World News Quick Take

■ Malaysia
Whale towed to safety
An whale stranded in shallow waters off Malaysia was towed to apparent safety after divers worked tirelessly to keep it alive, news reports said yesterday. Villagers discovered the 24m, silver-gray Bryde's whale bruised and bleeding at low tide near the shores of Gaya Island in the eastern state of Sabah early on Friday, the Star and New Straits Times newspapers reported. Dozens of volunteer divers spent nearly 12 hours pouring water over the partially submerged whale's exposed back to keep it wet and cool before tying it with ropes to a tugboat, which towed it out when the tide came in, the reports said.

■ Malaysia
Bigfoot a no show
Officials Malaysia's environment ministry have scoffed at the existence of mysterious "Bigfoot" creatures said to be roaming the jungles of southern Johor state, a report said yesterday. The ministry's parliamentary secretary, Sazmi Miah, said no firm evidence had ever been found in the 40 years state authorities had monitored the jungles. Cameras set up in the jungles a few years back had also failed to pick up traces of the creature, he was reported as saying in the New Straits Times. The chair of Johor's tourism and environment committee, Freddie Long, accused Sazmi of making "sweeping statements."

■ Japan
Teachers depressed
A record number of teachers at public schools took leave for depression or other mental health problems in the year to March, an Education Ministry survey showed. The figure, at 4,178, was triple what it was 10 years ago and came as pressure mounts on education authorities to resolve problems such as bullying and excessive stress due to rote learning. Tokyo enacted a law on Friday aimed at injecting more patriotism and discipline into schools but critics say it would do little to fix such problems. A ministry official attributed the survey's findings to teachers suffering from heavier workloads and difficulties in relationships with colleagues and students' parents, Kyodo news agency said.

■ Singapore
Opposition leader released
A key opposition leader jailed for five weeks for illegally speaking in public was freed yesterday ahead of time due to good behaviour. Chee Soon Juan, leader of the Singapore Democratic Party and one of the city-state's most vocal opposition politicians, was jailed on Nov. 23 for failing to pay a S$5,000 (US$3,245) fine for speaking in public without a permit before May general elections. Chee, who was treated in hospital after complaining of nausea from eating prison food, said prison officials had refused to switch off his cell lights during the last 10 days of his imprisonment.

■ Australia
Six firefighters injured
Six New Zealand firefighters were injured yesterday while battling bushfires burning across southeastern Australia, but mild weather reduced the threat of dozens of fires. The cooler conditions helped more than 4,000 firefighters working in rugged mountains and bushland put control lines in place in a bid to slow blazes which have scorched more than 550,000 hectares of land. Police say more than 30 homes have so far been razed. The six New Zealanders, part of a group of volunteers who specialize in remote area firefighting, were trapped when a blaze unexpectedly overwhelmed their position near Mansfield, 180km northeast of Melbourne.

■ Germany
Traffic warden lends a hand
A 78-year-old man needed the help of a traffic warden who had given him a ticket to find his car after a day of fruitless searching. Police in Kaiserslautern, south of Frankfurt, said the man parked his car in the town center before an appointment with his tax adviser and then forgot where he had left it. After wandering aimlessly for hours, he turned to the police for help. Authorities searched in vain until late at night. "We then sent him to a hotel and resumed the search in the morning. We asked our traffic wardens whether they had any clue about the car," a spokeswomen for Kaiserslautern police said.

■ France
Actor to do jail time
Samy Naceri, the acclaimed French actor who has spoken out against racism, has been sentenced to six months in jail for racial abuse. Naceri, 44, whose father is Algerian and mother is French, won a best actor prize at Cannes film festival for his role in the French box-office hit Indigenes, which rails against racism. Last March, he was stopped in his car in western Paris. He later admitted having drunk 15 whiskies and taken "half a box of sedatives." He was put in a cell overnight and, in the morning, poured out a stream of abuse including strong racist insults aimed at a black officer.

■ United Arab Emirates
First elections held
Hand-picked cast ballots in the country's first elections yesterday to choose half the members of a powerless advisory assembly for the oil exporting nation. Rulers of the seven emirates in the federation have selected 6,689 voters, just under one percent of the 800,000-strong native population, to select 20 members of the Federal National Council from 439 men and women, while the rest of the representatives will be appointed. All nationals of the 35-year-old federation would be allowed to vote in 2010, but political parties are widely expected to remain banned in the traditionalist country.

■ Germany
`Sex tax' rakes in the cash
Cologne earn a record 828,000 euros (US$1.1 million) in "sex tax" revenues this year, a figure well above expectations when the levy was first introduced by the nation's fourth largest city in 2004. Cologne officials, who say their city is a worldwide pioneer in taxing prostitution, were quoted in local media reports on Friday saying the sex tax component of the "pleasure tax" had jumped from 790,000 euros last year. Cologne, which introduced the tax two years ago to raise money after national reforms left the city woefully short of cash, has been charging prostitutes a flat 150-euro per month tax since 2004, replacing a voluntary reporting scheme.

■ Russia
Post delivers 1999 mail
Russian Post has started delivering 4.5 tonnes of letters and parcels that were sent from the US in 1999. The state-owned postal service said the delay was not its fault -- a shipping container with the mail inside had languished at a port in Finland for years. The container finally reached Russia on Dec. 8. "The loss of mail usually happens because of force majeure circumstances, such as natural disasters, traffic and other accidents," Russian Post said. "All of the mail has been very well preserved because the container was ... sealed," it said.

■ Canada
Bungled robbery attempt
Just everything that could go wrong did go wrong for a would-be robber this week and led to his quick arrest. While trying to rob a convenience store in Edmonton, Alberta, on Dec. 13, the man slammed the till with an aluminum baseball bat, jamming it before the clerk could open it, police said. "I think things went a little south after that," said Lisa Lammi of the Edmonton police. As the robber tried to open the broken till, the clerk escaped, and with the help of others, barred the robber from leaving through the front door. The back exit was locked and barred.

■ Venezuela
Castro does not have cancer
President Hugo Chavez said on Friday he was certain the Cuban leader Fidel Castro did not have cancer, despite allegations by US officials that he has just months to live. "Fidel does not have cancer, I am well aware of that," Chavez said in a speech before military leaders. He said Castro had ordered Cuban government officials to keep him informed and he had been receiving regular updates about the Cuban leader's condition. The comment came after US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told the Washington Post on Friday that Castro was very ill and close to death.

■ United States
Cleric slams New York cops
The Reverand Calvin Butts, one of New York's most prominent and moderate black clerics, demanded on Friday that the city rein in rogue members of the Police Department whom he described as "ignorant savages who continue to prey upon our people as if we have no respect by virtue of our humanity or our citizenship." The surprisingly sharp comments by Butts were made at a news conference outside City Hall that was called to announce a march yesterday to protest the killing of an unarmed man, Sean Bell, on Nov. 25 by the police. At Friday's event, political and community leaders said they planned to challenge Mayor Michael Bloomberg to adopt a list of proposed changes in policing.

■ United States
Bacterium strikes children
A hospital in Los Angeles has closed its neonatal and pediatrics intensive care units to new admissions after a potentially fatal bacterium sickened seven children, including an infant who may have died from the infection, officials said. White Memorial Medical Center shut down the neonatal unit on Dec. 4 following an outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, hospital officials said on Friday. The germ is believed to have infected five babies in the unit since it was detected on Nov. 30. One of the infants died, likely because of the pathogen. On Friday, the hospital shuttered the pediatrics intensive care ward after discovering the bacterium had infected an infant and a toddler there.

■ United States
Beauty may lose crown
Miss USA 2006 is in danger of losing her crown because of bad behavior, organizers of the annual beauty pageant said on Thursday. Property magnate Donald Trump, who owns the Miss USA and Miss Universe contests, will decide next week whether or not Tara Conner would keep the title, they said. "The Miss Universe Organization and Mr. Donald Trump will be evaluating her behavioral and personal issues to see what we can do to work with her, and what we will do about her reign going forward," Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, said in a statement.