■ China
PRC offers `correct' maps
Eager to reinforce public support for territorial claims disputed with Taiwan, Japan and others, China has offered 418 politically correct maps to be downloaded free online, state media said yesterday. An investigation by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping found that 256 Chinese Web sites were carrying different kinds of maps, but most of them were "problematic," the Beijing News said. Xinhua news agency said some of the maps omitted or mistook the Diaoyutais, rocky islets in the East China Sea claimed by both China and Japan. The same thing happened to hundreds of islets on the South China Sea whose ownership China disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines, it said. "There are also those that fail to correctly mark Taiwan as a Chinese province," Xinhua said. "Online maps spread quickly and have a huge influence," it quoted a bureau official as saying. "The bureau's posting the 418 maps is one of the measures to tackle the problem."
■ China
Detained filmmaker freed
The government has released an independent filmmaker and blogger nearly five months after detaining him, apparently for making a documentary about an underground church, a rights group said yesterday. Hao Wu (吳皓), a permanent resident of the US, was released on Tuesday, according to his sister, Reporters Without Borders and Radio Free Asia. "Just got a call at home and been informed that Hao Wu is out," his sister Na Wu (吳娜) said in a message dated July 11 on her Web site, which she has used to rally support for her brother. "Thank you everyone for your concern, but he needs some silence for now. If there is any new information it will be posted on this blog," she wrote.
■ Thailand
Thaksin threatened
Authorities were examining reports of a plot to "harm" the prime minister, the intelligence chief said yesterday, as security around Thaksin Shinawatra was significantly increased. "There were reports of a plot to harm the prime minister two weeks ago, and we are checking whether the reports are true," Jumpol Manmai, the head of the National Intelligence Agency told reporters. He did not provide other details. Thaksin, who normally has 12 bodyguards, was recently provided an additional 30 security agents from the National Security Center, an army general who works closely with the center said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
■ Thailand
Team tries to save elephant
A rescue team armed with heavy machinery was working to save a 50-year-old elephant that slipped into a muddy ditch in a jungle and couldn't get up, an official said yesterday. The 5 tonne elephant has been lying on its side since the fall last week inside the massive Khao Ang Rue-Ni wildlife sanctuary. Its left hind leg was stuck in deep mud, caused by weeks of heavy rains, and the elephant was unable to lift itself because of a previous injury to its right rear leg, said Boonlue Poonnil, head of the wildlife sanctuary.
■ Malaysia
Man fined a buffalo, pig
An indigenous man in Sabah State on Borneo Island was fined a buffalo and a pig for breaking a tribal custom by secretly marrying a second wife, a tribal court official said yesterday. The 39-year-old man was asked to compensate his first wife and children with a buffalo and a pig even though he agreed to dissolve the second marriage and return to his first wife and family, Kota Kinabalu Native Court chief William Majimbun said. The court handles cases only relating to laws of the native indigenous people in Sabah. Majimbun said the man performed the second marriage secretly in a remote village in 2003. "Indigenous custom doesn't normally punish men who marry a second time, but in this case, he did not get the permission of the first wife," Majimbun said.
■ Japan
Surveyors spark scare
Tokyo's busiest airport was forced to close one of its runways briefly yesterday after three people conducting a bird survey caused a security scare. The Tokyo International Airport in Narita east of the capital shut one of its two runways for about 10 minutes after a pilot made an emergency call reporting seeing three people on a taxiway, an airport spokeswoman said. In fact the three were authorized to conduct a regular bird survey in the area and were not on the actual taxiway, she said.
■ Vietnam
Elephants go on rampage
A herd of rampaging elephants has destroyed crops and put villagers on high alert, an official said yesterday. The 15 rare wild elephants first appeared in central Gia Lai Province's Chu Prong district over the weekend and have since trampled at least 25 hectares of corn and rice paddy, according to Bui Viet Hoi of the local communist People's Committee. No one has been hurt, but Chu Prong's residents have been warned to "be aware of being attacked," Hoi said. Still, he said, "We have asked local people not to shoot the elephants, as they are endangered." Vietnam now has fewer than 100 elephants left in the wild, according to local media.
■ United Kingdom
Family cleans up in sale
An 18th century Chinese vase given as a retirement gift to a cleaning lady 60 years ago netted a small fortune for her family on Monday when it was snapped up after being proved to be a missing Imperial treasure. The 20cm-high Qianlong vase, which has stood unrecognized next to the family's television for years, fetched ?92,000 (US$169,700) at London's auction house Bonham's sale. "This is a lost treasure of the Qing dynasty," expert Julian King of Bonham's Asian art department said. "It is a truly remarkable legacy of the 20th century that this rare vase, commissioned for the Qianlong emperor in the 18th century, ended up being given to a cleaner in the 1940s and is now going back to China," he added.
■ United Kingdom
Top 10 pick-up lines
Was your father a thief? Because he stole the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes. Equipped with that pick-up line, you can be certain to score in the universal language of love. So say the authors of a new top 10 list of pick-up lines which have been translated from English into Czech, French, Italian, Spanish and German by the publishers Chambers. Taking inspiration from its new range of pocket-sized phrasebooks, Chambers compiled its own list of the top 10 pick-up lines.
■ Nigeria
Teenage girl lynched
A teenage girl has been lynched by Muslim youths for allegedly dropping a "blasphemous" document in a mosque, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. "The incident happened about two weeks ago when a girl about 18 years old was accused of dropping in a mosque a document whose contents were considered to be blasphemous," said Salabiu Jamiu, spokesman of Niger State police command. Police initially intervened, locking the girl up in a cell for her own protection, but a mob then overpowered policemen at the station and killed her, Jamiu said.
■ United States
Pastor to visit Pyongyang
A prominent pastor and best-selling author said yesterday he would bring his message of finding hope in life through faith to communist North Korea during a planned trip there next year. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, California and the author of The Purpose Driven Life, is in South Korea this week to train pastors and hold mass rallies as part of a 13-nation tour. Warren is to travel next week to the North's Diamond Mountain resort, a tourist enclave operated by a South Korean company and accessible by foreigners, to discuss with North Korean officials a planned trip to the country.
■ Egypt
Press law condemned
A new press law that allows judges to jail journalists for offences such as insulting public officials or heads of state violates international standards for press freedom, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The law, passed on Monday and billed as a reform measure by the government, eliminates imprisonment for some publishing offences such as libel but continues to let judges send journalists to jail in many cases. The US-based rights watchdog welcomed the last-minute concession in the law that appeared aimed at easing journalists' fears they could be jailed for reporting accusations of government corruption. But it said the law overall would still intimidate journalists.
■ Mexico
Election winner urges calm
The conservative winner of Mexico's contested presidential election urged calm on Tuesday ahead of street protests led by his leftist rival, who demanded a recount and said the vote could be nullified. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says last week's vote count was manipulated in favor of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon, showed reporters videos of alleged ballot stuffing. He also suggested some of his party representatives may have been bribed and repeated a demand for a complete recount. "If they won, why are they afraid of a recount," he asked in a television interview.
■ United States
Astronauts use duct tape
NASA has solved another sticky problem using its favorite space-age repair tool: the humble roll of duct tape. First pressed into service during the homemade repairs that saved Apollo 13 from disaster in 1970, the tape has since been at the center of a variety of ingenious quick fixes dreamed up by the space agency's scientists. The latest patch-up was to secure astronaut Piers Sellers to his jet-propelled backpack yesterday for the final spacewalk of the shuttle Discovery's 13-day mission to the International Space Station. Two of the pack's four anchor points failed during Monday's second spacewalk, forcing US astronaut Mike Fossum to tether it into place.
■ United States
Mouth jewelry banned
The Arlington, Texas, school district has expanded its dress codes to include mouths -- and earlobes. Students may no longer wear mouth jewelry known as "grills" -- shiny teeth caps -- or the earlobe-stretching practice known as "gauging." "The district is having to respond to fads because they've become distracters or a safety hazard for those around them," said Malcolm Turner, the district's executive director of student services. The nearby Irving, Grand Prairie and DeSoto districts also ban grills, and some also address gauging -- the process of placing increasingly large items in the ears to stretch the lobes.
■ United States
Falling ceiling kills woman
A woman was killed and her husband injured when a 12m ceiling section gave way in a Boston tunnel on Monday night, sending slabs of concrete crashing to the floor and striking the couple's car. The woman was identified as Milena Delvalle, 38, from Boston, while her husband Angel Delvalle, 46, managed to crawl out of the car and was recovering at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Boston Globe reported. "This was a horrible, horrible event," said Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Matt Amorello at a press conference on Tuesday. "It is an anomaly, and we will get to the bottom of what happened."
■ United States
Fire hospitalizes 100
A fire on an elevated subway train in Chicago on Tuesday sent more than 100 passengers to hospitals for treatment mostly of smoke inhalation, transit officials said. Two passengers were hospitalized in serious condition after the incident, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on its Web site. Riders leaving the train were described as blacked with soot from the smoke inside the cabins. The fire occurred during the evening rush hour on one of Chicago's elevated "El" trains just north of the city's downtown Loop business district. Police said there was no sign of anything suspicious in the fire.
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