■ China
Organ sales still reported
Sales of human organs taken from executed prisoners are thriving, the BBC said on Wednesday. The BBC said one hospital claimed to be able to provide a liver for ?50,000 (US$94,500), with the chief surgeon at the hospital confirming that the donor could be an executed prisoner. The health ministry did not deny the report, but said it was reviewing the system and the regulations surrounding it. Back in March a foreign ministry spokesman said that it "is a complete fabrication ... to say that China forcibly takes organs from the people given the death penalty for the purpose of transplanting them." It did admit at the time that organs from prisoners were used but only in a "very few cases."
■ China
Beating probe ordered
Beijing has ordered a probe into the beating of eight Chinese journalists who had been reporting about a fatal car accident, and an attempt by an official to deny them medical treatment, the China Daily reported yesterday. The journalists were grabbed by security guards and at least one township employee and were "dragged into a dark room and beaten," the daily said. "The security guards were sent by the township government to help keep order on the bridge after the accident," the paper said.
■ China
Revenge attacker captured
Police have captured a farmer suspected of killing a woman that his son was convicted of raping, her parents and her young son, the China Daily reported yesterday. Cui Bingyi, 51, allegedly began the killing spree on Saturday by stabbing to death the parents of his son's victim. Cui's 27-year-old son was sentenced to three years for the rape.
■ Kazakhstan
State v Borat
The government took the unusual step on Wednesday of publishing a four-page color supplement in the New York Times in what appeared to be in part an attempt to head off fallout from a satirical film due out in November. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is the latest work from Ali G creator Sacha Baron Cohen. The film lampoons the central Asian nation through Borat Sagdiyev, a Kazakh journalist who before leaving home introduces his sister, "No. 4 prostitute in whole of Kazakhstan," and shows the tradition of "the running of the Jew," a variation on Pamplona's bull running.
■ Thailand
Go-go girls go away
Coup leaders have banned go-go girls from dancing near tanks and troops on Bangkok streets as a distraction from the serious business of power, a spokesman said on Wednesday. "It is not appropriate to entertain soldiers while they are on duty," Colonel Acra Tiprote said after a troupe of 10 women in tight camouflage vests and shorts posed with soldiers and tanks while making a music video.
■ Australia
Island murder goes to trial
A New Zealand man will stand trial in February charged with the first murder on tiny Norfolk Island in 150 years, a court said yesterday. Former chef Glenn McNeill, 28, was ordered to stand trial for the murder of Janelle Patton, 29, on the remote Pacific island on March 31, 2002. The murder on the former British penal colony, 1,900km northwest of Sydney, sparked an unprecedented investigation, with three quarters of the island's 1,600 people giving fingerprints to police. McNeill has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
■ Nigeria
Less soccer, more prayer
RSS