■ Malaysia
Half of adults flabby: survey
More than half of Malaysian adults are overweight because they eat too much and exercise too little, a news report said yesterday, citing a national survey. Ethnic Indians, a minority among Malaysia's 26 million people, are the fattest of all, the New Straits Times reported. The newspaper said the Malaysian Shape of the Nation survey found that 54 percent of Malaysian adults -- 48 percent of men and 62 percent of women -- are overweight when tested for abdominal obesity. In comparison, the prevalence of abdominal obesity in Singapore is 24 percent in men and 48 percent in women, it said.
■ China
Needle swap units planned
The Chinese government plans to open 300 needle-exchange centers this year in an effort to curb the spread of the AIDS virus among intravenous drug users, a news report said yesterday. The country already has 91 centers where drug addicts can obtain clean needles, reducing the need to share dirty needles, the official Xinhua news agency said. It didn't say where the new needle-exchange centers would be located. "The move aims to stop HIV infection being transferred from high-risk drug users to the general population," Xinhua said.
■ China
Putrid porridge poisons kids
Nearly 100 children were treated in hospital in southwestern China in the latest of a spate of food poisoning outbreaks that have raised concerns about hygiene standards, state press said yesterday. The children fell sick after eating porridge and steamed bread at a primary school in Sichuan Province, the Chongqing Evening News, seen here yesterday, said.
■ New Zealand
Church votes to bar gays
Presbyterian Church leaders voted yesterday to bar gays and people having sex outside of marriage from taking leadership roles in the church. The church's general assembly voted 65 percent to 35 percent to forbid the church from training, licensing, ordaining or inducting as ministers gays and people living together outside of marriage. The rule does not apply to any church member licensed, ordained or inducted as a minister prior to 2004. Presbyterians make up nearly 11 percent of the nation's 4 million plus population, making the church grouping the third-largest.
■ Australia
First lady takes a beating
It is being dubbed the war of the first ladies -- an unseemly row sparked by comments about the prime minister's wife by one of her predecessors. According to a new biography, Margaret Whitlam described the current first lady as useless, humorless and mean spirited. Janette Howard even insisted on holding her husband John's hand, observed the 86-year-old wife of former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam, who held office in the 1970s. "For God's sake, they've been married for over 30 years!" snapped Whitlam. She did not stop there. The first lady was weird, steely and did not do enough for charity, Whitlam stated.
■ Pakistan
Amnesty slams rights record
Amnesty International has accused the nation of widespread human rights violations in support of the US "war on terror" ahead of President Pervez Musharraf's visit to the UK yesterday. Hundreds of terrorism suspects have been arbitrarily detained since 2001, many of whom have been tortured or forcibly "disappeared," according to Amnesty.
■ United Kingdom
Bride marries after labor
A bride walked down the aisle only 11 hours after giving birth to her first child. Nicky Heys went into labor three months early on the night before her big day, but still managed to get to the church on time. The 35-year-old secretary gave birth to a son, Harry, who weighed just 800g, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Thursday. At first she thought her stomach pains were pre-wedding jitters, but she was rushed to hospital when they worsened. She said: "A few hours after the birth, the doctor asked if we had anything to do today. I said: `I've got a wedding to go to -- it's mine.'"
■ Sudan
UN force for Darfur unlikely
A UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur is unlikely to take place soon, and the international community should instead push for the existing African Union mission to be prolonged indefinitely, Jan Pronk, the head of the UN in Sudan, said on Thursday. A UN Security Council resolution calls for 20,000 peacekeepers to replace the ill-equipped and underfunded AU force that has done little to prevent escalating violence in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. But the Sudanese president has fiercely rejected the UN troops, and the UN cannot legally come in without his consent. "I don't expect the government to accept a UN transition any time soon," Pronk said in an interview.
■ United Kingdom
Ozone hole hits record size
The hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica reached its maximum size for this year and broke previous records for late September. The ozone "hole" opens up over the Antarctic every year in mid- August and usually peaks in size by September. It is not a hole in the literal sense because ozone still exists over the continent but significant amounts of the gas are destroyed in this area because of the temperature and presence of damaging gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). "This year it's been very cold in the Antarctic ozone layer and, as a consequence, [the hole] has had a chance to expand to quite a large size," said Jonathan Shanklin, head of the meteorology and ozone monitoring unit at the British Antarctic Survey.
■ Turkey
Gas pipeline explodes
An explosion ignited a fire on a natural gas pipeline near the border of Turkey and Iran, Turkish news reports said yesterday. The state-run Anatolia news agency cited district head Rauf Ulusoy as saying the explosion occurred late on Thursday night in the Iranian city of Bazargan, about 1km east of the Gurbulak border gate. The private Dogan news agency cited Turkish truckers as saying they could hear ambulances and fire engines going to the blast site. Last month, Kurdish guerrillas belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party blew up part of the same pipeline in the Turkish city of Agri, shutting down the flow of gas for four days.
■ United Kingdom
Teens shot in Brixton
Police are appealing for witnesses after two teenage boys were shot in front of families and young children while queuing for food at a McDonald's restaurant in south London. The two, who are friends and believed to be 17 years old, were taken to a hospital after the shooting in Brixton, south London, on Thursday evening. One was hit in the chest and is in a critical condition. The other, who was shot in the arm, was described by police as stable. The attacker fled on foot from the restaurant.
■ Mexico
Border fence slammed
The Foreign Relations Department warned on Thursday that a US proposal to build hundreds of kilometers of border fencing, which is currently working its way through the Senate, will damage relations with the US' southern neighbor. The department said in a news release that it was "deeply worried" about the proposal, adding it will "increase tension in border communities." "These measures will harm the bilateral relationship. They are against the spirit of co-operation that is needed to guarantee security on the common border," it said.
■ United States
Note sounds alarm bells
A note found on Monday in a customer's coat at an Ann Arbor dry cleaners read "You have committed a murder, but no one believes it. All I can do is kill myself, then everyone will see what you have done." It was signed: "Your wife, Alice." Employees called police, fearing the note described a murder-suicide plot. But it turns out the owner of the coat is an actor involved in a play. The note was a prop, city police Detective Brian Zasadny told the Ann Arbor News. Zasadny tracked down the customer on Wednesday. The man explained he is involved in the play Retreat from Moscow.
■ United States
Ho released from hospital
Don Ho was released from a hospital in Honolulu following a two-week stay after having a new pacemaker installed. "I'm recuperating from the hospital! I feel great," the 76-year-old Waikiki crooner said on Thursday as he had lunch at one of his favorite restaurants. Ho, known for his signature tune Tiny Bubbles, had the pacemaker installed Sept. 16. In December, he underwent a new heart treatment in Thailand that hasn't been approved in the US. The procedure involved taking multiplying stem cells from his blood and injecting them into his heart in hopes of strengthening it. Ho said Thursday he has not decided when to resume his show at the Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber hotel.
■ United States
Map thief jailed
A dealer in antique treasures who admitted stealing more than US$3 million in rare maps was sentenced on Wednesday to three-and-a-half years in prison after a judge ruled that he deserved leniency for cooperating. Edward Forbes Smiley III, once one of the country's most respected dealers in rare maps, must also pay US$1.9 million in restitution for stealing 98 of the world's most precious maps, US District Judge Janet Bond Arterton said. Smiley had faced up to six years in prison under federal guidelines but was handed a lighter sentence after helping authorities recover most of the stolen maps, Arterton said. "I'm deeply ashamed," Smiley told the court. Several libraries said he got off too lightly.
■ Brazil
Bishops criticize Lula
On Thursday, Catholic bishops said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government had fallen short of expectations, just days before an election in which he is expected to win a second term. Members of Brazil's National Bishops Conference also condemned an attempted smear campaign against the opposition by members of Lula's Workers' Party. "What's saddest of all is that instead of debating the election, we're talking about [corruption]," said Antonio Celso de Queiros, vice president of the conference.
‘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