■ China
Baby switch cleared up
Two Chinese families are suing a hospital 15 years after they took home the wrong newborn babies, state media reported on Tuesday. A couple surnamed Lu, who gave birth at a hospital in Nanning in 1991, suspected that the boy was not their biological son. Testing confirmed the boy was not related to the Lus. The Lus told the court that as their "son" grew older, his appearance and personality were so different to their own as "to make people point," and eventually lead to their divorce.
■ China
Closing and reopening
Shanxi Province, where 19 miners died in a gas blast last Sunday, will close more coal mines by mid-2008 to raise safety conditions and protect the environment, Xinhua news agency said. In the first half of this year the province closed more than 1,000 coal mines. But in the rush for profits, safety regulations are often ignored and dangerous mines that have been shut down are reopened illegally. Around 3,630 miners died in over 2,000 accidents in the first 10 months of this year.
■ China
Mao condoms indecent
A condom seller has been ordered to shut his shop for displaying his wares without Chinese instructions and in "inappropriate packages," a state newspaper said. "Zhang printed China's national emblem on a condom called `lady-killers,' and on the packing of the box was the image of soldier Lei Feng (雷鋒) and ... Mao Zedong (毛澤東)," the newspaper said. Lei Feng was a probably fictional model soldier of the Mao era. Zhang defended himself, saying his condom packages were art.
■ Thailand
Military aircraft crashes
Seven air force personnel were killed when their aircraft crashed in the central part of the country yesterday, an air force spokesman said. Captain Monthon Suchakorn said the aircraft banked sharply shortly after take-off, hit the ground and exploded, shattering the plane into small pieces. All aboard were killed. "This is the biggest loss for the air force in recent years," Captain Monthon told reporters. The Learjet, which had been in service for 18 years, was on an aerial photography mission from an airfield in Nakhon Sawan, the spokesman said. An air force team will investigate the accident, he said.
■ Japan
Suicide suspected in deaths
Three small girls and two adults were found dead yesterday in a car in a forest in an apparent family murder-suicide using charcoal burners, police said. The bodies of a man and a woman in their 30s and three girls, who appeared to be younger than 10, were found in a vehicle parked on a forest path at the foot of Mount Fuji. An amateur photographer found the vehicle and reported it to police, said a spokesman at the Fuji Yoshida police station. "We are investigating the identity of the bodies. But it is highly likely that they are a family committing suicide," he said. Japan has one of the world's highest suicide rates.
■ Indonesia
Bush visit ruins gardens
Workers are digging up a patch of historic botanical gardens near Indonesia's capital to make a helipad for US President George W. Bush's arrival later this month, adding to anger at his planned trip. The chief of the vast garden, built in 1817, said he had initially rejected the plan to allow Bush to land there amid fears that wind generated by his chopper would damage the park's trees, plants and orchids. "At the very least, the branches and twigs will break," Sujati Budi Suseteyo told the Media Indonesia daily. Bush is tentatively scheduled to visit Indonesia on Nov. 20, upon his return from the APEC meeting in Vietnam.
■ Malaysia
Visa overstays increase
A few thousand foreigners, most of them Indians, have abused Malaysia's introduction of visas on arrival for tourists by overstaying in the country, a news report said yesterday. The Star newspaper quoted Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad as saying that immigration officials are trying to track down the offenders but admitted it was a difficult task. "How to trace them easily? They look like Malays, Indians and Chinese of this country," Radzi was quoted as saying. Radzi said that among the 2,872 people who had overstayed, 1,941 were from India, 355 from China and 199 from Sri Lanka. The rest were from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Nepal and other countries.
■ Singapore
Senegalese consul busted
Police have arrested Senegal's honorary consul on charges of running an illegal gambling house that was busted last week in the consulate offices, police and newspaper reports said yesterday. A police statement said a 36-year-old Indonesian man was detained on Tuesday "for assisting in the management of a place kept and used as a common gaming hall." The Straits Times newspaper identified the man as Benny Kusni, Senegal's honorary consul. A police spokeswoman confirmed the newspaper report. Kusni maintained his innocence in an interview with the Straits Times on Monday.
■ Germany
Man hands in father's corpse
A man delivered his dead father's decaying corpse to a police station on Monday, saying he had kept the body hidden in a garbage can for months for financial reasons, police said. The 45-year-old arrived at a police station in the western town of Viersen in the early hours of Monday with his father's body in a wheeled garbage can, a police spokesman said. The man told police his father had died in May aged 84. He had kept the death quiet because of financial problems and had hidden the corpse in the garbage can.
■ Germany
Suicide bid sparks brawl
A young woman's rooftop suicide bid sparked a mass brawl between spectators encouraging the 21-year-old to jump and a group of homeless people trying to protect her, authorities said on Tuesday. The homeless people were angered when some teenagers in the crowd of hundreds started yelling to the woman she should throw herself from the roof of the town hall of the southwestern town of Loerrach, a police spokesman said. A punch-up involving around 40 people then ensued, during which time police managed to coax the woman back indoors -- three-and-a-half hours after her ordeal began.
■ United Kingdom
Pardon for WWI soldiers
Lawmakers passed new legislation on Tuesday that will see British soldiers executed by the military during World War I pardoned. Approximately 300 soldiers were executed during the 1914 to 1918 conflict, and the move follows years of campaigning by the families of those condemned to death for cowardice after they failed to return to the front lines in World War I. The decision to pardon the men was made as part of the Armed Forces Act 2006, which will become law once the bill receives the formality of a signature from the country's monarch.
■ Russia
Seven police officers killed
Seven police officers were killed when rebels ambushed a police convoy in Chechnya, officials said yesterday. Rebels fired on police cars near the village of Dai in the Shatoi region in Chechnya's forested southern mountains on Tuesday, killing the seven officers and wounding one more, said a spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry's branch in southern Russia. The attackers fled and authorities have failed to track them down. Chechnya, a largely Muslim region in southern Russia, has been plagued by separatist conflict for more than a decade.
■ Ireland
Iraqi NSA tours N Ireland
The Iraqi national security adviser toured Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday in a fresh effort to learn about Northern Ireland's experience of conflict resolution. Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, who is heading a delegation of government officials on the three-day visit, drew parallels between Iraq's and Northern Ireland's sectarian and political disputes. Speaking in the Europa Hotel, once bombed by the IRA, Rubaie said: "Although our conflict is on a different scale there are many similarities, particularly where there is a religious background laid on top of a political background." The delegation is meeting politicians from Northern Ireland's main parties as well as members of the policing board, the police ombudsman's office and weapons decommissioning authorities.
■ United States
Spears files for divorce
Pop star Britney Spears has filed for divorce from her husband of two years, dancer Kevin Federline, according to court papers made public on Tuesday. Spears, 24, who gave birth to the couple's second baby in September, filed legal papers in Los Angeles Superior Court citing irreconcilable differences. The papers were published by the celebrity Web site TMZ.com, which broke the story. The date of separation was listed as Monday. The former teen phenomenon has sold more than 60 million albums since she shot to worldwide fame in 1999.
■ United States
Burger King sued over dope
The plaintiffs' lawyer was determined to get the joke in. "It gives a whole new meaning to the word `Whopper,'" Sam Bregman told reporters as he announced that his clients, two police officers, were suing the fast food chain Burger King. In early October the officers stopped at a Burger King drive-in in Los Lunas, New Mexico. Sitting in their squad car nearby, munching on their burgers, they noticed a strange yet familiar taste. Officer Henry Gabaldon says he recognized the taste as marijuana. He and his colleague, Mark Landavazo, found small pieces of a green, leafy substance sprinkled on top of their burgers. Using a field test kit, the officers found that the substance was marijuana.
■ Panama
Medicines cause deaths
The health minister on Tuesday reported three new deaths from contaminated medications, raising the total to 41. Meanwhile, relatives of the deceased say they plan to file a lawsuit. Health Minister Camilo Alleyne said in a press release that 88 people have been affected by the tainted cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment; of those cases, 28 people are hospitalized, 19 are receiving outpatient care and 41 are dead. The contaminated medicines, produced for the national health system, contained a chemical cousin of antifreeze, diethylene glycol, which is used to keep glue and cosmetics moist.
■ Venezuela
Gringo customs discouraged
No more milk and cookies for Santa Claus this year -- not, at least, in public offices. President Hugo Chavez's government says it's not prohibiting the use of Santa Claus images and Christmas trees, but acknowledges that it hopes public employees will avoid decorating their offices with symbols that aren't traditionally Venezuelan this December. For decades, Venezuelans have been decorating their homes, offices and stores with lights, decorated evergreens and images of the bearded Father Christmas. Some supporters of the nationalist leader, who has cast himself as a defender of the country against US "imperialism," have called such symbols part of "gringo customs" that are contrary to those of the South American nation.
■ Mexico
Grenades rock resort city
Two grenades exploded at a residential building in a resort city, hours before President Vicente Fox and president-elect Felipe Calderon arrived in the area to participate in a business forum, police said on Tuesday. No one was injured in the attacks and there was no evidence they were connected either to the presidential visit or to bombings less than a day before that targeted political and commercial buildings in the capital. The attacks occurred late on Monday in the town of Ixtapa in the state of Guerrero, 300km southwest of Mexico City.
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