■ India
Dalai Lama gets Web site
Self-exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama yesterday launched a personal Web site to spread his message of world peace and take questions via e-mail. The Web site www.dalailama.com was inaugurated on the international Human Rights Day and the 16th anniversary of his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. "The Web site is not to promote the Dalai Lama himself. It is to reach out to the world with his message of love, peace and compassion and universal responsibility," a team member, who designed the Web site said. His messages have been posted both in English and Tibetan and questions can be e-mailed directly to the Dalai Lama.
■ India
Drivers learn karate
Women taxi drivers in New Delhi are being trained in karate as part of plan to combat crime against women in cities. The women taxi driver project was launched on Friday at the international airport and key tourist sites. Officials say the project will also be launched in Mumbai and the southern city of Hyderabad. In March last year, a 59-year-old Australian woman was robbed and stabbed to death by a taxi driver in New Delhi. In late 2003, a Swiss diplomat was raped by two men in a car in the heart of the city after being abducted from a parking lot.
■ Laos
Cartographic help required
One of the world's poorest countries, this mountainous, landlocked nation says its maps are inadequate and wants South Korean help drawing up new ones. "They said they don't have a nationwide map yet," Suh Jeong-in, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official in charge of relations with Southeast Asia, said yesterday. "We're going to review the request positively with related agencies." South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon received the request during a meeting yesterday with Laotian Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad on the sidelines of a regional summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
■ Pakistan
Kite ban extended
The Supreme Court in Lahore has extended a ban on making, selling and flying kites that it imposed two months ago after ruling that the sport has become increasingly deadly, an official said on Saturday. The court decided on Friday to extend the ban until it meets next on Jan. 26. Lahore is the site of Basant, an annual kite-flying festival where tens of thousands of people fly kites from rooftops and sports fields. About 19 people died and more than 200 were injured in February this year from wounds from metal kite strings or falls from roofs.
■ Hong Kong
Pets get Chinese medicine
A veterinary hospital has become the first facility of its kind to treat pets using Chinese medicine, a media report said yesterday. The hospital, set up at a cost of HK$2 million (US$256,410), is "the only clinic of its kind on the planet," the South China Morning Post reported. Consultants cost HK$180 and are available seven days a week. Health consultant Hermie Lee said slight changes have been made to the herbal medicine to make it more attractive to the animals. Gone are the bitter taste and pungent odor of many of the herbs. Instead, "we just take out all the bitter ingredients and add things like sugared dates," she said. Lee, who has a physiology degree and is studying Chinese medicine, already runs two human clinics.
■ United Kingdom
Man loses `dead cert' bet
A 91-year-old British man who staked a ?500 (US$870) bet that he would be dead by the end of the first week in December lost his stake by staying alive, a bookmaker said on Saturday. Arthur King-Robinson said he put the bet on at odds of 6/1 at the start of the year, because his wife would have faced an inheritance tax bill of ?3,000 had he died in the intervening period. "I thought I'd heard most things that people want to bet on after 30 years in the business," said a spokesman for bookmaker William Hill. "But one asking literally to place a dead cert was unique. I'm glad Arthur has lost."
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