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World News Quick Take

■ Canada
Fugitive to be released
Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing (賴昌星) will soon be free again after being jailed for breaching his bail while awaiting deportation, his lawyers said on Friday. Lai is wanted by China to face charges of smuggling US$ 6 billion worth of goods out of Fujian Province. He was arrested last month as he attended a birthday party. His detention coincided with Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) visit to Canada this month. Lai fled to Canada in 1999, but his repeated bids to remain in have been turned down.

■ China
Diplomat warned in row
China has summoned a top Indonesian diplomat to protest over the Indonesian navy's deadly firing on a Chinese fishing boat. The incident happened last Monday in the Arafura Sea when the navy fired on the vessel which was fishing illegally. One crewmen was killed, and two injured. Ten crew members, including the wounded, are detained in Indonesia. The Indonesian embassy's charge d'affaires was summoned to recieve the protest, said a statement on the Chinese foreign ministry's Web site.

■ China
Web slang crackdown
Language police in Shanghai plan to ban Internet slang terms from classrooms, official documents, and publications produced in the city, newspapers reported Friday. Internet chat and instant messaging are hugely popular with China's youth, who employ an ad-hoc vocabulary of invented, abbreviated and borrowed terms such as "MM," meaning girl, "PK," or player killer, for one's competitor, "konglong" or dinosaur for an unattractive woman.

■ Australia
Woman dies scuba diving
A Japanese woman died while scuba diving off the east coast, police said yesterday. The woman, aged about 30, was not breathing when she surfaced from a dive off Lady Elliot Island in Queensland state. Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful. The woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was diving with four other people. Lady Elliot Island is a coral cay at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef that is popular as a dive and snorkeling spot.

■ Thailand
Three arrested for murders
Security forces have arrested three people for the brutal murders of two Thai marines in the insurgency plagued Muslim south, Defense Minister Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhya said yesterday. "We have evidence of bloodstained shirts and tip-offs from other villagers," he said three days after the plainclothes marines were killed on suspicion of being government hitmen. Officials said 11 arrest warrants had been issued for people who bludgeoned and stabbed the marines to death after they were detained by villagers in Narathiwat province soon after one person was killed and four wounded in a shooting there.

■ Australia
Surfer sorts out shark
This was a shark attack with a difference. An Australian surfer said yesterday he fought off a 1-meter shark by punching it in the face. Brad Satchell, 44, said he was surfing off Scarborough Beach near the western city of Perth on Friday when the shark, probably a bronze whaler, swam up to him. After initially thinking it was a seal, Satchell hid behind his surf board and lashed out. "I lifted my body out of the water and I just got my fists and ... I just started punching and I connected with its head," he said. Satchell was unhurt. The shark's condition was not known.

■ Philippines
`Stay away from birds'
Health experts yesterday urged people to stay away from migratory birds which may be infected with the bird flu virus that has plagued several Asian countries. Ruben Pascual, chief of the National Avian Influenza Task Force, said those migratory birds from northern countries may pass the Philippines during the cold months from next month until February. "We have studied the flight plan of these birds," he said in a media forum. "They might pass the Philippines during the cold months. Never touch these birds to be safe," he added. While the Philippines remains free of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, health authorities have been taking extra precautions, including banning imports of poultry products from affected countries.

■ Sri Lanka
Election chief won't vote
Election chief Dayananda Dissanayake will be running November presidential elections but won't be voting -- he doesn't trust politicians. Dissanayake, 64, wants to retire, but a constitutional quirk is forcing him, against his will, to lead a team of 100,00 officials in staging the November 17 vote. "I have never voted at an election since 1963," Dissanayake said. "I voted at a village council election because I did not know much about politicians at the time. But, since I got to know politicians, I decided never to vote again." One of his main concerns was to ensure no one impersonates him at the November vote; impersonations are not uncommon. Dissanayake has suffered six heart attacks. "Now I think I am getting immune to heart attacks as well as elections," Dissanayake said.

■ Oman
`Moobile' phone found
A cow in the Sultanate has proved how sturdy mobile phones can be -- by eating one. The animal proved this by emitting a dull ringing tone from one of its stomachs after the phone's owner dialed the number after finding the phone had gone missing. The mobile-turned-moobile was reported on Friday by Oman newspaper, which said the phone had been lost by a young woman who had helped her farmer mother feed cattle in Al-Sahm province. The report made no mention of phone's final fate -- but its reappearance during a cow's call of nature was not ruled out.

■ Hungary
Bad drivers to get lemons
Bad drivers in the east of the country will be left with a sour taste next month when school students will hand out pieces of lemon along with a fine. Good drivers will be rewarded with an apple during the month-long campaign, the state news agency reported on Thursday. "A penalty coming from a kid for breaking rules generates a stronger feeling of guilt among adults than a simple fine," county police spokesman Gergely Fulop said. Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg, about 200km from Budapest, is the center of Hungary's fruit industry.

■ United states
Doctor's twin sex charges
A doctor has sued a Seattle-area newspaper for defamation after it reported he posed as his twin, a gynecologist, to have sex with his brother's patients. Dennis Momah said the King County Journal defamed him in 2003 when it published an article that said: "Two twin brothers were taking turns having sex with patients on a regular basis without the patients' knowledge that they were two different people." Momah, who filed the lawsuit in King County Superior Court this week, also sued Harish Bharti, an attorney who represents six female patients of Charles Momah, Dennis Momah's twin and a gynecologist.

■ Kenya
US warns on pirates
The US has renewed its terrorism warning for east Africa, alerting citizens to possible extremist attacks and piracy in the region after a spate of ship hijackings have been reported. Less than three months before its last such advisory was set to expire, the US State Department on Friday re-released a regional terrorism alert for east Africa. The department said it had re-issued the warning "to remind people of the continuing potential for terrorist actions against US citizens in east Africa and to note the dangers of maritime piracy near the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea near Yemen."

■ Germany
Vibrator shocks Italians
Italian holidaymakers on a fairground Ferris wheel at the Munich Oktoberfest had a shock when a porn shoot began inside their cabin, authorities said on Friday. Having settled down to enjoy a leisurely spin on the wheel at the famous beer festival, the group of Italians were quite unprepared for the arrival of two cameramen and a woman who started to use a vibrator. Unable to stop the shoot, the Italians told local police, who promptly arrested the actress and crew -- a political scientist and a student. "They said they weren't doing it for commercial reasons but that they wanted to see how visitors would react," police said. The three have been charged with public indecency.

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