■ China
Body-snatching alleged
Villagers in southern China have accused the government of hiring grave robbers to steal the bodies of their late relatives and cremate them, state press reported yesterday. The officially-sanctioned body snatchers were enforcing a national ban on burials that aims to protect China's diminishing arable land. A group of government-hired men had pilfered five graves in Chengjiang village in the early hours of Saturday and taken the corpses off to be cremated, the Beijing Times reported. The graves were between three months and three years old, locals said. The robbers left a printed notice from the local civil affairs bureau citing laws that prohibit burials and informing the villagers that the ashes of the corpses could be collected at the local crematorium. But when the relatives went to pick up the ashes, a final insult awaited them: they were asked to pay for the cremations.
■ China
New law for AIDS patients
Authorities have drafted a new law to protect people infected with the AIDS virus in a country where discrimination against them is rife. China has stepped up its public fight against the disease in the past two years, with senior leaders holding publicized meetings with victims. "Stigma and discrimination are still prevalent," Wang Longde, vice health minister, said. Last year, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) shook hands with AIDS patients at a Beijing hospital, and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) this year spent Lunar New Year with impoverished sufferers of the disease. Nearly 60 percent of urban residents would be "nervously afraid" to have contact with HIV positive people in public, the Ministry of Health survey found last year.
■ Australia
Doctor Death' spotted in US
A man known as "Doctor Death" who has been linked to more than 80 deaths in a Queensland hospital has been sighted in the US, a report said yesterday. Indian-trained surgeon Jayant Patel, who authorities last week recommended be charged with murder, was seen in Portland, Oregon, the Australian newspaper said. Patel, who fled Australia earlier this year as investigations into his work at Bundaberg Base Hospital began, was seen showing friends through a house that was for sale, the paper said, citing a resident. The resident, who refused to give her name, said Patel was living in a million-dollar home in an up-market neighborhood.
■ Australia
Fast bird-flu test developed
Scientists have developed a 24-hour test to detect bird flu, a government official said yesterday. The new test will reduce the time needed to detect the deadly disease from three weeks to one day, Victoria state Agriculture Minister Bob Cameron said. The test is capable of detecting 15 different strains of bird flu, including the strains that are transferable to humans, Cameron told reporters. "What we have is a real-time test that I think goes across all of the 15 subtypes," he said. "As with all disease outbreaks, the quicker it can be diagnosed the quicker the problem can be dealt with."
■ Nepal
Police detain journalists
Police arrested nearly 100 journalists yesterday after scuffling with them during a protest against media restrictions imposed by King Gyanendra since he seized control of the government four months ago. The journalists were arrested as they marched into a restricted area near the royal palace. "Free the press. Withdraw censorship," the journalists chanted before police bundled them into buses and drove them away. Some journalists suffered injuries in tussles with police. Others broke windows on the buses as they were driven away.
■ Indonesia
President flooded with calls
The mobile phone of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been inundated with phone calls and text messages after he invited the public to contact him with their problems. The president has ordered the installation of five new numbers so the public can "directly call [him] 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said his spokesman Andi Mallarangeng. Yudhoyono, who took office in October and has vowed to improve Indonesia's chronic bureaucratic problems, said people should call him with complaints about red tape or inept officials.
■ Japan
Apology for slave remark
The government apologized again yesterday for the suffering of women who served as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II, a day after comments by a Cabinet minister drew an angry reaction in South Korea. Japanese Education Minister Nariaki Nakayama was quoted by media over the weekend as saying the term "comfort women" did not exist during the war and it was good the term had disappeared from school textbooks. The government sought to contain any further damage by saying Tokyo was sorry for the sex slaves. "The comfort women did exist and we are aware that the pride and dignity of many women were hurt," a spokesman said.
■ Italy
Low turnout for fertility poll
A referendum on abolishing the strict laws on assisted pregnancy looked set to fail yesterday as not enough people turned out to vote -- a victory for a Catholic Church campaign for a boycott of the poll. On Sunday, only 18.7 percent of eligible voters turned out, making it unlikely that the referendum would reach the necessary 50 percent-plus-one quorum during the second and final day of voting yesterday. The likely defeat is a crushing blow for campaigners who have battled against the law which bans egg and sperm donors, embryo freezing and research, and allows only three eggs to be fertilized at each attempt at pregnancy. With a general election due in the next 11 months, it is unlikely, in any case, that lawmakers will make any attempt to modify the law in the foreseeable future.
■ United States
Ex-lobbyist quits post
A former oil industry lobbyist accused of doctoring official US policy papers on global warming to play down the link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, has resigned. Philip Cooney, who was chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, quit his job two days after a report released by the Government Accountability Project showed that he had deleted paragraphs and edited others drafted by government scientists. The White House said his departure was "completely unrelated" to last week's disclosure. Cooney, a lawyer with no background in science, previously worked for the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for oil firms.
■ Russia
15 hurt in train bombing
A bomb derailed a passenger train traveling from Chechnya to Moscow on Sunday, injuring at least 15 people in what officials described as a terrorist attack. The bombing occurred around 7am, as the train approached Uzunova, a village about 145km south of Moscow. The force of the blast derailed the locomotive and four passenger cars, but did not overturn them. There have been no immediate claims of responsibility for the bombing.
■ United States
Activist expected in court
Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro activist wanted by Cuba and Venezuela on terrorism charges, was due to appear in court in El Paso, Texas, yesterday to face charges of illegally entering the US. Washington has rejected a Venezuelan extradition request for Posada Carriles, 77, who is wanted for the bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976. The long-time opponent of Cuban President Fidel Castro reportedly worked for the CIA at least from 1965 until June 1976. He was arrested in Miami on May 17 on immigration charges after he requested political asylum in the US.
■ United States
Pill may lead to libido loss
Taking oral contraceptives may result in permanent loss of libido even after a woman stops taking the pill. It has long been known that most women suffer a reduction in libido while taking the pill, but the study published in New Scientist is the first to suggest the effect could be permanent. The pill reduces levels of testosterone and raise levels of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), which blocks the effects of testosterone. In the study, women on the pill had level seven times the level of SHBG in women who had never taken the pill. SHBG levels in women who had previously taken the pill but had stopped were three to four times higher than in those who had never taken the pill.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the