■ China
Beijing discourages spitting
China's capital wants to discourage people from spitting and littering in its streets as it attempts to clean up its image before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, state media reported on Tuesday. Beijing is also planning to release a new code of conduct for its citizens, updating one released 10 years ago, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Individual bags will be available in taxis, on buses and in public places for people to cough up their phlegm, Xinhua said. Spitting, considered by many in Asia as a natural way to clear their sinuses, topped a list of the most disgusting habits in a survey among 10,000 Beijing residents last year, Xinhua said. Also on the list were littering, dogs fouling the pavement, jaywalking and aggressive jostling by passengers boarding buses, Xinhua quoted officials at Beijing's office for the promotion of social ethics as saying.
■ Hong Kong
Laws target expatriate perks
Some of the bumper pay-and-perks packages handed to some expatriates working in Hong Kong could be outlawed under new anti-racism laws, a news report said yesterday. Officials are preparing an anti-racism bill which would force companies to prove that recruits from overseas have expertise not available in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reported. The law will also deny expatriates on big-money deals the right to claim permanent residency in Hong Kong, a privilege extended to foreigners living in the former British colony for seven years. Under the law -- expected to be completed in two months -- it will be illegal for the private sector to discriminate among employees on the grounds of race, color or national or ethnic origin.
■ Singapore
`Electricians' rob elderly
Criminals are posing as electricians to gain entry to the flats of elderly people in Singapore, news reports said yesterday. Two men, who both live alone on financial assistance, were robbed in less than a week. Retired temple caretaker Loh Kia Soo, 80, told the Straits Times that the power in his flat went out right before there was a knock on the door from a man who claimed to have come to restore the electricity. Loh was asked to unplug all the electrical appliances and then keep his finger on a switch behind the kitchen wall. When the lights came back on, the thief was gone, along with cash from a pair of trousers.
■ Australia
PM's brother in trouble
The brother of Australian Prime Minister John Howard faces prosecution for felling endangered trees, local media reported yesterday, as Howard prepared to host a major six-nation conference on climate change. The Daily Telegraph said Howard's older brother, Stan, faced a hefty fine or a possible jail term if convicted of knowingly cutting down dozens of threatened species of trees on his property at Bowral, 100km southwest of Sydney. Australia, the US, Japan, China, India and South Korea were meeting in Sydney yesterday and today for the first Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate to fight climate change without sacrificing economic growth.
■ Hong Kong
Maid held over baby death
An Indonesian maid working for a Hong Kong family was being held by police yesterday on suspicion of killing her newborn baby daughter. The 24-year-old was arrested after the infant was found dead of apparent head injuries on a hillside near a housing estate in Chai Wan district on Tuesday. The maid, who is understood to have had a pregnancy she kept secret from her employer, was arrested on suspicion of infanticide and was being questioned yesterday, a police spokesman said. The infant was found by a cleaning worker near the home of the maid's employer. The umbilical cord was still attached and the maid is believed to have delivered the baby herself.
■ Australia
Parachute failure kills man
A Singaporean skydiver plunged to his death after both his parachutes failed to open during a jump in Western Australia, police said yesterday. The 31-year-old man, an experienced skydiver who had previously made 270 jumps, was parachuting at a popular location near York, east of Perth, when he died mid-afternoon on Tuesday, Sergeant Graham Clifford said. "He had some problems with his main chute so he cut it away and deployed the secondary chute, but he hit the ground heavily before [it] opened," Clifford said. The officer said he did not know if the reserve chute was faulty or had been deployed too late.
■ India
Space race gets cheaper
India has joined an elite group of countries by successfully testing supersonic rocket technology that enables inexpensive space travel, as well as reducing satellite launching costs by more than 90 percent, officials said yesterday. The Indian Space Research Organization said it had achieved a breakthrough in supersonic combustion technology after testing its Supersonic Combustion Ramjet (Scramjet) for seven seconds at its facility on Tuesday. The technology propels rockets at 7,339kph -- about three times faster than the Concorde, the Hindustan Times reported.
■ Germany
Boar invades bed
A wild boar was found taking a nap in the guest bedroom in a Bavarian family's house after fleeing from hunters, police said on Monday. "The sow panicked and was completely disoriented after being chased in the morning by hunters," a police spokesman said. "It ran into a village and broke through a cellar window into a house. It fell asleep on a bed in the guest room." When the 60kg boar woke up late on Saturday afternoon after sleeping for a few hours, it started panicking again when it could not find its way out of the house. That's when the family noticed their uninvited visitor. They called in a neighbor, also a hunter, who shot and killed the animal.
■ France
Man must defrost parents
The top administrative court has ruled that a man who had kept his parents frozen in caskets for years had to bury or cremate them, despite the final wishes of the deceased that their bodies be refrigerated in the hope that science might eventually bring them back to life. The bodies of Raymond Martinot, a fan of cryogenics who died in 2002, and his wife, Monique, who died in 1984 at age 49, are kept at around 85 degrees below zero in the crypt of the Martinot family chateau of Neuil-sur-Layon in the Loire Valley. After years of legal battles, the Conseil d'Etat ruled on Friday that Remy Martinot-Leroy had to change the burial arrangement for his parents.
■ United Kingdom
Pedophile couple jailed
A British couple were jailed on Tuesday for raping a three-month-old child they had been babysitting and taking photographs of the assaults. Alan Webster, 40, was jailed for life after confessing to raping the baby four times in early 2004, while his 19-year-old girlfriend Tanya French was jailed for five years after pleading to one count of rape. The infant's mother learnt of the assaults after being told by police who tracked down Webster as part of an international investigation into child pornography. During a raid on the couple's home in Hatfield, north of London, police found photographs detailing the attacks on the baby.
■ Italy
Eating induces most guilt
Most Italians feel more guilty about over-eating than they do about cheating on their partners, a survey has found, suggesting that people in Casanova's native land care more about staying slim than staying faithful. The survey, by psychology magazine Riza Psicosomatica, found that excessive eating and spending topped the list of what people considered the most guilt-inducing vices. Sexual infidelity came bottom of the list of the magazine's "seven deadly sins," behind neglecting friends and family, failing at work and not looking after one's physique.
■ Israel
Crime drops as PM ails
Burglaries, car thefts and other crimes have more than halved since Israelis began gluing themselves to television sets for news of their ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, police said on Tuesday. "We have seen a fall of more than 50 percent in offences since Mr. Sharon was admitted to the Hadassah" hospital in Jerusalem last Wednesday, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. In the first three days after Sharon's massive stroke, only 865 burglaries were reported compared to 1,739 in the corresponding period last year.
■ Mexico
Neighbors urge rethink
Mexico, Colombia and Central American countries are urging Washington to reconsider building a wall on the US-Mexico border as they have joined hands to forge common migration policies. Delivering a joint declaration on Monday at the end of the group's discussions, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez called on Washington legislators to eliminate aspects of a sweeping US immigration policy reform that are "not appropriate." Top officials from Colombia, Central America and the Dominican Republic met in Mexico after the US House of Representatives voted in December to wall up more than a third of the 3,200km border with Mexico.
■ United States
Thief caught blue-faced
Anchorage, Alaska, police said a man painted his face blue and tried to rob a hotel, but was arrested when officers spotted residual stains on his neck, ears and forehead that hadn't washed off. Daniel Peter Clark, 19, is charged with robbery and assault. Police Lieutenant Paul Honeman said the robbery was reported at 6:30am on Saturday. A Super 8 motel clerk said a man with a blue face walked into the motel and asked for money. When the clerk said no, the man pulled out a knife and waved it at the clerk. The clerk retreated into a hotel office and locked the door. The suspect fled on foot without any money.
■ United States
Centurion seals suicide pact
A woman aged 106 has died in a suicide pact with her 30-year-old Filipino caregiver, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Tuesday. The report said that the bodies of Helen Godet and her caretaker of nine years, David Lund, were found on Friday and that they had left signed suicide notes. The notes indicated that Lund had strangled the childless widow when she decided she could not take her own life, then swallowed a fatal dose of antifreeze, police said. "She was supposed to drink the poison, but she could not do it," said Inspector Dennis Maffei. "She did sign a suicide note -- it said that she wanted to kill herself ... It was just time."
■ United States
Five sentenced for attack
Five white teenagers in Gaffney, South Carolina, have been sentenced to prison terms after pleading guilty on Tuesday to second-degree lynching charges in an attack on a black teenager this summer. Christopher Scott Cates will serve six years in prison after pleading guilty to lynching and assault, said Murray Glenn, a spokesman for the Cherokee County prosecutor's office. Jason Grice, Justin Ashley Phillips and Kenneth Eugene Miller Jr. will have to spend three years in prison each and Jerry Christopher Toney will have to spend 30 months in prison, Glenn said. Lynching is the term used in South Carolina for any crime committed by a group against an individual in which the victim is not killed.
■ United States
Kilt debate closed
It appears a great kilt debate in southeast Missouri has come to a close. After being told to change out of a kilt at a school dance this fall, Jackson High School senior Nathan Warmack received an apology during a school board meeting on Monday night. It came with a promise from the district's superintendent to train staff in properly interpreting the school's dress code. Warmack, 18, wore a kilt to a dance in November with a dress shirt and tie as a way to recognize his Scottish heritage. Principal Rick McClard told Warmack to change into pants, sparking an Internet petition.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
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‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the