Print

Mail

wiki links

World News Quick Take

■ Grenada
Band blunderer relieved
The leader of a police band that performed the Republic of China's national anthem at the inauguration of a Beijing-financed stadium has been temporarily relieved of his music duties, an official said on Tuesday. Inspector Bryan Hurst will not lead the Royal Grenada Police Band while investigators determine how his ensemble came to play Taiwan's anthem instead of its rival to open the US$40 million Queen's Park stadium on Saturday. Police Commissioner Winston James was expected to formally apologize to Chinese Ambassador Qian Hongshan (錢洪山).

■ Japan
Tired man steals police car
A man told police he stole a patrol car that had been left idling outside a post office in Gunma, north of Tokyo, because he was too tired to walk home. Police officers had left the vehicle in the car park with the engine running, while they investigated a report that a stolen card had been used at the post office, the Mainichi Shimbun said on Tuesday. "I came out shopping by train, but I got tired walking, so I thought I would drive the police car home," the man told police. He was apprehended about 15 minutes later in the driveway of a private home, about 4km from the post office.

■ Japan
Teacher nabbed over photos
An elementary-school teacher was arrested in Tokyo yesterday for allegedly distributing photographs of naked children, reportedly including some killed in traffic accidents. Toshio Watanabe, a 33-year-old teacher, allegedly sent photos of naked boys by e-mail to a man who visited his Web site and a 16-year-old student. Jiji Press said Watanabe had maintained a Web site with photos of naked children, including some who were killed in traffic accidents, natural disasters and wars.
He faces up to three years in prison and a ¥3 million (US$25,000) fine if convicted.

■ Cambodia
End to child labor urged
Some 1.5 million children aged sseven to 17 years old are being put to work in the kingdom, the World Bank said yesterday, calling on the government to curb the practice. The number is "very high," making up 40 percent of children in the age group, the bank said in a report titled Children's Work in Cambodia: A Challenge for Growth and Poverty Reduction, that was dated last December. "This percentage is very high relative to other countries with similar levels of income, underscoring that children's work poses a particular concern in the Cambodian context," the report said.

■ China
Hospital attacked after death
Hundreds of people attacked a hospital in Leiyang, Hunan Province, after the wife of the local tax bureau chief died there following surgery, sparking an online debate about abuse of authority. The woman died on Saturday from multiple organ failure four days after under-going liposuction surgery, reports on Web sites said. Friends and relatives began gathering at the hospital that after-noon, blaming the staff for the woman's death and demanding more than 1 million yuan (US$128,000) in compensation. Over the next few days, the crowd smashed the hospital's doors and windows, drove patients and staff out, and beat at least one person who showed up seeking treatment. According to the Boxun news Web site, the clinic where the woman underwent surgery was simply renting space from the hospital and its main doctor had no training in plastic surgery.

■ United Kingdom
Cheese cam proves popular
As pastimes go it is in the same league as watching paint dry, with perhaps a frisson of extra excitement. English firm West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers has turned a Web camera on a rack of its maturing cheddar cheeses to give aficionados a chance to watch in real time the slow process of mold growth for a whole year and without having to leave home. "It puts watching paint dry in the shade. If you happen to tune in at the right time you will even get to see them being turned," a company spokeswoman said by telephone. Already nearly 49,000 people have clicked on to www.cheddarvision.tv to enjoy the thrill.

■ Canada
`Impounded' pensioner dies
An 85-year-old woman has died after spending nearly a day in freezing temperatures in her car, which was impounded by an unwitting tow truck, police said on Monday. The woman was discovered unconscious last Thursday in her car by an employee of the tow-truck operator in this western Canadian city. A trucker had towed her car, with her inside, from a city street where she had apparently stopped illegally on Wednesday. Media reports said the woman had felt sick and had pulled over, and that her car windows may have been frosted before the car was towed, likely making it difficult for the trucker to spot her inside.

■ United Kingdom
Green crimes law mulled
The European Commission will propose laws to combat so-called "green crimes," which will be penalized by prison sentences and large fines, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The nine offences listed by the draft directive would be enforceable across the EU and range from the illegal dumping of waste to the "taking or damaging" of protected wild flowers. The directive also assigns minimum sentences for the most serious "green crimes," such as those that cause death, many of which are already crimes in some EU member states.

■ United Kingdom
Internet rape trio sentenced
Three British men who conspired over the Internet to rape two young sisters were on Monday jailed for a combined total of 27 years in the first instance of a conviction for such a serious offense based solely on Internet exchanges. The trio, who met for the first time after they were arrested, posed a "serious risk of physical and psychological harm to children," presiding Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said as he was passing sentence. Police only found out about their plans when David Beaven, a 42-year-old greeting card salesman, got cold feet and walked into a police station, and told them what was going on.

■ Ivory Coast
French diplomat shot dead
A French diplomat with the EU in Ivory Coast was shot to death in his home overnight, a spokesman for the French embassy said yesterday. The victim, Michel Miaucel, was in charge of West Africa security operations for the EU, embassy spokesman Jacques Cuzi said. Cuzi said Miaucel had been shot with his own gun by unknown assailants and died in his home. There did not appear to be any political motivation for the killing, but the investigation was still ongoing, and suicide has been ruled out, he said. "Since there was no break-in into the house, it could be someone close to him," Cuzi said. Miaucel lived with his wife and children in Abidjan.

■ United States
Bush's dragon dies
A 24-year-old Komodo dragon given to former US president George H.W. Bush as a gift from the Indonesian government has died of an abdominal infection at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Naga, who sired 32 offspring, died on Sunday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Tuesday. "He had been ill for about three weeks. He quit eating and got real sluggish in January. We took X-rays and did some blood work, but in the end, we couldn't help him," zoo veterinarian Mark Campbell said. Bush donated Naga to Cincinnati, where he had lived in a custom-designed enclosure at the zoo since 1990. The zoo considered him a star attraction, estimating that 1 million of 1.3 million annual guests visited Naga's enclosure. When the Komodo visited 10 zoos in 1995 as a conservation ambassador, T-shirts were printed with a list of tour stops on the back. With mate Sabat, a female on loan from Washington's National Zoo, Naga fathered Komodos that were loaned to other zoos.

■ United States
Professor on hunger strike
A black professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began a hunger strike on Monday to protest the university's decision to deny him tenure -- a decision he claims was based on racism. James Sherley, 49, is known for his controversial theories about stem cells. He works with adult stem cells and opposes research using human embryonic stem cells, saying it amounts to taking human life. Sherley said he has tried unsuccessfully for two years to persuade MIT administrators to reverse a decision by his department head to reject his bid for tenure. He had warned school officials he would start the hunger strike on Monday outside the office of MIT provost L. Rafael Reif.

■ United States
Poisoning Dad admits guilt
A man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to poisoning his children in an attempt to extort Campbell Soup Co, federal prosecutors in Atlanta said. William Allen Cunningham, now 41, fed his then-three years old son and 18-month-old daughter Campbell's soup to which he added substances such as lighter fluid and tranquilizers, which led to the children being hospitalized. He was arrested in July and, to avoid trial, pleaded guilty to making false statements, meaning he will face a maximum of five years in prison when he is sentenced in April. On three occasions, Cunningham, of Stockbridge, Georgia, southeast of Atlanta, fed the children soup spiked with antidepressants Prozac and Amitriptyline, lighter fluid and hot chilies. On the third occasion his daughter had to be flown by helicopter ambulance to an Atlanta hospital, and both children landed in the hospital for long recovery periods.

■ United States
Women go for the clothes
For most women, the choice between sex and a new wardrobe is simple -- they go for the clothes. Women on average say they would be willing to give up sex for 15 months for a closet full of new apparel, with 2 percent ready to abstain from sex for three years in exchange for new duds, according to a new survey of about 1,000 women in 10 cities nationwide. "Some people say clothes make the man, but the right clothes can even replace him," TV personality Carson Kressley from the TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy said in a statement accompanying the poll.

This story has been viewed 1409 times.