■ Hong Kong
Obesity on the rise
An obesity clinic is having to turn away patients because of the growing number of people seeking help as the population piles on the kilograms, a news report said yesterday. Doctors at the clinic claim that last year they carried out 180 surgical and non-surgical obesity treatments compared to two when the clinic first opened in 2001. Department of Health figures show that 1.6 million people are obese in the territory, which accounts for 23.4 percent of the population. A survey in 2004 found 240,000 people were morbidly obese.
■ Pakistan
Landslide hits van, 15 dead
At least 15 people were killed and three injured when a landslide triggered by heavy rains hit a passenger van in Pakistani Kashmir, police said yesterday. The incident occurred on Friday in a remote mountainous region, some 50km from the town of Kotli. "Rescue work is still underway because it was a huge landslide. We have recovered 15 bodies, including four women," local police official Mohammad Fareed said. However, he said it was still unclear how many people were travelling in the van.
■ China
Released panda beaten up
The only captive-bred giant panda to be released into the wild has gone missing after being badly beaten by a rival for territory, food or a mate. In a major setback for China's efforts to replenish the endangered species with animals reared in zoos, Xiang Xiang has broken at least one bone and could be in danger, a leading Chinese zoologist said. "Xiang Xiang has been badly hurt in a competition with other pandas," said Zhang Hemin (張和民), the director of the Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda.
■ Singapore
Hackers deface Web sites
Hackers broke into five Web sites, with one vandal leaving the message: "Israel = Terrorism," news reports said yesterday. The affected Web sites were those of Komatsu Engineering, an entrepre-neurial site run by Spring Singapore, the local campus of the University of Las Vegas, Quantun Learning Hub Education Centre and Fulbond, a Hong Kong-based company specializing in network equipment, the Straits Times said. No confidential information was stolen. Anyone convicted of unauthorized modification of computer material can be fined up to 10,000 Singapore dollars (US$6,535) and jailed up to three years.
■ South Korea
Robots used for training
With the birth rate at its lowest ever, medical students are resorting to robots to practice bringing babies into the world. Kyunghee University Medical Center in Seoul is the first institution in South Korea to use Noelle, a life-sized robot and her "newborn" to give obstetric students experience. "With this simulator training tool, we can conduct not only normal deliveries, but also complicated deliveries such as breech births [and] Caesarean deliveries," Professor Jung Eui said. "Students can practice in a very realistic situation with this mannequin." Students regularly crowd around Noelle as she gives "birth."
■ India
Dancers contest elections
Out-of-work bar dancers in the financial hub of Mumbai said on Friday they would contest elections to the city council in a bid to overturn a ban on their popular nightspots that robbed them of their livelihood. Authorities in Maharashtra state closed down hundreds of dance bars in 2005 saying they corrupted young men and bred crime and prostitution. The ban saw many of the estimated 75,000 bar girls go away to other states to find work and some reportedly turn to prostitution while many were left jobless. "We have had enough of begging and pleading for our rights," said Manjit Singh Sethi, president of the Mumbai Bar Owners' Association.
RSS