■ Kazakhstan
Car offered for lost horses
A Kazakh farmer is offering a brand-new Japanese off-roader as a reward for his missing herd of horses, media reports said yesterday. Zhansap Alzhanov's 45 horses went missing two years ago and he has been trying to find them ever since, state news agency Kazinform reported. "He still believes they can be found," the agency said, adding that he thought they had been stolen.
■ Kazakhstan
Brazilian heads to space
Brazil's first astronaut blasted off from earth on a cloudless day yesterday with a Russia-US crew bound for the orbiting International Space Station. Marcos Pontes, a 43-year-old Brazilian Air Force pilot, was hunched inside the spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams, both of whom were starting a six-month rotation in space. Onboard cameras showed Pontes, who had a window seat, giving a thumbs-up.
■ Japan
Ministry to shut off the lights
Japan's Environment Ministry has a new rule aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions: lights out at 8pm. The new policy will be implemented at ministry headquarters beginning Monday. Those staying late will have to work together in a single conference room, said ministry official Masanori Shishido. Under the gun to meet obligations under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, Japanese ministries are trying to cut back on CO2 emissions from their offices by 7 percent from the 2001 level by March next year.
■ China
Mao may appear on map
Amundsen and Scott may have to share billing with Confucius and Mao Zedong (毛澤東) when China publishes a new map of Antarctica. Chinese researchers back from a four-month expedition said 46 newly surveyed Antarctic islands would receive Chinese names, state media said on Wednesday. Scholars, politicians, emperors and artists figured high on the 160-name shortlist.
■ New Zealand
Hermit sheep discovered
Two years ago, a renegade sheep that managed to avoid being sheared for six years captured the world's imagination with his unbelievably woolly fleece -- now another two have emerged from hiding on New Zealand's southern island, a report said on Wednesday. The two hermit rams -- said to be about eight years old -- were found hiding on the same hillside as Shrek and with wool lengths to rival the now world-famous sheep, the Otago Daily Times said. Farmer Michael Hayman told the paper that the pair -- named Tweedledum and Tweedledee -- had lived on a river island, and may have been lured out of seclusion by the recent arrival of 600 ewes.
■ India
Fans support radio `hero'
An electronics whizz who became a local hero after setting up a pirate radio station with spare parts that cost just US$1 was inundated on Wednesday with offers of support after the government shut him down. FM Mansoorpur, set up three years by Raghav Mahto using bits and pieces from his electronics repair shop, was closed earlier this week because it did not have a license. But listeners to his popular broadcasts of Bollywood movie music offered to donate money to pay for a license.
■ Mexico
Stations protest with a song
About 15 public radio stations across the country staged an unusual protest against a proposed broadcast law on Wednesday by repeating a single song on each station all day long, interspersed with ads against the measure. Many commercial broadcasters, meanwhile, aired ads supporting the bill, which would allow frequency holders to digitalize their entire analog frequency. Critics say the bill favors big, corporate media outlets, puts public stations at a disadvantage and makes little provision for the entry of new broadcasters. "A country without plurality in media would be like listening to the same song all day long," the ad on public stations said.
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