■ China
Dogs have their day
In a new twist on the phrase "working like a dog," a company in northern China says it will only hire candidates born in the Asian zodiac's year of the dog, Shanghai media reported yesterday. A personnel manager for Jilin Jiangshan Human Resources Development Co Ltd was quoted as saying the company craves loyalty, honesty and efficiency -- qualities associated with people born in the year of the dog. "We consider the requirement necessary to select employees who match our corporate culture," the manager was quoted by Shanghai's Youth Daily newspaper as saying.
■ China
Politician attempts suicide
A vice governor of Hunan Province has tried to kill himself after being questioned for corruption, two independent sources and an official newspaper said. The suicide attempt by Zheng Maoqing (鄭茂清), 60, came days after Zhang Chunxian, who made a name for himself by intensifying a crackdown on corruption as communications minister, was appointed Communist Party chief of Hunan. Zheng tried to kill himself at his home in Changsha, capital of Hunan, on Dec. 28 and was rushed to hospital with knife wounds, said the Beijing-based Gongyi Times published by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
■ Japan
Koizumi envies dogs
In a sign of Japan's worries about its shrinking population as Asia enters the "Year of the Dog," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday expressed envy at the high birthrate enjoyed by man's best friend. "It is the Year of the Dog. Dogs have lots of offspring and I hear they have an easy time giving birth," Koizumi said at his first news conference of the year. "We can't share in dogs' good luck, but I want to forge ahead by borrowing many people's wisdom to create an environment in which people can enjoy raising kids and enrich their lives by having children," added Koizumi, a divorced father of three. Japan's fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime -- fell to a postwar low of 1.2888 in 2004.
■ India
Tibetans eye rare passport
Tibetans in India have collected more than US$11,000 to buy a rare travel document from an antique dealer based in Nepal, a news agency report said yesterday. The document is said to be independent Tibet's first and only surviving passport, IANS news agency reported. It was issued to Tsepon Shakabpa, finance secretary to the independent Tibetan government in Lhasa, on Oct. 10, 1947. Shakabpa used it to get visas from several countries including Britain, France, Switzerland and the US. The passport still bears the stamps of these countries, said Tenzing Tsundue, general secretary of the Friends of Tibet.
■ Hong Kong
Man sent obscene images
A man has been convicted of sending obscene video images using a high-tech 3G video phone in the first case of its kind in the territory, a news report said yesterday. Air-conditioning mechanic Leung Kwok-chi, 23, pleaded guilty to making three obscene calls between March and June at a hearing in the city's Kwun Tong court on Tuesday. When the women -- aged 17 to 30 -- answered the calls, they saw a video of a man masturbating on the screen, the South China Morning Post reported. Leung was released on bail of US$45 after Tuesday's hearing and will return to court on Jan. 27 for sentencing.
■ Germany
Cuba linked to JFK murder
Cuba's intelligence services played a role in the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, a German documentary to be shown on TV tomorrow alleges. The film by journalist Wilfried Huismann says Kennedy's killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, traveled to Mexico City a few weeks before the assassination and met agents from Cuba's G-2 intelligence service. "Oswald ... was motivated, encouraged and supported by a foreign power: namely Cuba," Huismann said in an interview with the newspaper Die Welt. Among witnesses quoted in the film are Oscar Marino, a former Cuban spy, and Rolando Cubela who is described as a double agent sent by the US to murder Cuban President Fidel Castro but who was also involved in efforts to kill Kennedy.
■ United Kingdom
Passport sex scam probed
The UK's Home Office on Tuesday opened an investigation into allegations that officials had operated a "sex for passports" scam at the Lunar House immigration center in Croydon, south London. The move follows claims in the Sun by a former administration officer at the center that women were helped to stay in the UK in return for having sex with center staff. He said that more attractive women got preferential treatment. Anthony Pamnani, 24, claimed security checks on immigrants were often not carried out. He said that photos of women "too ugly to be allowed to stay" would be laughed at and pinned on the wall.
■ Russia
Space booze ban may end
A ban on alcohol aboard the International Space Station (ISS) could be lifted this year to allow crews nips of liquor after grueling work assignments, Russia's Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday. "They fly in orbit for half a year and perform a heavy workload," said a source in the Russian medical support teams for the manned space program. "Many people think a small ration of alcohol would help restore their strength." Moderate alcohol consumption was tolerated on Russia's Mir space station until it was decommissioned in 2001. But a strict ban has been in place on the ISS since Russia and the US sent the first joint crew five years ago.
■ Israel
Police block campaigning
Israeli police blocked Palestinians from electioneering in Arab East Jerusalem on Tuesday when campaigning began for parliamentary polls, highlighting a dispute that threatens to delay the vote. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday the Jan. 25 polls would not take place if Israel barred voting in East Jerusalem. Israeli police beat some Palestinian campaigners with clubs and arrested seven, including a local leader of Abbas' Fatah movement.
■ Austria
`Mozart's skull' tests done
Have scientists found Mozart's skull? Researchers said on Tuesday they'll reveal the results of DNA tests in a documentary film airing this weekend on Austrian television as part of a year of celebrations marking the composer's 250th birthday. The tests were conducted last year at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck, and the results will be publicized in Mozart: The Search for Evidence, to be screened on Sunday by state broadcaster ORF. "We succeeded in getting a clear result," lead researcher Walther Parson said.
■ United States
Bush pushes Patriot Act
US President George W. Bush opened a 30-day push to gain renewal of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act on Tuesday with a partisan blast at Democrats and a meeting with US prosecutors who called the law essential. A temporary extension of the Patriot Act, passed last month to stop a Democratic filibuster blocking maneuver, expires on Feb. 3 and Bush is using the early days of the new year to press for permanent passage of the law. He accused Democrats of blocking the law for "partisan reasons." "The enemy has not gone away. They're still there. And I expect Congress to understand that we're still at war, and they've got to give us the tools necessary to win this war," Bush said.
■ Peru
Lima seeks extradition
Armed with a dozen boxes of evidence, Peru asked Chile on Tuesday to extradite fugitive former president Alberto Fujimori and to keep an eye on him while they process the request. Fujimori, wanted in Peru on charges of human-rights abuses and corruption during his 1990-2000 hard-line rule, arrived in Chile on Nov. 6 and was arrested a day later. Fujimori fled to his ancestral homeland Japan in 2000 after a massive graft scandal toppled his government. He says he plans to run again for president in Peru's April election.
■ Bolivia
Morales, Chavez ink pact
Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales signed an energy agreement with his Venezueluan counterpart and fellow left-winger Hugo Chavez on Tuesday, and vowed to join the "anti-imperialist struggle." Following their talks in Caracas, the fiery Chavez warned that the US "would be sorry" if it tried to organize a coup against the new Bolivian leader. Chavez and Morales signed several cooperation agreements, and underlined their commitment to further boost ties between the two South American governments. They agreed that Venezuela would advise the Bolivian government on energy issues and help train experts.
■ Israel
Police continue bribe probe
Police are to examine computer data which they believe will show Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's family received an alleged US$3 million bribe, public radio reported yesterday. Police officials confirmed late on Tuesday that several laptop computers and mobile phones belonging to the family of Austrian financier Martin Schlaff had been seized during a raid last month. Investigators believe the data contains fresh evidence which will enable them to move forward with a long-running investigation into a corruption scandal surrounding the Sharon family which concerns illegal campaign contributions during the 1999 elections.
■ Canada
Booze `improves' behavior
Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday. Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day -- a glass an hour from 7am to 10pm -- in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing. After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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