■ 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.
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