■ Singapore
No health aid for foreigners
The government will cut medical subsidies for foreign workers next year in order to subsidize its own aging population, the Straits Times reported yesterday. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan was quoted as saying the move would save the government about S$36 million (US$22.3 million) a year, which would then be used to help pay medical expenses for elderly Singaporeans. Starting next October, foreign workers will have to pay the full cost of all medical treatment they receive at public hospitals, increasing their payout by nearly four times for a hospital stay, the Times reported.
■ Australia
Firefighters get a respite
Cooler weather brought temporary relief yesterday to around 3,500 firefighters battling a massive blaze in southern Australia, but officials warned the fire could still burn for months. The fire has so far engulfed more than 250,000 hectares of alpine forest and farmland in Victoria State, which is enduring its worst drought on record. Cooler winds swept across the state early yesterday, providing much needed relief to exhausted firefighters and army personnel battling to protect homes and villages.
■ South Korea
Unification officer replaced
The new unification minister, a staunch supporter of the country's engagement policy toward North Korea, was to take office yesterday as inter-Korean relations remain chilled after the communist nation's nuclear test. Lee Jae-joung, a Roman Catholic priest-turned politician, will replace Lee Jong-seok, who formally stepped down as the nation's point man on North Korea to take responsibility for the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test.
■ China
Sex-change angers parents
A couple whose only son underwent a sex change operation have sued a hospital in Fujian Province for compensation and to have the surgery reversed because their "family line" was broken, the Yancheng Evening News reported on Saturday. The newspaper said the parents and relatives of Xie Xiaoxin became violent and occupied a ward at the hospital for 11 days in September in an attempt to get US$3.6 million in compensation and their son's gender changed again. The newspaper said Xie's parents had lost contact with their son and then saw him as a woman on a TV show broadcast in Fuzhou in September. "They then went to the plastic and cosmetic surgery hospital in Fuzhou to seek compensation because their family line had been broken," the paper said.
■ Malaysia
Thief stranded atop billboard
A thief attempting to steal spotlights above a billboard in Kuala Lumpur was stranded atop it for seven hours when his accomplice fled after spotting a police patrol car, the New Straits Times reported yesterday. The 50-year-old ex-convict and another robber scaled the 7m billboard early on Sunday to steal the lights illuminating the ad, but residents who spotted them called the police, it said. The would-be thief man remained perched on the billboard for hours, unmoved by police orders to climb down and threatening to jump if officers tried to climb up to get him. He was eventually brought down using a forklift, the report said.
■ China
Date set for six-party talks
Six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programs will resume on Dec. 18, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. "The second stage of the fifth round of the six-party talks will start from Dec. 18 in Beijing after consultations among the parties," ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said in one-line statement on the ministry's Web site after six weeks of diplomatic haggling over a date. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday that the talks needed to make at least some progress toward the goal of North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons and its nuclear plans.
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