■ China
Touchy dates close in
China's Communist Party faces a series of anniversaries from the era of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) this year which may provoke debate about the country's tumultuous political past. One of them is the 40th anniversary of the start of the Cultural Revolution. In May 1966, Mao unleashed the mass campaign against his political rivals that spiraled into a decade of violence and repression. There are also a number of sensitive 30th anniversaries from 1976 including the death of Mao on Sept. 9 and the arrest of the "Gang of Four", marking the end of the Cultural Revolution, on Oct. 6.
■ China
Road death figures fall
Accidents on China's roads, the most dangerous in the world, killed almost 100,000 people last year, or 270 a day, but officials yesterday hailed an 8 percent decline from 2004's carnage. The number of injured fell slightly to 470,000 in almost as many accidents, Ministry of Public Security officials said, attributing the decline to better law enforcement. The exact number of deaths was 98,738. WHO estimates are much higher than China's figures, putting the death toll at more than 600 a day and the injury toll at 45,000 a day.
■ Hong Kong
Doctor sold sick notes
A doctor has been struck off the medical register for selling bogus sick notes to a work-shy bus driver, a news report said yesterday. Wong Shing-chung, 67, admitted giving 15 sick notes to bus driver Lam Kai-hung over a seven month period in 2002 in return for payments totaling US$340. He admitted 15 charges of misconduct at a hearing by the city's Medical Council on Wednesday and had his license to practise suspended for 18 months.
■ Pakistan
Gas field security tightened
Pakistani authorities stepped up security at gas fields in a remote southwestern tribal region yesterday after clashes between security forces and suspected militants left 12 rebels dead, police said. Hundreds of soldiers were guarding the gas fields at Pir Koh, about 400km east of Quetta, where assailants planted a land mine that blew up a vehicle on Wednesday, killing three soldiers and injuring three others. Shortly after the incident, security forces clashed with a group of rebels in a shootout that killed 12 suspected militants, said Abdul Samad Lasi, the region's police chief.
■ Indonesia
Murder suspect arrested
Police have arrested a reputed separatist leader indicted by a US grand jury for killing two American schoolteachers in an ambush close to a gold mine in Papua in 2002. Anthonius Wamang was arrested along with 12 other separatists in Papua late on Wednesday night according to police and military sources. Wamang was indicted by a grand jury in 2004 accused of two counts of murder, eight counts of attempted murder and other related offenses. He could face the death penalty if convicted. The ambush took place on a road leading to a giant gold mine owned by Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Mine Inc. where the two Americans were school teachers. It remains unclear whether Indonesia would extradite Wamang.
■ Afghanistan
Hidden women revealed
A photo exhibition displayed in Kabul this week is showing something rarely seen in public in Afghanistan: Afghan women smiling. A mother stands in her garden holding a tray of biscuits and looking happily at the camera, her daughter at her side. Another shows an old woman with a big, near-toothless grin, her blue burqa shroud hiked up over her head. The pictures give a glimpse into the lives of this deeply conservative Muslim country's women, who've been for decades behind all-encompassing veils. The photos, taken during a photography course aimed at giving women skills to find jobs, reinforce hopes that Afghan women's lives are improving.
■ Nepal
Three injured in attacks
At least three security personnel were injured when Maoist insurgents attacked a town in far western Nepal on Wednesday night, government officials said yesterday. The officials said a group of between 40 to 50 Maoist insurgents attacked police posts, army barracks and government officials in Dhangadi, about 510km west of the capital Kathmandu. Earlier reports said at least 20 policemen were missing after the attack and the exchange of fire that lasted for over four hours. But police officials said all of them came into contact late on Wednesday night. The Maoists exploded bombs in front of several government offices where elections are due on Feb. 8. They also claimed they looted some weapons from the police.
■ Thailand
Two charged with murder
Two Thai fishermen who have allegedly confessed to raping and killing the British backpacker Katherine Horton on Koh Samui island showed no remorse on Wednesday when formally charged in court. Bualoi Posit, 23, stared at the floor while Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, waved away a reporter from the Guardian newspaper when asked if they had a message for the Horton family. One of their lawyers, Amarin Nuimai, said both had confessed to him that they raped and killed the 21-year-old student on Lamai beach on Jan. 1.
■ Italy
Son mummifies mom
An Italian man "mummified" the body of his 71-year-old mother when she died, stashing it away in the bedroom wardrobe three years ago and sealing it with silicone gel. The grisly secret was kept until this week, when the landlord stumbled upon the "house of horrors" during a routine check of the rented property near Aqui Terme. He first found the body of the son, Mirko Sartori, 35, who police said was killed while working on his car. "He [Sartori] wrote a note: `Mother forgive me,'" the landlord's wife said on Tuesday. "They went looking for the mother, and found her in the wardrobe."
■ Italy
Toxic wheat seller arrested
Italians tucked into their pasta with a little less relish than usual after learning that 58,000 tons of wheat infected with a powerful natural toxin had been milled into flour and sold on to the market. Police arrested Francesco Casillo, the director of the Molino Casillo Francesco, on Wednesday on charges that he imported the wheat from Canada last September which was contaminated with cancer-causing toxins. Consumer associations and manufacturers of wheat products clamored to know what had happened to the consignment before it was released on to the market. In Bari, a local consumers federation spokesman said: "It is unacceptable that such a mountain of grain should have been allowed to damage the health of unwitting consumers."
■ Norway
Seed bank to be built
The government plans to build a "doomsday vault" to house 2 million seeds which represent the entire agricultural diversity of the planet. The idea is to safeguard the world's food supply against threats such as nuclear war, asteroid impact, terror attack, climate change and rising sea levels. "It's a Noah's ark for seeds," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, who carried out a feasibility study on the project. "It would be used to re-establish agriculture." The precise location has not been decided, but it will be close to Longyearbyen on Svalbaard, well inside the Arctic Circle. The vault should be finished by September next year.
■ Georgia
Bush assassin sentenced
The man who tried to assassinate US President George W. Bush with a hand grenade was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison. Vladimir Arutyunian threw the grenade at a podium from which the US leader and Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili were addressing crowds in Tbilisi during Bush's visit to Georgia last May. A court in Tbilisi convicted Arutyunian, 28, on charges of terrorism, premeditated murder and attempted murder. It is believed Arutyunian was mentally unstable and acted alone.
■ United Kingdom
Full smoking ban likely
A complete ban on smoking in pubs and clubs across England looked likely on Wednesday after the UK government bowed to pressure to allow members of parliament a free vote and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt responded by saying she would back a full ban. Downing Street would not say how Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to vote when it announced the move, which avoids the prospect of an embarrassing backbench rebellion. But it seems highly probable that the health bill will be amended when it returns to the House of Commons early next month.
■ Mexico
Vandals leave mug shot
Vandals who broke into and wrecked a northern Mexican primary school during the Christmas holidays were thoughtful enough to leave a photocopied mug shot of one of their gang at the scene of the crime. Mexican television showed a black-and-white print on Tuesday of the squashed, chubby face and hands of a young boy. The photocopy was made at the school in the northern city of Monterrey and left among smashed chairs and torn books. Headmistress Maria del Rosario Gomez told Televisa News it was the third time the school had been vandalized, and said some of her own pupils were likely to blame.
■ Brazil
Farming destroys wetlands
The growth of farming and cattle ranching in western Brazil could destroy the world's largest freshwater wetlands by 2050, researchers said on Wednesday. Farming has already wiped out nearly 45 percent of the original vegetation in the Paraguay River Basin, which includes the 145,000km2 Pantanal wetlands, according to a new study by Conservation International-Brazil. While most of the destruction is outside the Pantanal, the wetlands have lost 17 percent of their original vegetation, degrading soil and altering the flood plain's dry and wet cycles,which help sustain the region's rich biodiversity, the study said.
■ United States
Prisoners may share beds
With space scarce as the US prison population grows, a top Idaho lawmaker is proposing that inmates share beds by sleeping in shifts, a practice sometimes used by the US military. "Why does every inmate need his or her own bed?" asked state Senator Robert Geddes. "The military does it all the time." The issue arises as Idaho and other states stiffen penalties for drug-related crimes, putting a premium on prison space. Idaho has nearly 7,000 inmates, and that number is growing by nearly 7 percent a year. Geddes, the Republican president of the state Senate, said taxpayers should not be responsible for the cost of transferring prisoners out of state, as Idaho does to ease overcrowding.
■ United Staets
Cow escapes slaughter
A cow that escaped last week from a Montana slaughterhouse, leading workers and police on a six-hour chase, will be spared following a wave of popular support, officials said on Tuesday. Del Morris, manager of Mickey's Packing Plant in Great Falls, said he decided to let the cow live the instant he saw it cross the Missouri River. Town residents will now decide through a telephone poll whether the cow will remain a resident of Montana, where it will live out its life on pastural land surrounding the packing plant, or be shipped to an animal sanctuary in Seattle.
■ Bolivia
US denies coup claim
The US embassy on Wednesday described the theory that the embassy is conspiring to overthrow Bolivia's leftist President-elect Evo Morales as "ridiculous." Morales himself said he believed the claim, but associates said they had seen no evidence of a plot. "The Bolivians have chosen Evo Morales and have said that he will be their president and we're going to respect that decision," Susan Doman, US embassy information officer, said. Doman did not mention Hugo Chavez, but her statement came a day after the Venezuelan president said, "I'm sure the United States embassy in Bolivia has already started the conspiracy against Evo."
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Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
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The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema