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World News Quick Take

■ China
Inmate sculpts Confucius
A prison inmate has sculpted a 5m tall statue of the philosopher Confucius that the warden hopes it will inspire convicts to reform, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. Inmate Ma Feihu made the sculpture out of eight tons of mud at Hanjin Prison in Hubei Province, where he is serving a 10-year sentence for assault. The prison has been teaching Confucian philosophy to prisoners for four years. Ma, an art student since childhood, was allowed to start a sculpture studio in the prison with five other inmates, Xinhua said.

■ Myanmar
Suu Kyi `avoided taxes'
The military junta has accused democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in prison or under house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years, of tax evasion for not spending her Nobel Peace Prize money inside the country. The paper said the 61-year-old opposition leader was lucky to be under house arrest and not in jail for her criticism of the army and its long-running attempts to write a new constitution. Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won a landslide election victory in 1990, which the military did not accept, received the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1991 while under house arrest.

■ Australia
Heroin smuggler sentenced
A grandmother caught carrying heroin into the country in her underwear was sentenced to six years' prison yesterday for drug trafficking. Fawzieh Nona Danial, 58, told officials she did not know what was in the four packets that customs officers found stuffed into her underwear when they searched her at Sydney Airport on March 24 last year, as she arrived from Vietnam. It was 239g of heroin. Danial said she had accepted the parcels from a Vietnamese woman who offered her US$19,600 to transport them. She pleaded guilty to trafficking charges, and told officers she was sorry "for doing this stupid thing."

■ Australia
Deadly snakes move to city
Three people have died from snakebites as a harsh drought drives venomous reptiles into urban areas, officials and experts warned yesterday. More people could be bitten as increasing numbers of snakes move into residential and business areas in search of moisture. A teenager bitten in Sydney last week staggered onto a suburban cricket ground before collapsing and being rushed to hospital, where he died. The 16-year-old boy was one of three people bitten by snakes in the past week and one of three killed by eastern brown snakes, considered to be among the world's deadliest, this southern hemisphere summer.

■ China
Art treasure broken on TV
A studio audience at a television program showcasing priceless ancient relics was shocked when a crew member accidentally smashed a 2,500-year-old bronze mirror, state media reported. Dating back to the Warring States Period of 475-221 BC, the small gilded mirror inlaid with turquoise was being held by a presenter's assistant when it fell out of its wooden box and smashed on stage, Xinhua news agency said. The incident occurred on Sunday during filming of a Chinese Central Television program selecting the "10 most valuable treasures" from private Chinese collections. Experts rushed onto the stage to pick up the pieces as the studio audience and crew watched in stunned silence, Xinhua said.

■ Honduras
Falling coffee beans kill six
Six coffee workers died on Wednesday when an overhead storeroom collapsed, dumping around 1,000 sacks of coffee beans on them. The six men, mostly young seasonal workers, were packing harvested beans at a coffee farm near the town of Villanueva when a wall gave way and the storeroom above them collapsed, emergency services officials said. "They were all young men; one of them was only 16," rescue worker Francisco Alvarenga said. "We've recovered five of the bodies, and there's one left," he said.

■ United States
Station fires 10 after tragedy
A California radio station has fired 10 staff members after a contest to drink as much water as possible to win a new Nintendo Wii game console resulted in a woman's death, a company spokesman said on Wednesday. Jennifer Strange, 28, a mother of three, died from water intoxication after taking part in a "Hold your wee for a Wii" competition on a morning radio show on Sacramento station KDND-FM on Friday. In an online recording of the show, DJs can be heard making comments joking about people dying from water intoxication, even discussing a case in Northern California two years ago in which a student died after drinking too much water during a fraternity pledge.

■ United States
Monkey business at haven
A female chimpanzee at a sanctuary has given birth, despite the fact that the facility's entire male chimp population has had vasectomies. Now managers at Chimp Haven in Shreveport, Louisiana are planning a paternity test for the seven males who lived in a group with Teresa, a chimpanzee in her late 40s who had the baby girl last week. Workers have started collecting hair samples from the chimps for testing. Once they identify the father, it is back to the operating room for him. Chimp Haven managers said they knew something was up when Teresa was missing during morning rounds on Jan. 8. Later in the day, she appeared with a baby in her arms.

■ United States
Sex change chemicals found
Chemicals known to change the sexual characteristics of fish and other animals have been found in West Virginia tributaries of the Potomac River, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said on Wednesday. An investigation into fish that had both male and female characteristics turned up a range of chemicals including pesticides, flame retardants, and personal-care products, the USGS said. "Many potential sources of contaminants discharge to the South Branch of the Potomac and Cacapon Rivers. Chief among these are runoff from agricultural activities, municipal and domestic wastewater effluent [both treated and untreated], industrial wastewater, and gypsy moth control programs using dimilin [diflubenzuron]," the report said.

■ Netherlands
Party bans mouse poison
The Dutch Party for Animals has forbidden the laying of poison to deal with a mouse infestation in its offices, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. The party, which campaigns for animal rights and compassionate farming, will only allow humane traps in the parliament wing where its offices are housed, allowing trapped mice to be released unharmed, De Telegraaf reported. The newspaper added that a Christian Democrat politician joked he had strewn bread crumbs around before handing over his office to the Party for Animals.

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