World News Quick Take

■ New Zealand
Microwave killer jailed
A teen who used a microwave to kill a pet budgie he stole from a school classroom has been sent to prison for nine months. Ashley James Daldy, 18, pleaded guilty to eight charges of burglary and one of cruel treatment of an animal, the Waikato Times newspaper reported yesterday. Prosecutors told Hamilton District Court Daldy had broken into the school where he was once a pupil on three occasions, stealing the bird, computer equipment and a video. He later put the budgie in a microwave oven. Judge Anne McAloon said on Monday that killing the bird was a "particularly nasty offense" but the eight burglaries were more serious.

■ Japan
Majority favors reform
A majority of the public think the country's pacifist Constitution should be revised but the number in favor of the move has dropped since a survey last year, a newspaper poll released yesterday found. Fifty-six percent of respondents said the Constitution should be revised, while 32 percent opposed the move, the survey by the Yomiuri said. The percentage of those who support changing the Constitution was down from 61 percent last year. The Constitution bars the use of military force in settling international disputes, and prohibits maintaining a military for warfare. The government, however, has interpreted this to mean the nation can have troops to protect itself.

■ Malaysia
Bomb hoax is no joke
After an April Fool's weekend bomb hoax forced a plane to be evacuated, Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy has warned that would-be pranksters face a lifetime in jail for similar actions. "If you think this is a joke, you may have to pay a heavy price," Chan was quoted as saying in the Star daily. A 31-year-old man was detained on Sunday for staging a bomb scare aboard a domestic flight operated by budget carrier AirAsia. The man, who police say will be sent for psychiatric evaluation, told a flight attendant he wanted to get off the plane bound for eastern Sabah state because there was a bomb on board.

■ Singapore
`Soft-hearted' abuser guilty
A man pleaded guilty to abusing four boys in monsoon drains by promising them free cellphones if they joined his soccer team, news reports said yesterday. Mohamad Norrahhi Noman, 30, handed out fliers about the team and befriended four youths, aged between 13 and 15, the Straits Times said. He then tricked them into performing sexual acts. Norrahhi tied up the hands and legs of a 13-year-old boy on the pretext of showing him a magic trick, the court heard on Monday. When the youngster struggled, Norrahhi threatened him with a pair of scissors. Norrahhi was exposed when the brothers of the 13-year-old followed their sibling. Norrahhi told the court he likes mature men, not children. "I'm a soft-hearted guy," he was quoted as saying.

■ Hong Kong
Customs foils MiG plot
Customs officials were reported yesterday to have foiled an attempt to smuggle a MiG-29 fighter jet through the territory. The Cold War-era fighter jet, with its engines removed, is said to have been found inside a container being shipped through Hong Kong's container terminal. Government-run radio station RTHK said yesterday the fighter jet was intercepted as it was being shipped through Hong Kong to a third country. It was not known where the plane began its journey.

■ Australia
Mourning parents harassed
The parents of a newborn boy who died because of medical malpractice received a bill from the Austrian hospital for the doctor's services, the APA news agency reported on Monday. After the parents refused to pay, the hospital engaged a debt collection agency to receive payment for services for which a doctor was convicted of negligent homicide, the report said.

■ France
Beware of bear
Health watchdogs have issued an unusual warning about bear meat, citing the case of French hunters who shot a bear in Canada, ate the meat and then fell violently sick with a parasitic disease. Twenty-four people set down to a feast near Orleans, central France, to tuck into the bear, whose meat had been brought back from Canada by the hunters, the Weekly Health Bulletin, published by the Institute for Public Health Surveillance, said on Monday. Seventeen of them them fell sick with trichinellosis, an intestinal infection caused by eating meat with microscopic larvae. Eight of the 17 needed to be hospitalized, some of them for nearly two weeks. Those who ate fully cooked portions of meat suffered no ill-effects, but those who had even a mouthful of portions that were rare fell ill.

■ United Kingdom
Alcohol cloud spotted
Astronomers say they have spotted a cloud of alcohol in deep space that measures 463 billion km across, a finding that could shed light on how giant stars are formed from primordial gas. The vast bridge-shaped cloud of methyl alcohol has been spotted in a region of our galaxy, the Milky Way, that is called W3(OH), where stars are being formed by the gravitational collapse of concentrations of gas and dust, the discoverers said in a press release. Methanol, an organic (carbon-based) molecule, is a cousin of ethanol, which is found in alcoholic beverages. Methanol is not suitable for human consumption. The cloud was spotted by astronomers based at Britain's Jodrell Bank Observatory led by Lisa Harvey-Smith.

■ Czech Republic
Diaper tax pooh-poohed
A EU commissioner from the Czech Republic is reportedly defending his country's objection to an EU-wide tax on disposable diapers on grounds that it may hurt Europe's birth rate. A Prague newspaper said on Monday that Commissioner for Employment Vladimir Spidla, a former Czech prime minister, supports a Czech Republic request to tax nappies at a 5 percent VAT rate. Spidla says the EU rule to tax diapers at higher rates "is absurd for the demographic policy of the union," a commission source told the financial daily Hospodarske noviny.

■ Saudi Arabia
Women become men
Tired of playing second fiddle to men in this conservative country, five women decided if you can't beat them, join them. Al Watan newspaper said the five women underwent sex change surgery abroad over the past 12 months after they developed a "psychological complex" due to male domination. Women in this southwest Asian country, which adopts an austere interpretation of Islam, are not allowed to drive or even go to public places unaccompanied by a male relative. The newspaper quoted a senior cleric as saying the authorities have to fill what he described as a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations.

■ United States
Bladder milestone passed
Doctors have implanted bladders made from engineered tissue into patients with bladder disease, the Lancet reported on Monday. The process was pioneered by a team led by Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest University Medical School at Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They identified seven patients aged four to 19 who had been diagnosed with a congenital anomaly called myelomenin-gocele. A small tissue sample was taken from each patient, and was used to seed muscle and specialized bladder cells on a bladder-shaped structure made of collagen.

■ United States
Media linked to more sex
A new study has found a direct link between sexy media and teen promiscuity, theorizing that youngsters view the sex-filled messages as if they came from trusted friends or family. The survey from a team of researchers at the University of North Carolina was released yesterday and found that sexually charged music, magazines, television and movies push youngsters into sexual activity at ever-earlier ages. "This is the first time we've shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media, the earlier they have sex," said Jane Brown, the chief author of the report. The study cross-checked the sexual development of 1,017 adolescents with their exposure to a diet of movies, TV shows, music and magazines.

■ Canada
Marijuana bill to be snuffed
Canada's new Conservative government will scrap draft legislation which would have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday. The legislation, drawn up by the previous Liberal government, alarmed police officials in Canada and the neighboring US who said it would only encourage the already booming trade in pot. Once the Liberals lost the Jan. 23 election after 12 years in power, the bill looked to be in deep trouble. One of Harper's five priorities is to clamp down on crime. "We will not be reintroducing the Liberal government's marijuana decriminalization legislation," he said.

■ United States
Astronauts head for airlock
Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station were set to test last night a new procedure for preparing astronauts for spacewalks from the station. Once station commander Bill McArthur and the incoming US crewmember, Jeffrey Williams, are sealed inside the airlock chamber, the pressure will be lowered to test the procedure. Before leaving the outpost, astronauts breathe pure oxygen to remove nitrogen from their bloodstreams. In the vacuum of space, nitrogen in the body can lead to a dangerous condition called "the bends," which can afflict divers who surface too quickly.

■ Peru
Fujimori to be extradited
Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori will be extradited from Chile to Lima in the coming months to stand trial on corruption and human rights charges, Peru's justice minister said yesterday. "I have the commitment and the will behind handing Fujimori over to Peruvian police, who will travel to Santiago to bring him in handcuffs, before the current administration ends so that he has his day in court," Alejandro Tudela told the official Andina news agency. President Alejandro Toledo leaves office on July 28, by which time Tudela said Fujimori would be brought from Chile.