■ Cambodia
Mouse short-circuits city
A tiny mouse the size of a human toe cut electric power to more than 40 percent of Phnom Penh, officials said on Tuesday. The mouse managed to short-circuit a 40-megawatt power plant south of the city, said Chea Sun-hel, director of the power company's distribution department. "The mouse was as big as a human toe, but it created a big problem," he said. Phnom Penh's 1.3 million residents often suffer power cuts that the government blames on technical problems.
■ Singapore
Zombie Jesus probed
Police are investigating allegations that a man published offensive caricatures of Jesus Christ on his Web site, reports and police said yesterday. The 21-year-old man started posting the cartoons in January -- the first one depicted Jesus as a zombie biting a boy's head, the Straits Times said in a report. He later published another three drawings, the report said. "I never thought anyone would complain to the police because the pictures were not insidious," the man was quoted as saying by the newspaper. His identity remains anonymous.
■ Cambodia
Hoe down
An elderly Cambodian man was in custody accused of hacking his brother to death with a hoe after he found out his daughter was pregnant and the girl blamed his nephew, police said yesterday. The police chief of Kirivong district in southern Takeo province said Chaeng Ken, 66, became enraged after discovering his 21-year-old deaf mute daughter was pregnant and the girl pointed to his nephew, Nget Sarom, 22, when he demanded to know who the father was. "He began to argue with his brother ... and blame him for the actions of his son," Sophoan said.
■ Belgium
Amnesty shuns kidnapping
Amnesty International urged European states on Wednesday to stop being "partners in crime" with the US over the alleged kidnapping of terrorism suspects and their transfer to countries that use torture. In a report and a letter addressed to EU leaders meeting on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, the human rights groups backed accusations that the US Central lntelligence Agency ran secret transfer flights and that European countries were aware of it. "There is irrefutable evidence of European complicity in the unlawful practice of renditions," Amnesty said in the letter. "The European Council must therefore put a resolute stop to the attitude of see no evil, hear no evil that has prevailed so far," Amnesty said, referring to the EU summit.
■ United States
Fear of flying kills drivers
Americans' fear of flying after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks led to more than 1,500 road fatalities because millions of Americans made long journeys by road instead of by air, German researchers said on Tuesday. The study compared the perceived risk of being killed in a hijacking with the much greater risk of dying in a highway crash. For months after the suicide-hijacks, which cost about 3,000 lives in all, US road tolls were much higher because of the increase in traffic. The study assessed the effect at 1,595 road deaths in all. "That's six times as many as the passengers on the four planes who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001," said Professor Gerd Gigerenzer. The four Boeing airliners had had a total of 265 people on board. Gigerenzer heads the Max Planck Institute for Education Research in Berlin and the study was published in the journal Risk Analysis.
■ Germany
Patient gets left in the lift
A German hospital admitted on Tuesday that a patient had spent three days locked in a broken-down elevator when nobody noticed that the lift in the multi-story building was out of order. The man, 68, a wheelchair user who has a slight intellectual handicap, was being treated and checked at Charite hospital in central Berlin after his ordeal. He had been taken to the hospital by ambulance on Friday for an out-patient eye examination. After he was missed from the old people's home where he lives, police searched for him in vain. Charite spokeswoman Kerstin Endele said that when he was discovered Monday evening he was tired but conscious.
■ United Kingdom
Going nuts in the office
A British government worker has been fired and another demoted following allegations they were involved in serious misconduct, including leaping naked from filing cabinets and having sex in office lavatories. Newspaper reports said staff at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in Newcastle in northeast England also took drugs at work, brawled in the reception area and carried out pranks such as vomiting in cups and leaving them for other people to find. "Action has been taken to strengthen RPA Newcastle with a senior manager drafted in to take charge while the investigation and series of disciplinary actions to resolve some instances of serious misconduct and behavioral problems there is concluded," the RPA said in a statement on Tuesday. An investigation into the alleged misconduct was launched on May 24.
‘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