■ China
Official warns judiciary
Security chief Luo Gan (羅幹) has warned judicial departments to stand firm in the face of what he described as "hostile forces" of reform, but also urged the judiciary to improve its handling of social unrest. In a wide-ranging essay published in Seeking Truth, the Chinese Communist Party's journal, dampened reformists' hopes for moves toward an independent judiciary and reaffirmed the party's guiding role in law enforcement. "Hostile forces have been trying their best to attack and fundamentally transform our judicial system," Luo wrote in the essay seen yesterday.
■ China
Family of five killed
Police are probing an apparent murder-suicide after finding seven bodies drenched with blood in a village near the Hong Kong border. Police found the victims, aged between 14 and 81 and including a family of five, in Baishayun village, Guangdong Province, on Monday night, Xinhua news agency reported. A man identified as Yan Zhongxi and his wife are believed to have cut the throats of the family following a dispute over money and then committed suicide.
■ China
Education fees cut
Beijing will exempt all rural students from paying compulsory education fees starting from the spring semester this year, state media reported. Students in rural areas of western China were exempted from compulsory education fees last year and now the program will be expanded that to the poorer central and eastern regions, State Councilor Chen Zhili (陳至立) was quoted as saying late on Thursday by the Xinhua news agency.
■ Turkmenistan
Political prisoner near death
A prisoner who is believed to be a victim of political purges by the nation's late dictator is in urgent need of medical treatment, Amnesty International (AI) said. Geldy Kyarizov is severely malnourished and weak and may be ``in grave danger if he does not receive adequate treatment immediately,'' AI said late on Thursday. Kyarizov was arrested in 2002 and reportedly tortured by electric shocks to his genitals before being sentenced to six years in prison following an unfair trial. Kyarizov's wife visited him on Monday in a Turkmenabad prison and said "he is a skeleton with skin, his weight now is 45 to 50kg. He is like a walking dead body."
■ Australia
`Jesus loves Osama'
A sign saying "Jesus Loves Osama" outside some churches drew criticism from officials and religious leaders on Thursday. "I hope they [the churches] will understand that a lot of Australians, including many Australian Christians, will think that the prayer priority of the church on this occasion could have been elsewhere," Prime Minister John Howard said. Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen said churches that posted the sign were obviously trying to illustrate Christian teaching that God loves everybody, no matter how evil their sins, but that he found the sign ``a bit misleading'' and potentially offensive.
■ Vietnam
Ex-rocker may be released
Disgraced British ex-rocker Gary Glitter, imprisoned for sexually molesting two young girls, is on a list of inmates to be possibly released this month, his lawyer said yesterday. Glitter, 62, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison during a one-day trial in March last year and subsequently lost an appeal. Every year at major national holidays, the Vietnamese president authorizes amnesty for prisoners. "My client is on the list for Tet [Lunar New Year] amnesty consideration and I expect to hear the final decision in a few days," Glitter's lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said in Ho Chi Minh.
■ Pakistan
Militants kill `US spy'
Suspected pro-Taliban militants cut the throat of an Afghan refugee accused of being a US spy in the restive North Waziristan region, and dumped the body in a sewer, witnesses said yesterday. "His throat was slit and a note pinned to his body read `American spy, Gafoor Tani,'" Mohammad Hanif, a local resident said. During the past three years, militants in North and South Waziristan have killed dozens of people suspected of being pro-government or of spying for the US, and many families have fled the region.
■ India
Actor saved by a turban
Bollywood's iconic actor Amitabh Bachchan is thanking an elaborate Indian headgear for saving his life after he was kicked on the head by a camel while shooting for a film, a newspaper reported on Thursday. The 64-year-old actor, playing a royal guard in Eklavya, a period film about palace intrigue, was shooting a scene in which he had to pass through a herd of 400 camels. The Mumbai Mirror newspaper said one of the camels suddenly landed a kick on Bachchan's head, leaving him dizzy for a few minutes. "Mr Bachchan kept saying `the turban saved my life,'" director Vidhu Vinod Chopra was quoted as saying by the daily. "I would have never believed it happened, but then we spotted the camel in action on the monitor," he said.
■ Russia
Teams search for leopards
Russian and Chinese conservationists began searching for signs of the last remaining Amur leopards in Russia's Far East and adjacent Chinese border regions, as part of a triennial census of the nearly extinct cats. The leopards are one of the most endangered species on Earth, with only around 30 remaining in the wilderness of the Russian Primorye region and in China's northeastern provinces, the World Wide Fund for Nature said in a statement on Thursday. The animals and their habitat face encroachment from development, poachers, logging and other threats, said Dmitry Pikunov, an ecologist with the Russian Academy of Science.
■ Iran
Women drive taxis
Twenty full-time female drivers have been recruited for a new service dedicated to female passengers. Taxi Bisim Banovan -- Ladies' Wireless Taxi -- has been formed to provide a safe environment for female travelers in Tehran, where an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 women use private cabs each day. No male passengers are allowed and only female job applicants are accepted. The initiative comes against a backdrop of rising instances of rape and sexual assault. Police estimate that 30 percent of offences are committed by men working as taxi drivers and have advised women not to travel alone in private cabs.
■ Russia
Nurses gagged babies
Prosecutors are investigating claims that staff at a hospital gagged babies with tape because they were fed up with hearing them cry. A patient at the hospital in Yekaterinburg reported the case after allegedly hearing the children's muffled cries. She used her mobile phone to film a baby lying in a cot with his mouth taped, while others had dummies taped to their mouths. The children at Hospital Number 15 were all orphans. Prosecutors said they had opened a criminal investigation and had discovered sticking plasters had been used on babies at the hospital.
■ Sweden
Swanning around
An elderly woman has taken animal protection too far by sheltering 11 full grown swans in her small, city center apartment, police said on Thursday. She said she had been looking after the birds in her 25m2 apartment in Stockholm since 2001 after they had been injured. Police took the swans to a shelter and the woman could face charges under animal protection laws. "It is a real feat to be able to transport 11 large swans, which are not known to be the most serene of animals," police officer Bjorn Engstrom said.
■ United States
Crook stiffs spas
Police are looking for a man who used at least 20 day spas in and around Chicago and left without paying. "Pedicures, manicures, facials, those are the standards," Algonquin Police Detective Andrew Doles said. The man got away with several thousand dollars' worth of services. Police said the man had visited the spas and left the building under the pretense of using his cellphone, but did not return to pay the bill. Nail technician Lisa Marach was one of those snubbed. "I just want to look at him like, `You jerk, you didn't even tip me. You made me rub your gross feet and listen to you for an hour and a half,'" she said.
■ United States
`Valdez' oil still polluting
Crude oil is still polluting Alaskan waters almost 18 years after the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground, according to a study by government scientists to be published in two weeks. The study, an advance of which was released on Wednesday, found more than 26,600 gallons of oil remaining at Prince William Sound. Researchers say it is declining at a rate of only 4 percent a year and even slower in the Gulf of Alaska. The disclosure came as Exxon Mobil posted the nation's largest annual profit, US$39.5 billion on Thursday.
■ United States
Paper ballots may return
The state that became infamous for its role in the 2000 US presidential election may make a return to the paper election ballot. Governor Charlie Crist said on Thursday he wants to spend US$32 million to get rid of touch-screen voting technology adopted after the 2000 election and go to a voting system that would leave a paper trail. It was paper ballots, with their dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads on punch cards tied up in recounts, that held up a final count in the 2000 election. Florida was eventually decided by 537 votes after the US Supreme Court stepped in, handing the election to US President George W. Bush. Punch cards in Florida elections have since been banned.
■ Ecuador
Congress safe for now
The government said on Thursday that it does not plan to dissolve Congress, despite a bitter fight over a push to overhaul the Constitution that led protesters to storm the capitol this week. Armed with clubs and rocks, thousands of supporters of President Rafael Correa invaded the congressional building on Tuesday to demand that lawmakers call a March 18 referendum on whether the Constitution should be rewritten. Correa says the referendum is necessary to limit the power of Ecuador's traditional parties, which he blames for the country's problems. Opposition lawmakers have raised fears that a constitutional assembly with unlimited powers might move to close the legislature.
■ United States
Herpes halts wrestling
An outbreak of a contagious rash called herpes gladiatorum among Minnesota high school wrestlers led the state to suspend matches and halt contact practices, authorities said on Wednesday. The eight-day suspension affecting 7,500 wrestlers on 262 teams was the first time a US state's entire high school program in a sport has been shut down, authorities said. The Minnesota State High School League acted after 24 wrestlers from 10 schools contracted the rash, which was first noticed and spread at a tournament in December.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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