■ India
Man's tongue cut off
Suspected Muslim militants yesterday chopped off the tongue of a villager whom they suspected of being a police informer in Jammu and Kashmir state, news reports said. A group of heavily armed militants kidnapped Abdul Majeed from his village in Doda district and took him to a forest where he was tortured, PTI news agency reported citing official sources. The sources said the militants later chopped off Majeed's tongue and let him go. He was found lying unconscious near the forest by a group of local people who took him to a hospital.
■ Hong Kong
Speed-eater reigns again
Japan's champion speed-eater devoured 100 roast pork buns in 12 minutes in the final round of an eating contest in Hong Kong on yesterday. Takeru Kobayashi, 27, plowed through the Chinese steamed buns to easily beat five other local contestants, pocketing a cash prize of HK$20,000 (US$2,574). First runner-up Johnny Wu, 34, finished 47 buns. Kobayashi, who weighs just 65kg, said the palm-sized buns posed more of a challenge than the 83 vegetarian dumplings he downed in eight minutes on Saturday. The Japanese speed-eater is the five-time international hot dog-eating champion, and holds the world record after wolfing down 53 1/2 frankfurters in 12 minutes.
■ Australia
Firm gives away chocolate
Some 20,000 chocolate bars were handed out free in Sydney yesterday as the makers set out to recover from a extortion bid which forced the recall and destruction of millions of candy bars. Chocolate-maker Masterfoods was forced to withdraw its Mars and Snickers bars from sale across New South Wales state including Sydney on July 1 after receiving threatening letters and a contaminated candy bar from an extortionist. It was later revealed that Sydney's Star City casino was the principal target of the extortion bid, which is still being investigated by police.
■ Thailand
PM, Muslim leaders in talks
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra met yesterday with Muslim leaders and local authorities in a province along the Malaysian border that has suffered the brunt of 19 months of deadly unrest. "The talks were about how to prevent and suppress violence," Thaksin told reporters, adding that he would deploy security reinforcements if needed. Thaksin said the government may give local authorities more power to help deal with the violence. He made the surprise two-day tour of three volatile provinces in the Muslim-majority region amid fresh intimidation, in the form of anonymous handwritten leaflets threatening to kill or chop off the ears of people who work on Fridays, the Muslim holy day.
■ Australia
Warship hunters get funding
Australia's government will help fund a search for a warship mysteriously lost during World War II off the country's remote northwest coast with all 645 people on board, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. The HMAS Sydney II sank in 1941 after it came under fire from a German Armed Merchant Cruiser, which the Australian Navy believes had claimed to have been a harmless Dutch merchant ship. Howard pledged A$1.3 million (US$985,000) to a team already trying to locate the ship, which would be used to conduct a sonar search of the seabed with a suitable vessel, state of the art sonar equipment and experienced personnel.
■ United Kingdom
Airline to resume service
British Airways pressed ahead yesterday to resume normal service, two days after the end of a crippling ground-crew walkout that had stranded more than 100,000 passengers during the peak of the summer travel season. The airline said it expected 85 percent of its short-haul flights and 80 percent of its long-haul flights would leave yesterday from Heathrow airport -- a similar figure to Saturday -- and that it had reduced the backlog of stranded luggage from 30,000 pieces to 10,000. Passengers disrupted by the more than 24-hour walkout were being rebooked onto flights or offered the chance to travel on another airline.
■ Mexico
Temblor shakes the coast
A 5.4 magnitude earthquake on Saturday rocked the southern Pacific coast of Mexico, 370km south-southwest of Mexico City. The earthquake struck the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca at 9:52pm local time and could be felt in Mexican City, where building swayed lightly. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries near the epicenter in towns along the Oaxaca coast.
■ Russia
Officers killed in Chechnya
Three officers were killed in the southern region of Chechnya in the early hours yesterday. The men were responding to an attack on the home of a local official when they were caught in an explosion. Colonel Alexander Kayak, military commander of the Chechen region of Urus-Martan, died along with two fellow officers. Two other soldiers were seriously injured. The local official's house was burned down but he was not hurt. His son was taken away by the attackers but managed to escape. Separatist forces have been fighting pro-Moscow forces in Chechnya for more than a decade. Clashes occur on an almost daily basis, both in Chechnya and the neighboring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia.
■ United States
Elephant pitches first ball
The ceremonial first pitch at a West Michigan Whitecaps baseball game was full of surprises. Not only was Friday's pitch thrown by an elephant, but the ball went straight to catcher Chris Robinson's mitt. Fans and players cheered the 9-foot (4m)-tall, four-ton African elephant named Laura after she flipped the ball high and wide. "I've never caught an elephant before," Robinson said. "She had pretty good life on her fastball. It tailed a little bit." Whitecaps right-hander Andrew Kown said, "I couldn't believe how far and how hard she throws it." "If an elephant can [throw a strike], we should be able to do it." Laura, the 23-year-old elephant shared the silver screen with Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.
■ Spain
Ban on Basque rally upheld
A court on Saturday upheld a ban on a rally called by an outlawed Basque separatist party that is accused of being part of the armed group ETA. The Batasuna party had planned to hold the march yesterday in San Sebastian. On Wednesday, the Basque Interior Ministry banned the demonstration on grounds that, as an outlawed party, Batasuna was barred from holding rallies. The ministry also said previous demonstrations by the party had resulted in violence. Batasuna appealed to the Superior Court of the Basque country, and on Saturday the court sided with the ministry. Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi said Friday, however, it would go forward regardless of the court's ruling.
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
The Chinese public maintains relatively warm sentiments toward Taiwan and strongly prefers non-military paths to improving cross-strait relations, a recent survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University showed. The “China Pulse” research project, which polled 2,506 adults between Oct. 27 last year and Jan. 1 this year, found that 86 percent of respondents support strengthening cultural ties, while 81 percent favor deepening economic interaction. The report, co-authored by political scientists at Emory University and advisors at the Carter Center, indicates that the Chinese public views Taiwan’s importance through a lens of shared history and culture rather than geopolitical
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
RSS