and said he won't listen to hearsay anymore.
■ Hong Kong
Nose yields odd creature
A woman went to her doctor complaining of nose bleeds and an occasional sensation that something was blocking her left nostril. Her family doctor noticed a "brownish mass'' in her nostril but couldn't remove the 5cm creature because of heavy bleeding. In the emergency room, doctors identified the problem as a bloodsucking leech but had trouble pulling it out because it retracted into the nostril and disappeared in a passage of her nasal and sinus cavity. Doctors used a nasal spray to anesthetize it. After two minutes, the leech moved slowly out of the sinus and was retrieved with forceps. A month before, the woman swam and washed her face in a stream while hiking. The leech could have caused suffocation if it moved into the patients' larynx.
■ United States
Pope off the head table
Diners at Italian-themed US restaurant chain Buca di Beppo can no longer enjoy their meals in the presence of the late Pope John Paul II. The chain's parent company, BUCA Inc, has asked its restaurant managers to send decorative busts of the deceased pontiff back to the company's corporate headquarters. "We're very sensitive to offending anyone," said Buca spokesman Bob Kleiber. The plaster busts of John Paul were in most of the chain's 107 US restaurants, Kleiber said. The busts sat on the popular "Pope's Table," which is reserved for large groups, but were removed last Friday as the pontiff's health waned. The busts will likely be replaced with images of another recognizable pope from history and not with a bust of John Paul's successor.
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