■ China
Hospital chiefs moonlight
A court in China has jailed four hospital chiefs for selling medical grade drugs on the black market, a Chinese newspaper reported yesterday. The four, from China's eastern province of Shandong, were the first link in a distribution network that sold pethidine -- a painkiller -- to common drug-users, the Beijing News said. "As hospital-use drugs produced by a legal manufacturer, their purity was very high," the newspaper said. In June last year, anti-narcotics police in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, discovered "some drug users" in possession of "large quantities" of the drug, it said.
■ Malaysia
Cultivating missionary zeal
A state government in Malaysia is offering cash and cars to missionaries to help them spread Islam to indigenous tribal people -- with further monetary rewards if they marry new converts. State-funded missionaries have encouraged 2,094 villagers in northeastern Kelantan state to convert to Islam over the past decade, but officials hope the incentives will help convert an additional 10,000 who have retained their animist beliefs, Hassan Mohamood, head of Kelantan's Islamic Development and Missionary Panel, said yesterday. "We are increasing our efforts so that as many as possible will become Muslims," Hassan said in a phone interview from Kelantan.
■ Japan
LDP election dates mooted
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday party elections to choose his successor will commence on Sept. 8, with the vote possibly taking place on Sept. 20, officials said. Because the LDP, together with its junior coalition party, has a majority in parliament's powerful lower house, whoever wins the party elections is almost certain to become Japan's next prime minister. The parliamentary vote could take place as early as Sept. 25, Kyodo News agency reported, citing anonymous sources. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Ottawa, Canada, Koizumi said the official campaign period for the Liberal Democratic Party presidential elections would start on Sept. 8, according to a government official.
■ Australia
Culinary killer seeks parole
An Australian woman who stabbed her partner to death before carving him up and cooking him with vegetables appealed against the severity of her sentence yesterday. Katherine Knight, 50, a former abattoir worker and the only woman in Australia serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, argued for leniency on the grounds that he was already dead when she mutilated him. Knight stabbed her de facto husband John Price 37 times in February 2000, skinned him, cut off his head and cooked it in a pot on the stove of their home in the Hunter Valley winelands, about a two-hour drive north of Sydney.
■ Philippines
Estrada testimony ends
Prosecutors ended their months-long cross-examination of ousted President Joseph Estrada yesterday as his marathon plunder case finally appeared to be drawing toward a close. A judge earlier sided with the defense and refused to let prosecutors question the disgraced former leader on whether he lied about a controversial business deal. State Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio last week claimed that Estrada, who was deposed in a 2001 military-backed uprising, wasn't telling the truth when he testified that he never signed any government guarantees to loans by private companies.
agencies
■ Netherlands
Somali-born MP can stay
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born politician known for her criticism of Islam, will be able to keep her Dutch citizenship, even though she admitted lying in her asylum application, the Dutch government said on Tuesday. Hirsi Ali, who rose to become a high-profile member of parliament, said she would still leave her adoptive country anyway in September, as planned, to take up a research fellowship in Washington. A letter from the immigration minister to the Dutch parliament on Tuesday said Hirsi Ali would retain her nationality, which the minister had threatened to revoke.
■ United States
Killer asks for forgiveness
A train-hopping serial killer linked to at least 15 murders near railroad tracks around the country said "I deserve what I am getting" before he was executed on Tuesday night. Angel Maturino Resendiz mumbled a prayer, saying "Lord, forgive me. Lord, forgive me," and acknowledged the presence of relatives watching through a nearby window. "I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me," he said as he looked toward the relatives of victims in another room. "You don't have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life." The Mexican drifter known as the "Railroad Killer" was executed for the slaying of physician Claudia Benton.
■ United States
Cadet sex case verdict read
A Coast Guard Academy cadet was acquitted of rape but convicted of several other crimes in the first court-martial of a student in the school's 130-year history. After about eight hours of deliberations, a military jury on Tuesday found Webster Smith, 23, of Houston, guilty of indecent assault, extortion, sodomy, failure to obey an order and being absent without leave. Smith was stoic as the verdict was read but wept afterward with his parents and lawyers by his side. One of his accusers quickly left the courtroom after the verdict was read, also crying. Smith faces up to 13 and a half years in prison, but his attorney said he will argue for little or no jail time.
■ United States
Brothel unfazed by wildfires
More than 1,000 firefighters fought lightning-sparked blazes that had burned more than 32,000 hectares across northern Nevada by Tuesday, putting just about every available piece of equipment and firefighter on the lines. The fires were among 32 large ones burning in eight western states, according to the National Fire Information Center in Boise, Idaho. No injuries were reported on Tuesday. Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn declared a state of emergency on Tuesday afternoon. The flames curved around the state's capital city, but despite the threats, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel remained open. "The girls were back by 2 [am] this morning," said a bartender who gave only the name of Wendy.
■ France
`Paris Match' staff outraged
Journalists at the magazine Paris Match threatened on Tuesday to strike for the first time in the magazine's 57-year history in support of their editor, who was ordered to quit after upsetting a government minister. Staff at the weekly said they were scandalized, claiming that Alain Genestar had been sacked for political reasons. Genestar's days have been numbered since he made an enemy of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy last summer. He had splashed pictures of Sarkozy's wife Cecilia and her lover in New York on the front page.
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