■ India
Skull fragment lures crowds
Hundreds of people are thronging a hospital in Calcutta to see a patient holding a piece of his own skull that fell off. Doctors say a large, dead section of 25-year-old electrician Sambhu Roy's skull came off on Sunday after severe burns starved it of blood. "When he came to us late last year, his scalp was completely burned and within months it came off exposing the skull," Ratan Lal Bandyopadhyay, the surgeon who treated Roy said on Wednesday. "Later, we noticed that the part of his skull was loosening due to lack of blood supply to the affected area, which can happen in such extensive burn cases," he said.
■ Vietnam
Papers penalized for sex ads
Two local newspapers have been fined for running phone sex advertisements that violate the country's traditional cultural values, an official said yesterday. The Vietnam Sports newspaper was fined 12 million dong (US$750) for "running sex advertisements with contents that violate traditional habits and customs," said its editor, Hoang Du. The ads for mobile phone message services used "rude wording" to stir up sexual temptation, he said. More than 10 other papers have carried similar ads and are under investigation by the Ministry of Culture and Information, Du said. Ho Chi Minh City Law was also fined 10 million dong.
■ Hong Kong
City losing expat appeal
Hong Kong is losing its appeal as a destination for expatriates, judging by a report published yesterday that found only six people have applied for residency under a new migrant scheme. The city had expected a deluge of overseas applications when it launched its Quality Migrant Admission Scheme at the beginning of the month. But the deluge turned out to be a trickle with a half-dozen applications lodged in the first week, according to the South China Morning Post. The scheme allows for up to 1,000 people a year to migrate to Hong Kong and stay for up to a year to seek employment.
■ Australia
Smooth-talker nabbed
Police arrested yesterday a woman suspected of stealing thousands of dollars by posing as a doctor, a businesswoman, a flight attendant and a mobster's niece, after months-long chase across three Australian states. Jodie Harris, 28, was detained in Sydney early yesterday carrying several pieces of false identification, New South Wales state police officer Grant Taylor told reporters. Harris, who is wanted for fraud in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, has been dubbed the "Catch Me If You Can" thief after the 2002 film in which Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a smooth-talking fraudster. Police alleged Harris used a number of false identities to befriend unsuspecting women, stole their drivers' licenses and fooled bank staff into giving her access to their accounts.
■ Singapore
US teen lands in jail
A US teenager who came to Singapore for drug rehabilitation was sentenced to six months in jail after he went on a shopping spree with stolen credit cards, the Straits Times newspaper said yesterday. Dane Alan Butterfield, 18, stole two credit cards from his roommate at a private hospital where he was being treated for painkiller addiction and spent S$4,050 (US$2,550) in just a few hours, it reported. He was caught when he tried to purchase scarves at a duty-free shop while awaiting a flight back to Jakarta.
■ United Kingdom
Terror suspect rules altered
The House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British parliament, approved measures on Wednesday paving the way for terrorist suspects to be held for up to 28 days without charge, effective July 25. Parliament had agreed in March to double the previous 14-day period that police can hold terrorist suspects, after rejecting a proposal from Prime Minister Tony Blair's government for a 90-day period. But the change could not be implemented before Wednesday's adoption of a new code of practice dealing with the detention, treatment and questioning of terrorist suspects pending charge and trial.
■ United Kingdom
Murderous officer jailed
A jealous police officer who tried to murder his ex-wife by cutting through her neck with a saw after ramming her car off a road in southwest Scotland was jailed for 12 years on Wednesday. John Kelly, 45, ploughed his vehicle into Audrey McDowall's car in Dumfries last year. Horrified witnesses watched as he then grabbed the saw and started to hack at her neck. McDowell suffered a 15cm deep neck wound that just missed her carotid artery and internal jugular vein following the attack in September last year.
■ United Kingdom
Speed solution was `stupid'
Motorist John Hopwood concocted a novel scheme to avoid payment when he was given a speeding fine -- simply switch the road signs. Hopwood, 44, had been snapped by a speed camera breaking the 30mph (48kph) limit. So he went to a 40mph (64kph) area, removed a red "40" warning sign, drove back to the 30mph area, attached it to a lamp post and took a photo as "proof" that his offence of driving at 48mph had not been so bad. However, suspicion soon arose when other drivers started querying the sign. "This was a stupid act, bound to fail," Judge Anthony Ensor at Manchester Crown Court was quoted by media as telling Hopwood.
■ Croatia
Nazi ship to become church
The defense ministry has donated a World War II Nazi ship to a local Roman Catholic monastery, which will turn it into a sailing church, the Jutarnji List daily newspaper reported on Tuesday. The landing ship DTM-219 was used by Nazi Germany to transport tanks and infantry. It was given to communist Yugoslavia after 1945 as part of war compensation, it said. The ship, currently anchored at a Croatian navy port, will be towed to the city of Sibenik, in the central Adriatic, where it will be adapted at a local shipyard. It will be used as sailing church for the young, the daily said.
■ Netherlands
Thighs `sold' as ad space
A Dutch design student bored with conventional advertisements has set up a fake online agency offering advertising space for beer, cars and TV stations on prostitutes' thighs and cleavage. On his Web site www.instoresnow.nl, Raoul Balai also proposed painting brand names on zoo animals and floating huge billboards off popular beaches to get vacationers' attention. "I was getting sick and tired of advertising everywhere," Balai told reporters. "But I don't want to preach, and I thought satire would work better." Far from taking his ideas as a joke, an Amsterdam zoo had its lawyer threaten Balai with a defamation suit after his Web site depicted fish from the zoo bearing the brand name of a frozen fish company.
■ United States
Georgia on Bush's mind
President George W. Bush on Wednesday promised visiting Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili that he would work with partners in NATO to help Tbilisi join the alliance. "I believe that NATO would benefit with Georgia being a member of NATO, and I think Georgia would benefit," Bush said as they met in the Oval Office. Bush also turned to a song made famous by late soul legend Ray Charles to assure Saakashvili that worries about Iran, Iraq and North Korea would not make him forget about Georgia's needs. "I've got a lot that comes to my desk here, absolutely. I've got a lot to think about. But my friend, the president, wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't have `Georgia on my mind,'" Bush quipped.
■ Chile
Bolivia claims progress
Bolivia and Chile are making progress in a process that could eventually lead to re-establishing full diplomatic relations that were severed almost 30 years ago, the new consul to Chile said on Wednesday. Consul Jose Pinelo told reporters the two countries have still not begun formal talks on diplomatic relations but said the government of President Evo Morales was interested in strengthening bilateral ties. "In reality we haven't yet begun a dialogue," Pinelo said. "We're still in the trust-building stage and at the same time I think that we both feel more confident about the agenda." Relations between the neighboring countries have been rocky for more than a century after they clashed in a war.
■ Brazil
Candidate pledges free trade
The leading opposition candidate said on Wednesday he would pursue free-trade agreements and open the economy more aggressively than President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva if he defeated the incumbent in October. Former Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin said Lula's center-left administration had done little to reach trade agreements with the world's largest markets, particularly the US and Europe. Lula "made very little progress," Alckmin, a centrist, said in reference to stalled trade talks between the South American trade block Mercosur and the EU. Negotiations toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas, including Mercosur, are also on hold.
■ United States
DNA exonerates convict
New York lawyers say DNA evidence exonerates a man convicted more than two decades ago in the brutal rape of a 25-year-old woman. The Innocence Project and prosecutors from the Bronx district attorney's office were to file papers yesterday asking for Alan Newton's 1985 conviction to be vacated based on recent testing on a rape kit performed on the woman after the incident. Officials at the Innocence Project -- a nonprofit legal clinic and criminal justice organization -- said they expected Newton would be released from prison after a hearing at Bronx Criminal Court.
■ United States
Trader donates millions
A wealthy bond trader and his wife will donate US$10 million to the University of California, Irvine, for stem-cell research, much of it for a proposed research building. About US$2 million would be allocated to support human embryonic stem cell research at the university, said Bill Gross of Newport Beach, founder and chief investment officer of Newport Beach-based investment firm PIMCO. Another US$8 million would be a matching gift for a proposed stem cell research center, he said.
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