■ Japan
Minister refuses to go
A minister yesterday refused to step down for disparaging women as "child-bearing machines" as the opposition boycotted parliament to demand he quit. "I want to do my best at the job I've been given," Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa told reporters. The opposition camp boycotted the parliament session for the second straight day to demand Yanagisawa step down.
■ Japan
Drug crackdown working
A crackdown on a drug trafficking ring with links to North Korea and other anti-narcotic operations has sharply reduced the flow of illegal drugs into the nation, sending prices surging, police said yesterday. With stricter inspections and more patrols, authorities exposed 77 alleged smugglers last year, almost twice the number reported the year before, according to figures released by the National Police Agency. The price of amphetamines is up tenfold from 2002, according to the police's annual report.
■ South Korea
North Korean teens suffer
North Korean children experience stunted growth in their early teens due to chronic malnutrition, a scholar said yesterday. Park Sun-young, an anthropology professor at Seoul National University, surveyed 1,192 North Korean child defectors. Children aged between two and 14 at the time they left showed no major differences with South Korean counterparts in terms of growth, she told Yonhap news agency. A 2004 survey of 2,300 North Korean defectors showed that the average adult North Korean men and women are respectively 5.9 centimeters and 4.1 centimeters shorter than their South Korean counterparts.
■ Hong Kong
Mothers-to-be not welcome
New rules aimed at barring heavily pregnant women from mainland China abusing Hong Kong's hospital system came into effect yesterday. Immigration officers at the border were under orders to stop any woman more than seven months pregnant and refuse them entry to the territory unless they had a hospital appointment. By mid-day there were no figures available for the number of women who had been turned away, although television pictures showed some being questioned. A government spokesman said a tally would be issued later in the day.
■ Pakistan
Six rapists arrested
Police have arrested six men who allegedly raped a teenage girl and forced her to parade naked through a village in a so-called "honor punishment," officials said on Wednesday. The men kidnapped the 16-year-old girl in Habib Labalo village in southern Sindh Province on Saturday because her cousin had an affair with a woman from their family, local police officer Aftab Farooqi said. Two of them raped her and other members of the group later forced her to walk naked through the streets before villagers intervened, Farooqi said quoting the girl's family members and local residents.
■ China
Vote-buyers prosecuted
Beijing has prosecuted 192 officials for vote-buying and electoral fraud in the current round of village elections across the country, state media reported yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party allows limited direct elections in 680,000 villages across the country. But it has resisted calls for elections at township, county, provincial and national levels. The appointments of 613 officials were annulled in elections for local party committees, heads of local people's congresses, local governments and advisory bodies that began last year and will finish in 2007, the Shanghai Daily said.
■ Bangladesh
Election officials resign
All five of the country's election commissioners have resigned following a string of violent street protests alleging their favoritism toward a political party headed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia. Interim President Iajuddin Ahmed accepted the resignations on Wednesday, the presidential palace said in a brief statement. It did not give a reason for the commissioners' move. The resignations could further delay as-yet-unscheduled elections, postponed last month when the caretaker government declared a state of emergency to quell weeks of political unrest. Mainul Hosein, legal adviser to the government, said three new election commissioners would be appointed soon.
■ Philippines
Army pledges impartiality
The newly appointed defense secretary yesterday pledged to ensure the country's armed forces would not help candidates cheat during upcoming elections in May. "We have to insulate the Armed Forces of the Philippines from partisan activities," Hermogenes Ebdane said in a speech as he formally took over the post. Ebdane said troops would be barred from providing security detail to politicians, transporting ballot boxes and providing a venue inside their camps for vote-counting. Independent poll monitors however can call on troops to enforce a firearms ban and neutralize "serious armed threats" during the May 14 polls, military chief General Hermogenes Esperon said.
■ Sweden
Cookie injury compensated
A salesman who chipped a tooth on a cookie while visiting a customer is entitled to compensation for his dental work after a court ruled the incident was a work-related injury. The Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favor of Calle Montell's claim for state compensation, saying the injury was work-related because it occurred while he was practicing his job. The Jan. 18 ruling ended a legal battle that begun on Oct. 31, 2002, when Montell bit into a cookie offered by a customer, and cracked his tooth on a cherry pit.
■ United Kingdom
Magazine offers space trip
A magazine is offering readers the chance to win a trip to space simply by answering the question "What is the best patented invention and why?" it said yesterday. The winner of the New Scientist contest will be blasted into space 100km above Earth, from where they will be afforded stunning views of the planet and feel weightlessness. The prize is the latest off-the-wall opportunity from the magazine, which previously gave readers the chance to have their bodies cryogenically frozen after they died. "We delight in trying to find unusual prizes for people," editor Jeremy Webb said.
■ South Africa
`Mama' Tambo passes on
Adelaide Tambo, the widow of African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Oliver Tambo and a hero of the anti-apartheid movement in her own right, died on Wednesday night, the ANC said. Tambo, who joined the ANC at the age of 18 and quickly became one of its most prominent leaders, collapsed and died at her Johannesburg home, the party said in a statement. She was 77. Adelaide, a primary school teacher and political activist, married Oliver Tambo, who at one stage led the ANC, in 1956. Newspapers yesterday mourned the woman known affectionately by the nation as "Mama Tambo," famous for her record as a campaigner for women's rights.
■ United Kingdom
Final `Potter' out on July 21
The fate of fictional boy wizard Harry Potter will finally be revealed on July 21, the publication day for the seventh and final instalment of J.K. Rowling's hugely successful book series. In what promises to be one of the biggest publishing events in recent years, book stores will be bracing for another outbreak of Pottermania as fans across the world snap up their copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Speculation has been rife that Rowling may kill Harry at the end of book seven. Two top US authors, John Irving and Stephen King, were sufficiently concerned over the fictional hero's fate to urge Rowling to spare him. Bloomsbury Publishing announced the release date yesterday.
■ United States
Heart disease gene found
A gene variant predisposes women to heart disease, a new study found, offering clues to the origins of heart attacks and strokes. Women with the variant were four times more likely to suffer coronary artery disease, the researchers at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California said. The study was published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. The scientists relied on data the University of Iowa gathered through a study of 11,377 people since 1971. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among women, the WHO says.
■ United States
Senator censured over intern
The South Dakota Senate on Wednesday refused to expel a lawmaker accused of fondling an 18-year-old legislative intern in a motel bed, but voted to censure him instead. Democratic Senator Dan Sutton, 36, had admitted sharing a bed with the intern last winter but denied groping him. The censure amounts to a public reprimand that has no effect on Sutton's legislative powers. The motion to expel Sutton failed 14-20, and the censure vote was 32-2. Sutton left the chamber when the debate began over his future, and he was the only senator not voting. Attorney-General Larry Long said that the criminal investigation was continuing.
■ United Nations
Oil-for-food fight drags on
Four years after the UN Security Council ordered the shutdown of the troubled oil-for-food program for Iraq, some Iraqi officials still appear intent on using it for illegal gains, it was disclosed on Wednesday. The UN has been trying to close down the US$64 billion program since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The Security Council last year called on UN managers to resolve all outstanding issues so it could be ended definitively in 2007. However, former secretary-general Kofi Annan, in a Dec. 8 letter made public on Wednesday, said that task had been complicated by allegations from two vendors that authentication documents needed to clear some of the last payments "have been improperly withheld by authorities in Iraq."
■ Mexico
Big bambino draws crowds
He is called "Super Tonio," and at a whopping birth weight of 6.6kg, the ``little'' fellow is causing a sensation in the resort city of Cancun. Residents have crowded the nursery ward's window to see Antonio Vasconcelos, who was born early Monday by Caesarean section at Jesus Kumate Rodriguez hospital. The baby measures 55cm in length. According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest baby born to a healthy mother was a boy weighing 10.2kg, born in Aversa, Italy in September 1955.
■ Mexico
Price hikes lead to protest
Thousands of people marched in Mexico City on Wednesday to protest the sharp hike of basic food products, including tortillas and milk, and to demand the government exclude food staples from the North American Free Trade Agreement. "No corn, no country," the protesters shouted in the first major demonstration to confront President Felipe Calderon since he took office Dec. 1. Participants also demanded a minimum wage increase. The Calderon administration recently hiked minimum wages US$4.30 to US$4.60 per day. The protest was triggered by Calderon's decision to raise the price of tortillas by between 40 and 100 percent.
■ United Nations
Top officials defy Ban
Most top UN officials have defied a request to submit their resignations to make way for new appointees, the world body said on Wednesday, hinting at the obstacles to reform faced by new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. On. Jan. 4 Ban sent letters to 58 senior officials at UN headquarters in New York and elsewhere asking them to offer their resignations. Just 20 have done so, UN chief spokeswoman Michele Montas acknowledged. The request applied to individuals working at the level of undersecretary-general or assistant secretary-general and most are working under contracts which expire at the end of this month, she said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not