■ China
Singaporean journalist held
China has arrested a senior journalist working for Singapore's Straits Times as he tried to obtain a manuscript of secret interviews with deposed Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), the reporter's wife said. Ching Cheong, 55, chief China correspondent for the paper, was detained on April 22 in Guangzhou and authorities were preparing to charge him with "stealing core state secrets," his wife Mary Lau told reporters. "I don't think it's because of the articles Ching has written. It's because of Zhao Ziyang. ... China is trying to prevent the manuscript from being published. They think it's very sensitive," Lau said from Hong Kong where Ching was based. The interviews were conducted by Zong Fengming, a former Xinhua news agency reporter, who had rare access to Zhao before his death in January.
■ China
Body parts found
A man's body parts have been found scattered in three neighborhoods in Shenzhen, Hong Kong newspapers said yesterday. A scavenger found two thighs and an arm in a trash bin last Thursday, the Oriental Daily News and the Apple Daily quoted police as saying. Police later recovered the victim's head and parts of other limbs on a street and at a grassy strip near a water company, the papers said. Only the torso was missing, the reports said. The papers said officials confirmed all the body parts came from the same person. The victim has not been identified, but police officials were quoted as saying the male was in his 40s and may have come from Hong Kong.
■ Thailand
Maggot therapy a hit
Thai hospitals are experimenting with maggot therapy as a cheap, effective treatment of diabetes, ulcers, wounds and infections, a news report said yesterday. Maggot therapy, which has been used to treat wounds since the time of French Emperor Napoleon, was reintroduced to Thailand in April this year with the importation of green bottle flies -- Lucilia sericata -- from Germany by BioMonde (Thailand) Company, said the Nation newspaper. The flies' larvae are sterile.
■ Japan
Court approves reactor
The Japanese Supreme Court upheld government approval of an experimental fast-breeder nuclear reactor yesterday, paving the way for the reopening of a plant that was shut down a decade ago by an accident and cover-up. The ruling reversed a 2003 decision by a high court that had nullified the government's 1983 approval to build the Monju reactor in Tsuruga, 320km west of Tokyo, said Takao Arakawa, a court spokesman. The decision was a major boost for the plutonium-fired plant, the centerpiece in the government's campaign to expand resource-poor Japan's reliance on nuclear energy.
■ Japan
ID system `violates privacy'
A court yesterday said the government's national computerized ID system "seriously violates" citizens' constitutional right to privacy, and ordered a prefectural government in western Japan to remove data on dozens of residents from the system. Kanazawa District Court Justice Kenichi Ido ruled the Juki Net system was unconstitutional because citizens have no control over their own personal data, media said. Ishikawa prefectural government was told to remove the 28 plaintiffs from its system. The ruling was the first of several lawsuits aimed at forcing the government to shut down its online database.
■ United States
Conspiracy suspects arrested
A martial arts expert from the Bronx and a doctor from Florida have been arrested on charges that they conspired to train and provide medical assistance to al-Qaeda terrorists. The men, who were identified as Tarik Ibn Osman Shah and Rafiq Sabir were captured in early morning raids on Friday as part of a two-year sting operation. While authorities said that they had no evidence that either man had actually provided support to terrorists, they said they had taped each man swearing his allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
■ United States
TV thief finishes sentence
A man was released from a North Carolina jail over the weekend after serving 35 years for stealing a black and white television set. Junior Allen, a black migrant worker from Georgia, will remain on probation for another five years, so he will not be entirely free until he is 70. "I'm glad to be out," Allen said. "I've done too much time for what I did. I won't be truly happy until I see a sign that says I'm outside of North Carolina." A judge sentenced Allen to life in 1970, when he was 30 years old. He was convicted of sneaking into the unlocked home of an 87-year-old woman and stealing her black-and-white Motorola TV, worth US$140. Today the crime would draw a maximum of three years' imprisonment.
■ United States
Anti-missile laser to be tried
The government is to begin testing a laser device which is bolted to the belly of US commercial airliners to protect against shoulder-launched missiles. The device is meant to locate an incoming heat-seeking missile and then hit it with a laser to disrupt its guidance systems. Fearing a terrorist attack on a civilian plane and its impact on the US economy, the Department of Homeland Security has funded a US$120 million trial. Three prototypes are soon to be fixed to commercial planes at a Texas airfield. However, there are persistent concerns about the US$11 billion cost of equipping the whole US fleet. Airlines would almost certainly have to pay for maintenance and operating expenses of US$2 billion, significantly raising the cost of air travel.
■ United Kingdom
Sheriff wants Robin Hood
The legendary thief who robbed from the medieval rich to give to the poor in nearby Sherwood Forest has had his image removed from the city's logo and his old enemy's successor is demanding that it be put back. "Contrary to what the media says, Robin Hood and I are the best of friends," Nottingham Sheriff Derek Cresswell said. Nottingham's advisers replaced Robin's image on the city's logo with a large, backward-leaning N as part of their efforts to reduce dependency on the outlaw to attract tourists and investors. "How can we drop Robin Hood? We have got to get him back," Cresswell said.
■ Germany
Baby dinosaurs really `cute'
Baby dinosaurs really were sweet-looking and even infant predators looked up at their flesh-eating mothers with large round eyes, according
to the Bavarian State Palaeontological and Geological Society. The findings are based on studies of fossilized embryonic craniums of Allosaurus-like dinosaurs found at a late-Jurassic dinosaur nesting site in Portugal, adding evidence that dinosaurs may have been caring parents, if not loving ones. The craniums exhibited all the signs of "cuteness" attributed to the offspring of warm-blooded animals that depend on their parents for food and protection.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese