■ 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.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
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