■ Hong Kong
Pet lovers seethe over kitten
The government has promised to take tougher action on animal abusers after pet lovers took to the street following a vicious attack on a kitten, a news report said yesterday. The protesters were demanding a review of penalties following the attack in which a kitten died after its legs were ripped off by an attacker. They carried pictures of the kitten and their own pets in the protest which took place on Sunday. Animal cruelty carries a maximum fine of US$640 or six months in jail, but protesters want to see it increased to a US$6,400 fine and five years in jail.
■ Japan
Prince urges female reign
Japan's Prince Tomohito urged a government panel to reconsider its proposal to resolve an imperial succession crisis by letting females reign, months after he suggested employing concubines to produce a male heir, a news report said yesterday. Tomohito, a cousin of Emperor Akihito and fifth in the line of succession, said the panel should look into options such as reinstating former imperial branch family members who lost their royal status after World War II, Kyodo News Agency reported. There was "no need to immediately" reach a decision, the report quoted the prince as saying.
■ India
Police nab decapitator
Police have arrested an Indian real-estate agent over the killing of an elderly German woman who had been living in the western Indian city of Pune for decades, an officer said. Police found the beheaded body of Gudarun Corvinus, 72, on Saturday in her apartment in Pune, 200km south of Bombay, police said. Her severed head was found on a nearby river bank. Corvinus, a historian, lived alone in the apartment. The Press Trust of India news agency said the suspect, 26-year-old Fakir Mohammed Sheikh, allegedly killed Corvinus because he had wanted her apartment.
■ Malaysia
Snooker ban lifted
Malaysia's only Islamic opposition-ruled state has lifted a 15-year-old ban on snooker parlors as its government moves to shed its hardline, fundamentalist image, an official said yesterday. The opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic party that rules the northeastern Kelantan state announced on Sunday that snooker parlors can operate as long as they close early, keep men and women patrons separate and do not permit gambling. In the announcement, Chief Minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat said state legislation was being amended to categorize snooker and billiards as "sport" instead of entertainment to simplify licensing procedures by local authorities.
■ India
Millions of females aborted
An estimated 10 million female foetuses have been aborted in India over the last two decades, according to a study of birth rates to be published online yesterday by the British medical journal Lancet. A team of researchers from Canada and India analyzed information from 133,738 births in 1997 across India, and determined that fewer females are born as second or third children to families who do not yet have a boy, compared with those who already have a boy. The statistics according to birth order were striking. The sex ratio for the second birth when the preceding child was a girl was 759 girls per 1,000 males, and for the third child was 719 girls if the previous two children were girls.
■ United Kingdom
Car kills four cyclists
A group of cyclists were killed on Sunday and eight were injured after they collided with a car on a country road. The four, part of a group of 12 cyclists from a local club out on a practice session, were killed after a driver lost control of his car on an icy north Wales road, police said. Scott Eccles, secretary of the Rhyl Cycling Club, said those killed were a 14-year-old boy, two men aged 42 and 49, and a third man in his 60s. Police did not confirm the identities.
■ Egypt
Sexual nudity sparks spat
An Egyptian cleric's controversial fatwa claiming that nudity during sex invalidates a marriage has uncovered a rift among Islamic scholars. According to the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean of Al-Azhar University's faculty of Shariah (or Islamic law), "being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage." The religious decree sparked a hot debate on the private satellite network Dream's popular religious talk show. During the live televised debate, Islamic scholar Abdel Muti dismissed the fatwa: "Nothing is prohibited during marital sex, except of course sodomy."
■ United Kingdom
Prince William joins army
Prince William joined the army on Sunday when he began his officer training at Sandhurst. He started a 44-week course at the elite academy, where his brother, Prince Harry, has already completed two terms. Like all new officer cadets, he is banned from leaving the site for the first five weeks of training, meaning he will miss his girlfriend Kate Middleton's 24th birthday. He has insisted he wants to be treated like everyone else and be able to fight in war zones. Before that possibility he will have to face another ordeal -- having to salute to Prince Harry when the younger man graduates ahead of him later this year.
■ South Africa
Birth scam uncovered
Pregnant Zimbabwean women are fleeing their homeland to give birth in South Africa and avail of child support a police spokeswoman said on Sunday. Many of those arriving were crossing the border illegally, said the spokeswoman in the South African province of Limpopo. As soon as they had given birth, the women applied for child support grants of US$31 per month. A total of 2,300 Zimbabweans were arrested during weekend raids the spokeswoman said. "The women told us they came here to give birth so that their children can get South African birth certificates," she said, adding, "This in turn makes them qualify for child support grants."
■ Syria
Assad meets top Saudis
President Bashar Assad flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday for a surprise meeting with Saudi leaders. The meeting occurred a day after he was quoted as saying that he would not cooperate with the UN investigation of the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister. Assad met top members of the Saudi ruling family including King Abdullah the government run Saudi Press Agency reported. In wording clearly meant to encourage Assad to cooperate, the royal family released a statement saying that at the meeting, Abdullah "affirmed the kingdom's desire for stronger relations between Syria and Lebanon in all fields, so that the interests of both countries and security of the region are protected."
■ United States
Mouse sparks house fire
A New Mexico houseowner attempting to dispose of a mouse in a burning pile of leaves instead watched the flaming rodent run into his home, sparking a fire that burnt it down, said fire officials on Sunday. The 81-year-old owner was not injured when his house burnt down to its foundation, fire chief Juan Chavez told the Clovis News Journal. The now homeless man, had an ongoing mouse problem and had set up numerous traps in his home. "I've seen numerous house fires, but nothing as unique as this one," fire captain Jim Lyssy said.
■ United States
Two killed in skydive
A skydiving teacher and his Japanese student died after a botched tandem jump over Hawaii, the head of the parachuting school said on Saturday. Erich "Max" Mueller, an experienced, 69-year-old instructor from Germany, and his 33-year-old student missed the intended landing zone and came down in the sea, striking an underwater reef about 300m off shore, said Frank Hinshaw, president of Skydive Hawaii. Both the Japanese woman, a tourist, and the German teacher were flown in extremely critical condition to a hospital, where they died without regaining consciousness, Hinshaw said.
■ United States
Funerals for miners begin
Families on Sunday began burying the 12 coal miners who died underground after an explosion on Jan. 2 at the ill-fated Sago Mine in West Virginia. Up to six funerals were held on Sunday, with more church services scheduled yesterday and today. The men apparently were poisoned by carbon monoxide that filled their mine shaft after the still unexplained mishap trapped them underground. A sole survivor of the accident, 26-year-old Randal McCloy Jr., remained hospitalized in critical condition in Morgantown, West Virginia. He remains unconscious and under sedation as doctors continue to try to slowly restore his organ functions.
■ Mexico
Candidate softens tone
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador strove to portray himself as a moderate as he formally registered his presidential candidacy on Sunday, promising to reduce immigration to the US and maintain a balanced foreign policy. Portrayed as a radical and a populist by detractors, the former Mexico City mayor has worked to move toward the political center as his once-commanding lead in public opinion polls shrank since late fall. Calling for "a broad, representative and inclusive citizen's movement," Lopez Obrador promised Mexicans "a new economy" but said it wouldn't be based on ideology. He said he would work to stem the flow of immigrants to the US in search of jobs by stimulating Mexico's economy.
■ Canada
Liberals slam rival's budget
The ruling Liberal Party branded its chief rival's economic promises on Sunday as budget busters that would plunge Ottawa into multibillion-dollar deficits, but the Conservatives said they have the figures to back up their plan. With two weeks until a nationwide parliamentary election, the Liberal Party estimated the Conservatives' promises to date would rack up C$12.4 billion (US$10.6 billion) in deficits in five years, a charge denied by the Conservatives. "As of today we've costed what's in the Conservative platform so far ... and there's a deficit every year," Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said in a phone interview. Canada has had a surplus in each of the past eight years.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not