■ Hong Kong
Ang Lee may cast Zhang
Taiwanese director Ang Lee (李安), who helped propel Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) to international stardom with the box office hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, may cast the actress again in his upcoming Chinese thriller, a news report said. Lee's assistant Li Liangshan confirmed that Zhang was among a number of Chinese actors who are in talks to star in Lee's new movie Lust, Caution, the Chinese-language news Web site Sina.com reported on Friday. While Li did not deny that Zhang has been chosen for the role of a revolutionary youth, he only said that moviemakers were "in many talks with many Chinese actors and have not yet made a decision," Sina.com said.
■ China
Mao auction canceled
The planned sale by the Huachen auction house of a 55-year-old portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) was canceled after "advice from the government" following opposition from thousands of people who said the picture should be saved for the nation, the official Xinhua news agency said. The painting, owned by an unnamed Chinese American, had been expected to fetch up to 1.2 million yuan (US$150,000) at auction, but the owner was now "in discussion with a number of museums in China about donating the artwork," it said. It was a prototype for posters and for the paintings that were displayed on the Tiananmen rostrum in the 1950s and 1960s.
■ Vietnam
Schoolgirls commit suicide
Five schoolgirls, in an apparent group suicide, drowned themselves by leaping into a river with their hands tied, police said yesterday. The bodies of the girls, who all attended seventh grade together, were discovered in the Thai Binh River about 150km northeast of Hanoi. Their hands had been bound together with red ribbons from school. Police believe the girls, two of whom were twin sisters, leapt to their deaths on Wednesday evening, but their bodies were not discovered until Friday. "The families found suicide notes," said Le Xuan Ba, chief investigator with the Thanh Ha police department in Hai Duong Province. "In the notes they said they were sorry to their parents and friends."
■ Singapore
Toy truck scares birds
A toy truck has been developed by a Singapore Air Force unit to scare birds away from airfields by broadcasting noises of barking dogs and avian screams of distress, the inventors said yesterday. The remote-controlled gadget can protect planes against potentially catastrophic bird strikes. "As we're from a squadron that flies remote-controlled planes, we're in tune with remote-controlled stuff, so we toyed with the idea of fitting [the truck] with various systems," the Straits Times quoted Captain Tong Wei Jye as saying. While startling birds with the noise, the toy truck does not harm the wildlife.
■ Hong Kong
Inventor wins college slot
Teenage inventor, Chan Yikhei, who also has a planet named after him, has become the first Hong Kong student to win a place at university before finishing high school, media reports said yesterday. The 16-year old will study electronic and computer engineering after being accepted by Hong Kong's University of Science and Technology, the South China Morning Post said. Paul Chu, the university president, said: "We not only looked at his academic performance and his achievements. We are also satisfied that he is mature enough.
■ Germany
Swan swoons over boat
A swan has fallen in love with a plastic swan-shaped paddle boat on a pond in the German town of Muenster and has spent the past three weeks flirting with the vessel five times its size, a sailing instructor said Friday. Peter Overschmidt, who operates a sailing school and rents the two-seat paddle boat on the Aasee pond, said the black swan with a bright red beak has not left the white swan boat's side since it flew in one day in early May. "It seems like he's fallen in love," said Overschmidt. "He protects it, sits next to it all the time and chases away any sail boats that get anywhere nearby. He thinks the boat is a strong and attractive swan."
■ Germany
Journalists spied on: report
Germany's foreign intelligence agency illegally spied on journalists to expose their sources, according to a parliamentary report made public on Friday. The nearly 180-page report determined that measures taken by the Federal Intelligence Service against German reporters in an effort to shut off leaks violated the law. "Regarding the accusations in the press that the Federal Intelligence Service ... illegally spied on journalists in order to expose their sources, it is to be ascertained that such observations did take place ... these measures were predominantly illegal," reads the report.
■ United Kingdom
Circus woman needs books
A circus strongwoman who rips up telephone directories as part of her act has launched an appeal for 500 phone books to ensure her show in northern England can go on. German-born Sylvia Brumbach, known as The Woman of Steel, says she is about to run out of books after destroying over 100 at Blackpool Tower Circus. "I just brought 200 over from Germany ... I've used over half of them already," she told reporters. Brumbach, who says she can tear a directory in half in around 30 seconds, has placed ads in local newspapers appealing for more books. "You have to find the right point to rip, the book must not be too old and the spine must be tough, not wobbly," she said.
■ United Kingdom
Animal protesters barred
Oxford University on Friday won an extension to its court injunction banning animal rights activists from protesting against the building of a biomedical research laboratory. It had sought a 6km exclusion zone to protect staff, students and building contractors, but was granted a more limited extension, in which the area where protesters are banned was "moderately" increased. Activists will no longer be able to use a megaphone during their weekly demonstrations against the lab. They have also been banned from picketing or demonstrating within 100m of the home of a "protected person," including staff, students and alumni.
■ United States
Tobacco survey released
Nearly one in five 13 to 15-year-old students worldwide use tobacco products, according to findings of a new survey released on Friday. The new findings come in anticipation of the WHO's World No Tobacco Day, which is held every year on May 31. The theme for this year is "Tobacco: Deadly in Any Form or Disguise," emphasizing that it's not just cigarette smoking that is harmful. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey was begun in 1999 as joint effort by the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Canadian Public Health Association.
■ Finland
Dismay after Lordi unmasked
Thousands of Finns have signed an online petition to express their dismay after magazines published pictures of Eurovision winners Lordi out of their trademark monster suits. The band, who shot to fame with their song Hard Rock Hallelujah, had asked media not to run pictures of them out of character. Two Finnish tabloid magazines ignored their appeal, however, sparking a chorus of online jeers. Hosts of the online petition at http://adressit.com/ansku69 said about 200,000 people had added their names so far.
■ United States
`Gunfire' causes evacuation
What turned out to be an erroneous report of gunfire led police to lock down an office building on Capitol Hill for five hours on Friday as officers went room to room, looking for intruders and escorting lawmakers, lobbyists and visitors out. The episode began with a call to the Capitol Police dispatch center reporting sounds of gunfire in a lower-level parking garage of the Rayburn House Office Building. "The cause of the loud sound appears to have come from construction workers in the area during the course of their routine work," said police spokeswoman Sergeant Kimberly Schneider.
■ Bolivia
Chavez fears US plot
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday said US President George W. Bush has "given the green light" to overthrow Bolivian President Evo Morales and called on Bolivians to take the streets to fight against possible coup plotters. Reacting to Bush's comment on Monday that he was "concerned about the erosion of democracy" in Bolivia and Venezuela, Chavez gave the warning in a speech in Bolivia's Chapare region. "If the US president says he's worried the democracy is eroding in Bolivia this simply means that he's already given the green light to start conspiring against the democratic government of Bolivia," said Chavez.
■ United Kingdom
Galloway causes outrage
Maverick politician George Galloway triggered a storm of protest on Friday by saying it would be morally justified for a suicide bomber to kill Prime Minister Tony Blair. Asked by GQ magazine if Blair's assassination by a suicide bomber would be justified as revenge for the Iraq war, he said: "Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it, but if it happened I believe it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of July 7," he said, referring to attacks by four suicide bombers on London's transport system last year that killed 52 people.
■ United States
Muffin prank backfires
Two Dallas students have been charged with giving a high school's employees marijuana-spiked muffins in a senior prank that sent 18 people to hospital. Ian Walker and Joseph Tellini, both 18, could receive 10 years in prison or more if convicted of felony charges. Walker is accused of delivering adulterated bran muffins to the teachers lounge of Tellini's suburban school on May 16 and claiming they were part of a Boy Scout project. When Lake Highlands High School employees ate the muffins, they began complaining of nausea, lightheadedness and headaches. The FBI investigated because the case involved a contamination of the food supply at a school. A joint terrorism task force found that terrorism was not involved, but determined the muffins contained marijuana and turned up a surveillance video of the delivery.
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