■ China
Great Wall tourist killed
A 25-year-old Greek tourist was killed and her male companion was injured by lightning while they were touring a section of the Great Wall. The two Greeks, who were not identified, were hit Friday on a part of the Great Wall known as Simatai in Miyun county. The injured tourist was taken to the hospital for treatment. Reports of lightning striking visitors are frequent, as the wall often forms the highest point in the landscape.
■ Malaysia
Hugging on TV `un-Islamic'
The country's deputy leader has hit out at hugging scenes on TV reality shows, saying such public displays of affection are un-Islamic. "It is forbidden in the religion," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said. Malaysian TV stations generally edit out kissing and hugging scenes in programs but there have been displays of hugging in some reality shows of late. "Hugging scenes are not suitable," he said. "They must sing decent songs, and must act decently."
■ Philippines
Impotence decried
An estimated six million Filipino men are suffering from erectile dysfunction due to unhealthy and stressful lifestyles, Doctor Jaime Songco, secretary of the Philippine Society of Urologic Oncology, said yesterday. "We better prepare for something worse," he said. "Perhaps, erectile dysfunction is the scourge of the century." Songco added that diabetes, hypertension, alcoholism and drug abuse as well as emotional and mental stress have led to an increase in cases. A recent study by the WHO showed that around 125 million men around the world are suffering from impotence and the number is projected to increase if the present trend continues.
■ India
Rifle complaint rejected
An arms manufacturer yesterday rejected a complaint by Nepal that it supplied the kingdom faulty assault rifles which led to heavy losses in a gunbattle with Maoist rebels last weekend. An official of the state-run Rifle Factory Icchapore said the guns may have failed because of poor maintenance by the Nepali army, which lost 42 soldiers in last Sunday's clash. The Nepali army, quoting soldiers who took part in the battle, said the rifle frequently became too hot during the fighting and soldiers had to wait for it to cool before they could use it again.
■ Indonesia
Police look for illegal arms
Celebrities and the wealthy are increasingly using guns to intimidate or even kill, Jakarta police said as they announced a crackdown on illegal weapons. Senior Commander Usman Nasution said authorities have started rounding up illegal guns -- which according to some figures number at around 100,000 -- but he did not know how many have been seized so far. It will also be harder to get gun licenses, he said, and applicants will have to take psychological and other tests. In one famous gun case, Adiguna Sutowo, the son of a former minister, fatally shot a nightclub waiter who told him his credit card had been rejected.
■ Bangladesh
Shrine bombing kills one
About a dozen homemade bombs exploded at a packed Muslim shrine in the eastern Brahmmanbaria district on Friday, killing at least one man and injuring more than 50 others, police said yesterday. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosions occurred as thousands of worshippers join an annual feast and a fair at the shrine. Police said the attack could have resulted from a personal feud.
■ India
Families killed in raid
Suspected Islamic militants raided a remote mountain village in Jammu-Kashmir state and attacked two Hindu families as they dined together, killing five, police said yesterday. The gun and grenade attack on Friday night in Sajroo village came despite stepped up security in the region to prevent attacks ahead of Independence Day celebrations on Monday. Nine people were wounded, said a police officer said,three seriously. Both families had volunteered for a village defense committee and the government had given them arms to help protect the village.
■ Australia
Icon's security tightened
Visitors to the iconic Sydney Opera House will face heightened security measures starting next month to prevent acts of terrorism, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday. The opera house has been identified by security experts as a prime terrorist target. From Sept. 1, visitors will be required to remove coats, jackets, gloves, shoes and hats for scrutiny if asked by security staff, the newspaper reported. Car searches will also be made.
■ Cambodia
Judge eyes Sam Rainsy
A military judge said yesterday that he may open proceedings against opposition leader Sam Rainsy, days after he jailed an opposition lawmaker for seven years. Cheam Channy, of the Sam Rainsy Party, was convicted on Tuesday of fraud and forming an illegal army to topple the government. "Cheam Channy's testimony clearly indicates that Sam Rainsy ... also signed documents involved in this case," the judge said.
■ United Kingdom
Toddler conquers mountain
A two-year-old toddler has stormed to the top of England's tallest mountain Scafell Pike, a newspaper said yesterday. Elisha Smith, from York in northern England, is believed to be the youngest person ever to scale the 978m summit, the Daily Mail reported. Elisha's parents had expected to carry her up the mountain in the picturesque Lake District in the northwest. But the biscuit-fuelled toddler left them stunned as she charged up the peak. Now her parents have set their sights on a place in the Guinness Book of Records by taking her to conquer Snowdon, Wales' biggest mountain, and Scotland's 1,344m Ben Nevis, Britain's tallest peak, before her third birthday.
■ Dubai
Dinosaurs get own park
Two Arab businessmen are planning to create a real-life Jurassic Park in Dubai, with more than 100 animatronic dinosaurs, including tyrannosaurus rex, vicious velociraptors and plant-eating triceratops. The park is the brainchild of Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari, the developers behind the City of Arabia section of Dubailand, an enormous entertainment and leisure"city." The 46,000m2 theme park -- to be known as "Restless Planet" -- will bethe centerpiece of the Mall of Arabia, the world's biggest shopping complex.
■ Colombia
Officials seek IRA men
Irish and Colombian officials will find a way to extradite three Irish Republican Army (IRA) members to face 17-year sentences for training Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, Colombian officials said on Friday after meeting with Ireland's ambassador. The three men, Martin McCauley, James Monaghan and Nial Connolly, were arrested in August 2001 as they returned to Bogota from an enclave under FARC control during government peace talks. The three were absolved of terrorism charges but found guilty on charges of traveling with forged documents and released on bond.
■ United States
Radio stunt backfires
A radio station stunt that had three listeners in Tampa, Florida dressed up like escaped jail inmates went awry on Friday when dozens of people called police. The resulting ruckus tied up traffic during morning rush hour, authorities said. The three people, shackled and dressed in what appeared to be jail uniforms, were competing to try to get motorists to give them a ride, sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said. The first one back to the studios of Tampa station WXTB-FM -- 98 Rock -- would win a trip to Los Angeles in conjunction with a new Fox television show called Prison Break. But after 30 or 40 calls from "terrified" motorists and residents, sheriff's deputies responded in force and took them into custody for real, Doll said. They were released after about an hour.
■ Ukraine
Russians eroticize PM
A senior Ukrainian official on Friday said his government objected strongly to a Russian erotic film project featuring Prime Minister Julia Timoshenko as the picture's main character. At issue is a feature-length film entitled Julia, currently being shot in Moscow. The picture will focus on a fictional love affair between the telegenic Timoshenko and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. It was not clear whether the film would be, once complete, erotic or pornographic in nature, the Interfax news agency reported.
■ United States
Typo leads to sexy blunder
A Milwaukee energy company is apologizing to customers after accidentally listing a sex-line phone number instead of a number for low-income customers to call for financial help. It listed a phone number with one different digit that connects callers to a recorded message. A woman says, "Wanna get with the sluttiest girls your imagination can dream up? We can be whatever you want us to be, baby. After all, it's your imagination." Numerous people proofread the cards, but the wrong number still made it through.
■ United States
Immigration quota filled
Immigration officials have stopped accepting applications for H1-B visas for high-tech and specialty workers because they already have filled the 2006 quota. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, received enough applications to meet the quota, the agency said. The cutoff of applications comes a little more than a month earlier than last year. Federal law provides 65,000 H1-B visas every year to scientists, engineers and computer programmers.
■ United States
Penny gambler wins big
A lucky gambler won nearly US$3 million playing the one-cent slot machines in a Nevada casino, scoring a world record in the process. Shigeko Ide Stein, 61, won US$2.99 million last Wednesday after popping penny coins into the video slots in a casino in the Nevada town of Laughlin, near Las Vegas, which she visits three times a week. Stein said she took her seat at the machines because it was the only place available but immediately had a premonition she would win. "I just had a good feeling after seeing a woman had a winning combination but didn't have a max coin bet," she said.
■ United States
Host families to be screened
To help protect thousands of foreign exchange students, many of whom are living away from their homes for the first time, the State Department has proposed new rules that would screen host families. Many of the high school students who come to the US each year are 17 or 18, but some are as young as 15. According to the new proposals, all adults in a host family would be vetted through sex offender registries. The new proposals follow several cases where hosts sexually abused foreign students. In December, Andrew Powers, a biology teacher, was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old German girl living at his home. He pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
■ United Kingdom
Terror suspect loses case
A man being held without trial by British forces in Iraq has lost a high court test case against his detention. Hilal al-Jedda, 47, who has dual British and Iraqi citizenship, has been detained for nine months on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist group, but no charges have been brought. Al-Jedda, a father-of-six who has lived in London for 12 years, denies the accusations, and his lawyer argued that his client had "simply been interned" in breach of article 5 of the European convention on human rights. But Friday, it was ruled that his detention was lawful and did not contravene his human rights, on the grounds that the UN security council resolution 1546, passed in June 2004, "disapplied" all human rights protection from terror suspects and authorized a system of indefinite detention without trial. The judges said it was "appropriate" to grant him permission to appeal.
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather in July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad. Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm. The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other
CODIFYING DISCRIMINATION: Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in prison, while same-sex relations could land a person in jail for more than a decade Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the