■ China
Priests arrested, beaten
Police have arrested six priests from China's underground Catholic church and severely beaten two of them, a US-based religious rights group said yesterday. The priests all belonged to the diocese in Zhengding County in northern China's Hebei Province, said a statement from the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation and foundation president Joseph Kung. They were arrested on Nov. 18, the foundation said. Two of them, Wang Jinshan and Gao Lingshen, in their 50s, were severely beaten, it said. Gao bled profusely from his mouth. "They were beaten savagely, very badly," Kung told reporters, saying his sources saw Chinese state security officers beat the men with their fists. The other four priests -- Guo Zhijun, 36, Zhang Xiuchi, 60, Peng Jianjun, 30, and Zhang Yinhu, 45 -- were put under house arrest on the same day, then officially arrested and taken to a police station in nearby Gaocheng City, the foundation said.
■ China
WHO issues AIDS warning
Some 10 million people in China may be infected with the AIDS virus by 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday, as it called for stronger political will by Asian governments to stop the spread of the disease. About 5 million people worldwide were infected last year, bringing to 45 million the number living with the virus despite measures designed to prevent AIDS from spreading, said Shigeru Omi, WHO director for the Western Pacific region. "We know what works and what doesn't. So why has the necessary action to prevent the virus from spreading not been taken?" Omi said in a statement ahead of World AIDS Day tomorrow.
■ Australia
Push for last cuddle
Death-row drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van should be allowed a last cuddle with his mother before being put to death on Dec. 2 at Singapore's Changi prison, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday. The 25-year-old Melbourne salesman, who was caught with almost 4kg of heroin at Changi airport in December 2002, was given a mandatory death sentence and is to hang on Friday. "I would have thought it's not an unreasonable thing for a mother to hug her son before the son is executed," Downer said. Kim Nguyen, who is allowed daily visits before the execution at dawn on Friday, is separated by glass from her son.
■ Hong Kong
Legislator slams Blair
Leading pro-democracy Legislator Martin Lee (李柱銘)yesterday accused Britain of turning its back on the people of its former colony after Prime Minister Tony Blair denied him a meeting. Lee, who is visiting Britain and the US to explain why pro-democracy legislators oppose election reforms, said he had also been refused a meeting with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Before flying to the US, where he will meet Secretary for State Condoleezza Rice, Lee told Hong Kong radio station RTHK it appeared Britain was now "turning its back" on Hong Kong. "It says a lot that Hong Kong now comes under the Department of Trade," he said.
■ Nepal
Women OK to get passports
Women under 35 will no longer need their parent or husband's consent to apply for a passport in Nepal, after the Supreme Court ordered an end to the discriminatory practice, the court said yesterday. Supreme Court Judges Badri Kumar Basnet and Balram K.C. issued the order on Monday saying the practice was unfair as men did not have to follow the same procedure, the court said in a statement. The court has ordered the Prime Minister's office, the Home Ministry and the Women and Children's Welfare Ministry to end the practice immediately. The law had been enforced to prevent young women being trafficked to India for prostitution.
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