■ Hong Kong
Food poisoning sickens 73
More than 70 people in Hong Kong fell ill recently from food poisoning linked to contaminated raw sea urchins, the government said. Initial investigations showed that most of the 73 people who fell sick between June 27 and July 3 had eaten sea urchins at Japanese chain restaurants, which all sourced the delicacy from the same supplier, the health department said in a statement late on Friday. The victims, aged 7 to 75, developed symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and fever hours after eating the urchins, it said. Two were hospitalized but have been discharged, it said.
■ China
Landslides kill 18 workers
Eighteen workers were killed in two separate landslides this week, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Eleven were migrant workers, who were killed when a landslide buried the tent they were sleeping in at an iron mine in northern Shanxi Province, it said. One person survived. Seven workers at an oilfield in northwest Gansu Province were also killed on Thursday by a mudslide caused by heavy rain, the Lanzhou Morning Post said.
■ China
Rivers at risk: experts
Experts voiced fears yesterday that a buildup of greenhouse gases from global warming could sharply reduce the amount of rain ending up in China's rivers, a vital source of water. If greenhouse gases continue to rise as they have been, rain and snowfall in China's Huaihe, Liaohe and Haihe river regions could decline 30 percent by 2040, Xinhua news agency quoted Dong Wenjie (董文傑), director-general of the National Climate Center, saying. The Yellow River could also be affected, he said.
■ Malaysia
Father, son meet same fate
A train has run down and killed a man at just the spot where his father met the same fate eight months previously, a Malaysian newspaper said on Saturday. The 34-year-old man, V. Marathai, was cut in half when a moving train hit him early on Friday in the northern Malaysian town of Ipoh, the Star reported. His father, N. Veerapan, 64, died at the same spot last November when he crawled under a train he thought was stationary. "My father used that tract as a shortcut to his friend's house," the paper quoted V. Chandran, a brother of the bachelor Marathai, as saying.
■ Vietnam
Exam scam uncovered
Police have broken up a ring helping students cheat on high-pressure university entrance exams using mobile phones and bluetooth earpieces hidden under wigs, local media reported yesterday. At least eight people have been arrested in the scheme, in which students paid up to US$3,000 to get live help during the crucial entrance exams, according to the Vietnamese-language news Web site VNExpress. Police said those who paid the cheating ring were given a mobile phone number to call for help during the exams. The students would whisper the questions to their "helpers," who would look up the correct answer and read it back to the exam-taker.
■ Myanmar
Shan surrender weapons
Nearly 900 Shan ethnic rebels have surrendered their weapons to the military regime, turning in hundreds of guns, grenades and mines, state media reported yesterday. The 848 men from a breakaway faction of the Shan State Army relinquished over 800 guns, 55 hand grenades, 63 mines and communication equipment at a ceremony on Thursday in the northeastern Shan States, said the Myanmar Ahlin newspaper. Shan rebels began turning in their arms after a government crackdown on Shan organizations, including the arrests of at least a dozen Shan politicians since February and heavy shelling of the Shan State Army's headquarters in April.
■ Vietnam
Father changes son's name
After nearly two decades of ridicule, a father has agreed to change his son's name from "Fined 6,500" -- the amount he was forced to pay in local currency for ignoring Vietnam's two-child policy. Angry he was being fined for having a fifth child, Mai Xuan Can in 1987 named his son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi after the amount he was forced to pay -- 6,500 dong (US$0.50) -- said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong. In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because classmates constantly teased the boy at school in central Quang Nam Province. But Can, a former People's Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said.
■ India
Taste of cyanide confirmed
The case is a tragedy, but a doctor says it solved a long unanswered question -- what does the deadly poison cyanide taste like? A man who committed suicide left a hastily scrawled note describing the taste of the fatal toxin, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported yesterday. "Doctors, potassium cyanide. I have tasted it. It burns the tongue and tastes acrid," he wrote, according to the paper. It is not clear why the man, identified as M.P. Prasad, a goldsmith, killed himself, because he died before he completed his suicide note, local Police Chief K. Pramod told the paper. Local police could not immediately be reached to confirm the report.
■ Italy
Berlusconi facing fraud trial
Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been ordered to stand trial on charges of false accounting, embezzlement and tax fraud in the purchase by his Mediaset empire of TV rights for US movies, his lawyer said. Mediaset chairman Fedele Confalonieri and British lawyer David Mills were also indicted in the case, Berlusconi lawyer Nicolo Ghedini said on Friday. They were among 12 people ordered to stand trial Nov. 21 on charges including tax fraud and embezzlement.
■ United States
Tripoli stalls on cash
Libya is holding off on making hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the families of Americans killed in the bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The payment appears to have fallen victim to a Libyan desire for a prominent public acknowledgment of its rehabilitation. According to a US government official involved in foreign policy, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the topic, Libya was seeking an invitation to the White House for Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, or at least a visit to Tripoli by an important US official.
■ Ireland
Hearse driver fined
A hearse driver has been fined for speeding -- while leading a funeral cortege. Police ordered undertaker John Carr to pay an 80 euro (US$102) fine and gave him two penalty points for driving at 69kph in a 50kph zone. Several other vehicles in the cortege -- on its way to a funeral in County Donegal, northwest Ireland -- were also fined. "I've never heard of a hearse being done for speeding before. I suppose I'll probably have to pay the fine," the Irish Times newspaper quoted Carr as saying. "I'm not too worried about the points because I intend not to incur any more."
■ Spain
Pope heads for Valencia
Pope Benedict XVI left Rome yesterday morning for the Spanish city of Valencia where he is to attend the closing stages of the World Meeting of Families (WMF), the Telenews agency reported. The pontiff arrived by helicopter at Rome's Fiumicino airport, from where he left on board a specially chartered Alitalia Airbus A321. He was due in Spain by late morning. More than one million people are expected to attend the WMF, a celebration of traditional Christian family values. The pope will also pray with some of the families of the 42 people killed in Monday's metro train crash in Valencia, after visiting the scene of the accident.
■ Italy
Mafiosi to have in-vitro baby
A judge has ruled that a Mafia boss serving a life sentence should be allowed to father a baby through artificial insemination -- and the public health service should pay for it. The judge accepted the request by Salvino Madonia, who was convicted for the 1991 murder of a businessman who had refused to pay an extortion fee. Madonia, 50, is detained in a high-security prison and is not allowed to meet his family, including his 32-year old wife Mariangela, in private. "The judge decided to overcome this problem and guarantee his right to fatherhood," Madonia's lawyer Giovanni Anania was quoted as saying in Corriere della Sera daily. Madonia will not be allowed to leave the prison for the procedure, meaning that an official from the local health service would have to go to collect his semen in jail.
■ United States
Proposal tilled in soil
Stacy Martin needed a bird's eye view to see her boyfriend's marriage proposal. Brian Rueckl's proposal came as a 3,715m2 message, "Stacy will you marry me?" tilled in a cornfield near the Manitowoc and Kewaunee county line. "At first I was in shock and forgot to say, `yes,'" Martin said. Rueckl, an employee of the US Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, persuaded Martin to take an airplane ride with him on Monday to take pictures of the land. The proposal came after a year of planning and 40 hours of work. Rueckl, 23, tilled the message, which included two intersecting hearts, on a farm owned by his boss.
■ United States
Painting not a Duccio
A Columbia University professor known for challenging the art historical establishment has asserted that a painting purchased in 2004 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an estimated US$45 million is not the work of the early-Renaissance master Duccio di Buoninsegna, to whom it has long been attributed. The Met's scholars have dismissed his argument, citing detailed scientific testing and scholarly study of the work, a Madonna and Child. The art historian, James Beck, first cast doubts on the work's authenticity last November, writing that the infant Jesus' "gourd-like head is hardly rewarding and is quite at odds with confirmed and documented paintings by Duccio."
■ United States
Saw attacker arraigned
A man accused of wielding two cordless power saws in a subway station and slicing into a postal worker's chest during a pre-dawn rampage was ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination. A Manhattan Criminal Court judge on Friday ordered the examination for Tareyton Williams, 33, during his arraignment on charges of attempted murder and misdemeanor assault. Williams, wearing dirty socks but no shoes, entered no plea.
■ United States
Ex-teacher denies attack
A former teacher pleaded not guilty to trying to kill a student who was found clinging to life in a park. Samson Shelton, 26, made the plea during an arraignment on Friday on one count of attempted first-degree murder which accuses him of attacking 17-year-old Ashley Reeves, the Belleville News-Democrat reported on its Web site. Authorities allege that Shelton choked Reeves with a belt and left her in a city park in Belleville, Illinois, where she spent about 30 hours before being found on April 29. Investigators have said that Reeves and Shelton had a "relationship."
■ United States
`Himbo' goes mainstream
Mouse potatoes joined couch potatoes, google officially became a verb and drama queens finally found the limelight on Thursday when they crossed over from popular culture to mainstream English language. The mouse potato (who spends as much time on the computer as his/her 1990s counterpart did on the couch), the himbo (attractive, vacuous and male) and the excessively emotional drama queen were among 100 new words added to this year's update of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The Internet search engine Google also found its way into the dictionary for the first time as a verb, meaning to find information quickly on the Net.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the