■ South Korea
North to hand over sailor
North Korea said yesterday it will hand over a South Korean sailor who accidentally navigated his boat into North Korean waters last month, according to South Korean officials. North Korean authorities said they would return Lee Jong-soo and his boat yesterday ``out of brotherly love and humanitarian concerns,'' South Korea's Red Cross said in a statement. While it is unclear how Lee crossed the maritime border off the country's east coast on Dec. 25, South Korean officials said the incident was believed to be accidental.
■ China
`Panda of rivers' killed
Illegal fishermen have killed a highly endangered freshwater fish, state press reported yesterday. The 3.6m, 250kg Chinese paddlefish was the largest of its kind seen in six years, with very few sightings of the species in its native habitats of the Yangtze and Qiantang rivers recorded recently, Xinhua news agency said. The species is dubbed the "giant panda of the rivers" due to its similarities with China's favorite animal in size and the fact that it is close to extinction in the wild, according to the report.
■ Australia
Birds fall from sky
Wildlife authorities investigating why thousands of birds fell from the sky over a town in the southwest of the country have ruled out infectious diseases, including bird flu, but are no closer to working out what killed them, a state official said yesterday. Around 5,000 birds have been found dead in Esperance, Western Australia, since the middle of last month, according to Nigel Higgs, spokesman for the state's Department of Environment and Conservation.
■ India
Gandhi video in `bad taste'
Two TV channels were facing government action yesterday after they reportedly aired a video clip depicting a man dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi performing a pole dance. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said the clip, apparently pulled from a video sharing Web site, was in "bad taste" and called on the two private channels to apologize to the entire country. Media sources have identified the channels as Hindi-language news stations IBN-7 and Sahara Samay Rashtriya.
■ Singapore
Oil tankers collide
Two Singapore-registered tankers collided in the country's southern waters, spilling about 200 tonnes of oil from one of the vessels, the government said yesterday. There were no reports of injuries. The incident between the 1,187-tonne Seafalcon and the 2,836-tonne Frontek, both bunker tankers, occurred on Thursday 500m from St. John's Island, one of Singapore's southern offshore islands, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said in a statement. The collision damaged one of Seafalcon's tanks and resulted in the spill, while the Frontek sustained minor damage to its bow and stem, the statement said. The spill had been cleaned up by yesterday.
■ Nepal
Airline apologizes to Peru
Royal Nepal Airlines has apologized to Peru after mistakenly using a photo of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu to promote tourism in Nepal. Peru's foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday the flagship carrier of the Himalayan kingdom, about half way around the world from the Andean country, had put the picture of Peru's tourism icon, Machu Picchu, on a poster under a slogan "Have you seen Nepal?"
■ Australia
Cleric in ancestry jibe
Leaders yesterday laughed off remarks by a top Islamic cleric who mocked the convict ancestry of many white Australians and said Muslims had a greater claim to the country. "I think it will bring a wry smile to the face of Australians who don't actually feel the least bit offended that many of our ancestors came here as convicts," Prime Minister John Howard told reporters. "It's almost a badge of honor for many Australians," he said. The cleric, Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali, made the comments in an interview on Egyptian television. "The Anglo-Saxons arrived in Australia in shackles. We [Muslims] came as free people. We bought our own tickets. We are entitled to Australia more than they are," he said. Egyptian-born Al-Hilali holds the title Mufti of Australia.
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