■ China
Third arm removed
Doctors yesterday successfully removed an unusually well-formed third arm from a two-month-old boy. Neither of the boy's two left arms is fully functional, but doctors decided to remove the one growing closer to his chest after tests showed it was less developed, said Chen Bochang, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center. "The surgery was quite successful," Chen said following the three-hour operation. "Now we're just waiting for the patient to wake up." The boy, identified only as "Jie-jie," will require long-term physical therapy to build strength in the hand on his remaining arm, Chen said.
■ China
Street names sorted out
Shanghai is cleaning up its streets by renaming more than 372 of them in the suburbs that have the same names as those downtown, local media reported yesterday. The plan will also eliminate 154 small streets with duplicated names and merge them with major streets, reported the Shanghai Daily. "The duplicated street names have caused a great deal of inconvenience to locals and visitors," said Liu Bo, an official at the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau, at a press conference. Though there are many duplicates in the metropolis of 20 million, there are 10 streets called Yucai and five Fumin Roads. The one in Jing'an district will keep its name, while four other Fumin Roads in two other districts will be renamed.
■ Hong Kong
Molestation poll panned
A radio station was under investigation yesterday for running a contest asking listeners to name the female celebrity they would most like to indecently assault. Two presenters on the city's Commercial Radio announced an Internet poll on a program for young listeners on Saturday asking them which of 20 singers and actresses they would like to molest. The list on the station's Web site included top female show business personalities including singers Kelly Chen and Miriam Yeung and the two singers who make up the Canto-pop duo Twins. Complaints about the contest have now been lodged with the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority.
■ Australia
Sex, death don't mix
Brothels and cemeteries don't mix and should remain at least 200m apart, a local government official said yesterday. Paul Pisasale, the mayor of Queensland state town of Ipswich, is part of a movement being led by the Urban Local Government Association to prevent brothels from being built near cemeteries. Prostitution is legal under certain circumstances. "There's a lot of families and services that are going on and the last thing you want is someone conducting a spiritual service and a cemetery reflection time for family and a brothel going on next door," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp radio yesterday. "It's totally inappropriate," he said.
■ Australia
Former politician guilty
Mark Latham, the former political star whose career flamed out after an election thrashing two years ago, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of malicious damage for smashing a photographer's camera. The former Labor Party leader was given a two-year good behavior bond over the incident involving a newspaper photographer who took pictures of Latham with his two young sons at a Sydney fast food restaurant.
■ United Kingdom
Butlers in the Buff a hit
Forget the quintessential image of the British butler as the epitome of discreet decorum. "Butlers in the Buff" has proved such a business success as half-naked waiters in the UK that the firm is now off round the world to market the ultimate "male order" service. The company, whose waiters wear only a bow tie, collar, cuffs and a bottom-revealing apron, is the brainchild of former Royal Marine Jason Didcott. Determined to find a tasteful alternative to strippers and pole dancers, he lays down strict rules -- each waiter undergoes a scrupulous police check and drink-fueled clients are firmly told to keep their hands to themselves. "What we are looking for is James Bond in a butler outfit. We want them to be cheeky but clean," he said.
■ United States
Dying pilot saves others
A pilot suffering a heart attack made an emergency landing on a highway, saving his three passengers shortly before he died. Jack Francis, 61, president of Francis Trucking in Brigham City, had taken off from Jackpot, Nevada, and was headed home with his wife and another couple when he suffered a heart attack on Sunday morning, Utah Highway Patrol spokesman Derek Jensen said. He landed the single-engine Cessna 185 on Utah 30 near Park Valley and was taken to Bear River Hospital in Tremonton, where he died, Jensen said.
■ Brazil
High-profile trial postponed
Defense lawyers walked out of the courtroom on Monday and forced a postponement of the trial of Suzane von Richtofen, her former lover and his brother, accused of plotting the murder of her parents in a crime that has riveted the country. Involving a forbidden affair that crossed rigid class lines, an attractive, blonde girl from a wealthy family and an allegedly bloody ending, the crime has fascinated the country. The four lawyers for Suzane, 22, walked out when judge Alberto Anderson Filho denied their request for an adjournment on grounds a key witness was traveling. The judge said the lawyers had to be present for jury selection and rescheduled the trial for July 17.
■ Iceland
Prime minister resigns
Prime Minister Halldor Asgrimsson announced his resignation on Monday night in a speech outside Reykjavik. Speaking at Thingvellir, Asgrimsson accepted responsibility for the poor showing by his liberal Progressive Party in local elections last month. He did not set a date for leaving office. The Progressives won just 12 percent of the vote, a drop from 23 percent in 2002 local elections. Foreign Minister Geir Haarde, who heads the Independence Party, the conservative senior partner in the ruling coalition, is expected to take over the premiership.
■ Afghanistan
Bomber rams US convoy
A Taliban suicide car bomber rammed a US coalition convoy in the southeast Afghan province of Khost yesterday, wounding some troops, a US military spokeswoman in Kabul said. "We have very limited information, but there are no reports of coalition casualties, only reports of injured," said Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence, adding that she did not know how many soldiers were injured or the extent of their injuries. The attacker blew himself to pieces and his vehicle was completely destroyed, while two US soldiers suffered slight injuries, according to Wali Shah Najar, secretary to the provincial governor.
■ United States
Two police `hitmen' jailed
Two former New York police detectives were sentenced to life in prison on Monday after they were convicted of using their badges to help commit murder on behalf of organized crime. Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were convicted by a federal jury in early April of eight murders for the Luchese crime family. Defense lawyers had argued the men were framed by turncoat mobsters and others seeking government leniency for their own misdeeds.
■ France
Judicial reform push urged
A parliamentary committee was due to approve a report yesterday urging a shakeup of the justice system after a case that saw at least 13 innocent people wrongfully jailed for child sex abuse. One of the worst miscarriages of justice in the country since the end of World War II prompted a rare public apology from President Jacques Chirac and calls for reform of a judicial system whose flaws had been starkly exposed. The case, which arose from reports of child abuse in the town of Outreau in 2000, was seen initially as a major pedophile affair but later proved to be a more limited case of incest in which over a dozen outsiders were wrongly implicated. An appeal court ruled the convictions had been made on the basis of inconsistent evidence in an investigation run by an inexperienced magistrate.
■ United States
Road rage now a disorder
Doctors have a new name for road rage -- intermittent explosive disorder -- and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans. By definition, intermittent explosive disorder involves multiple outbursts that are way out of proportion to the situation. The disorder typically first appears in adolescence; in a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the average age of onset was 14. The study was based on a national face-to-face survey of 9,282 US adults who answered diagnostic questionnaires in 2001-2003. About 5 percent to 7 percent of the sample had had the disorder, which would equal up to 16 million people.
■ Saudi Arabia
Food aid offered to Africa
Six countries in the Horn of Africa are to benefit from US$10 million in drought relief Riyadh has pledged to provide through the World Food Program (WFP), the Royal Saudi Embassy in Ethopia said yesterday. The cash donation would be forwarded to the WFP to buy and distribute food to the needy this month in drought-affected parts of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia and Tanzania.
■ United Kingdom
Testicular cells provide hope
Scientists have been granted permission to investigate whether stem cells found deep inside testicles can be used to repair damaged tissues and organs. Fertility specialist Robert Winston at the Hammersmith Hospital in London and other scientists will pluck cells from testicular tissue to see if they are as versatile as embryonic stem cells, which can potentially grow into any tissue in the body. If the scientists succeed in harvesting the cells and keeping them alive, they could pave the way for powerful new therapies for conditions as diverse as heart disease, Parkinson's and spinal cord injuries. Chris Barratt, scientific director of the Assisted Conception Unit at the Birmingham Women's Hospital, said: "There are a lot of testicles around and you don't need a staggering number to have enough variety to match nearly all of the population."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not