■ Malaysia
Freaky puppy hailed
A puppy with six legs and two penises was found sleeping outside a Chinese temple in a Malaysian town, and devotees are treating the freak find as a good omen, a news report said yesterday. The furry puppy with brown patches was sleeping at the temple entrance on Thursday morning when it was spotted by a temple caretaker, said the Star newspaper, which published the animal's picture clearly showing the extra two legs and the additional organ. "He [the caretaker] lifted the canine to place it elsewhere and was shocked to see that the puppy had six legs," the Star quoted the Kwang Sung Temple committee member Tee Kim Huat as saying.
■ Australia
Aboriginals in poll record
Australian Aborigines will account for 20 percent of the lawmakers in the Northern Territory after weekend elections -- the largest proportion ever in a state legislature, officials said yesterday. Aboriginal candidates won five of 25 seats in the Northern Territory's Legislative Assembly at elections Saturday, the officials said. All were candidates for the center-left Labor Party, which secured a second four-year term with a crushing election victory over the business-focused Country Liberal Party. The popularity of Aboriginal candidates at the elections rekindled calls for the establishment of their own political party to represent the interests of Australia's poorest minority, who are less healthy, less educated and more often imprisoned than any other group.
■ Australia
Prison, business don't mix
An Australian businessman serving a jail term was moved to a high security prison after allegedly conducting business while pretending to help his children with schoolwork, local media reported yesterday. Rodney Adler, who is serving a minimum two-and-a-half year sentence following the collapse of one of the country's largest insurance companies, faces an extended non-parole period and could be denied a telephone and confined to his cell, according to Australian Associated Press. Adler, a former director of HIH Insurance, is barred from carrying out business activities as part of his sentence.
■ India
Nepalese rebels arrested
Police yesterday arrested three suspected communist rebels from Nepal who had sought medical treatment in India, a report said. Acting on a tip, police raided a house rented by the suspected guerrillas in Nawtolia, a town in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The three were wounded in a recent battle with Nepal's army, PTI quoted local police as saying. The Maoist Communist Center, a militant group that operates in five southern and eastern Indian states, supports the communist insurgency in Nepal, which has killed more than 11,500 people in the Himalayan state since 1996.
■ Malaysia
Helicopter crashes into sea
A helicopter crashed near an oil rig in Malaysian waters, but 13 employees of oil company Shell survived without serious injuries, news reports said yesterday. Two pilots and 11 passengers were in the helicopter heading to the oil rig off the coast of Sarawak state on Borneo island on Saturday when it experienced technical problems and plunged into the water, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.
■ Iran
Plane forced to land
A US plane with 255 passengers on board was forced to make an emergency landing in Tehran early yesterday after experiencing technical problems. The authorities said that the problem on the Northwest Airlines DC 10 was solved in Tehran's Mehrabad airport and the passengers were ready to board the flight to continue their journey. According to state television the plane, flying from Mumbai to Amsterdam, had been hit by "technical problems with the cargo bay."
■ Somalia
Exiled government returns
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, accompanied by cabinet members and lawmakers, left Kenya on Saturday to set up a government-in-exile in southern Somalia. Gedi arrived in the southern Somali town of Jowhar, to relocate a seven-month old government from the Kenyan capital. Hundreds of Jowhar residents lined the road to the airport to welcome Gedi, chanting slogans in support of the government's relocation to Somalia. The country has been without a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
■ France
Chirac's ratings plunge
President Jacques Chirac's popularity rating has plunged to 28 percent, according to a opinion poll conducted for France's Sunday paper, Le Journal du Dimanche. The poll came as another blow to Chirac, who faces an uphill battle restoring confidence in his government and the EU, after the collapse of a key EU summit early Saturday. The poll showed that approval for the French president had dropped by 12 points since its previous poll a month ago, which was taken before France voted "no" to the EU constitution.
■ United Kingdom
Blanket smoking ban mulled
A blanket ban on smoking in public places, including all pubs and restaurants, will form the centerpiece of the British government's health proposals to be launched today. The government is looking at proposals to prohibit smoking in public places and will, for the first time, raise the possibility that all pubs will have to follow suit. However, research undertaken by Northamptonshire Primary Care Trust shows 54 per cent of pubs and bars in the country would avoid a ban. Simon Clark, director of Forest, a pro-smoking group, said, "The most recent poll, conducted by Populus in May this year, found that 72 per cent of Britons are against an outright ban on smoking in pubs, clubs and bars."
■ Russia
Space station gets supplies
A cargo ship successfully docked with the international space station yesterday, delivering supplies and equipment for its US and Russian crew. The unmanned Progress M-53 spacecraft, which took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday, hooked up with the station at 4:41am, several minutes ahead of schedule. The ship delivered about 2.64 tonnes of food, water, fuel and other supplies for Krikalev and Phillips, who have been on the orbiting station since April. The cargo includes scientific equipment and spare parts for the station's main oxygen generator, which has been broken. Along with other cargo, the spaceship brought 60 snails intended for biological experiments. It also delivered some movies and other personal items for the crew.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was