■ China
Ant scam proves profitable
A company in the northeast raised US$379 million from gullible members of the public by promising big profits from a project to breed ants, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The Donghua Ecological Breeding Co in Liaoning Province offered returns of 35 percent to 60 percent on investment in the bogus project, Xinhua said. The state agency cited the Public Security Ministry which had detailed the case as an example of how fraudsters were becoming more imaginative.
■ Singapore
ATM thieves jailed
Six Sri Lankan men were handed jail terms of up to 11 years for stealing money from automated cash machines using cloned credit cards, court officials said yesterday. The six were sentenced on Thursday in the Subordinate Court after they were arrested in May with more than S$350,000 (US$225,806) of stolen money in their possession. The Sri Lankans, who were residents in London, swiped the money over a four-day period before they were caught, the Straits Times reported.
■ China
Water shortage severe
Two-thirds of Chinese cities face water shortages, state media reported yesterday, one of the top problems facing the rapidly urbanizing landscape. More than 400 cities had water shortages, with 100 of them "in serious trouble," lacking enough water to support industry or daily life, the China Daily quoted an unnamed official from the Ministry of Water Resources as saying. The problem was compounded by pollution, with 45 billion tonnes of untreated waste water pumped directly into lakes and rivers, it said.
■ Japan
Poultry imports suspended
The nation has temporarily suspended South Korean poultry imports due to a suspected bird flu outbreak that has killed around 6,000 chickens and prompted authorities to cull thousands more, the top government spokesman said yesterday. The government has asked Seoul for more details about the outbreak in the country's southwest. Japan imported 289 tonnes of chicken meat from South Korea last year, according to the Japan External Trade Organization.
■ Australia
Drought reducing wine glut
The severe drought could have an upside for winemakers by reducing the wine glut, the government's industry regulator said yesterday. The Australian Wine and Brandy Corp, which regulates and markets the nation's A$2.8 billion (US$2.17 billion) wine export industry, yesterday slashed its estimate for excess wine stocks by more than half. Water restrictions imposed because of the drought and frosts in the southern grape-growing regions were eating into production and stockpiles that have built up in the past two years, the organization said.
■ Nepal
Stars rate rebel for sexiness
Guerrilla leader Prachanda's move into mainstream politics after signing up to the country's recent peace deal has brought unexpected scrutiny of his status as a pin-up. Weekly news magazine Nepal ran a feature on Thursday asking five of the nation's best known performers, beauty queens and disc jockeys whether Prachanda is hot. Popular singer Riza Uprety said the rebel leader was "handsome but dangerous," while leading Nepali actress Rekha Thapa said that the revolutionary's eyes had "sex appeal." When questioned what they would ask if they met the leader, former Miss Nepal Malvika Subba replied: "After all the killings, any guilt pangs?"
■ South Korea
Violence to be stopped
Authorities will clamp down on violent protests in Seoul after buildings were damaged and police injured during rallies this week by unions and farm activists against a free trade deal, officials said yesterday. Tens of thousands of union workers and activists staged a nationwide strike on Wednesday. Although most of their rallies ended without incident, a few were marred by violence. The rallies caused nearly US$1 million in property damage and resulted in injuries to 63 protesters and 35 police officers. Major unions and activists oppose current labor laws and a bilateral free trade deal being negotiated between South Korea and the US.
■ Uzbekistan
State denies rights abuses
Uzbekistan yesterday accused the US of double standards after Washington included the tightly controlled ex-Soviet republic on a list of the world's worst violators of religious freedom. Last week, Uzbekistan was included in the annual State Department list of countries which have a very poor record on religious freedom and human rights. The Uzbek Foreign Ministry said the inclusion "again shows the one-sided approach and double standards of US foreign policy," according to a statement posted on a government Web site. Since the late 1990s, thousands of peaceful Muslims practicing outside state-sanctioned mosques have been jailed on what human rights groups have called trumped-up charges.
■ Germany
Police book phony US cop
German traffic police were shocked to see a California Highway Patrol car cruising along the motorway, driven by a man dressed as an authentic US cop, authorities said on Thursday. But they recovered sufficiently to book the 35-year-old Goettingen resident for possessing a replica Smith & Wesson revolver without a license and having out-of-date registration plates. "He was sitting at the wheel with his elbow on the window like in the best TV crime series," said Osthessen police spokesman Martin Schaefer.
■ Vatican
Condom use reconsidered
The WHO's head of HIV/AIDS called on the Vatican yesterday to speed up a decision on the limited use of condoms in pandemic-hit countries. Kevin De Cock welcomed the news that condoms could be sanctioned for married Catholic couples where one partner has HIV. "We're very pleased to hear this," he said. "But our concern obviously is that these deep theological decisions take account of the biological consequences of infection. Could we please have this debate in a hurry because lives are at risk and time is short." De Cock has met Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who heads the papal department responsible for health issues.
■ Sweden
Drunken moose drowns
A moose that became inebriated after binging on fermented fallen apples in northern Sweden drowned when it fell through the ice of a frozen inlet, the tabloid Aftonbladet reported on Thursday. "The moose appears to have eaten too many fermented apples and become confused out on the ice," Luleaa police spokesman Erik Kummu told local media. Emergency services were scrambled but they were unable to save the four-legged apple thief. Drunken moose are relatively common in Sweden in late autumn as the animals eat fallen apples that ferment.
■ Montenegro
Landslide dams Tara River
A massive landslide at Tara River Canyon in the central county of Mojkovac -- about 90km northeast of the capital Podgorica -- has clogged the waterway and caused flooding, prompting authorities to begin evacuating villagers late on Thursday. The landslide created a natural dam of mud, earth and collapsed trees that completely cut off the flow of the Tara River, police said. "The sight is horrible. Tara is no longer flowing," said Zoran Begovic, the police officer in charge of emergencies. Police began evacuating residents from the nearby village of Slatina after another village, Kaludra, was flooded. Part of the regional motorway has been closed.
■ Belarus
Opposition leader detained
Police detained opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich on Thursday during a visit to Vitebsk, 300km northeast of the capital, Minsk, where he was gathering signatures in support of candidates for local elections, his spokesman said. Milinkevich, who ran against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in March and led unprecedented protests following the vote, was detained along with a local opposition activist he was riding with in a car, spokesman Pavel Mazheika said. The police accused the activist of involvement in a fatal hit-and-run accident. Mazheika said he had spoken to Milinkevich after he was detained, but could no longer reach him.
■ Brazil
Cops nab land plunderers
Police on Thursday arrested 33 people on charges of environmental destruction at an Indian reservation in the Amazon jungle state of Mato Grosso, officials said. Those arrested have been charged with illegal logging, land grabbing and the establishment of "potentially polluting" ventures on a reservation occupied the Kayabi, Munduruku and Apiaka Indian tribes, Federal Police said in a statement. Among those arrested are government employees and ranchers "responsible for the destruction of an estimated 30,000 hectares of the reservation," according to a federal police spokeswoman.
■ United States
`Seinfeld' star works on PR
Michael Richards, the actor loved by millions as Seinfeld's peculiar neighbor Kramer, has turned to a legendary public relations guru to save his career after a racist outburst last week. Richards has signed up Howard Rubenstein, whose New York-based PR firm is the first port of call for many stars in a fix. The actor's future looks bleak after he used the word "nigger" several times in a tirade against two black hecklers at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles last Friday. The PR chief's first act was to put Richards in touch with the anti-racism campaigners Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Sharpton told CNN that Richards had said sorry and that he wanted to open a dialogue.
■ United States
Activists battle to breastfeed
About 900 breastfeeding women demonstrated at 35 US airports on Tuesday at Delta airlines check-in counters. Groups of 30 or more assembled by the counters, sat in a circle and began nursing their babies. The nurse-in, as it was dubbed, followed an incident on a Delta flight from Burlington, Vermont, to New York last month. Emily Gillette, 27, and her husband were sitting at the back of a commuter plane and she began breastfeeding her daughter as they waited to take off. A flight attendant came up to her and offered her a blanket to cover herself and when she declined the attendant said: "You are offending me." The family were asked to leave the plane.
■ Mexico
Man slays his own kids
An unemployed man apparently angry at having to stay home while his wife went to work on Thursday killed his three young children then fled on a bicycle after his spouse stabbed him in the eye with scissors. Leonardo Gustavo Hernandez, 27, killed his one-year-old daughter, and two sons, ages four and five, in his home in Nezahualcoyotl, a city in central Mexico, said city Police Chief Jorge Amador. Amador said Hernandez either strangled or hung his children, but he didn't have any additional information. When his wife returned home, Hernandez allegedly turned on her, but then fled on a bicycle after she injured him in the eye with scissors, Amador said. Police were searching for him on Thursday night.
■ Brazil
New lawmaker arrested
Police arrested a newly elected federal lawmaker with the governing Workers' Party on Thursday on accusations of assisting companies that evaded over a billion reals (US$465 million) in taxes, the government news agency reported. Juvenil Alves, 47, was elected to Brazil's lower house of Congress in the Oct. 1 elections. He was among 20 people arrested in connection with the ring that operated in the city of Belo Horizonte federal police said in statement.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
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