■ 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
An under-20 soccer team have lost out to an all-night prayer vigil and been forced to move a key match to a provincial stadium. The evangelical Redeemed Christian Church of God has booked the new National Stadium in the capital for a "gospel crusade" expected to draw thousands of worshippers tonight. As a result, the stadium in Abuja will not be ready to host tomorrow's Nigeria versus Rwanda qualifier for next year's African Youth Championship, which will now be played in the southwestern city of Abeokuta.
■ Senegal
UN says sanitation is better
In sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi and Senegal are sanitation success stories, with improved facilities now reaching 74 percent and 67 percent of their respective populations, a sharp increase from 1990 numbers, a UN study reported yesterday. Meanwhile, about 2.6 billion people worldwide don't have access to the simplest form of toilet -- a pit latrine with a cleanable slab around the hole, says the UN report said. The UN's Progress for Children report on water and sanitation found that while much of the world is on track to meet clean water goals, many countries have failed to adequately improve sanitation.
■ Russia
Explosion hits pipeline
An explosion hit a gas pipeline in the southern Volgograd region early yesterday, sparking a fire but causing no deaths or injuries, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. A spokesman for OAO Gazprom, the state monopoly that controls Russia's gas pipelines, confirmed the explosion in one of three trunk pipelines carrying natural gas from Central Asia to Russia, but said it would not affect supplies. The blast occurred 30km from the nearest town, Mikhailovka. Repair workers were waiting for the spilled gas to burn before approaching the site, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. Oleg Ugnivenko, duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry's southern federal district division, had no information about possible causes of the explosion.
■ Russia
Police come under fire
Unidentified assailants opened fire on a Russian police convoy in Chechnya, killing one officer and seriously wounding another, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The ambush occurred late yesterday as two trucks carrying police officers were traveling from the Russian military headquarters in Khankala, outside the Chechen capital Grozny, to the military headquarters in Mozdok in the neighboring republic of North Ossetia. Three to four attackers were believed to have been involved in the ambush, according to the ministry's Chechen department.
■ Nigeria
Electoral thuggery increases
Local politicians have started allying themselves with militant groups that have kidnapped foreign oil workers as elections approach, says a report released yesterday by an international think tank. The report by Brussels-based International Crisis Group says that while militant groups have exploited frustration with government corruption to ensure the sympathy of local communities, these same groups frequently receive money and arms from the politicians they claim to be fighting against. "A pattern of electoral violence has taken root since the country's 2003 elections," it says.
■ United States
`Water for sex' mayor quits
A 72-year-old small town mayor who was accused of providing city water service in exchange for sex has agreed to resign. Troy Anderson's resignation as mayor of Waldron, Arkansas, came after he was charged on two counts of abuse of public trust and four counts of patronizing a prostitute. According to court documents, two women told investigators that Anderson had solicited and paid them for sex. Documents filed in the case also allege he provided city water service to a woman in exchange for sex.
■ Mexico
Locusts encircle resort
Clouds of locusts have descended around the beach resort of Cancun destroying crops. Towns have formed pesticide-armed brigades and are winning the war against the three-week-old plague that has left tourist areas unharmed, authorities said. Squads wait until night when the flying insects are roosting on plants to blast them. They carry motorized backpack pumps to shoot chemicals in a crusade that has affected from 800 hectares to 1,000 hectares of farm land.
■ United States
NY to outlaw trans fats
New York is set to become the first city in the US to ban all but tiny quantities of trans fats from being used in its restaurants. According to plans agreed this week by the board of health, all the city's restaurants, cafes and street stalls will be forced to keep to a limit of half a gram of trans fats in any item served from their menus. The move will see a sharp drop in use of the treated fats. Trans fats have been the subject of mounting concern among health experts who warn that they could contribute to heart disease by raising blood cholesterol levels. They are used in the baking of cakes, doughnuts and bread, and for deep frying.
■ United States
`Mom killer' pleads not guilty
A woman accused of killing her mother and leaving her body to be discovered on Mother's Day has pleaded not guilty to murder. Anne Trovato, 26, appeared before Westchester County Court Judge Barbara Zambelli on Tuesday. She pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, one count of burglary and two counts of weapon possession. Trovato's mother, Patricia Mery, was found dead in her suburban New York home on May 14, when her worried brother contacted police. Police said they believe the slaying occurred three days earlier. Mery, 59, had been stabbed more than 20 times and had been hit in the head several times with a metal baseball bat. Police have not disclosed a motive for the killing but say a battle over the right to visit Trovato's three-year-old daughter may have played a part.
■ Argentina
Former president collapses
Former president Carlos Menem was in stable condition, a day after collapsing while delivering a speech in central Argentina, authorities said. The 76-year-old Menem, who governed the country from 1989 until 1999 at the helm of the Peronist party, was addressing a crowd on Tuesday night near the provincial capital of Cordoba when he doubled over. Televised news footage showed Menem slowly fall sideways at the podium, grimacing and clasping his chest as an aide caught him in his arms. Menem was then taken to a waiting ambulance. Oscar Gonzalez, Cordoba's provincial health minister, said on Wednesday the ex-president suffered a bout of hypoglycemia, a sharp drop in blood sugar levels, but was not in danger.
‘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