■ Japan
Topless' show shocks
A troupe of dancers in skin-colored body suits had national broadcaster NHK apologizing to viewers of its New Year's Eve music special for what seemed to be a full-scale Janet Jackson-style wardrobe malfunction. The dancers, who all appeared to be topless and wearing skimpy bikini-style bottoms and feathered headdresses, covered the stage during a performance by singer DJ OZMA, prompting about 250 viewers to phone in and complain. "The dancers were wearing body suits, but we apologize for any misunderstanding," a presenter announced towards the end of the 57th annual Red and White Song Contest.
■ Pakistan
Nuclear info exchanged
Pakistan and India yesterday exchanged lists of their nuclear sites under an agreement to swap such information annually on New Year's Day to prevent attacks against each others nuclear facilities, the foreign ministry said. The agreement signed in 1988 between the South Asian arch rivals came into force in 1991 with the first exchange of information taking place on Jan. 1, 1992. Under the agreement both Pakistan and India are to refrain from attacking each other's nuclear facilities in the event of a war.
■ Japan
Ex-Red Army hijacker dead
Yoshimi Tanaka, a former Red Army hijacker involved in the 1970 hijacking of a Japan Airlines (JAL) jet, died in hospital yesterday, local reports said. He was 58. His death came less than a month after the former guerrilla, who jointly hijacked a domestic JAL Boeing 727 jetliner to North Korea in 1970, was released from prison because of serious illness, Jiji Press and Kyodo News said.
■ India
Islamic militants killed
Security forces in Kashmir killed two suspected Islamic militants early yesterday morning after a prolonged gunbattle, police said. Both men belonged to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militant group, local police chief Viplav Kumar said. One of the men was identified as Showkat Janwari, a local commander for the militant group. Police and army soldiers acted on a tip about the presence of militants in the town of Sopore, about 50km north of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Muslim-majority Jammu-Kashmir state.
■ Australia
New outback speed limits
Motorists in the outback will no longer be able to drive as fast as they like after the Northern Territory government yesterday introduced speed limits on open highways for the first time. Under the new laws drivers must keep within the limit of 130kmph on the Stuart, Arnhem, Victoria and Barkly highways. All other rural roads will have a limit of 110kmph unless signposted otherwise. The Northern Territory, home to one of the country's biggest tourist attractions Uluru, was previously one of the few places in the world where there were no enforced speed limits on some roads.
■ Japan
Man dies on Mount Fuji
One climber died and two others were injured yesterday on Mount Fuji as they attempted to celebrate New Year's day on top of Japan's highest mountain. Police rescued two men who fell halfway while climbing to the top of the 3,776m mountain, said a police spokesman at Fuji Yoshida Police Department. "But one of them was later pronounced dead, while the other is in hospital for treatment," the spokesman said, adding that another climber was bought to a nearby mountain lodge after he broke his leg. Some 200,000 people climb Fuji, believed to be a holy mountain, every summer but the number of climbers declines sharply in winter due to severe weather.
■ China
Prison population ballooning
Beijing is considering new ways to curb the rapidly growing prison population, including more frequent use of community service combined with counseling, state media said yesterday. The nation's jails currently hold about 1.76 million inmates, putting a heavy strain on prison management, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing official figures. It gave no comparable figures for previous years, but described the prison population as "ballooning." "Community correction, especially with psychological counseling, should be promoted to better rehabilitate criminals," the Justice Ministry said.
■ Japan
Birth rate rises
Births rose for the first time in six years last year, according to government statistics announced yesterday, offering a glimmer of hope for a rapidly aging society. Japan's population of 127 million contracted for the first time on record in 2005, mostly due to a drop in the birth rate, raising the prospect of a severe labor shortage and difficulties in paying the health bills and pensions of large numbers of elderly. But preliminary data for last year showed there were 1.086 million births, 23,000 more than the previous year, the Health Ministry said yesterday. Based on that data, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily calculated the birth rate for last year at 1.29, up slightly from a record low of 1.26 in the previous year.
■ Israel
Prisoner progress made
Progress has been made toward a deal to trade Palestinian prisoners for a captured Israeli soldier, according to a Hamas spokesman and media reports, but both sides said no agreement is near. On Sunday evening, the Palestinian Ramattan news agency reported that the deal would be announced at a Thursday summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. But Israeli and Palestinian officials cast doubt on the prospects.
■ United Kingdom
Hendrix's other anthem?
He famously played his own screeching version of the Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock, but it has emerged that Jimi Hendrix may also have had a bash at another national anthem: the Welsh one. The version of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of My Fathers) was discovered at the end of a dusty eight-track tape that had languished for years in a forgotten tea chest in a north London recording studio. Experts believe the ear-rattling rendition may be Hendrix as the track appears on the end of a recording by a group which features a friend of his. He is believed to have been in London when the tape was made, and it does sound rather like him.
■ United Kingdom
Smoking age raised
The legal age for buying tobacco will be raised from 16 to 18, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government announced yesterday. The move will go into effect on Oct. 1, three months after a ban on smoking in enclosed public places is introduced. It means that the legal age for buying cigarettes and alcohol is now the same and puts Britain on the same footing as the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The government hopes that the increased age limit will make it easier for shop workers to spot underage customers.
■ United States
Youngster plays on highway
Drivers swerved cars and trucks into other lanes to avoid a three-year-old boy, who was wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, who was playing along a busy highway in Indianapolis, Indiana, after wandering away from home while his mother slept, police said. Some motorists stopped along Interstate 465 on the city's west side Saturday to take care of the boy until officers arrived, the Indiana State Police said. ``I looked up and I seen this little ... boy running down the middle of the slow lane in the interstate. I just could not believe what I was seeing,'' said Troy Crady, one of those who stopped to help. The boy, Damon Dyer, was unscathed as at least a half-dozen cars and a tractor-trailer rig swerved into other lanes to avoid him.
■ United States
Influential songwriter dies
Dennis Linde, the influential country songwriter who composed Elvis Presley's soulful 1972 hit Burning Love and the Dixie Chicks' mordantly humorous 1999 anthem Goodbye Earl, died on Dec. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 63. The cause was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease, family members told the Tennessean newspaper. Burning Love reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop listings and was Presley's second-highest-charting single in a decade. Linde said he wrote the song about his recent marriage to Pam Beckham. "I was a newlywed, and Burning Love was a great newlywed title," Linde said in an interview with the New York Times in 2005.
■ Iraq
Family plans Saddam library
The extended family of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein plans to found a presidential library and religious school at his burial site in his native village, a family member said on Sunday as mourners thronged to pay their respects. "We want to turn the place into a religious school and a library to honour Saddam," said Muayed al-Hazaa, a relative who described himself as a cousin of the ousted strongman. "We want to make this place an appropriate and suitable edifice," he said. "This will honour Saddam Hussein." There had been speculation the Shiite-led government might bury Saddam's body in a secret grave for fear the site could become a focal point for Baathist rebels, but after appeals from his Albu Nasir tribe it was handed over to them for burial.
■ Israel
King complains about smell
Jordan's King Abdullah II has complained about the smell of manure from an Israeli communal farm wafting over to his Red Sea palace, Israeli radio reported on Sunday. In a letter to Israel's environment ministry, King Abdullah said he had to cancel an international conference at his Aqaba palace last week due to unpleasant odors from the Eliot kibbutz, north of Eilat. The environment ministry responded by telling kibbutz officials to take the necessary cleaning measures, the radio said.
■ Mexico
Wedding turns bloody
Masked gunmen burst into a wedding in the south late on Saturday and shot dead seven guests in an apparent settling of scores as a year riddled by gangland-style murders drew to an end. Officials in the crime-ridden Pacific Coast state of Guerrero reported the shooting on Sunday as police elsewhere in Mexico said they found five other dead bodies bearing the hallmarks of crime gang killings. Local police spokesman Noe Morales said four men and three women died when unidentified gunmen sprayed bullets into a wedding party in the village of Zacualpan. He said the gunmen escaped and their motive was unknown.
■ United States
Python bites back
A 4.3m python bit its handler and tried to drag her into its cage during a show at an aquarium, and would not release the woman until a police officer zapped the snake with a stun gun. Alison Cobianchi, 18, was taking Chloe, a Burmese python, out of her cage for the daily snake presentation on Saturday at the Tarpon Springs Aquarium in Florida when it wrapped itself around her arm and waist. Visitors and aquarium employees kept the snake from pulling Cobianchi into the cage, but could not make it release its grip. Police were called to help. "It was definitely the most scary and painful thing that has ever happened to me," she said. "I knew I wasn't going to die, but I was worried I wouldn't get my hand back."
■ United States
Tiger ate keeper's arm
A 157kg tiger ate most of a zookeeper's right arm in a bloody mauling at a San Francisco Zoo attack that has kept its victim hospitalized for more than a week. The zoo has not released the keeper's name or the extent of her injuries. But Vikram Chari, 40, a business owner from San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle he and his six-year-old son witnessed the Dec. 22 attack from a few meters away. "The tiger ate her hand. It slowly proceeded to eat the rest of her arm," Chari said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
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