■ China
Beida to offer golf lessons
Peking University (Beida) plans to teach golf as part of its physical education program, the Beijing News reported yesterday. The university said permission would also be sought to build a driving range on its campus. Reaction to the news was mixed among students at the university. "Golf isn't a proletarian sport," one told the paper. "Most students wouldn't be able to afford it and the university should concentrate on providing better facilities for more popular sports." A business student, however, was more enthusiastic. "Golf is very popular among businessmen and white collar workers and the university has to keep up with the times."
■ China
Workplace deaths targeted
The government will spend nearly US$60 billion over the next five years to reduce the high death toll in its coal mines and other dangerous workplaces, state media reported yesterday. A government plan issued on Monday calls for reducing the overall industrial death rate from 3.85 per 100,000 workers last year to 2.8 in 2010, the Xinhua news agency and newspapers said. They said it was the first long-range safety plan of its kind. Industrial accidents killed more than 127,000 people last year, the reports said. The government will spend 467.4 billion yuan (US$58.6 billion) on nine major safety improvement measures through 2010, with mine safety receiving top priority, Xinhua said.
■ India
Men clamor for camel milk
Thousands of men in Rajasthan state have been clamoring to get their hands on camel milk after an 88-year-old man who fathered a child several weeks ago attributed his virility to the drink, the Times of India newspaper said yesterday. Since farmer Virmaram Jat revealed what he believes to be the secret of his sexual prowess, sales of camel milk have shot up and dealers have doubled their prices in the western state, the paper reported. One vendor, Samran Singh, told the paper he now charged 40 rupees (US$0.8) a liter, up from 20 rupees a few weeks ago. However, doctors and scientists in Rajasthan said it was unlikely the milk was responsible for his achievement.
■ China
`Heroes' not ready for public
A patriotic Internet game featuring heroic Chinese and designed to wean the young off their addiction to violent foreign games is still not ready for release a year after development begun, Xinhua said yesterday. In Chinese Heroes players "click on statues to learn about their experiences and carry out tasks like moving bricks," Xinhua said. "We hope the game will teach players about Chinese ethics," it quoted Kou Xiaowei, an official with the General Administration of Press and Publication, as saying. Some of the heroes will include Lei Feng (雷鋒), a Mao Zedong-era model soldier, and Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), also known as Koxinga, who seized Taiwan from the Dutch in 1661.
■ Australia
Coffin handlers warned
Mourners were urged yesterday not to shoulder coffins because the obesity epidemic has increased the weight of the containers to dangerous levels. The Funeral Directors Association has advised members to insist on using heavy lifting gear to lower coffins into graves. "We're finding now that people are generally getting bigger and, obviously, so are the coffins to accommodate them," an official with the Anglican and Cemeteries Trust told the Age daily.
■ United Kingdom
Thousands hit by rail strike
Thousands of rail passengers faced a chaotic return to work yesterday as a strike crippled some of London's busiest commuter lines. South West Trains (SWT) warned people not to travel on its network after hundreds of drivers walked out in a growing row between unions and managers. There were no trains on many routes into London's Waterloo station from across southern England, forcing commuters to find another route to work after the long Bank Holiday weekend. About 900 members of the Aslef rail union walked out in a dispute with SWT over the provision of taxis for staff working anti-social shifts.
■ Romania
Secret files to be opened
President Traian Basescu has called for secret communist-era police files on clerics of different faiths to be opened. The dreaded Securitate is believed to have recruited many priests during communism, when churchgoing was not encouraged and atheism was official state policy. Some files, which are being opened ahead of Romania's joining the EU, show that citizens collaborated, while others show people were under surveillance. However, the definitions are often not clear because most informers and officers were also under surveillance. Patriarch Teoctist who heads the influential Orthodox Church to which more than 80 percent of Romanians belong said last week he was opposed to the files being opened.
■ United States
Lawmaker's son abducted
The 26-year-old son of a Pennsylvania lawmaker is missing, two days after allegedly being abducted at gunpoint from a Philadelphia street -- a kidnapping police said could be linked to the shooting of his mother and sister in a home invasion robbery. Democratic Representative John Myers, a vocal advocate for gun-control legislation, issued a statement on Monday asking the public's help in locating his son Shamari Taylor. Taylor's 56-year-old mother and his sister, 21, were shot at the family's home by two intruders on Sunday, the day after Taylor's abduction, police said. His mother remained hospitalized in critical condition after being shot in the head. His sister, 21, was treated and released on Sunday evening.
■ Chile
Schaefer gets seven more
Paul Schaefer, a former corporal in Adolf Hitler's army who founded a notorious religious commune in the country, was sentenced to another seven years in prison, this time for possessing illegal weapons, a media report said on Monday. In May, Schaefer, 84, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for 25 cases of sexual abuse of minors. While preaching rigid morality, he sexually abused children and teenagers at the sealed-off commune known as Colonia Dignidad, authorities say.
■ Canada
`Gilligan's' boat for sale
If you're interested in a three-hour tour, broker George Schultz has just the boat for you. For US$89,400, you can buy the boat, the SS Minnow, famous for setting aground on an uncharted desert isle to set the stage for the 1960s television classic Gilligan's Island. The owner of the boat, Scotty Taylor of Parksville, is selling the storied vessel because he is tired of it, Schultz said. According to the Gilligan's Island Web site, the boat is the third of four vessels used in the show.
■ Canada
Smoke diverts airline flight
An Egypt Air flight carrying more than 300 passengers was diverted to the eastern Canadian province of Newfoundland on Monday after smoke was detected in the cockpit. The Boeing 777 departed from Cairo for New York City but had to make an emergency landing in Goose Bay, said Kevin Aylward, CEO of Goose Bay Airport Corp. The passengers stayed on the plane while maintenance workers fixed the problem. "It's something they were able to fix very quickly," said Aylward, who did not know what the exact cause of the smoke was. No fire was found and no one aboard was injured, he added.
■ United Kingdom
Migrant income targeted
Britain should set an income target for immigrants and those who do not meet it should not be allowed to settle in the country, a think tank was set to propose yesterday. The Daily Telegraph reported that Migrationwatch would propose that migrants with an income of less than £27,000 (US$51,200) a year not be allowed to permanently settle in Britain. That income figure, which only one in five migrants reach, is the level at which a person begins making positive contributions whether measured by taxes paid or by contribution to gross domestic product, the think tank argues. Individuals with lower incomes put pressure on existing infrastructure. The average wage earned in Britain last year was £28,210 according to government statistics.
■ Brazil
Tainted candidates banned
Election authorities have banned about 1,500 candidates charged with fraud from running in Brazil's general election next month, officials said on Monday. The suspensions are part of a renewed effort to clean up Brazil's corruption-plagued political system following scandals over vote-buying and campaign financing last year that brought calls for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's impeachment. "Authorities are more pro-active because pressure from society to deal with this huge corruption quagmire is bigger than ever before," Joao Paulo Peixoto, professor of politics at the University of Brasilia, said.
■ United States
More travel data requested
The government needs broader access to airline passenger information to identify potential hijackers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an article published yesterday. "How do we thwart a terrorist who has not yet been identified?" Chertoff wrote in an op-ed article in yesterday's Washington Post. "One way is by using more of the detailed information collected by airlines and travel agencies when an individual books a flight," Chertoff wrote. "These passenger name records contain information, such as travel itineraries and payment details, that can be analyzed in conjunction with current intelligence to identify high-risk travelers before they board planes."
■ United States
Pilots noted lack of lights
Pilots of a Comair jet that crashed on takeoff noticed there were no lights as they prepared to take off, but they did not recognize they were headed down the wrong runway, investigators said. The only survivor in the crash that killed 49 people, first officer James Polehinke, was piloting the plane, National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said on Monday. He remained in critical condition in a Kentucky hospital. The cockpit voice recorder showed that the pilots were talking about the absence of lights on the runway.
‘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