■ Hong Kong
Old notes for red envelopes
Hong Kong is urging people to eschew the tradition of stuffing crisp new bank notes into red envelopes given away as gifts during the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on Jan. 29 this year. People should put used cash in the gift packets to avoid wasting resources and harming the environment, Monetary Authority Chief Executive Joseph Yam said in a statement issued this week. Yam said there's usually a demand for about HK$300 million (US$38.7 million) in new bank notes during the holiday. It takes 400 tonnes of cotton to make the paper needed to print the currency, he added. Yam said banks will encourage clients to accept "good-as-new notes" that have been circulating but are still in fine condition.
■ Philippines
Rebels raid police station
Communist rebels raided a police station in a central Philippine town and seized 31 firearms as guerrillas made good on a vow to intensify operations, police said yesterday. No one was injured in the attack late on Friday in Albuera, Leyte province, said regional police chief Eliseo dela Paz. Four of six officers who were having a dinner fled the station when several New People's Army guerrillas barged into the building, which was surrounded by other rebels. The rebels ordered the two remaining officers to disrobe and hogtied them. They seized 19 M-16 rifles and 12 pistols from the station before fleeing.
■ Japan
Anti-terror bill on the way
The government is to draw up a new anti-terrorism bill to allow it to detain and question without arrest warrants people it defines as terrorists or members of terrorist groups, Japanese media said yesterday. The government hopes to pass the new law next year after an expert panel has looked into questions including the effect on human rights and a possible clash with the Constitution, reports in the Yomiuri and Mainichi dailies said. A National Police Agency report warned last month that attacks on Japan by militant Islamists could not be ruled out because of the country's close links with the US.
■ Thailand
Bomb explodes in tea shop
Two Thai women and a Malaysian man were slightly injured yesterday when a bomb exploded at a tea shop in the troubled south, police said. The bomb was placed under a marble table at the tea shop in the town of Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat province, one of the three restive Muslim-dominated southern provinces bordering Malaysia. "The bomb was set off by a mobile phone with a Malaysian signal," Colonel Term Inthasara said. The unrest in southern Thailand erupted on Jan. 4, 2004, when militants launched a daring raid on a weapons depot in Narathiwat province. Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed in near-daily shootings, bombings and arson attacks.
■ China
Snow traps some 220,000
Heavy snow has trapped some 220,000 people in remote areas of of Xinjiang, cutting off roads and communications and forcing the evacuation of about 100,000 others, state media said yesterday. Up to 1m of snow fell last week on some areas of Xinjiang, and overnight temperatures dropped to as low as minus 43oC, the official China Daily newspaper said. The snow has affected about 620,000 people in the region, and more than 9,000 livestock animals have died, it quoted local reports as saying.
■ France
Kids pile on the kilos
French children are catching up with their US counterparts in the obesity stakes, a group of French pediatricians said on Friday. The scales are tipping towards obesity at a rate of five percent per year since 1997 in France, the same rate as seen on the other side of the Atlantic, the AFPA association said. "This regular increase is especially worrying and, if nothing is done, it suggests there will be a minimal difference between the two countries within 15 years," it said in a statement. France's state National Statistics Institute released a study last November showing that 40 percent of French adults are overweight.
■ France
Artist attacks urinal
A 77-year-old French artist named Pierre Pinoncelli was in custody on Friday after taking a hammer to Marcel Duchamp's celebrated porcelain urinal at an avant-garde art exhibition in Paris's Pompidou Centre. The 1917 work, a bog-standard white urinal mounted upside down, was "not irreparably damaged," said a spokesman for the museum, which is hosting a major exhibition of the Dada movement, a precursor of surrealism. It is not the first time Pinoncelli has attacked the piece, titled Fountain and valued at more than US$3.6 million. During a 1993 exhibition in Nimes, he relieved himself in it and then attacked it with a blunt instrument.
■ France
Sentenced after 25 years
A French woman who faced up to 20 years behind bars for a bank heist a quarter-century ago escaped on Friday with a suspended prison sentence after admitting her role in penitent court testimony. A Paris court handed Helene Castel, 46, a two-year suspended sentence after the three-day trial for her role in the May 1980 holdup at a BNP bank branch near the capital's gilded Opera Garnier. Castel broke into tears as the verdict came down. Her former accomplices testified that she had had a minor role, and her lawyer argued that her longtime exile from France was punishment enough. Castel was apprehended in Mexico in 2004 after being on the run for over 20 years.
■ United Kingdom
Pets getting fatter
Just like their owners, a growing number of British pets are becoming obese and face chronic illnesses such as heart complaints, diabetes and arthritis, according to research announced on Friday. A survey of British vets and owners showed that one in three pets were considered overweight and 38 percent of pet owners said their animals put on weight over Christmas. Despite this, few owners plan to put their pets on a diet. The survey said signs of obesity included a sagging stomach, bulging sides and a reluctance to take exercise.
■ Netherlands
Troops bemoan booze ban
Dutch troops helping earthquake survivors in Pakistan have complained that while they are subject to an alcohol ban, Spanish and British soldiers laugh at their austerity and turn up drunk at their campfire. "The Spanish drive around with cars full of Heineken ... and the English laugh at us when they show up at our campfire drunk," a soldier told Dutch daily De Telegraaf. A Dutch defense ministry spokesman said it was standard policy to ban alcohol in Muslim countries in line with local custom and Dutch troops were being well looked after.
■ United States
Thief returns prosthetic leg
A teenage amputee whose prosthetic leg was stolen has recovered the artificial limb after it was apparently placed in her yard by a remorseful thief, police said on Friday. In November, burglars broke into the Los Angeles area home of 16-year-old Melissa Huff, stealing money and other valuables, including her prosthetic leg, which was specially made with a flexible foot to allow her to play softball. Huff lost her right leg two years ago when a driver lost control of his car and plowed into her as she stood on the pavement in front of her school. Police are holding the leg for now, hoping to collect fingerprints.
■ United States
Chip implants promoted
Forgetting computer passwords is an everyday source of frustration, but a solution may literally be at hand -- in the form of computer chip implants. With a wave of his hand, Amal Graafstra, 29, of Vancouver, Canada, opens his front door. With another, he logs onto his computer. Tiny radio frequency identification computer chips inserted into Graafstra's hands make it all possible. Graafstra is in New York to promote the technology. The computer chips, which cost about US$2, interact with a device installed in computers and other electronics. The chips are activated when they come within 8cm of a so-called reader, which scans the data on the chips.
■ United States
Singer Lou Rawls dead
Lou Rawls, the velvet-voiced singer and longtime community activist who started as a choir boy and went on to record such classic tunes as You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine, died on Friday of cancer. He was 72. Rawls died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was hospitalized last month for treatment of lung and brain cancer, said his publicist, Paul Shefrin. His wife, Nina, was at his bedside when he died. Rawls' trademark was his smooth, four-octave voice -- the "silkiest chops in the singing game," Frank Sinatra once said.
■ Canada
Condo owner poisons trees
A Vancouver woman pleaded guilty on Thursday to poisoning several trees that border the city's Stanley Park to improve the view of the ocean from her condominium. June Matheson, 72, admitted she purchased herbicide in the US and applied it to five trees in the spring of 2004 in an effort to kill them. Three trees later died, according to a court document. A witness told police that Matheson, a well known interior designer, had complained that the city-owned trees had grown too tall and she wanted to "get rid of them." Prosecutors said Matheson may have felt an improved view of nearby English Bay would increase the value of her condo.
■ Canada
Man pays bank in pennies
A Canadian credit card holder is putting a new twist on an old trick practiced by disgruntled debtors -- repaying his bill in pennies to maximize the collector's inconvenience. Unhappy when his Canadian bank began outsourcing some of its credit card processing to the US, the man lodged his protest via the bank's online payment system, jamming its computers by making dozens of tiny payments a day. Don Rogers said he was worried that US anti-terrorism laws could allow the US government to access his data without his consent. "I don't want the CIA or [US President] George Bush to know how many cases of Viagra I bought last week, or what church or charities I donate to," he said.
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