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World News Quick Take

■ Hong Kong
Flu did not spread: official
People who had contact with a baby girl infected with a mild strain of bird flu have tested negative for the virus, indicating there was no immediate risk of human-to-human infection, a health official said yesterday. But officials are still investigating how the nine-month-old girl was infected, said Thomas Tsang Ho-fai of the Center for Health Protection. The baby tested positive last Tuesday for H9N2, a less virulent bird flu virus than the deadly H5N1 strain, Tsang said. Before falling sick, she had been taken almost daily to a market that sold live poultry. The girl has now recovered, he said.

■ Kygyzstan
Bakiyev agrees to reforms
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has agreed to carry out constitutional reforms demanded by opposition groups, which threatened to launch nationwide rallies and push for his resignation. Bakiyev said in a nationally televised address on Friday he would create a working group to draft constitutional changes. He did not, however, spell out what changes he was planning to make or how long the process would take. "Civil confrontation is harmful for the country," he said. The country's two largest opposition movements threatened to stage massive rallies if Bakiyev fails to carry out pledged constitutional reforms within a month.

■ China
Man hacks officials to death
A man hacked two government officials to death and injured one after being compensated less for his house than his neighbors, state press reported yesterday. Ma Xueming butchered a man and a woman from Suzhou city's housing relocation department in China's Jiangsu Province after walking into their office and blinding them with lime powder, the Beijing News reported. A third woman was able to escape, the newspaper said. Ma was apparently angry about receiving only 400,000 yuan (US$51,600) in compensation for his home when most residents had received one million.

■ Malaysia
Health facilities revamped
Authorities will revamp health facilities for teenagers drafted into national service amid public concerns over the deaths of several recruits, reports said yesterday. Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said a ministry committee has recommended placing at least one doctor, two nurses and three medical assistants at each national service training camp, the New Straits Times and the Star newspapers reported. More stretchers, inhalers for asthmatic recruits and other medication will be provided for camps, while ambulances will be stationed at locations far from hospitals, Chua was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

■ China
Three judges jailed for graft
Authorities have jailed three senior judges in Shenzhen for corruption in the southern city's biggest ever graft scandal. A court convicted retired judge Liao Zhaohui (廖朝暉) and divisional court chiefs Cai Xiaoling (蔡曉玲) and Zhang Tinghua (張庭華) of unspecified graft crimes, the China Daily said in a report citing the Shenzhen Intermediate court. They were among five senior judges arrested recently after the local prosecution office investigated their alleged acts of corruption, the report said. A series of raids last year led to the arrest of a court vice-president, three division heads and a retired judge, the report said. The probe unfolded after prosecutors arrested judge Liao, who allegedly took bribes.

■ Italy
Illegal migrants intercepted
A coast guard vessel intercepted a merchant ship carrying 350 suspected illegal migrants off Senegal's coast, Italian authorities said on Friday. The coast guard officials intercepted the 52m long North Korean-flagged ship on Thursday evening at the request of Spanish authorities, said Captain Cristiano Aliperto, a coast guard spokesman. Last year, more than 30,000 immigrants, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, were intercepted while trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands last year, after sailing from west Africa in crowded boats. Authorities believe that the ship intercepted about 125km north of Dakar was headed toward the Canaries.

■ United Kingdom
Lap-dancers lose tax appeal
Lap-dancers at one of the country's biggest strip clubs must pay their own VAT bills, a senior judge ruled on Friday. In a High Court ruling that could affect dancers at other venues, The court said it was the women and not their club, Spearmint Rhino, who should foot the bill. He backed the chain's argument that the self-employed dancers provide the entertainment on offer, rather than the club. "The women are not employed by the club. They are all self-employed," the court said. "They pay a sum to the club which allows them to ply their trade for a session of eight hours."

■ Uganda
US farmer fined US$3
A court on Friday convicted a cattle farmer from the US on an illegal weapons charge, but he was freed after paying a US$3 fine, his lawyer said. The court convicted the 26-year-old, Christopher John Boehike from New York state, to either six months in jail or a fine of US$3 after he pleaded guilty to the illegal possession of weapons. "He was freed after he paid the fine of 6,000 shillings [US$3] in accordance with the law," his lawyer David Matov said. Boehike was arrested in November in possession of a sub-machine gun, a pistol and rounds of ammunition.

■ United States
`Republika' claims rebutted
The State Department on Friday denied the existence of a US document that reportedly guarantees safety for indicted Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, on the condition that he withdraw from public life. The Montenegrin daily Republika reported on Thursday that Karadzic, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal since 1995, agreed to the condition. The Republika also published what they said was a copy of the June 1996 agreement. Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, said on Friday that the document was false. "The US does not and will not stand aside and allow war criminals to escape the hands of justice," he said.

■ Russia
Helicopter crash kills two
At least two people were killed when a helicopter crashed into mountains in the north, a regional spokesman for the emergencies ministry said on Friday. The helicopter with six people on board went missing on Wednesday. "Two people perished, their bodies have been found," Anatoly Nuikin told reporters, adding that rescuers were looking for the four others. The Mi-8 helicopter, owned by a unit of gas giant Gazprom, did not return to base and made no radio contact, news agencies have reported. Meanwhile, two fighter jets collided on Wednesday, but both pilots ejected and no-one was killed.

■ United States
Minister sues police
A minister who was arrested on charges of marijuana possession has sued police for US$30 million, saying his civil and religious rights were violated because he leads a church that uses the drug during worship. The Reverend Craig Rubin, 41, is the founder of Temple 420, which believes that marijuana is a religious herb. "Our congregation mandates members study the Bible, have faith in God and regularly burn the herb cannabis (the Tree of Life mentioned in the Bible) as sacrament," says the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in state court. The temple has 400 members.

■ United States
WTC debris used on roads
Debris that may have contained bits of bone from victims of the World Trade Center attacks was used to fill potholes and pave city roads, court papers filed on Friday showed. The charge was made in an affidavit filed in Manhattan federal court in an ongoing case filed in 2005 by family members of those killed in the attacks against the city. They say the city did not do enough to search for remains, denying victims a proper burial. Eric Beck, a construction worker employed at the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, where the rubble was taken after the Twin Towers fell, said in his affidavit that the process of sifting through the debris was rushed.

■ United States
Shirts upset Mormons
For a coffee shop, T-shirts of a Mormon angel with java flowing into his trumpet are selling well. But they don't have the blessing of religious leaders. The shirts have upset the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not only is the angel Moroni a revered figure, but Mormons are discouraged from drinking coffee. The shirts show the angel Moroni, a male figure in a robe blowing a trumpet. The trumpet is turned up at an angle as coffee is poured in. "They've been the best-selling T-shirts we've ever done," Just Add Coffee co-owner Ed Beazer of Utah said. The church informed Beazer that the angel's image is a registered trademark. "If they provide proof, we're going to comply," Beazer said. "We don't want to break any laws or anything."

■ United States
Man sells rare document
A rare 1823 copy of the Declaration of Independence sold at auction for US$477,650 by a man who found it last year in a Nashville thrift store for US$2.48. Michael Sparks, a music equipment technician, sold the document on Thursday at Raynors' Historical Collectible Auctions in Burlington, North Carolina. Six bidders contended for the document, most by phone or Internet, when bidding opened at US$125,000. The identity of the winner was not disclosed.

■ United States
CIA agent `buried' Che
A former CIA agent claims he personally buried leftist revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and challenged Cuba to allow a DNA test to prove that the remains it interred are Guevara's, the Miami Herald reported on Friday. Miami Cuban emigre Gustavo Villoldo, 71, a veteran of the failed US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, said he buried Guevara and two colleagues in October 1967 in a pit in Vallegrande, Bolivia, after cutting a lock of the hair of the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary hero. The Cuban government in 1995 announced it had located Che's remains and returned them to Cuba in 1997 for a pomp and parade-filled funeral extravaganza.


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