■ China
Thousands suffer in cold
More than 10,000 households in the northwest have been without heat since Saturday and face several more days of sub-zero temperatures after a boiler failed, Xinhua news agency said. The central boiler furnace failed at a power company in the city of Urumqi due to a build-up of coal dregs more than 30cm thick on its walls, Xinhua said yesterday. Company officials said that it could be three to five days before heat was restored. The company had been forced to buy the low-quality coal from small coal mines because its main contractor could only meet 80 percent of its demand, Xinhua said.
■ Australia
Stranded divers rescued
Divers have rescued two crew who spent 15 hours on the seabed in a stranded rescue submarine off Australia's west coast, the military said yesterday. The Australian Submarine Rescue Vehicle (ASRV) Remora ran into trouble at midnight local time on Monday when a winch system failed as it was being recovered during trials. After more than half a day in 130m deep water west of Perth, the vessel was brought to within 15m of the surface and the two crew were evacuated by divers.
■ Indonesia
Sex tape lawmaker resigns
A senior politician resigned from the country's largest political party after he was featured with a popular singer on a sex tape that was widely circulated in the country, media reports said yesterday. Yahya Zaini -- who is the head of the Golkar Party's religious affairs department, which has responsibility for moral issues -- submitted his resignation from the party, which was immediately approved by its chairman, Jusuf Kalla, who is also Indonesia's vice president.
■ China
Pricey hotel slashes price
A luxury hotel near Beijing which launched what is believed to be Asia's most expensive room four months ago has dropped its prices after taking no bookings, the establishment's manager said yesterday. A night in a luxury suite at the Pingxi Royal Mansion in the suburbs of Beijing officially costs 220,000 yuan (US$28,205 dollars), although it has already had to offer discounts due to the lack of customers, the manager of the hotel said. The 6,000m3 hotel, richly decorated with fake imperial-style antiques, aims to make its customers to feel as though they were royalty, the the Beijing Morning Post quoted staff as saying.
■ China
City men love themselves
Urban men spend 8.6 minutes a day gazing at themselves in the mirror and shell out 80 yuan (US$10) a month on beauty products, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, citing a survey. Men in Beijing and the financial centre of Shanghai were neck-and-neck on whose residents were most vain. Those in the capital spent the most money on cosmetics -- an average of 119 yuan a month -- but those in Shanghai looked in the mirror the longest -- about 17 minutes a day. The survey of men aged 18 to 60 in seven Chinese cities was conducted by Horizon Research Consultancy Group and a Shanghai fashion company, Xinhua said.
■ Cambodia
Guilty verdict upheld
An appeal court yesterday upheld the guilty verdict and life sentence handed down on a former Khmer Rouge commander for the murders of three Western backpackers in 1994. Sam Bith, 74, was the most senior of three of the ultra-Maoist guerrillas charged with abducting Briton Mark Slater, Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet and Australian David Wilson during a train ambush in southern Cambodia. Sam Bith, who has been in and out of hospital with a variety of illnesses in the past year, denied any involvement and appealed against his conviction, handed down in 2002. His lawyer said he was in a Thai hospital at the time of the attack.
RSS