■ Malaysia
Man held for tiger trafficking
Malaysian wildlife officials detained a Thai man on suspicion of poaching after finding the carcass of a tiger cut up into four parts and stored in a refrigerator, a news report said yesterday. Forest rangers in Kelantan state raided a house on Thursday and found the dead tiger, which had been mutilated but had all its organs intact, the Star daily said. The raid led them to the suspect. He risks a five-year jail term and fine of 15,000 ringgit (US$4,000) if convicted of tiger trafficking.
■ India
Quake fails to halt militants
It may have shocked the world, but last week's earthquake seems to have done little to shock Muslim militants into at least easing off a 16-year-old insurgency against New Delhi's rule in Kashmir, India says. Violence has continued unabated in the region in the week after the earthquake, dampening hopes that the tragedy would open a door toward peace. Last Sunday, a day after the earthquake struck, 10 Hindus were killed by militants in Kashmir. Indian troops killed 16 militants as they tried to sneak across the Line of Control from Pakistani Kashmir, eight of them hours after the quake and eight three days after the disaster.
■ Hong Kong
Bruce Lee took wrong pills
Bruce Lee's (李小龍) former producer, Raymond Chow (鄒文懷), says the kung fu star's sudden death at age 32 is a straightforward case of taking the wrong medicine. Lee died of an edema, or swelling of the brain, in the home of Hong Kong actress Betty Ting Pei (丁佩) in 1973. The coroner described his passing as "death by misadventure." The mystery of the death fueled speculation that drugs were involved and Lee was having an affair with Ting. Chow, one of the founders of Golden Harvest studios, said Lee died because he took headache medication that he was "hypersensitive" to. He said Lee was sensitive to one of the three ingredients in the medication, equigesic.
■ South Korea
Head prosecutor quits
South Korea's top prosecutor said he will resign, apparently to protest a Justice Ministry order that he not arrest a leftist college professor who allegedly made pro-North Korean remarks, reports said yesterday. Prosecutor-General Kim Jong-bin's announcement came after he said on Friday that he would abide by the ministry's order not to arrest sociology professor Kang Jeong-koo but criticized the order as "damaging the prosecution's political neutrality." Kang, 60, wrote an article on an Internet news site saying "the Korean War was an attempt by North Korea to reunify" the divided Korean Peninsula, and that "the United States is the archenemy, not a benefactor."
■ Japan
Some pets may get chips
Japan is moving toward requiring owners of potentially dangerous animals, such as crocodiles and pythons, to have microchips implanted in their pets in case the animals get loose, officials said on Thursday. The move follows a recent wave of incidents around the nation in which animals such as pythons, crocodiles and giant salamanders have been found wandering loose, frequently on the streets of densely populated cities. In one notorious case, a man lost track of his pet python after he took the animal "for a walk" in a park and the snake fled when the man fell asleep on a bench. He was quoted by one TV station as saying he was surprised the snake disappeared because it wasn't that kind of snake.
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