■ Vietnam
Horny buffalo kills two
A water buffalo went mad and killed a father and son in northern Vietnam as it tried to break free to reach a female in heat, police said yesterday. Pham Van Quy, 73, was killed instantly when the buffalo gored him in the stomach on Sunday in Nam Dinh province, some 100km south of Hanoi, said local police officer Bui Van Bac. Quy's 46-year-old son was also gored to death when he tried to intervene, he said. Police suspected that the bull went mad when Quy tried to stop it from reaching the female, Bac said. The buffalo later wandered to a nearby village where it was cornered and electrocuted by the villagers, he said.
■ Philippines
Streaking students protest
A group of young male students ran naked around a crowded Manila university block near the presidential palace yesterday, saying they wanted to "bare the government's shortcomings" in education funding. The 15 activists, mostly in their 20s and some with "Education for all" written on their bodies in red paint, snarled traffic and drew giggles from passing females.
■ Thailand
Brawling monks defrocked
Five Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple, police and newspapers said Tuesday. The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms on different sides of a road, the Manager newspaper said. "When an ordinary person is given a middle-finger sign, he will be mad. So am I," it quoted one of the defrocked monks, Boonlert Boonpan, as saying after the brawl in the northeastern state of Nong Khai Monday. Boonlert said he usually carried a knuckle-duster in his shoulder bag during the morning collection of alms on which Buddhist monks depend, it said.
■ South Korea
Foreign kimchi vilified
South Korean farmers are protesting cheap Chinese imports of kimchi, saying the competition could destroy domestic producers of the famously pungent national dish. Farmers groups sent a letter to discount chain Home Plus asking it to stop selling Chinese kimchi that costs about half that of the domestic variety, the JoongAng Daily newspaper reported yesterday. "Chinese kimchi imports are increasing and if a large discount mart starts selling kimchi made there, the domestic cabbage industry will collapse," the paper quote the letter as saying. "Next to rice, kimchi is the most important food for Koreans. If Home Plus does not stop selling the China made kimchi, it will be responsible for all future mishaps," the letter said.
■ China
`NY Times' worker charged
China has filed a new charge of fraud against a New York Times researcher detained for allegedly leaking state secrets to foreigners, his lawyer said yesterday. Mo Shaoping, the lawyer for Zhao Yan, said the government informed the law firm last month that they found new evidence against the employee of the New York Times' Beijing bureau and have charged Zhao with fraud. Mo said the move enables the government to continue to hold Zhao in custody without trial. It was unclear whether the fraud charge replaces the initial charge of "divulging state secrets" -- a crime punishable by death.
■ United States
Slater busted for groping
Christian Slater, who is appearing in a revival of The Glass Menagerie on Broadway, has been arrested on a charge that he groped a woman. Slater and his girlfriend were arguing at a small grocery store on Manhattan's Upper East Side early on Tuesday, a prosecutor said in Manhattan criminal court. Another woman was buying a soda in the store when Slater allegedly walked up behind her and grabbed her buttocks, the prosecutor said. Slater was charged with third-degree sexual abuse. He didn't enter a plea when he appeared in court, chewing gum and wearing a blue shirt, jeans and a beige jacket.
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