■ Japan
Green tea extends life: study
A study of more than 40,000 men and women in Japan has found that those who drink a lot of green tea live longer, researchers said on Tuesday. The investigation by Shinichi Kuriyama and colleagues at the Tohoku University School of Public Policy in Sendai, Japan, found the beverage was particularly effective in fighting heart disease but did not reduce the death rate due to cancer, as some earlier animal studies had suggested. Polyphenols -- plant compounds known to be antioxidants -- found in green tea may explain the life-prolonging benefit it offers, a study published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association said.
■ India
Fake eunuchs arrested
Two men masquerading as eunuchs have been arrested after convincing Indian families to hand over money for ridding their homes of black magic, a report said yesterday. The two men spent 15 days fleecing families in western Gujarat State before one of the victims complained to police that she had been hypnotized by the men, according to DNA newspaper. The eunuch community has been enraged by "fakes" who muscle in on their begging operations, and a photo identity scheme has been started to try to regulate the business.
■ Australia
Viagra spam king probed
A man is under investigation for allegedly using Dutch computers to send billions of spam e-mails around the world, most of them promoting Viagra, an official said yesterday. The Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA, began investigating the man, whose identity was not immediately released, after receiving a tip-off from authorities in the Netherlands. Danyel Molenaar, a project manager for the Dutch Independent Regulator of Post and Telecommunications, or OPTA, said the man had rented 35 servers from an Internet service provider in the Netherlands to carry out the alleged spam campaign.
■ China
Woman in labor dumped
A Chinese woman was forced to give birth on a roadside earlier this month after a dozen taxi drivers refused to take her to a hospital just 300m away, the Beijing News reported yesterday. The woman, surnamed Wang, and her husband were initially heading for a hospital in a taxi in Chongqing, it said. But when Wang went into labor and started moaning, the driver stopped the car and dragged the husband out, shouting: "Don't deliver the baby in my car, or I'll have very bad luck throughout the year!" "Wang had to crouch on the roadside under the scorching sun and the husband tried to hail another taxi, but none of the 11 passing by stopped," the report said.
■ India
Tiger shot dead near park
Poachers have shot dead a Royal Bengal tiger on the boundary of a national park in another blow to the country's dwindling big cat population. The eight-year-old male was shot twice in the head just outside the heavily-guarded Corbett Tiger Reserve in the northern state of Uttaranchal, the Indian Express reported. One of the poachers was badly mauled by the tiger before it died. The man, named as Inder Singh, was hospitalized in a serious condition. Corbett conservator Rajiv Bharti said the animal was shot on Sunday.
■ Turkey
Briton arrested for PM insult
A British artist is facing up to three years in prison after he was arrested on Tuesday and charged with insulting the Turkish prime minister's dignity outside an Istanbul courthouse where he was protesting against another freedom of speech trial. Police detained Michael Dickinson after he refused to put away a poster-sized collage he had made depicting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a dog attached to a Stars and Stripes leash. Dickinson went to court in the morning in support of a Turkish anti-war campaigner, Erkan Kara, who was charged with insulting behavior for exhibiting a similar piece of his work depicting US President George W. Bush pinning a rosette on to Erdogan at a dog show.
■ Yemen
51 killed in stampede
A stampede broke out Tuesday in a stadium packed with thousands of people for an election campaign rally for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, killing at least 51 people and injuring 230, including schoolchildren and teenagers bused in for the event. The disaster came as Saleh -- in power for nearly 30 years -- is campaigning in the country's first competitive presidential elections, set for Sept. 20, against a rival who has drawn tens of thousands to his rallies. The president has been eager to show he has broad popular support -- even announcing last year that he would not run for re-election, until he reversed himself several months ago, citing appeals from the public for him to stay.
■ Montenegro
Djukanovic's coalition wins
Election authorities have confirmed that the governing pro-Western coalition led by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic won Sunday's parliamentary elections. The ruling two-party coalition secured 41 out of 81 seats in the tiny republic's parliament, the State Election Commission said on Tuesday. The majority, though slim, means Djukanovic -- who earlier this year led the Balkan state to independence from Serbia -- can remain in power.
■ United Kingdom
Christie still popular
Crime writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976) has lost none of her spell on readers and fans, an auction of her personal belongings showed on Tuesday. Auction house Bearne's, in Exeter said the 700 items put up for sale by her family were changing hands for much more than originally expected. Initial estimates for the sale, of up to ?250,000 (US$465,000), were being exceeded within the first two hours of bidding. The unique belongings are from Christie's holiday retreat, Greenway House in Churston Ferrers, south Devon, which she bought in 1938.
■ Spain
Police peruse porn
Police officers settling in for a video presentation on how to get promoted to sergeant were instead shown footage from a hard-core pornographic film, officials said on Tuesday. Howling laughter rippled through the auditorium where 120 Madrid city police officers had gathered on Monday to see the video on operations at an academy where they are to study, the Madrid regional justice and interior ministry said. A ministry official said computer technicians have blamed the glitch on a Trojan Horse computer virus that activated when the computer containing the video was turned on. "It was just bad luck that the virus activated right then," the official said.
■ Colombia
The ultimate threat
Gang members in Pereira, one of Colombia's most violent cities, face an ultimatum: give up guns or give up sex. In what is being called a "strike of crossed legs," the wives and girlfriends of gang members have said they will not have sex with their partners until their vow to give up violence. "We want them to know that violence is not sexy," said one girlfriend. She and at least two dozen other women have said the sex strike will continue -- with the support of the city's mayor -- until their men hand over their weapons and sign up for vocational training offered by the mayor's office. One woman ways the men have laughed about the strike but soon would see how serious they are.
■ Brazil
Colonel murdered
Authorities said on Tuesday they believed the killing of Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes -- the police commander who led Brazil's bloodiest-ever prison massacre -- was a crime of passion and not the work of professional hit men. Guimaraes was found dead on Sunday at his home in Sao Paulo. He had bled to death from a gunshot wound in the abdomen. Elected to the Sao Paulo state legislature after retiring from the police force, Guimaraes had frequently received death threats, his aides said. To protect himself, he drove an armored car and always carried a gun. Police authorities said Guimaraes appeared to have been killed by an acquaintance, as no evidence of forced entry or robbery was found.
■ United States
No death penalty
US military prosecutors said on Tuesday that they will not pursue the death penalty against Marine Lance Corporal Jerry Shumate Jr, 21, who along with six other Marines and a salior was charged in the April shooting to death of an Iraqi man in Hamdania. The men's senior commander, Lieutenant General James Mattis, will eventually decide whether any of them should face any punishment or charges at a general court-martial. Under military law, the most serious charge of premeditated murder could carry a sentence of death.
■ United Kingdom
A sensitive promotion
A senior police officer involved in the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station last year has been selected for promotion to one of the top policing jobs in the city. Cressida Dick was in charge of the operation that led to de Menezes, 27, being shot seven times in the head on a Tube train after he was mistaken for a suspected suicide bomber. The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which oversees the London force, said on Tuesday she had been provisionally selected to be promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner. The de Menezes family reacted by calling the promotion a "slap in the face."
■ Egypt
Ship accident kills two
An Egyptian dredger sank in the Suez Canal yesterday, killing two of the 45 crew and prompting a brief closure of the busy international waterway as rescuers searched for two others, officials said. The two missing crew were feared dead, Suez Canal Authority sources said. The other 41 had been rescued, including six who were injured in the accident near the town of Ismailia. A Canal Authority official said a technical fault was the apparent cause of the sinking in the waterway -- an important international trade route and the fastest shipping link between Europe and Asia.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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