■ South Korea
Human egg sales probed
South Korean police said yesterday they had raided several Seoul hospitals and were questioning an alleged ringleader and others implicated in the selling of human eggs through the Internet. The Seoul police said a 28-year-old man had been arrested for allegedly brokering the illegal transactions online. Three women under questioning were suspected of selling their own ova, police said. The JoongAng Daily said South Korean college students were selling their ova to pay off credit cards and buy skiing vacations.
■ Hong Kong
Bomb injures one
A small bomb set off a minor explosion at a Hong Kong newspaper office yesterday, injuring a female employee, police and the editor of the paper said. The Chinese-language Ming Pao Daily received a threatening letter and a gift box containing an explosive that went off when a secretary opened it, said Cheung Kin-bor, chief editor at the paper. Cheung said the secretary was slightly injured and sent to hospital.
■ China
Thousands visit sex festival
More than 50,000 people flocked to the opening day of a racy sex festival in southern China in a sign the conservative nation is shedding its sexual taboos, state media reported yesterday. The three-day event, which began on Saturday in Guangzhou Province, featured lingerie shows and adult toy exhibitions as experts and local authorities sought to convey information about the dangers of unsafe sex. Experts worry that sex education in China has fallen behind over the past 25 years as economic development changed people's attitudes about sex.
■ Afghanistan
Attacker wounds himself
A would-be suicide bomber was wounded when he detonated a car bomb outside the office of the governor of the southern Afghan province of Helmand yesterday, the Interior Ministry said. "It was a major explosion in a Toyota car and happened in front of the governor's building just before the start of a meeting involving key local officials," a ministry spokesman said. He said only one person was hurt, apparently the attacker himself, who was rushed to the hospital. Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the attacker was a local Taliban. "Our intention was to kill the officials who were meeting inside the building," he said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
■ Australia
Aspirin may avert cancer
The common painkiller aspirin, already found to be effective in reducing the risk of heart disease, may also help lower the incidence of skin cancer. According to a study undertaken by the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, regularly taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin could offer increased protection against skin cancer and sunspots. "We found that people who regularly used aspirin and other NSAIDs [non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs] had significantly lower risks of developing skin cancer than people who did not use them," researcher David Whiteman said. He said aspirin-type drugs shut down an enzyme known as cyclo-oxygenase which allows some types of skin cancer to develop.
■ Australia
Infant's leg reattached
Doctors worked for more than eight hours to reattach the leg of a one-year-old boy which was allegedly chopped off by his mother. The 17-month-old child was struck below the knee with an axe at his Melbourne home at 2am. His mother has been arrested and is undergoing psychiatric assessment. "As to what took place, we really don't know at this stage," police said. "There were other occupants in the house and they were asleep at the time and heard the commotion." A team of 11 doctors and nurses worked on the eight-and-a-half-hour surgery and the child is now in critical but stable condition, although it won't be known until the end of the week if the reattachment was successful.
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