■ Hong Kong
US welcomes elections
The State Department is giving tepid praise for Hong Kong's election committee voting in which democracy supporters said they won enough seats to be represented in the panel that chooses candidates for the Chinese administrative district's leadership race. "We welcome that there has been public participation -- even if very limited -- in Hong Kong's process of selecting a chief executive," the department said.
■ China
Bankers put to death
Two ex-employees of China's third-largest bank have been put to death by lethal injection for defrauding customers of millions of dollars, state media reported yesterday. Zhou Limin (周利民), a former branch manager at the China Construction Bank in the northwest city of Xian, was executed on Thursday with Liu Yibing (劉怡冰), a woman who worked as an accountant in the same branch, the Beijing Morning Post said. The paper said that over a five-year period in the late 1990s the duo stole over 400 million yuan (US$51 million) from customers.
■ China
Tallest man saves dolphins
The long arms of the world's tallest man saved two dolphins in northeast China. The dolphins at an aquarium in Fushun, Liaoning Province, had fallen sick after swallowing the plastic from the edge of their pool, and attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because of the contraction of the dolphins' stomachs. Veterinarians then decided to ask for help from Bao Xishun (鮑喜順), a 2.36m-tall herdsman from Inner Mongolia. Bao, using his arm length of 1.06m was able to reach deep enough into the dolphins to pull out the plastic.
■ Australia
Bottle and glass combined
An all-in-one plastic wine bottle and cup has been produced by Australia's Hardy Wine Company, the country's largest wine producer. The "Shuttle" bottle, which holds one glass of wine, has a detachable plastic container at the top. "It's portable [and] it means you only need to buy one product to enjoy a glass of wine," Miriam Leenders, Hardy Wine Company Global Marketing Manager, told reporters.
■ Singapore
Camera ban for voyeur
A man arrested for secretly filming under a teenage girl's skirt was barred from using cameras for a year by a Singapore court, a paper said on Thursday. The 20-year-old Singaporean was arrested in November last year after he was caught filming under the 17-year-old girl's skirt with a digital camera and his camera phone on an escalator, the Straits Times daily reported. Dubbed "the upskirt voyeur" by the paper, the man escaped a jail term but was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and ordered by the court to stay away from all types of cameras, including camera phones for a year.
■ Thailand
Migrants found in gas tank
Migrant workers from Myanmar have been found hidden inside the tank of a gasoline transport truck while they were being smuggled from the border to Thailand's capital, police said yesterday. Police stopped the 18-wheeled truck in the border province of Tak, about 370km northwest of Bangkok, early on Thursday and found 41 workers inside the tank, said policeman Rangsiman Songkhotham. They looked exhausted due to heat and lack of air, he said. "Two or three of them fainted after they got out. I think there would have been people dying if the truck had driven on," he said. He said that each of the workers paid about 4,000 baht (US$113) for the trip to Bangkok.
■ Australia
Pop star in smoking row
British pop star Robbie Williams has scoffed at official warnings not to smoke cigarettes onstage in Australia, but his celebrity status will help him escape paying A$150 (US$117) in fines. The Premier of Queensland state -- where Williams lit up onstage at a nonsmoking venue on two consecutive nights -- offered to pay the fines, saying the entertainer was a guest of the state. Health groups criticized Williams in the media the day after he smoked on Wednesday at a concert. He fired up again the next night, telling the crowd of more than 50,000 at Suncorp Stadium in Queensland's capital, Brisbane, that he'd heard about the controversy and promised not to smoke again -- as he puffed on a cigarette.
■ Nigeria
Oil platform attacked
Armed men attacked a southern oil installation owned by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell overnight, a local leader said yesterday. Joshua Benemesia, a local chief who has mediated hostage negotiations in the oil-rich delta region, said at least one man was shot in the attack. There were no immediate reports of deaths or hostage-takings, he said. Benemesia did not provide details on how many attackers were involved or what type of oil facility was targeted.
■ Italy
Papers apologize to migrant
Newspapers offered a rare front-page apology on Wednesday for accusing an immigrant from Tunisia recently freed from prison of the gruesome murder of his wife, son, mother-in-law and a neighbor. After the victims had their throats slit and their house burned on Monday in the northern town of Erba, the media pointed the finger at a Tunisian jailed for drug offences and released under a mass pardon. However, Marzouk's grieving father-in-law Carlo Castagna, who lost his wife, daughter and grandson, cleared the Tunisian, saying he was on a trip to his homeland at the time.
■ Botswana
Government accepts ruling
The government on Thursday grudgingly accepted a High Court order to allow Botswana's last hunter-gatherers to live in their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, but attached tough conditions likely to frustrate the real permits. The Bushmen will be allowed to take building materials into the reserve "for constructing non-permanent structures," implicitly questioning the court ruling that the Basarwa had legally lived on the land before 2002. The statement said those returning could take water for "subsistence needs."
■ Germany
Jobless man follows advice
The bearded leader of Germany's ruling center-left Social Democrats on Thursday defended his advice to an unemployed man that with a shave he might find a job. Kurt Beck told 37-year-old Henrico Frank on Tuesday to "get washed and shaved and then you'll find work in three weeks." Frank, who sports a black beard, three nose rings and long black hair which is partly bleached blond, had approached Beck in Wiesbaden and blamed him for legislation that cut benefits for the long-term unemployed. Frank on Thursday had his hair cut, shaved and removed his nose rings before holding a press conference at which he held out an olive branch to Beck. He said he had been drunk at the time and was planning to meet him on Jan. 2 to take further advice on finding a job.
■ Russia
Polar bear strands workers
Workers at an Arctic weather station spent two nerve-wracking days hiding in an attic while waiting for permission from Moscow to shoot a hungry polar bear rampaging through their house, the Izvestia daily reported on Thursday. "The hungry bear broke into the weather station, tore apart two dogs and went in to find food in the house," Izvestia reported. The inhabitants "hid in the attic, where they sat two days. They waited until they got permission to shoot the animal, which was given by the environmental ministry in Moscow." The newspaper reported that about 170 polar bears, which are protected, have been stranded along the Arctic shore during warm temperatures.
■ Argentina
Menem back in the game
Former President Carlos Menem, a free-market advocate who governed the country from 1989 to 1999 at the helm of the Peronist Party, announced late on Wednesday that he will seek another term in elections next October. "I don't want there to be any more speculation on the subject," the 76-year-old Menem told about 1,000 supporters in Buenos Aires. "I am a candidate for president of the nation in 2007," he said. Menem competed in the April 2003 election for the presidency, but withdrew before the second round ahead of the victory by intraparty rival and current President Nestor Kirchner.
■ United States
`Butt artist' suspended
A high school art teacher suspended for moonlighting as a self-proclaimed "butt-printing artist" will apparently have more free time to work on his cheeky creations. Stephen Murmer was told yesterday that he was being placed on paid administrative leave for five days from his job at Monacan High School after Chesterfield County school officials became agitated over his unique brand of artwork. On Thursday, he informed the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia that school administrators have extended his paid suspension through Jan. 9, when the school board is scheduled to meet to get to the bottom of the matter.
■ Mexico
Attorney general allays fears
The attorney general said on Thursday there was no indication that the killing of first lady Margarita Zavala's cousin was related to organized crime, allaying fears the death could have been a retaliation for President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug campaign. Luis Felipe Zavala was found shot to death on Tuesday outside the capital, a day after Calderon announced a crackdown on organized crime, including drug trafficking, in his native central state of Michoacan, sending in 6,500 soldiers and federal police. Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora told reporters on Thursday that the timing of the events was a coincidence.
■ United States
Democrat senator recovering
Democratic Senator Tim Johnson was recovering without complications from emergency brain surgery to repair bleeding in his brain on Thursday. Control of the US Senate depends on his recovery. Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage on Wednesday that was caused by a rare and sometimes fatal condition. His illness came just weeks before Democrats are to take control of the Senate by a one-seat margin. The South Dakota lawmaker, 59, was on "an uncomplicated postoperative course," the US Capitol physician said after visiting him on Thursday afternoon. "He has been appropriately responsive to both word and touch.," his physician said.
■ United States
Ducks die dastardly death
A bacterial or fungal infection might have caused as many as 2,500 mallard ducks to die in a bizarre cluster along an Idaho creek bed, a state game official said on Thursday. Preliminary test results suggested the possibility of infection, but more tests are planned on water and grain in the area, said David Parrish, supervisor for the Magic Valley region of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Parrish declined to say specifically what was discussed, but did not rule out the possibility that more ducks might die in the area. "We may have a few more, but that's a little difficult to predict right now until we can determine the exact cause of the mortality," he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema