Fri, Jun 03, 2005 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  ■ Solomon Islands
  Hermit returns home

  A man lived as a hermit in a jungle cave for 40 years before returning home when his fire went out. The man, identified as Philip Uduota, from the northeast of the island of Malaita had been living alone in a mountain jungle cave since 1964. Uduota, who is aged about 80, depended on food which he gathered from the forest but he returned to his home village in search of fire after his own fire went out. After reaching home, his relatives urged him to remain and he decided to stay with them.

  ■ China

  Floods leave 36 dead

  Torrential rains and mountain torrents have left at least 36 people dead and 42 missing in Hunan Province, as rescuers worked to evacuate people and ferry in supplies. So far around 100,000 people have been moved from the affected villages in mountain areas of Hunan. At least 3,500 buildings have collapsed, injuring many who were sleeping inside, as the rainy season arrived with a vengeance. "More than 100,000 people have been evacuated," a ministry official said.

  ■ Maldives

  Opposition leader detained

  Authorities yesterday detained a top opposition leader and accused him of plotting to disrupt a parliamentary debate on allowing multiparty democracy for the first time in the Indian Ocean archipelago. The opposition group, the Maldivian Democratic Party, strongly denied the charge against party Chairman Mohamed Nasheed and called his arrest -- along with three party colleagues -- "deplorable." Nizin Sattar, a senior member of the party from the MDP office in exile in Sri Lanka, said eight uniformed policemen had stormed Nasheed's home after climbing over the compound gate, bundled him into a police jeep and sped off.

  ■ India

  Bollywood bans smoking

  The government is to outlaw all images of smoking in Bollywood films and television shows in a move praised by campaigners as a "sensible step" but attacked by film-makers as a curb on artistic freedom. The ban, the most comprehensive of its kind in the world, will outlaw shots showing cigarette packs and advertising hoardings. Foreign movies and serials, increasingly popular especially when dubbed into local Indian languages, will have the offending images electronically blurred. The ministry of health said that films predating the ban with offending scenes would need to run a series of health warnings across the bottom of the screen. Thailand also banned smoking scenes in films in 2000.

  ■ Australia

  Finders can't be keepers

  A 23-year-old faces up to five years in jail for larceny after finding a bag containing more than 250,000 dollars (US$190,000) in cash in a Sydney street and failing to turn the loot over to police. The unidentified man allegedly hid part of the money under his desk at work and put the rest in a safety deposit box. A detective said finders can be keepers, but only if they surrender their treasure to police for investigation and it goes unclaimed. "There's an obligation on members of the public who find things on the street to hand them over to the appropriate authority, ie the police," he said. "In this case the amount exceeded more than a quarter of a million dollars and therefore that makes it a serious offense." The man told police he found the money weeks ago. If the cash goes unclaimed, it goes to the state.

  ■ Germany
  Phone offers drink advice

  An inventor has come up with a new phone service: it rings your mobile and says, "How about a drink?" The idea is aimed at people whose fluid intake is too low for good health. Doctors say it is hard to train people to drink the 1.5 liters of water daily that nutrition agencies such as the German Nutrition Society DGE in Frankfurt recommend. Though coffee, beer and soda water all count, fewer than a third of Germans drink that much. So inventor Sven Olsen set to thinking up ways to nag the dry section of the population, including alarm clocks and watches.

  ■ Italy

  Terrorists sentenced to life

  Five members of Italy's Red Brigades, an ultra-left guerrilla group, were sentenced to life in jail on Wednesday for the killing of a college professor who was advising the government on labor reforms. Marco Biagi was gunned down outside his home in Bologna, northern Italy in 2002 by members of what is the modern incarnation of the Red Brigades group that kidnapped and killed former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978. A sixth member of the group, Cinzia Banelli, was sentenced to 16 years for the murder in March. Banelli informed on her comrades and expressed regret in the hope of gaining a more lenient sentence.

  ■ Egypt

  Girl kills to escape abuse

  A teenage girl, desperate to escape the clutches of her abusive father, murdered a six-year-old in a deliberate bid to earn a prison sentence, a Cairo newspaper reported Wednesday. The 16-year-old believed life in prison would be better than at the hands of her violent and abusive father, the Cairo Daily newspaper reported. Seeing no other escape option but to commit a crime the teenager lured a six-year-old girl back to her apartment in the Salam-City suburb of Cairo on the pretext of playing a game. The child was gagged and bound before being strangled to death. The 16-year-old then called police to confess her crime.

  ■ Greece

  Bomb threat disrupts metro

  Police evacuated thousands of people who were heading to work on the Athens metro following a bomb threat Thursday. An anonymous caller told the Athens daily newspaper Eleftherotypia that a bomb was planted at Omonia station, in central Athens. Bomb squads were searching the tunnel and station for signs of the bomb. Earlier, a firefighter was slightly injured after authorities attempted to detonate a bomb planted in a trash can in front of the labor ministry in the early hours Thursday.

  ■ Chile

  Woman auctions soul

  A financially strapped Chilean woman is offering her soul to the devil or the best buyer in an Internet auction, media reports said Wednesday. The 35-year-old woman is asking 2.5 million pesos -- about US$4,300 -- and wants the money from the sale to finance personal projects because she is going through a rough period, the Las Ultimas Noticias newspaper said. The woman hyped her "product" as: "Super nice, noble and hasn't been used much." The offer is open to the devil as well on the deremate.com site. "Mr. Devil, if you appear on Deremate, here you have a lovely soul -- and very cheap." Newspapers quoted a Santiago bishop, Orozimbo Fuenzalida, as saying that people cannot sell their souls because they were created by God. He suggested that those who want to sell their souls seek counseling.

  ■ United Kingdom
  Children arrested for attack

  West Yorkshire police yesterday questioned three children aged between 11 and 12 who were arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder 5-year-old Anthony Hinchliffe. One of the boy's relatives said the attackers tried tying him to a tree by his neck. The two girls and one boy were arrested after Hinchliffe was found on Tuesday with marks around his neck and bruises on his body in Dewsbury. Police arrested five children aged between 11 and 12 in connection with the attack, but released two boys early yesterday.

  ■ Ivory Coast

  41 killed in ethnic unrest

  Attackers shot, hacked or burned to death at least 41 people on the outskirts of the cocoa-rich town of Duekoue on Wednesday, the army said, sending hundreds fleeing and raising fears of revenge killings in a region where ethnic tensions run high. The killings left many injured and underscored the fragility of the latest push for peace in the West African nation where a civil war has ebbed and flowed since 2002. Etienne Koulai, who works for Duekoue's General Hospital, said more than 52 had been killed and 71 injured. Those killed were members of the Guere tribe and lived in two villages on the edge of Duekoue.

  ■ Russia

  Ivanov warns on space arms

  Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov yesterday threatened retaliatory steps if any country deploys weapons in space, the Interfax news agency reported. "Russia's position on this question has not changed for decades: We are categorically against the militarization of space," Ivanov said. "If some state begins to realize such plans, then we doubtless will take adequate retaliatory measures," he was quoted as saying at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

  ■ South Africa

  Baboons terrorize town

  Aggressive baboons have left residents of the tiny town of Zeerust feeling terrorized and at their wits' end. Three troupes of about 30 baboons have been making regular trips the town of around 150,000 people, to steal food, leer at the locals and cause destruction and fear. "The problem started when the dumping sites were moved closer to the town," the manager of a local hotel said. The failure of visitors to heed warnings not to feed the baboons, had made the problem worse, she said.

  ■ United States

  Hair sale angers astronaut

  Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon wants to sue his Cincinatti, Ohio barber because the man sold some of his hair, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Wednesday. Armstrong,74, demanded barber Marx Sizemore contribute the US$3,000 he made from the sale to charity or face legal action. But Sizemore refused to donate the money, as he had already spent it on bills, the paper said. The hair was allegedly sold to John Reznikoff, who is listed in the Guiness Book of Records for his collection of hair from historical figures, the paper reported.

  ■ Germany

  Fischer probe halted

  A probe into allegations that Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer allowed illegal visas be given to hundreds of thousands of foreigners, was halted by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government yesterday. The move comes as the country gears up for early lections expected in September. The opposition said it might seek a high court ruling to keep the visa probe open.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Magnitude 6.1 quake strikes off northeast coast

  • 2

    MOFA blasts Beijing after Zambia scraps RightsCon

  • 3

    Taiwan keep Thomas Cup hopes alive

  • 4

    Expert warns on China customs blockade

  • 5

    Notes from Central Taiwan: Taiwan’s land problem is colonialism by another name