■ Singapore
Lemur, baby shot in reserve
A female flying lemur and her baby were shot down by slingshot-wielding men in a protected Singapore nature reserve, triggering shock and anger yesterday among animal lovers. With its limbs broken and bleeding, the mother had to be euthanized, the National Parks Board said. Her young was found unharmed. The suspects, believed to be three men between 40 and 50 years old, were still at large. It was unknown whether they were professional poachers or bent on animal abuse. Flying lemurs, also known as colugos, are large-eyed mammals about the size of giant squirrels.
■ India
Center eyed in undies plan
A New Delhi government-run center for homeless boys made large purchases of women's lingerie, but it wasn't a case of cross-dressing kids -- it likely was old-fashioned corruption, a newspaper reported yesterday. An investigation by the Hindustan Times newspaper found documents detailing orders by the Children's Home for Boys-II of "superior quality [brassieres], knickers [and] ladies vests." But, the paper reported, no one at the home could -- or would -- say what's become of the undergarments, raising suspicions that this may have been a kickback scheme involving fake orders. The documents also revealed financial irregularities at 14 other juvenile centers in the capital.
■ Hong Kong
`Long Hair' to appeal
A Hong Kong activist-turned-legislator was yesterday preparing to appeal against a 12-day jail term for blocking traffic during a protest over road tunnel charges. "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄) was handed the jail sentence at a hearing on Tuesday where he was convicted of obstructing a public place and of carrying out an act likely to cause obstruction. The maverick lawmaker and two fellow protestors blocked traffic for 20 minutes at Hong Kong's Eastern Harbor tunnel last April in a protest over a rise in toll charges. Leung, who denied the charges, said Hong Kong's mini-constitution guaranteed him the right to protest and said his actions were backed by "the majority of society."
■ Japan
Defense chief meets mayor
Japan's defense chief met yesterday with the mayor of a town slated to host an unpopular new US military landing strip under a planned realignment of US forces, as the prime minister indicated that minor changes might be allowed to the plan. Defense Agency head Fukushiro Nukaga and Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, the mayor of Nago on the southern island of Okinawa, reached no agreement in their meeting, the Kyodo News agency said. Defense Agency officials refused to immediately confirm the report. The US military realignment plan, tentatively agreed to in October, has been strongly opposed in areas that face greater numbers of US troops.
■ China
Child policy will stay: official
China's top family-planning official has ruled out changes in its controversial "one child" birth control policy, warning that the crowded country is facing a new surge of births, a news report said yesterday. The communist government has limited most urban couples to one child and rural couples to two since the 1970s in an effort to restrain the growth of China's population of 1.3 billion people and conserve scarce resources.
■ Sweden
Cartoons cause resignation
Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds resigned on Tuesday after allegations that she shut down a far-right Web site for soliciting new caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Freivalds, who succeeded the popular Anna Lindh after Lindh was stabbed to death in 2003, said she could no longer continue in the face of intense media criticism. Opponents said Freivalds, 63, broke Sweden's strict freedom of speech laws when her department allegedly took steps to close down a Web site that was trying to publish the new cartoons.
■ Germany
Horse passes the sex test
A court ordered Viagra to be given to a stallion after his new owner claimed he was impotent and refused to pay the full asking price. The buyer of the horse called Vedor paid just a 10th of the price of over 4,000 euros (US$4,900), claiming it had only one testicle and failed to get frisky with a female pony. A vet found the testicle after an examination, said Egbert Simons, a spokesman for the court in the eastern town of Neuruppin. And when the stallion was given the potency drug, it emerged he was fully functional, he added. The court ordered the buyer to pay the full price.
■ Greece
New artifacts to go on show
Thousands of ancient artifacts from the Acropolis never seen by the public will be showcased at a landmark new Athens museum expected to open late next year, officials said. The 14,000m2 exhibition area will contain more than 4,000 works -- 10 times the amount currently on display at the Acropolis. "We are talking about masterpieces that have never been seen," including bronze and pottery artifacts found on the slopes of the fortified hill, said senior project official Nikos Damalitis on Tuesday. All the 2,500-year-old Parthenon sculptures in Greek possession will be displayed on a full-sized model of the temple inside the museum, which is being built at the foot of the Acropolis hill.
■ Israel
Rabbi calls flu a gay curse
The outbreak of deadly bird flu is God's punishment for calls in election ads to legalize gay marriages, according to Rabbi David Basri, a prominent sage preaching Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism. "The Bible says that God punishes depravity first through plagues against animals and then in people," Basri said in a religious edict quoted by his son. Basri said he hoped the deaths of hundreds of thousands of turkeys and chickens would help atone for what he called the sins of left-wing Israeli political parties, the son, Rabbi Yitzhak Basri, said, a week before a national election. The bird flu outbreak stemmed from far-left parties "strengthening and encouraging homosexuality," Yitzhak Basri quoted his father as saying.
■ United Kingdom
Hoaxer `Jack' sent to jail
The "hopeless alcoholic" who became known as Wearside Jack after he hoaxed police investigating murders by the Yorkshire Ripper was jailed for eight years on Tuesday. On Monday John Humble, 50, from Sunderland, admitted four counts of perverting the course of justice when he appeared at Leeds crown court. Humble was jailed for six years for each of the three letters he sent to police and the Daily Mirror newspaper and eight for the notorious tape, which shifted the police investigation away from Yorkshire to Wearside.
■ Mexico
Troops shot for not cleaning
A Mexican soldier shot dead two subordinates for refusing an order to clean up their base on the country's Caribbean coast, a police spokesman said on on Monday. Alonso German was taken into military custody after shooting the two on Friday night at the army base near the resort of Cancun, local police spokesman Angel Lopez said. He said he did not know what ranks the soldiers held. Officers at the base referred inquiries to Mexico's Defense Ministry, where no one was immediately available for comment.
■ United States
CIA paid Saddam's minister
Saddam Hussein's foreign minister was paid for information he supplied to the CIA through the French intelligence agency, which raised questions about the scale of Iraq's weapons programs, former intelligence officials said on Tuesday. The role of Naji Sabri, Iraq's foreign minister from 2001 until the US-led invasion began in 2003, was first described publicly in a 2004 speech by George Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, but Tenet did not give the Iraqi's name. The Bush administration has been accused of deliberately skewing prewar intelligence to make the case for war.
■ United States
Fleeing man dies in mud
A man running from a routine traffic stop sank waist-deep in mud and apparently died of exhaustion and cold while authorities tried to pull him out. Deputies stopped Shawn Leflore, 33, on Tuesday for having an outdated registration sticker, sheriff's spokesman Sergeant Don Peritz said. "He thought he was wanted. That is why he ran," Peritz said. "But it turns out he wasn't wanted for anything, except his driver's license was expired." Leflore ran about 640m off the road when he encountered the mud, Peritz said. The weather was windy and the temperature was about 4?C in the dark field, which had been saturated by heavy rain. Deputies searched about an hour before finding him.
■ United States
`South Park' to seek revenge
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker vowed vengeance last week in their running battle with Scientology -- and last night's new-season premiere was apparently to be the start. Isaac Hayes may have left the animated satire in a huff over what he described as religious "intolerance and bigotry," but his Chef character, which he's voiced since 1997, is not forgotten. The character is to return just a few days after Hayes quit, saying he said he could no longer accept the show's satirical blasts at religion. Hayes, a Scientologist, is not going back to the show, but there is speculation that Stone and Parker used creative editing of his voice from past shows to fashion new dialogue.
■ United States
Pop star irritates athlete
US basketball player Carlos Boozer should really have had his wits about him when he let his US$11.9 million Hollywood home to a 47- year-old Minneapolis man with no surname. Last May, Boozer, a star with the Utah Jazz basketball team, rented out his home for US$70,000 a month to the pop star Prince. But despite an agreement that the tenant would make no alterations, Boozer soon noticed the appearance of his property had changed. According to the lawsuit, Prince painted the outside of the house in purple stripes, had his personalized hieroglyph painted on the house, as well as the number 3121 -- the title of the singer's latest album.
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
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