■ New Zealand
From tongue to lung stud
Sales of an imitation tongue stud have been banned after a 9-year-old girl inhaled one and had to undergo surgery to remove it from her lung, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs announced yesterday. The stud, which suctions onto the tongue without piercing, has been popular with teenagers and preteens. But it poses a choking hazard and can be inhaled into the lungs or airways of the wearer causing a potentially serious injury, said Consumer Affairs Minister Judith Tizard, who signed a formal unsafe goods notice.
■ Cambodia
Seige killers on trial
Eight men went on trial yesterday in connection with the armed siege of an international school near the famed Angkor temples in which a 2-year-old Canadian boy was killed. Four of them involved in the June attack have been charged with premeditated murder, the kidnapping and illegal detainment of persons for ransom and illegal use of a weapon. The charges carry penalties ranging from 15 years to life in prison. Four masked men stormed Siem Reap International School on June 16 and held about 30 students and some teachers hostage for more than six hours.
■ Indonesia
Muslims robbed in hotel
A visiting delegation from the World Muslim League has had a suitcase containing US$300,000 in cash stolen as they rested in a hotel lobby in the Jakarta, a report said yesterday. The delegation, led by secretary-general Abdullah bin Abdul Muhsin at-Turki, arrived on Thursday and was due to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono later that day. The theft on Thursday was captured on security cameras at the hotel but the face of the suspected thief was obscured, the Detikcom news agency said. Central Jakarta police chief Sukrawardi Dahlan said language barriers were hampering the investigation.
■ Hong Kong
Schoolkids jump to death
A pregnant 17-year-old schoolgirl and her 16- year-old boyfriend leapt hand in hand to their deaths wearing their school uniforms, police said yesterday. Yu See-ka and, Yik Chun-wing, leapt from the 22nd floor of a housing estate in Tai Po district. Shocked residents spotted the girl dead on the first-floor canopy, with her boyfriend lying lifeless on top of her. The couple had reportedly told friends of their turmoil over the pregnancy before jumping. Police officers investigating the deaths say that the couple sought help from parents and teachers but were unable to find a way out of their dilemma. Suicide rates have climbed sharply in recent years and people are now killing themselves at a rate of more than three a day.
■ Croatia
Robbery-free day recorded
Croatia registered its first robbery-free day in recent years, media in Zagreb reported on Thursday citing local police sources. "Between midnight and 7pm there was no such crime, which is an anomaly in recent years," police spokesman Zlatko Mehun was quoted as saying. The lull followed police action in central Zagreb on Tuesday in which two men were killed in an attempt to rob a post office. The tough police response was a mark of the new, energetic stance to a tidal wave of violent crime, which prompted a parliamentary initiative to arm police with rifles.
■ Italy
Porn tax mooted
Porn stars were up in arms on Thursday over plans by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government to introduce a tax on their work. The proceeds from the proposed new "porn tax" would go towards paying for working mothers to afford baby-sitters. The measure -- the brainchild of the National Alliance -- is due to be voted on in parliament next week. It is contained in the latest draft of next year's budget, which emerged from committee late on Wednesday. The porn tax would take the form of a 20 percent levy on the selling price or rental cost of pornographic videos and DVDs.
■ United States
Judge sanctions circus
A Fairfax, Virginia, judge issued sanctions against the owner of Ringling Bros circus for filing late and incomplete documents in a lawsuit that claims that the owner had established a spy operation against animal-rights groups. On Thursday the judge also ordered Kenneth Feld, chief executive and president of privately held Feld Entertainment, to disclose his net worth and his most recent tax returns to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The group sued Feld Entertainment more than four years ago, claiming that Feld ran an extensive corporate espionage campaign against it and other animal-rights groups.
■ United Kingdom
Cardboard cops fight crime
Cardboard cut-outs of a British policeman are helping fight crime -- even if one of them was stolen, a newspaper reported yesterday. Britain's Daily Express said the 10 life-size replicas of Derbyshire Police officer Bob Molloy were such a hit that the central English force might print off some more. Inspector Tracy Harrison said: "They have been extremely effective. One was stolen but we searched a house with a warrant and found it with other stolen goods." The cardboard cop is pictured in his trademark British policeman's hat, a reflective yellow jacket with his arms folded.
■ Canada
Polygamists face probe
US and Canadian justice officials joined forces on Thursday to investigate and possibly prosecute members of a breakaway Mormon church sect that practices polygamy, a crime in both North American nations. British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal said the chief concern with the sect members who live on an isolated compound on the Canadian side of the Idaho border is that it may be responsible for sexual abuse or the exploitation of children. He met on Thursday with visiting Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to discuss possible action against the sect.
■ United States
Storms disrupt school, traffic
Storms across the US' midsection delivered freezing cold and as much as 25cm of snow, bedeviling drivers on slippery roads and closing schools from Texas to Indiana. At least 10 people were killed in road wrecks in Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky over two days. The eastbound storm system was expected to leave 15cm of snow in central Illinois and 7.5cm to 13cm in the Chicago area, where by late afternoon about 30 flights had been canceled at O'Hare International and Midway. The heaviest snow -- up to 25cm -- fell along the Interstate 35 corridor into Kansas City, said a National Weather Service forecaster. Numerous vehicles slipped off roads or got into fender benders, troopers said.
■ United States
Lost winning ticket found
A US$25,000 lottery ticket was easy money for Mike Sargent of Alvarado, Texas -- until he lost it. Then it meant days of searching fields and ditches -- even sifting through a trash bin -- before help arrived from an unexpected source. Five days after he lost the ticket, Sargent got a call from Gerardo Ruiz, a water meter reader from Midlothian who returned it at the urging of his wife. "I went home and I showed [it to] my wife ... She said, `Well you better call that guy, maybe you can get a reward, because God is going to punish you if you don't return it,'" Ruiz recalled. Sargent gave Ruiz US$2,500 as a reward.
■ United kingdom
Marine denies being bullied
A Royal Marine who was filmed being kicked unconscious in a naked initiation fight, sparking a criminal investigation, insisted yesterday that he was not bullied and it was just "Marine humor." Ray Simmons, 23, told the Daily Mirror that he was the rookie knocked out by a non-commissioned officer seemingly wearing a blue surgeon's outfit, in the shocking video that was headline news in Britain last month. The video prompted an investigation by the Royal Military Police's Special Investigations Board, with the Ministry of Defense saying "behavior of this kind will not be tolerated." But Simmons said he bore no grudges, and it was just a bit of tomfoolery that got out of hand.
■ Spain
`Terror financiers' arrested
Police have arrested at least seven people suspected of financing Islamic terrorism, news reports said yesterday. The arrests began on Thursday night in the Costa del Sol region, the news agencies Efe and Europa Press reported. The detainees were suspected of raising money for an Algerian-based Islamic extremist organization, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, the agencies reported. Efe said they were arrested on orders from the National Court, the Madrid-based tribunal that oversees probes of terrorism cases in Spain. Interior Ministry officials were not immediately available to comment on the reports.
■ United Nations
Official to visit Eritrea
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, plans to visit Eritrea to convince the African nation that its move to expel UN peacekeepers is unacceptable, a spokesman said on Thursday. Eritrea this week ordered peacekeepers from the US, Canada and European nations to leave the country within 10 days, a move likely to make the world body's observation of the tense border with Ethiopia impossible. The UN has demanded that Eritrea reverse its decision.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese