■ Australia
Gasoline, nudity don't mix
A 56-year-old man suffered burns to one-fifth of his body on Sunday when he tried to get rid of a spider by setting fire to it at a nudist resort near Sydney. The man tried to kill what he thought was a deadly funnel web spider by pouring gasoline down the spider's burrow and lighting it with a match, a ambulance service spokesman said. The gasoline ignited and a searing burst of flame engulfed the arachnophobe's bare legs and buttocks. The spokesman said the man's nakedness contributed to the extent of his burns. Fellow nudists told the AAP news agency that the spider turned out to be a harmless trapdoor spider.
■ Hong Kong
Aussie drug mules jailed
Three Australians -- including two teenagers -- were given prison sentences of up to 13 years and four months yesterday in Hong Kong for trying to smuggle heroin stuffed in condoms to Australia. Lawyers for the defendants, all from Sydney, asked the judge to give their clients light sentences because they were naive, vulnerable young people recruited by a crime syndicate promising quick money and a vacation to Hong Kong. Deputy High Court Judge Kim Longley sentenced the youngest defendant, Chris Ha Vo, 16, to nine years in prison, while the other teenage defendant, Rachel Ann Diaz, 18, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months. The third defendant, Hutchison Tran, 23, faces 13 years, four months imprisonment.
■ Japan
Whaling firms exit business
Environmentalists hailed victory yesterday as key Japanese firms quit the whaling business after a pressure campaign, although the government vowed no change to its controversial annual hunt. Fishing giant Nissui and four other firms that have owned whaling company Kyodo Senpaku will "soon donate" all of their shareholdings to public interest corporations, a Kyodo Senpaku spokesman said. Its new shareholders will include the Institute of Cetacean Research, the Japanese government-backed agency promoting whaling.
■ Japan
Boy survives 20-story fall
A seven-year-old boy miraculously survived a fall from a 20th floor window when his mother leapt to her death holding him in her arms in an apparent murder-suicide bid, police said yesterday. The woman, 40, wrapped her arms around her son before making the 60m leap on Sunday in Sakai, some 400km west of Tokyo. She died instantly but the boy suffered only broken legs and his life was not in danger, a local police spokesman said. "We suspect the woman forced her son into a double-suicide but because she jumped off holding her son and they landed in a garden, she by chance gave him a cushion and he miraculously survived," the spokesman said.
■ Hong Kong
Man sells soul on Internet
A 24-year-old Chinese man offered to sell his soul on the Internet and attracted 59 bids, a news report said yesterday. The man from Shanghai put his soul up for sale on a popular auction Web site and attracted a top bid of 681 yuan (US$85) before the Web site halted the sale, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said. "I don't need it, and I want to give it to someone who needs it," the man told the newspaper. He said that if the sale went ahead, he would mail pictures and souvenirs of his life and share his important memories with the buyer.
■ Spain
Pill pushers arrested
Police have arrested a gang that allegedly trafficked a little known psychotropic drug, passed off as ecstasy but more dangerous, at discos around Madrid. Officers arrested 13 people, mostly Spaniards in their 20s, and confiscated 31,000 pills with the same color, shape and shark logo as ecstasy, the interior ministry said. The alleged ringleader used a network of young women to distribute the pills at clubs to avoid raising suspicion. The drug, known as M-CPP or meta-chlorophenylpiperazine, stimulates the nervous system and produces the same hallucinatory effects as ecstasy, but can be more toxic, the ministry said.
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