Thu, Apr 28, 2005 page6

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ China
  Bystanders watch rape

  A young woman was raped by a man in a public toilet in Hebei Province as a crowd of some 40 bystanders stood by and watched, failing to help or call the police, state media reported. The incident took place on April 18 in Hengshui city when the 32-year-old garbage collector followed the 19-year-old woman into a public toilet and attacked her. Two police officers on patrol stopped to investigate when they saw a large crowd outside the toilet. They found out a crime was taking place after one of the bystanders told them someone was being raped inside, 20 minutes after the assault started. The officers arrested the man at the scene.

  ■ Pakistan

  Raped teen demands justice

  A teenager who alleges she was raped by two police officers when she went to report an earlier sexual assault has threatened to set herself afire in front of parliament if the officers are not charged. Nashih Bhatti, 17, traveled to Islamabad and told media she was demanding that the government take action against the officers. Bhatti was kidnapped by some men last month, who took turns to rape her. Bhatti claims she escaped and went to a police station where two officers also raped her. Police arrested the alleged kidnappers but the woman said she and her parents would set themselves on fire in front of the National Assembly if action was not taken to punish the officers. Police said the woman's charges against police officers were "fake," although they were still investigating.

  ■ Malaysia

  Christians detained

  Police arrested two Americans for allegedly distributing Christian religious pamphlets to Muslims. The two men were detained and a local court had ordered them to be held for 14 days. "We want to find out if they had breached any regulations in Malaysia," police said. It is an offense in Malaysia to try to convert Muslims away from their faith. The prime minister said earlier this month there was no ban on Bibles published in Malay but they must be stamped with the words "Not for Muslims."

  ■ Hong Kong

  Half expect to be millionaires

  Half of all students in the territory expect to be millionaires by the age of 35, and nearly a third expect to make it by the age of 30, according to a survey. However, nine out of 10 students said they expected their parents to provide financial support for them as they worked toward their first million. The 500 students interviewed said they expected parents to help them with things like weddings and setting up businesses. Forty-six percent of would-be millionaires said they thought the best way to make their fortune was through investments. Another 19 percent said they would make their money through business, and 14 percent said they would earn it through salaries if they worked hard enough. A million Hong Kong dollars is equal to US$128,000.

  ■ Thailand

  Itchy ears are a problem

  Anan Temtan checked in to Vachira Phuket Hospital, complaining of growing itchiness in his ears that could not be cured with cotton buds. Doctors discovered about 50 fly larvae in the octogenarian's ears, which they removed with tweezers and suction instruments. "We believe flies might have gone inside his ears to lay eggs which hatched into larvae, causing the itching," said the doctor. Anan had helped clean up a neighborhood marketplace four days prior to his ear infestation.

  ■ Greece
  

  Asian immigrants arrested

  Police arrested 92 illegal immigrants from different Asian states overnight yesterday after they were discovered in a truck during a routine check at at toll near Larissa. Bodies were packed together and the truck stank, a police spokesman told Greek Radio. The Greek driver of the truck was arrested and is believed to be a member of an international smuggling gang that moves illegal immigrants from Turkey to Greece and then on to Western Europe. In the past four days 191 illegal immigrants and three smugglers have been arrested in Greece.

  ■ United States

  Cops nab roaming buffalo

  A herd of buffalo somehow got loose and wandered around an upscale neighborhood, disrupting traffic and alarming homeowners before officers managed to corral them in a tennis court. More than a dozen police cars and a police helicopter were used to herd the roughly 10 beasts on Tuesday. The officers used lounge chairs beside the tennis court as shields and formed a human chain to corral the wayward buffalo. One buffalo was seen leaping over one of the tennis nets in an effort to evade capture. The animals came from a farm nearly 5km away, police said. They were returned to the farm later in the day.

  ■ Germany

  Corpse exhibitor fined

  Gunther von Hagens, who has toured Asian, European and US cities with an exhibition of flayed and dissected human corpses, was fined US$140,000 by a court in Germany on Tuesday for falsely claiming to have a doctoral degree from a Chinese university. The court in Heidelberg said von Hagens had no right to call himself a professor in Germany, where such academic titles are strictly regulated. The court said he had no evidence to show he had more than an honorary PhD from a university near Harbin, China. More than 60 million people worldwide have seen von Hagens' Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies over the past decade.

  ■ Germany

  Smoking cardinal ruffled

  Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky of Berlin confessed on Tuesday that a ban on smoking in the Sistine Chapel had made him restless during last week's conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. "I hadn't realized beforehand it was going to be so incredibly tense," said Sterzinsky on his return to Berlin. "Dammit, we weren't even allowed to smoke." The rule was imposed because all the windows had to remain shut for the sake of secrecy. Sterzinsky said Joseph Ratzinger, 78, was a fitter pope than John Paul II had been at a comparable age. "Compared to frail John Paul, he seems downright perky," Sterzinsky said. "He doesn't use the elevator, but runs up the Vatican stairs like someone who goes jogging."

  ■ United States

  Sea lion trapped at plant

  A 136kg sea lion has been living in a water intake tank at a power plant, dodging rescue attempts since last week. The male sea lion squeezed through an opening of the tank at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's (DWP) plant in Playa del Rey and became trapped on April 18. "He's pretty comfortable" and able to feed on shrimp and fish in the tank, an official said. Water in the tank is used to cool the plant's generators. A rescue team has lowered a boat containing a cargo net into the tank, but the sea lion has avoided it.
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