■ Japan
Eating queen prevails again
Twenty-year-old eating queen Natsuko Sone won a gorging contest on the island of Hokkaido, gobbling two boxes of sea urchins, 500 grams of salmon roe and crab meat, three squid, 10 scallops and assorted sashimi in 30 minutes, media reports said yesterday. The eating contest also included nearly four liters of rice for each of the 10 contestants. She has already won several eating contests featured on television.
■ Singapore
Orc-bashing declared sport
Killing orcs and other online monsters has received the official nod of approval as a national sport with a group set up to train players for international cyber-gaming events, organizers said yesterday. The CyberSport Association has been endorsed by Team Singapore, which overseas the national sports teams. "We are recognizing the positive contribution of cyber-athletes in doing the country proud," the Straits Times quoted Kelvin Chua, general manager of Team Singapore, as saying.
■ Japan
Cops uncover grisly crime
A man is under arrest for allegedly dismembering his mother and entombing her body parts in concrete-filled buckets abandoned in a yard in western Japan, police said yesterday. Police suspect that 37-year-old Yaoki Osawa of Kawachi Nagano City also roasted some of his mother's body parts on an electric grill before throwing them out with the garbage Kyodo News agency reported. Despite confessing that he had dismembered his mother, Osawa denies killing her, a police spokesman said. The suspect says he discovered his mother's lifeless body at home and, not knowing what to do with her, chopped her up.
■ New Zealand
Smoker saves diver
A smoker ,who went on deck aboard a cargo ferry to have a pre-dawn cigarette, saved the life of a diver missing in the Cook Strait for more than 12 hours, the Newstalk ZB radio network reported. The 30-year-old diver, who has not been named, failed to surface after a fishing expedition on Sunday afternoon. About 5am yesterday, a crewman on the cargo ship Kent having a smoke on deck heard his cries for help, the report said. The ship turned around and search lights picked up the reflective safety gear he was still wearing. The man, who had drifted nearly 13km during the night, was taken to hospital and later discharged as being fit and well.
■ China
Detained Nyima turns 17
A Tibetan youth considered by rights groups to be the world's youngest political prisoner turns 17 today, 11 years after disappearing from public view when he was named the Himalayan region's second-ranking religious figure. The whereabouts of Gendun Choekyi Nyima -- who human-rights watchdogs say has been living under house arrest since the Dalai Lama recognized him as the 11th Panchen Lama -- is one of China's most zealously guarded state secrets. Beijing picked Gyaltsen Norbu as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989. The 16-year-old Norbu, who recently made his world debut at a Buddhism forum in China, is reviled by Dalai Lama loyalists as a pretender.
■ Philippines
Bus plunges, killing seven
A bus fell into a 30m deep ravine while negotiating a curvy road in the northeastern Philippines early yesterday, killing at least seven passengers, police said. An additional 64 people were taken to a hospital in nearby Pagbilao Town, about 120km southeast of Manila, police officer Ronaldo Glorioso said. He said the Manila-bound bus was trying to avoid a vehicle coming from the opposite direction when it lost control and fell off the road. It wasn't clear if the driver was among the dead, Glorioso said.
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