■ Korea
Anti-cancer breakthrough
A team of South Korean scientists said yesterday that they had succeeded in cloning genetically altered piglets that will produce a protein helpful in fighting cancer. Professor Park Chang-Sik at Chungnam National University said his team had created four female piglets that will produce milk containing GM-CSF, a kind of protein that stimulates production of white blood cells prescribed for sufferers of leukemia and anemia or patients who have low white blood cell counts during cancer treatment. But it is prohibitively expensive, fetching US$600,000 per gram because production is limited.
■ Brunei
Sultan takes second wife
Brunei's wealthy ruler Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has confirmed that he has taken a second wife, a former Malaysian television journalist, more than two years after divorcing an ex-flight attendant. In a royal household statement published by local media yesterday in this oil-rich Southeast Asian sultanate, the 58-year-old Hassanal announced that he married Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim, 26, last Saturday in Kuala Lumpur.
■ Hong Kong
Drivers give ultimatum
Drivers of Hong Kong's ubiquitous red and white minibuses have threatened to cause traffic chaos when the Disneyland theme park opens on September 12 unless they are allowed to operate at the park, a media report said yesterday. So far transport department officials have only granted licenses to buses, taxis and the Mass Transport Railway Corporation, prompting claims by minibus drivers that they are being discriminated against.
■ China
Polygamist sentenced
A Communist Party propaganda head in south China's Guangdong province has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of having three wives at the same time, state press said yesterday. Huang Dong, 54, was sentenced by the Zhaoqing city intermediate court after the former head of the Huaiji county party propaganda bureau was found to have sired five children in his three marriages, the Southern Metropolitan Daily reported. The official, who also headed the Zhaoqing Agricultural Institute, entered all three using different names, it said. His wives lived in different parts of the province. Huang was further convicted for extorting 1.4 million yuan (US$173,000 dollars) while possessing an additional 5.7 million yuan in funds that were of unknown origin, the paper said. He is appealing the verdict.
■ China
Zoo looks for crocs
A Chinese zoo has set up a telephone hotline in a desperate bid to trace 13 rare crocodiles that escaped during floods two weeks ago and are threatened by the coming autumn chill, state media reported yesterday. The Benxi Shuidong Crocodile Park in northeastern Liaoning province is worried the Siamese crocodiles, which come from tropical and sub-tropical regions, might die from the cold, the China Daily newspaper said. Staff are also worried the reptiles, which grow to about 3m, might turn aggressive if they do not find food in the wild, the report said. "They are doomed if we don't find them as soon as possible because the autumn cold is drawing near," said Mai Yingpei, manager of the private zoo.
■ Hong Kong
Smoking ban slammed
A Hong Kong legislator said a planned government ban on smoking in restaurants could lead to social unrest and a downturn in business, a newspaper reported yesterday. "I am worried that a complete smoking ban could cause an economic downturn, civil unrest, stir up conflict between enforcement agencies and the public and between the catering industry and its customers," Tommy Cheung said in the report by the Standard. Cheung, who represents the catering industry, made the comments on the ban, which is to go into effect this year, after a fact-finding trip to three countries that have introduced smoking bans. He said his trips to Norway, Ireland and Thailand showed that bars and restaurants had suffered business downturns. "All the catering operators we met said they suffered losses ranging from a few percentage points to as much as 50 per cent after the smoking ban was imposed," Cheung said.
■ Philippines
Penis enlargements probed
Prison officials were conducting an investigation into reports of rampant illegal penis enlargement operations in the Philippines' national penitentiary, a news report said yesterday. The Philippine Star newspaper said the probe was triggered by complaints of some inmates who suffered infections after they underwent the procedure. The operation, which involves injecting petroleum jelly into the penis, was allegedly being performed by a maximum-security inmate who has a medical background in epidemiology. The procedure reportedly costs between 100 to 300 pesos (US$1.78 to US$5.36). But one inmate who admitted undergoing the penile enlargement procedure refused to file a complaint against the suspect, claiming that the operation has enhanced his marital bliss.
■ Brazil
Granny spy' nabs dealers
An 80-year-old woman dubbed the "granny spy" helped Brazilian police arrest 15 people, including two police, by secretly filming a narcotics operation for two years from her apartment window, the newspaper Extra reported Wednesday. The woman sent police 22 video cassettes of the action at a drug dealer's shantytown residence near her apartment in Rio de Janeiro. "Look at the future of Brazil. It is not possible that these children take this powder and no one does anything," she told Extra, which dubbed her the "granny spy.
■ Bosina
Alleged war criminal caught
A Bosnian Serb accused of taking part in the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995 has been arrested, the Bosnian war crimes court said Wednesday. Branislav Medan "is suspected of having committed the crime of genocide as a member of a unit of the interior ministry of the Republika Srpska (RS, the Serbian entity in Bosnia) at Kravica" in eastern Bosnia, in the Srebenica region, the court said in a statement.
■ Kenya
Elephants relocated
Kenya Wildlife Service rangers began tranquilizing elephants in preparation for trucking them hundreds of kilometers to a new, less crowded home in the east African country's largest relocation operation. The first bull elephant was shoot with a dart by a ranger in a helicopter shortly after dawn yesterday, with dignitaries looking on. The US$3.2 million exercise will transport more than 400 elephants from Shimba Hills National Reserve more than 350km to the northern part of Tsavo East National Park, wildlife service officials said. The government is funding the relocation. The 22-year-old male elephant will be the first to make the eight-hour drive, followed Saturday by entire family groups.
■ Iran
President spurns costly rugs
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the removal of dozens of expensive Persian carpets from his office to preserve his modest image, newspapers reported on Wednesday. The carpets, some of them worth tens of thousands of dollars, will be sent to a museum "in order for his office to have a humble appearance," the conservative Siyasat-e Rouz daily said. Elected in a landslide in June after promising to redistribute the OPEC heavyweight's oil wealth to the poor, Ahmadinejad has imposed a series of austerity measures since take office earlier this month.
■ Russia
Bear detained for begging
A bear is being detained in a police cell after being arrested on Wednesday for begging in the western Siberian city of Divnogorsk, RIA-Novosti news agency reported. Police picked up the female bear after reports she had been cajoling food from drivers parked at a roadside cafe. "Capturing the bear didn't require much effort," a local police commander told the news agency, adding that the bear had obviously lived with humans for a long time. She appeared to have fled from her owner or had been abandoned like a "useless toy," the officer said. Despite her apparent familiarity with humans and good behavior, the bear has been put behind bars, although the officer stressed it would be a temporary detention. "We are feeding her honey and cake," he said.
■ United Kingdom
Reuters wants staffer freed
The Reuters news agency has called for the US to release a news cameraman who is being detained by the US military after being taken into custody in Iraq two weeks ago. Reuters said the US military has refused to give reasons for the arrest and detention of 36-year-old Ali al-Mashhadani. Reuters' global managing editor David Schlesinger said on Wednesday that Reuters was "concerned and dismayed by this unexplained and prolonged detention of a journalist working for us." He demanded access to Mashhadani and urged the US military to either release him or provide a full account of the accusations against him. The Committee to Protect Journalists also called on the US to explain why it is holding Mashhadani or release him.
■ Chile
Pinochet tax charges upheld
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld tax-evasion charges against the wife and youngest son of Augusto Pinochet, a victory for investigators seeking to eventually try the ex-dictator over US$27 million held in secret accounts. A Supreme Court panel upheld a lower court decision to allow complicity in tax evasion indictments against Lucia Hiriart and Marco Antonio Pinochet. The secret accounts were revealed last year in a US Senate money laundering probe.
■ United States
Peace mom back in Texas
Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, returned to Texas on Wednesday to resume her anti-war protest near US President George W. Bush's Texas ranch after a weeklong absence to care for her mother, who had suffered a stroke. "This is where I belong, until Aug. 31, like I told the president," Sheehan said at the Waco airport after her arrival. "Even when I was in California, half of me was always here," she said. "I felt like since I started it, I should be here." Sheehan began her vigil Aug. 6 on the road leading to Bush's Crawford ranch, vowing to stay through his month-long vacation unless he met with her. Her 24-year-old son, Casey Sheehan, was killed last year.
■ United Kingdom
Killer whales set traps
Killer whales which set traps to catch seagulls have become the third known animal species to possess "cultural learning" -- a skill which is transmitted to other members of their group. The gull-trapping trick was initiated by a four-year-old orca in a tank at Marineland at Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, according to a report in tomorrow's issue of New Scientist. The whale discovered he could lure seagulls into his tank by spitting regurgitated fish onto the water's surface. He then lurked below the surface, waiting for a gull to grab the fish. After a few months, the orca's younger half-brother joined in, and soon thereafter they were joined by their mothers, a six-month-old calf and an older male. The clever whales are able to catch three or four gulls on some days.
■ Belgium
Freed murderer kills again
A man convicted of killing his mother and sister more than a decade ago has reportedly killed his stepmother and two half brothers while on parole, local media said on Wednesday. The 53-year-old allegedly murdered the trio at their home in Ans on Wednesday by cutting their throats and battering them with a hammer. A third half brother managed to escape after being seriously injured and was hospitalized in critical condition. Police arrested the suspect at a train station about 30km from the family home.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing