■ China
Reverend backs faith limits
A leader in the state-backed Christian church defended government limits on religious freedom yesterday, saying Christians are free to worship and spread their faith as long as they do so privately. The Reverend Cao Shengjie, president of the China Christian Council, said that government regulations allow worship in authorized venues but not in public places in order to protect the rights of others.
■ China
War declared on moth
The government plans to launch an "air war" against the American white moth and other pests destroying its northern countryside, state media reported yesterday. The aerial campaign will include 1,000 sorties by Yun-5 planes bombarding roadside green belts and other suspected moth hideouts with pesticide, the China Daily said. A helicopter will also be used to launch "surgical strikes" against the worst-hit areas, according to the paper.
■ China
Diners spurn wild animals
Diners are eating fewer owls, civets and other exotic wildlife due to fears of SARS and bird flu, according to a survey released yesterday by US and Chinese conservation groups. The survey of 24,000 people in 16 cities found that nearly 72 percent had not eaten wild animals in the past year, up from 51 percent in a 1999 survey, said US-based WildAid and the official China Wildlife Conservation Association. "Although not everybody believed that civets were to blame for SARS, the market still has been shrinking. Fewer and fewer people consume civets," Yin Feng, a researcher for the Chinese group, said at a news conference.
■ Indonesia
Passenger boat sinks
Rescue workers have found 50 survivors of a boat that sank off the eastern province of East Nusa Tenggara, but continued searching for a dozen others still missing, officials said yesterday. The accident took place on Monday evening when the wooden motorized vessel was caught in heavy seas en route to the island of Rote from the nearby island of Ndao, officials said. While other local government officials had earlier said that the boat was carrying over 100 people on board when it sank, a police spokesman yesterday said the it was only carrying about 60 people, including several crew members.
■ Nepal
King meets former PMs
King Gyanendra met with two former prime ministers late on Monday. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who was prime minister from 1999 to 2000, said "there will be a change" in the political situation, but added: "How can a person with all powers easily decide to give up power?" The Kathmandu Post said that Surya Bahadur Thapa, three times prime minister since the 1960s, told party colleagues after his audience with the king: "There was no positive sign." Meanwhile the nationwide strike eased slightly yesterday with a few more shops open, the 13th day of a mass pro-democracy movement against the king.
■ Japan
Fragrant films coming soon
Movie fans bored will soon be able to experience cinematic smells after a film distributor announced it is showing the world's first fragrant films. Shochiku Co. said it would release The New World, a historical drama starring Colin Farrell about the colonization of New England, at two cinemas on Saturday with the newly developed computerized fragrance system. The system will offer six kinds of aroma depending upon the scenes being shown. "This is the world's first trial to offer various kinds of scene-matching fragrances, which will make viewers feel as if they are really in a forest, for example, with the smell of the woods," a spokeswoman for Shochiku said.
■ Japan
Tests indicate mad cows
Preliminary tests on a cow in western Japan indicate it may be infected with mad cow disease, a health official said yesterday. Meat inspectors in Okayama prefecture found on Monday that a dairy cow, due to be slaughtered for meat, has tested positive for the disease, said prefectural health official Waichiro Kawai. The prefecture has sent samples from the cow to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases for confirmation Kawai said. Also on Monday, agriculture ministry officials said a steer in northeastern Japan may have had mad cow disease. Japan, which conducts mad cow tests on all cattle killed for meat, has confirmed 24 cases since 2001 -- including three cases this year -- according to the Agricultural Ministry.
■ Thailand
State of emergency extended
The government said yesterday that it would extend a state of emergency in the south of the country as part of measures to combat a Muslim insurgency that has left over 1,000 people dead. The state of emergency covers Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces. Emergency rule lets the government impose curfews, prohibit public gatherings, censor and ban publications, detain suspects without charge, confiscate property and tap telephones. It also makes officials immune from "civil, criminal and disciplinary penalties" while carrying out acts under its provisions.
■ Russia
Gypsy brothers murdered
Police are investigating the murder of two Gypsies in the latest of a spate of violent attacks on foreigners and people from ethnic minorities. The two brothers, aged 26 and 27, were shot dead in Kuznetsovka in the northwest of the country by an attacker with a hunting rifle. A 23-year-old suspect has been arrested, but police said there was no evidence that Sunday's attack was race related. Critics on Monday blamed the Kremlin for not doing more to prevent such attacks. "The Russian authorities are not eloquent or explicit enough in expressing themselves or in the pursuit of a policy of curbing nationalism and xenophobia," the veteran liberal politician Grigory Yavlinksy told reporters.
■ Greece
Temblor rocks Ionian isles
A strong earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale rattled the western Ionian islands yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury. The underwater earthquake occurred at 6:54am, the Athens News Agency said. Its epicenter was 240km west of Athens, just south of the island of Zakynthos. The island has been the scene of eight strong earthquakes since April 11, ranging from 5 to 5.9 on the Richter scale.
■ United Kingdom
Happiness lessons offered
A leading independent school has decided to ensure school days are the most enjoyable days of its pupils' lives by adding happiness lessons to the curriculum. Ian Morris, head of religious education at Wellington College in Berkshire, southern England, will bring a smile to the faces of 14 to 16-year-olds from September by adding happiness to the more familiar topics (including sex and drugs) usually taught in personal, social and health education lessons. "For far too long UK schools have had a lop-sided curriculum in which the accent has been on academic intelligence rather than emotional intelligence," said Anthony Seldon, who became head this year.
■ Russia
AK-47 still `the best'
Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the world's most popular assault rifle, says US soldiers in Iraq are using his invention in preference to their own weapons, proving that his gun is still the best. "Even after lying in a swamp you can pick up this rifle, aim it and shoot. That's the best job description there is for a gun. Real soldiers know that and understand it," the 86-year-old gunmaker told a weekend news conference in Moscow. "In Vietnam, American soldiers threw away their M-16 rifles and used [Kalashnikov] AK-47s from dead Vietnamese soldiers, with bullets they captured. That was because the climate is different to America, where M-16s may work properly," he said.
■ Russia
Mystics in costly curse con
Police are looking for two mystics who persuaded a student to part with more than US$160,000 in exchange for lifting a curse, RIA news agency reported on Sunday. "Two unknown women, on the pretext of lifting a curse, stole US$150,000 and some jewelry by means of deception. The total amount stolen is estimated at 4.48 million roubles [US$161,800]," the agency quoted a police source as saying. The victim is a female student at Moscow's elite State Institute for International Affairs, RIA said. Many Russians are highly superstitious. They spend huge sums each year on faith healers and alternative medicine.
■ Brazil
Robbers busy at Easter
In crime-plagued Rio de Janeiro, the City Hall is not immune from robberies, not even on Easter. Police said on Monday that a group of between 10 and 15 armed masked people raided the lobby of one of the City Hall complex buildings the previous day, taking 15 guards and over 20 maintenance workers hostage as they opened several automatic teller machines and then fled with an unspecified sum in cash. Rio's municipal guards carry no firearms. The assailants also stole one of the guards' motorcycles.
■ Brazil
`Nun killer' to be tried
Judges rejected a motion to overturn an indictment against a Brazilian rancher and ordered him to stand trial in the killing of US nun Dorothy Stang, court officials said on Monday. Regivaldo Galvao, 41, is accused of ordering Stang's killing in February last year in the Amazon jungle town of Anapu, some 2,000km north of Rio de Janeiro. Galvao's lawyer had requested that the judges dismiss the indictment on grounds there wasn't enough evidence to justify a jury trial but the motion was rejected, said court spokeswoman Gloria Lima. ``Galvao's going to a jury trial,'' Lima said by telephone from the Para state capital of Belem. No trial date has been set.
■ United States
Robots may be sex partners
When the US' top sex researchers gathered recently to discuss the next decade in their field, some envisioned a future in which artificial sex partners could cater to every fantasy. "What is very likely to be present before 2016 would be a multi-sensual experience of virtual sex," said Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington. "There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a partner of certain dimensions and qualities, the partner saying certain things in that interaction, certain things happening in that interaction," she said.
■ United States
Man confesses to killing nun
The body of a missing Catholic nun in Buffalo, New York, was found after her stolen cellphone led police to a parolee who was living in the home for former prison inmates where she worked, authorities said. Craig Lynch, 37, confessed to killing Sister Karen Klimczak, but said it was an accident, police said. He was in police custody on Monday evening and was expected to be charged with second-degree murder and larceny. The body of Klimczak, 62, was found behind an abandoned house about 8km from her home, said Detective Sergeant Jim Lonergan. It was in a shallow grave inside a shed, and it looked as if she might have been suffocated or strangled, he said.
■ Venezuela
Government reclaims land
The government reclaimed more than 27,000km2 in potential drilling acreage from private oil companies last month by requiring them to join new state-controlled joint ventures, a local daily, El Tiempo, reported on Monday. Amid efforts by the government to take greater control of the oil industry and boost its share of revenues, private firms operating 32 oil fields were required last month to form joint ventures with the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA. Under the new terms, PDVSA took at least a 60 percent stake in each field, hiked taxes and royalties, and took back drilling acreage that it claimed the companies had failed to invest in.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in