■ Hong Kong
Dancing banker wins claim
A Hong Kong banker who paid a Latin dance champion and her husband US$8 million for lessons in advance won the money back in court yesterday after being called lazy in practice. High-flying banker Mimi Monica Wong, 61, said she had been humiliated by flamboyant teacher Mirko Saccani when he told her "move your arse" in front of business clients and friends and called her a "lazy cow." Wong had agreed to pay HK$120 million (US$15.4 million) to Saccani, 31, and his wife, 14-times world champion Gaynor Fairweather, for eight years of unlimited exclusive lessons. Rival dance instructors at the session testified that they heard Saccani tell Wong: "If you do it again, Monica, I'll smash your head against the wall," and that he threatened to throw her out of the window.
■ Hong Kong
`Indecent' mag appeals
A Hong Kong magazine that sparked an uproar by running photos of a pop star changing her clothes in a recent issue has appealed its classification as "indecent," a court spokeswoman said yesterday. Easy Finder magazine has challenged the Obscene Articles Tribunal's classification of its Aug. 23 edition, whose cover showed Hong Kong singer Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐) changing her outfit after a concert in Malaysia's Genting Highlands, court spokeswoman Jaime Or said. Chung, a member of the female pop duo Twins, is shown with a bare back, but her breasts are not revealed. The tribunal will now hold a hearing on the matter, Or said. Chung has reported the matter to both Hong Kong and Malaysian police. She has also sought a court injunction demanding that Easy Finder give her the photographs.
■ Malaysia
One small steep for man ...
Malaysia plans to push the boundaries of space travel, by making a cup of tea. The country will send its first astronaut into the heavens aboard a Russian rocket next year and attempt for the first time to make the nation's favorite hot drink, teh tarik, in space. "The physics experiment is to see what happens to teh tarik in space," Haniff Omar, head of Malaysia's astronaut selection program, told reporters in all seriousness Monday after two Malaysian men were short-listed to make the trip. Making teh tarik (pulled tea) can be tricky and dangerous, even with the help of gravity. Malaysians pour boiling-hot milky tea swiftly and repeatedly from one vessel held high in one hand into another held low, producing a distinctive layer of froth.
■ Sri Lanka
Faction says it holds camps
A breakaway faction of Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil guerrillas -- widely believed to have backing from the military -- said it had overrun four camps belonging to the mainstream group in the east, where spiraling violence has shattered a four-year-old ceasefire. The attack came just two days after the government claimed to have routed the mainstream Tigers from the eastern enclave of Sampur, a move the Tigers warned could return the country to war. The Karuna faction is now in total control of rebel-held areas in eastern Ampara district, T. Thuyavan, a spokesman for the group, said in a phone call to the Associated Press.
■ Nepal
Claim given short shrift
A Nepali boy's hope of being declared the world's shortest was dismissed on Monday by Guinness World Records which said he was too young to qualify. Fourteen-year-old Khagendra Thapa Magar, who is 50cm tall and weighs 4.5kg, will have to wait another four years before he can be considered the world's shortest man. The boy's family and friends had trumpeted his claim hoping it would get him funds for his education and heath care. They said they had raised around US$4,000 for a trust in his name by organizing shows where people can watch him dance and play. The story made headlines in Nepal and around the world.
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