■ China
Penisless man wins claim
A man has been awarded more than 500,000 yuan (US$62,000) in compensation 19 years after a hospital severed his penis by mistake, local media reported yesterday. Dou Xueliang of Anshan, Liaoning Province, suffered the loss in 1987 when he went to have a penis infection treated, the sina.com Web site said. Doctors mistook Dou's problem for cancer and removed most of his penis, "causing him to lose his sexual functions," according to the report.
■ China
Landslide buries village
Seventeen people are missing after a landslide at a gold mine in the northwest engulfed their homes, Xinhua news agency reported. It said five villagers were in hospital after a cascade of toxic gold tailings buried their homes following the collapse of a dam wall at the mine in Shaanxi Province on Sunday. "The local government has taken emergency measures to prevent the poisonous content in the tailings, including sodium cyanide, from polluting the environment," Xinhua said.
■ Hong Kong
Journalist on trial
A Hong Kong journalist detained in China on accusations of spying for Taiwan will face trial soon although no date has been set yet, his wife said. Mary Lau (劉敏儀), the wife of Ching Cheong (程翔), chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, said she had been informed by the Hong Kong government about the impending trial. Hong Kong security chief Ambrose Lee (李少光) declined to comment on the news but said the Security Bureau was in contact with Chinese authorities about the case.
■ Australia
Soldier buried after mixup
The first Australian soldier killed on active duty in Iraq was buried with full military honors yesterday amid confusion over the cause of death and a bungle which saw the wrong body initially sent home from Baghdad. Prime Minister John Howard attended the funeral of Jake Kovco, 25, a sniper deployed to provide security for Australian officials in Baghdad, who died after he was shot in the head in his room in the Iraqi capital on April 21. Australia's Defence Force originally said Kovco died after an accident while he was cleaning his handgun, but an inquiry is now under way after it was found he was not cleaning his gun at the time. Australian newspapers said a coroner had found the gun was not close to Kovco's head when he was killed, lessening the possibility his death was suicide.
■ New Zealand
Rocker leaves hospital
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has been released from a New Zealand hospital which had monitored a head injury he reportedly suffered falling out of a palm tree in Fiji, a spokesman for the hospital said yesterday. Richards, 62, suffered a mild concussion last week while staying at the exclusive Wakaya Club resort in Fiji last Thursday. Mystery still surrounds exactly how Richards hurt his head. A Rolling Stones spokeswoman has only said that he suffered a concussion, without detailing how.
■ Hong Kong
Elderly woman assaults cop
An elderly woman driver was arrested yesterday for allegedly pushing a policeman to the ground when he tried to issue her with a parking ticket, according to police officials. The woman allegedly snatched the traffic policeman's notebook before assaulting him during the incident on a roadside in the city's Mongkok district yesterday morning. A police spokesperson said the officer was treated for minor injuries in hospital and an "elderly woman" was later arrested for alleged assault. The woman's exact age was not immediately known.
■ Malaysia
Love spans 71-year age gap
A 33-year-old man has married a 104-year-old woman, saying mutual respect and friendship had turned to love, a news report said yesterday. It was Muhamad Noor Che Musa's first marriage and his wife's 21st, according to the Star newspaper which cited a report in the Malay-language Harian Metro tabloid. Muhamad said that he found peace and a sense of belonging after meeting Wook Kundor, whom he said he initially sympathized with because she was childless, old and alone, the report said. "I am not after her money, as she is poor," Muhamad reportedly said. The report did not say if any of Wook's previous 20 husbands are still alive.
■ Japan
Torture teen arrested
A teenager has been arrested for torturing his former junior high classmate by dousing him with lighter fluid and setting him on fire with fireworks, police said yesterday. "I tried to punish and surprise him because I thought he had avoided me," the 18-year-old unemployed suspect was quoted as telling police, Kyodo News Agency said. In a grisly incident that took place in a mountainous area last year, the suspect reportedly stripped his 18-year-old victim, bound his arms and legs, wrapped him in newspaper, poured lighter fluid on him and then set him ablaze with fireworks, the police said. The victim survived but has required more than three months in hospital for burns on his face and back.
■ Somalia
UN official appeals for aid
A senior UN humanitarian official appealed to Arab nations that have benefited from soaring oil prices to help millions suffering from food shortages due to a prolonged drought in East Africa. Kjell Magne Bondevik, a former Norwegian prime minister, said on Monday the UN has raised only 20 percent of an emergency US$426 million appeal for 15 million people affected by drought. Bondevik, the UN special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa, compared the food shortages to a "silent tsunami." Speaking to reporters in Baidoa, Bondevik said the drought "has had a gradual, terrible impact where the tsunami was sudden and dramatic."
■ Italy
Berlusconi gives way
Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi handed in his resignation yesterday to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi following his election defeat last month, an official statement said. Ciampi "received [Berlusconi] who submitted his resignation from the government he heads. "The president of the republic asked [Berlusconi] to stay in charge to handle current affairs," the president's office said in a communique. It was not clear if Ciampi would quickly give the mandate to form a government to Prodi, whose coalition scored a narrow victory in the April 9-10 elections.
■ United kingdom
Mayor slams US diplomats
The mayor of London lashed out at US diplomats on Monday for refusing to pay a vehicle levy in the capital after figures revealed the US embassy was the worst fine dodger in the past six months. It racked up ?271,000 (US$495,000 dollars) in fines over that period, since the so-called congestion charge was launched in central London in February 2003. The US embassy decided last July it would not pay the levy, arguing it was a local tax and therefore did not apply to foreign diplomats.
■ Swotzerland
Polar bears, hippos join list
Polar bears and hippos have joined the ranks of species threatened with extinction from climate change, unregulated hunting and other manmade dangers, a leading environmental agency said yesterday. The World Conservation Union said more than 16,000 species of animals and plants were at risk of disappearing, including one in four mammals and one in eight birds. It added 530 species to its "Red List" of endangered species since the last version released two years ago. China, Brazil, Australia and Mexico are home to large numbers of threatened species, the union said.
■ Germany
Violence marks May Day
In violence that has become an annual feature of May Day, leftist demonstrators clashed on Monday in two eastern provincial cities with parading neo-Nazis as well as with riot police who had formed cordons to protect the rightists. Far-right groups held Labor Day marches in the eastern German city of Leipzig and the port city of Rostock, prompting counterdemonstrations. About 5,000 leftists confronted 550 neo-Nazis in Leipzig, blocking part of the authorized route. Police said they were unable to prevent some brawls between the groups. There was violence in Rostock, where civic officials said about 5,000 people formed a counterdemonstration to a rally by 1,200 supporters of the German Nationalist Democratic Party. Police said they detained 32 people.
■ United States
Court backs Anna Nicole
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that one-time stripper and Playboy magazine Playmate Anna Nicole Smith can pursue part of her late husband's oil fortune. Justices were unanimous in giving new legal life to Smith's bid to collect millions of dollars from the estate of J. Howard Marshall II, which has been estimated at as much as US$1.6 billion. Smith has been embroiled in a long running cross-country court fight with Marshall's youngest son, E. Pierce Marshall. The court's decision means that it will likely not end anytime soon -- although there is no guarantee she will collect any money.
■ Brazil
Lula blasts rival's strike
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday a potential populist rival in October's presidential race was thin-skinned for going on a hunger strike over media criticism. Anthony Garotinho, an ex-governor of Rio de Janeiro state who wants to be the centrist Brazilian Popular Movement Party's candidate, stopped eating on Sunday in protest at media suggestions of illegal campaign funding. "If I went on hunger strike every time the press attacked me, I would be stillborn," Lula told reporters on leaving a church Mass in Sao Paulo.
■ Chile
May Day madness
Police fired water cannon and tear gas on Monday to break up gangs of youths who broke shop windows and tried to overturn barriers in front of the presidential palace during the traditional May Day march. At least 74 people were detained and two photographers and a police officer were injured by stones thrown at a mobile television truck. The mayor of Santiago, Victor Barrueto, condemned the violence and said those responsible would be prosecuted. The trouble began as demonstrators, which included parents with young children, passed before the presidential palace and the youths pushed over barriers protecting the palace. As the march continued, the hooded demonstrators hurled stones at shop windows, prompting police to fire blasts of water cannon and tear gas.
■ Mexico
Drug lord throws party
Masked wrestlers, dancing clowns and trailer-loads of presents greeted more than 10,000 children and their mothers gathered in a baseball stadium for "Children's Day" in the north of the country last weekend. And according to newspapers in the region, the apparent sponsor was Osiel Cardenas, the jailed head of the powerful and bloody Gulf cartel. Cardenas' name was on cards handed out with thousands of gifts at the stadium on Friday in the town of Reynosa, wishing the attendees a happy Children's Day, and urging them to study hard, reported local paper La Tarde. Mexicans call April 30 Children's Day and usually celebrate with parties and gifts.
■ Brazil
`Tourist police' arrested
Two police officers from a special unit designed to help tourists have been arrested for extorting money from two foreigners in the violent city of Rio de Janeiro, officials said on Friday. Not satisfied with about US$260 they got from the tourists on Thursday night in the middle of Rio's famous Copacabana beach for allegedly possessing drugs, they accompanied the Czech and the US citizen to their hotel to get more money. A spokesman for the Rio state security secretariat said the tourists alerted hotel security guards who called the police and the two officers were arrested on the spot.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was