■ Australia
Not laughing now
One person died and three others suffered serious injuries when they apparently inhaled "laughing gas" in a car in Sydney, police said yesterday. Four people were found unconscious in the vehicle outside a home in the suburb of Toongabbie early on Sunday morning. The man who discovered the car ran to a nearby house for help, screaming that the car was full of gas. Police said a 38-year-old man died, a 23-year-old woman was in serious condition and two men were in stable condition. A gas cylinder found in the car was labeled "nitrous oxide." "People do some weird and wondrous things to try and get a bit of a buzz," police Inspector Damon Cox said.
■ Australia
Woman survives wild ride
A woman who interrupted a thief as he stole her car was in hospital yesterday after clinging to the bonnet of the vehicle for several kilometers as the robber tried to make his escape, police said. Police were alerted after residents of the town of Kununurra in Western Australia state reported seeing a screaming woman hanging on to the windscreen wipers of the moving car. The bizarre drive came to an end several kilometers later when the car crashed into a bridge, throwing the woman clear. The 31-year-old female teacher was in stable condition in hospital with serious injuries, while an 18-year-old man was facing six charges, police said.
■ Thailand
Stork killer faces jail time
A man faces up to eight years in prison on charges that he killed an endangered stork whose population is estimated at only 500 worldwide, police said yesterday. Boonchu Sukpong, 53, turned himself in to police in Buritam Province as they searched for him on suspicion he had killed a greater adjutant stork last week, police Lieutenant Major Thanom Phajantuek said. "He said he did not mean to kill the stork, but wanted to wound it and keep it as a pet," Thanom said.
■ Japan
Ex-lawmaker in drug bust
A former national lawmaker from Japan's top opposition party and two of his aides have been arrested and accused of possessing amphetamines following a six-month investigation, police said yesterday. Kenji Kobayashi, his private secretary Koshi Ando, and former secretary Masaharu Saeki were arrested on Sunday, an official with Aichi Prefectural Police said. Kobayashi was immediately expelled from the Democratic Party of Japan, according to the party's Web site. The three suspects have admitted taking the stimulants, and former employees have said that Kobayashi started using the drugs soon after he was first elected to office, Kyodo News agency said, citing police.
■ New Zealand
Bad call equals nude run
A Green Party lawmaker who pledged to run naked through the streets of an upscale suburb if a rival party leader was re-elected said yesterday that he would honor his word. Legislator Keith Locke, the Green Party's foreign affairs spokesman, said he didn't want to break an election promise. He said he would do the nude dash if rightist Act Party leader Rodney Hide won a parliamentary seat in the Auckland suburb of Epsom. Regarded as an outside chance, Hide romped home in the contest on Saturday with a 3,200-vote majority. A local business group is helping pave the way for the lawmaker's run down Broadway, which is "a straight and wide strip -- ideal for such exposure," the group's general manager said.
■ United Kingdom
Condoms used by police
Police in central England have found a seductive way to get the attention of students -- condoms. The message is not about sex, but theft, a police spokesman said. The condoms bear the slogan: "Size doesn't matter ... thieves will steal your phone, laptop, iPod or car, so protect your valuables." The contraceptive is only one of the items police in the West Midlands region are using to get across their message to watch out for thieves. The other less enticing items include computer screen cleaners and winter ice scrapers.
■ Austria
Beer baths open to public
Vacationers in Tirol can now visit the world's first beer baths at Starkenberg Castle near Imst. Of course, these pools are less about recreation and more about health. The seven pools have been filled with beer byproducts -- the yeast that settles at the bottom of the vats during cold storage -- to tackle a wide range of skin ailments. The beer baths are part of a new 4,000m2 exhibit called The Myth of Beer.
■ Finland
Cancer, aviation link studied
A survey of Finnish female flight cabin staff does not suggest they face an increased risk of breast cancer due to work factors such as exposure to cosmic radiation, a new study published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal said. Earlier studies had suggested that flight attendants may have a higher risk of breast cancer due to occupational factors such as exposure to cosmic radiation and repeated jet lag. The new study co-authored by Katja Kojo of the School of Public Health, Tampere University, indicated that flight attendants face the same risks as other women.
■ Argentina
Falklands again at issue
Argentina's foreign minister, Rafael Bielsa, called on the British government on Sunday to renew talks on the disputed Falklands Islands, over which the two countries fought a brief war in 1982. Addressing the UN General Assembly, Bielsa said bilateral talks were needed to resolve the sovereignty of the disputed islands, which he described as a "colonial situation." "The return of sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich islands and their maritime areas are part of the national interest, which is at the heart of my country's identity as a democratic nation," Bielsa said.
■ Zimbabwe
Get rid of `filth': minister
A leading Cabinet minister vowed at the weekend to rid the country of the "filth" of white farmers. Didymus Mutasa, the minister for state security and land reform, said all remaining white farmers must be "cleared out." Mutasa, one of Mugabe's closest advisers, referred to Operation Murambatsvina ("Clean out the trash") -- the campaign in which the government destroyed the homes of hundreds of thousands of urban poor. "Operation Murambatsvina should also be applied to the land reform program to clean the commercial farms that are still in the hands of white farmers. White farmers are dirty and should be cleared out. They are similar to the filth that was in the streets before Murambatsvina," said Mutasa. The government also announced it annulled more than 4,000 court challenges by farmers to the expropriation of their farms.
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