■ Vietnam
Death law changes proposed
The police ministry has proposed abandoning firing squads in favor of lethal injections and cutting the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty, an official and media reports said on Friday. Most crimes that would no longer carry the death penalty were financial, but also included some political offences including "sabotage of peace and provoking a war of aggression" and "opposition to humanity," a report in Law newspaper said. "If approved, the reduction in the recourse to capital punishment will be in tune with the general tendency around the world, which Vietnam should follow," the ministry's judicial department deputy director, Dang Anh, said.
■ China
Gas leak in mine kills 12
A release of poison gas in a coal mine killed at least 12 miners and left three missing, the government said yesterday. The disaster occurred on Friday in the northern city of Dengfeng, in Henan Province, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Henan Provincial Coal Industry Bureau. A total of 56 miners were working in the Malingshan Coal Mine at the time of the accident, and 41 escaped, Xinhua said. It didn't give the cause of the disaster or other details.
■ China
`Divorce Club' launched
A support group called the "Divorce Club" will be launched on Valentine's Day in Shanghai, aiming to help divorcees celebrate the ending of their marriages, state media reported yesterday. Around 135 "wealthy men and women" have already joined the club which will provide counselling services and organize social gatherings as well as divorce celebrations, said the Shanghai-based Youth Daily's Web site. "Actually, to be released from a dead marriage is a happy occasion, so we chose Valentine's Day to launch the club," the Web site quoted the head of the club, Shu Xin, as saying.
■ China
Petitioning dissident freed
A high-profile rights activist said yesterday he had been freed by Chinese authorities after being detained for trying to hand in a petition at Beijing's leadership compound near Tiananmen Square. Yang Maodong, known by his pen name Guo Feixiong (郭飛雄), said he was taken away by police on Wednesday as soon he arrived at the gate of the Zhongnanhai compound, the political center of China. After holding him at a Beijing police station for a day, police escorted him by train back to Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province, where he lives, and released him on Friday he said. Yang's letter had condemned the communist regime's continuous crackdown on activists and scholars who helped farmers protect themselves against forced land requisition, as well as criticizing escalating suppression of media freedoms.
■ Pakistan
Court permits kite flying
The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a ban on kite flying, allowing people all over the country, especially in the central Punjab Province, to celebrate a traditional festival that marks the advent of the spring season. The apex court's bench in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, allowed the festivities -- called Basant -- from Feb. 25 to March 10. But it said violation of the ban thereafter should be dealt with strictly. It proposed a three-year jail term for those found involved in flying kites with metal wire. The court last year imposed the ban after dozens of enthusiasts lost their lives in kite-flying or kite-chasing frenzy.
■ Russia
Terrorism prankster fined
A student who threw a soda bottle with a hoax terrorism alert from a speeding bus was fined the equivalent of US$1,590, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday. Police sealed off part of a Siberian highway after the discovery by the roadside of the message saying "SOS. Terrorists in bus. Two dead." The 17-year-old girl from the city of Tomsk owned up to the prank during questioning of the passengers.
■ Italy
Judge shelves Jesus case
An Italian atheist lost his legal crusade against the Catholic Church on Thursday when a judge rejected his attempts to sue a priest for saying that Jesus existed, the priest's lawyer said. Luigi Cascioli, 72, had argued his hometown priest and former schoolmate had effectively broken an Italian law meant to protect the public from being conned. But instead of granting Cascioli his request to bring the case to court, the judge recommended magistrates investigate him for slandering priest Enrico Righi, Righi's lawyer, Bruno Severo said.
■ United Kingdom
Sex scandal politician quits
A prominent member of Ian Paisley's ultraconservative Democratic Unionist Party resigned on Friday over allegations he hired a male prostitute. Paul Berry, 29, has denied the allegations, which were published in Northern Ireland tabloid newspapers last year. He announced his resignation from Northern Ireland's largest political party in a statement issued through his lawyers. Paisley, 79, runs his own fundamentalist Protestant denomination, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, which has actively campaigned against gay rights under the slogan, "Save Ulster from sodomy." Berry, who in 1998 became the youngest elected member of Northern Ireland's legislature, said he had paid the male prostitute to massage his back for medical purposes.
■ Netherlands
Free gifts washed up
Thousands of tennis shoes, aluminum briefcases and children's toys washed onto the beach of a Dutch island on Friday, drawing crowds of treasure-hunting residents, coast guard officials said. The booty came from containers that were swept from a ship which got caught in a storm on Thursday night about 14km off the coast of the island of Terschelling. Police were summoned to safeguard nine unopened containers, but they did not try to prevent people from taking the odd pair of sneakers or toy. "It's human nature, right?" spokesman Kees Koning said.
■ West Bank
Two wounded in gunfight
Two Palestinians were injured during a clash between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops early yesterday in the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian witnesses said. The Israeli army said that troops had killed a Palestinian gunman and injured another after they fired on soldiers during an arrest operation in the Jenin refugee camp. But the witnesses and the Islamic Jihad military group said the man was only moderately injured. The injured man is a member of Islamic Jihad, the group said. A Palestinian civilian was lightly injured in the leg during the clash, the witnesses said. The army said two Islamic Jihad activists were arrested during the operation, but Islamic Jihad said none of its members were taken by the soldiers. Witnesses said the troops arrested four Palestinians.
■ United States
Skull found in air luggage
Baggage screeners at a Florida airport found what they believe is a human skull in the luggage of a passenger who had flown from Haiti, authorities said. The female passenger arrived on Thursday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Zack Mann, a customs official, told a local TV station. The woman is being questioned by authorities and has not been arrested, Mann said. Authorities were investigating.
■ United States
Eateries may pay litter fee
A city across the bay from San Francisco plans to start charging fast-food restaurants a fee to pay for cleaning up litter. Elected leaders in the city of Oakland have backed a proposal to make take-out food businesses ranging from convenience stores to major hamburger chains such as McDonald's pay for public works crews to clean streets. "We're just asking them to be good neighbors," said Jane Brunner, the city council member who crafted the ordinance. The ordinance, which is expected to be finalized by summer, would create a three-tier fee structure based on the revenues of the businesses.
■ United States
Experts warn on Ritalin
Ritalin, extensively prescribed to calm hyperactive children, should carry the highest-level warning that it may increase the risk of death from heart attacks, US experts recommended on Friday. There have been 51 deaths among children and adults taking drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the US since 1999. Yesterday the UK licensing authority, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said nine children had died among a smaller population on medication in the UK. They declined to reveal the children's ages because of the possibility of identification.
■ United States
Dead baby's mom charged
An 18-year-old high school senior who handed hospital workers a knapsack containing her dead newborn was charged on Thursday with second-degree manslaughter, the police said. The teenager, Zehra Catalbas of Mount Sinai, New York, delivered the baby girl last Saturday morning alone in a shower at her home, according to Detective Lieutenant Jack Fitzpatrick of the Suffolk County Police Department's homicide squad.After giving birth, Catalbas stayed in the shower for two hours, during which the baby died of asphyxiation, according to the authorities. Fitzpatrick said that it was not clear if the baby had drowned in the shower or had died by other means, but that the death was being considered a homicide.
■ United States
Fossett forges ahead
Adventurer Steve Fossett yesterday decided to try to complete his nearly 43,450km journey to break aviation's distance record, despite losing fuel during takeoff. Mission control director Kevin Stass said he's "cautiously optimistic" and added Fossett himself is in good shape despite the marathon flight. Fossett lost 340kg of fuel during takeoff from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday because of a leak. Fossett, who is flying a lightweight experimental airplane, had to decide whether to try to finish the trip or abort after reaching a certain point over the Atlantic. He now has little opportunity to land the plane if he runs out of fuel. If the trip is successful, he was scheduled to land in the UK between 6pm and 8pm GMT last night.
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
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was