■ China
Zoo animals die wretchedly
A bankrupt zoo in central China has watched helplessly as dozens of its animals, including at least eight lions and 12 ostriches, starved to death, domestic media said yesterday. Zoos have sprung up across China in the past decade to meet a growing appetite for entertainment among increasingly affluent Chinese, but many provide wretched conditions, inept management and cannot draw enough visitors to cover their costs. The zoo in Xiantao, Hubei Province, did not earn enough from ticket sales to buy even basic food supplies, the Hubei-based Chutian Metropolis Daily said. One wolf, two deer and two camels had also died in the past 17 months, it said. The zoo had more than 500 animals when it opened in October 2003, but only three lions, one tiger and some other animals were still there, the paper said.
■ South Korea
Successor killed spy boss
A government panel yesterday said the country's former spy chief who disappeared mysteriously in Paris in 1979 was kidnapped and killed on the orders of his successor. Kim Hyung-wook, the longest-serving head of South Korea's intelligence agency, was last seen at a casino in the French capital on October 7, 1979. The panel investigating unexplained disappearances during the rule of South Korea's past regimes said in an interim report that Kim was abducted by a South Korean spy working with two foreign hitmen. Kim was a one-time favorite and confidant of Park Chung-hee, who took power in a military coup. But he later turned into a critic of Park's increasingly autocratic rule in the 1970s.
■ Thailand
Tourist-killing cop gets life
A policeman was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for murdering two British tourists last year following a row outside a restaurant in western Thailand. Somchai Visetsing, 40, was charged with two counts of murder for shooting dead Vanessa Arscott, 24, and her boyfriend Adam Lloyd, 25, on Sept. 9, close to the famous Bridge on the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi Province. Several witnesses had testified that Somchai's car was at the scene, that they heard gunfire and that they had seen the suspect with the two tourists. Somchai had confessed to the killings during the police investigation but later denied murdering the two and pleaded innocent during the trial. His laywer said Somchai would appeal.
■ China
Depressed cop hangs self
A policeman involved in the high-profile case of a man wrongly jailed for murder has been found hanged in a graveyard. Pan Yujun, 42, was an arresting officer in the case of She Xianglin, who spent 11 years in jail for murdering his wife and was released only when she turned up alive last month. She has since said police tortured him into confessing to the murder, sparking outrage across China over police brutality and the country's arbitrary legal system. Investigators looking into She's case questioned Pan on Saturday, the Beijing News said. "On Tuesday, he called his wife and said `There's nothing I can do. I don't want to live any more'," it said.
■ Hong Kong
Van saves man's fall
A suicide jumper survived a six-story leap when he landed on top of a parked van in Mongkok. The 45-year-old man leapt from a corridor outside his six story home in a high-rise block on Wednesday. His fall was broken when he landed on top of a parked van where a decorator was waiting for his brother to buy window frames from a nearby shop. The man was rescued from the roof of the van and taken to the hospital for treatment. The decorator was also treated for a sore neck when he jumped from his seat in fright. In the area, suicide rates have shot up by 72 percent over the past 20 years.
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