■ Thailand
Rare giant catfish caught
Fishermen caught a 293kg catfish that may have been the world's largest freshwater fish. The Mekong giant catfish was netted by villagers in a remote part of northern Thailand, the National Geographic Society said in a statement. When wildlife officials caught wind of the catch they urged the villagers to release the adult male so that it could spawn, but it later died and was eaten. The fish was the heaviest recorded since Thai officials started tracking the species in 1981 and may be the largest freshwater fish ever discovered. The Mekong giant catfish -- which shares the title of largest freshwater fish with a close relative, the dog-eating catfish -- was listed as critically endangered in 2003.
■ China
Factory standoff ends
Hundreds of people from Jianxia village, Zhejiang Province, have held a battery factory hostage, complaining that it is poisoning their children. About 600 people took control of the Zhejiang Tianneng Battery company and barricaded about 1,000 workers inside. But a promise made yesterday afternoon by factory managers to stop production and carry out investigations helped defuse the tense five-day standoff. "Most people have started to go home after negotiations with officials and police and the factory will stop production for 15 days," said said a resident surnamed Huang in the village. Four people were hospitalized after factory workers and villagers fought each other, he said.
■ China
Ban on sexuality issued
A university has stirred up a controversy by issuing explicit regulations banning student sexual activities. "The discovery of escort girls, mistresses, gigolos; anyone caught having a one night love affair, will result in expulsion from the university," a regulation by Chongqing Normal University said. It was unclear if the rule targeted commercial sex only, or if it was meant as an outright ban on all sexual activities by students. The regulation was made in accordance with rules on "harming the image of the university" and put up in classrooms on the school campus in May. Students complained that the terms used in the regulation were not clearly defined and near impossible to prove. Although some universities now allow students to marry, many ban sex on campus.
■ Thailand
Cop kills three, then self
A policeman killed three people following a traffic dispute before turning the gun on himself in front of stunned onlookers. Sergeant Visit Parami, 46, shot a driver and two passengers in a remote district of Chiang Mai Province after they ignored an order to stop. He then shot himself in the head. Two of his victims died at the scene and the third died in the hospital. He was trying to issue them a ticket and they quarrelled for some five minutes before the policeman pulled his gun and shot the three before shooting himself.
■ Hong Kong
Street cafes `untouristy'
Tourism officials are refusing to promote Hong Kong's famous street cafes, saying they do not want to give the city an unhygienic image. The Hong Kong Tourism Board was asked to consider promoting the cafes -- "dai pai dong" -- to help stop them from disappearing amid rapid urban development. The cafes serve up cheap food like noodles and congee with customers sitting on plastic chairs in the open air to eat it. Assistant Commissioner for Tourism Winnie Chung said "We don't want tourists to feel Hong Kong isn't a clean place."
■ United Kingdom
Britain trained Uzbeks
British military advisers trained Uzbek troops in "marksmanship" shortly before a massacre in which hundreds of people were killed. The training was part of a larger programme funded by Britain despite concerns expressed by the British Foreign Office at the time over the Uzbekistan government's human rights record. A group of Uzbek military cadets were given a "coaching course" in marksmanship by British soldiers in February and March this year. In May, Uzbek forces massacred up to 500 men, women and children in the town of Andijan.
■ Iran
Love at center of row?
Perplexed by the vitriol of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's attacks on Iran, one lawmaker believes he has uncovered the secret of her enmity -- that she was spurned by an Iranian boyfriend at college. "The reason that the US secretary of state attacks Iran is because she had her heart broken by a young man from Qazvin while they were students," a confident Shokrollah Attarzadeh was quoted by the ISNA agency as saying. Somewhat mysteriously, he added: "This is the result of an investigation by a woman MP, who cannot be named."
■ United States
Cult leader may get death
The tyrannical father of an incestuous clan should be put to death for killing nine of his children in a grisly mass murder last year, a California jury recommended Wednesday. The jury of seven women and five men decided that Marcus Wesson, 58, should be executed for his crimes, after nine hours of deliberations over three days in the central California town of Fresno. The same panel found Wesson guilty of the first-degree murder of nine of his children, who he was accused of shooting in the eye in the family's home in Fresno on March 12 last year.
■ Isreal
Army battles guerrillas
An Israeli army force clashed yesterday morning with a Lebanese guerrilla force along a disputed portion of the Israel-Lebanon border, Israel Radio reported. Israeli reports said one guerilla was injured. There were no immediate reports of any casualties to Israeli troops. The clash took place in the Shebaa Farms area, where on Wednesday guerrillas from the Hezbollah group shelled an Israeli army outpost; killing one Israeli soldier. Lebanon's pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement was believed to be responsible for yesterday's shelling near the outpost overlooking the Lebanese village of Kfar Chouba.
■ United Kingdom
Good student kills parents
A highly intelligent British student who created a fantasy life pleaded guilty Wednesday to bludgeoning his elderly parents to death, then using their credit cards on a £30,000 (US$54,000) spending spree. Brian Blackwell admitted two counts of manslaughter at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England. Retired accountant Sydney Blackwell, 72, and his wife Jacqueline, 61, an antiques dealer, were found dead at their home in the affluent village of Melling, northwest England, on Sept. 5. Prosecutors said Blackwell created a fantasy life, claiming he was a professional tennis player and hiring his girlfriend, Amal Saba, as his manager. After killing his parents, he took Saba on vacation in the US, running up a bill of around £30,000.
■ United States
Fewer watch Bush's speech
US President George W. Bush's address urging Americans to stand firm in Iraq drew the smallest TV audience of his tenure, Nielsen Media Research reported on Wednesday. The Tuesday night speech at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina averaged 23 million viewers combined on the four major US broadcast networks and three leading cable news channels that carried the speech, Nielsen said. That number was 8.6 million viewers below Bush's previous low as president, his Aug. 9, 2001 speech on stem-cell research, which was carried on six networks. Even Bush's last prime-time address, his April 28 speech on Social Security overhaul, drew more viewers, 32.7 million.
■ United Kingdom
Parent killer gets life in jail
Student Brian Blackwell was jailed for life on Wednesday after he admitted bludgeoning his parents to death, then using their credit cards on a ?30,000 (US$54,000) spending spree. Blackwell, who had just received top grades on school exams and was accepted to a university, admitted two counts of manslaughter at Liverpool Crown Court. Sydney Blackwell, 72, and his wife Jacqueline, 61, were found dead at their home in the affluent village of Melling on Sept. 5 last year. After killing his parents, Blackwell took his girlfriend on a vacation in the US.
■ United Kingdom
Methodists bless gay unions
The Methodist church on Wednesday became the first big Christian denomination in Britain to offer the prospect of blessings services for same-sex couples. Although adamant that such services would not be regarded by the church as marriages, officials admitted that they could well be seen as such by the couples themselves. The annual Methodist conference voted unanimously to continue its "pilgrimage of faith" toward gay people. There are 300,000 Methodists in Britain, making it the country's third-largest denomination. The conference voted for its faith and order committee to research guidelines to offer ministers on how to respond to requests to conduct prayers or services of blessing for same-sex couples.
■ United States
Stray plane triggers alert
A private plane strayed into restricted airspace over Washington on Wednesday evening, prompting security agents to move President George W. Bush to a safer location and causing the evacuation of the US Capitol, officials said. It was the second time in less than two months that a security scare involving a private plane prompted authorities to evacuate the Capitol complex and take extraordinary security precautions at the White House. The plane was intercepted by military and homeland security aircraft about 13 km from the capital. Officials said it appeared the wayward aircraft strayed into restricted airspace around 6:30pm to avoid bad weather.
■ France
Separatists convicted
A court handed down jail terms ranging from two to 20 years on 14 of 15 Basque and Breton separatists charged with stealing a huge haul of dynamite, which experts say was used in car bomb attacks that killed 18 people in Spain. Ten suspected members of the Breton Revolutionary Army and five from the Basque group ETA went on trial in Paris on June 1, accused of having taken nearly 9 tonnes of dynamite, 6,500 detonators and 10km of fuse in a raid on a depot in Brittany in September 1999.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the