■ MALAYSIA
Voting becomes see-through
The Election Commission has introduced see-through ballot boxes to make voting more transparent. The new boxes, which can hold some 700 ballot sheets, will be used in the next general election, and replace the usual black metal ballot boxes, the Star quoted Election Commission Chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman as saying. "We have been very transparent so far and we would like to show that we only tally whatever ballots which have been inserted into the box," Abdul Rashid said, according to both the Star and New Straits Times. Although Abdul Rashid appeared to have made that statement in jest, he was also taking a swipe at opposition parties who claim that the commission is biased in favor of the ruling party. The main reason for introducing the translucent plastic ballot boxes, however, is that they are much lighter, weighing only a third as much as the metal ones, reports said.
■ CHINA
Call to lift tiger parts ban
Tiger breeders called for the lifting of a ban on selling tiger parts yesterday, saying the trade in tiger medicines used to treat rheumatism and loss of sexual appetite would help preserve the endangered species. Beijing banned the sale of tiger bones and hides in 1993, which virtually wiped out the market for traditional medicines made from tigers in what was once the world's largest consumer of such goods. The general manager of the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park and the director of the Guilin Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Garden said the ban had not stopped the decline in tiger numbers and that patients were suffering from less choices in medical treatments.
■ JAPAN
Police fish river of money
Police used fishing nets and their hands on Wednesday to scoop up ¥2.7 million (US$23,000) in mysterious cash floating down a river, an official said. A passerby notified police after seeing the bank notes drifting down the Sakai River on the border between Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, a Tokyo police official said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. Police managed to catch 270 soggy ¥10,000 bills, the official said. They are still investigating how and why the money was dumped. If the bank notes prove authentic and are not claimed in the next six months, the money will go to the government, Kyodo News agency said.
■ CHINA
Mine blast kills 26
A gas explosion has killed 26 Chinese miners, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The accident happened on Wednesday when 106 miners were working underground. Eighty escaped, including one who was severely injured, Xinhua said. It was the second gas explosion in Shanxi Province in 10 days. Twenty-one miners were killed in a blast on March 18. The mine had reported an annual output capacity of 150,000 tonnes but its license had expired before the accident, Xinhua said, citing local safety authorities.
■ JAPAN
Alzheimer's drug trials set
Scientists have developed an oral vaccine for Alzheimer's disease that has proven effective and safe in mice, the director of a research institute said yesterday. The team is preparing to move to small-scale clinical trials in humans, possibly this year, the director of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences said. When administered to mice suffering from the disease, the vaccine reduced the amount of amyloid plaques in the brain and improved mental function.
■ Sapin
ETA suspects arrested
Police arrested eight people suspected of being members of armed Basque separatist group ETA and seized 30kg of explosives and detonators, officials and news reports said on Wednesday. The explosives were found in a basement in the Basque town of Andoain, the leading daily El Pais said on its Web site. Police also found clamp mechanisms used for attaching bombs underneath cars, a method regularly used by ETA in the past. Confirmation of the report from the Interior Ministry was not immediately possible.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Escalator skier was `stupid'
A man who filmed himself skiing down the longest escalator on London's underground rail network was branded "dangerous, stupid and irresponsible" on Wednesday. The man hurtled down nearly 60m at the Angel tube station with a camera strapped to his head and posted the video on the YouTube Web site. The one minute film shows the man climb the escalator, clip on his skis at the top and begin his high-speed descent as onlookers shout out behind him. London Underground condemned the stunt. "This is a dangerous, stupid and irresponsible act that could have resulted in serious injury or death to not only the individual concerned but also other passengers," it said in a statement.
■ TURKEY
Explosion kills butcher
A liquefied petroleum gas tank exploded at a five-star Mediterranean hotel on Thursday, killing a Turk and injuring 10 people, including five tourists, the Dogan news agency reported. The explosion damaged the kitchen and the restaurant of the Kaya Hotel in the resort town of Belek, near the city of Antalya. A butcher in the kitchen was killed, and five other staff members and five tourists -- three Germans and two Russians -- were injured, Dogan said. Belek is popular with German, Israeli and Russian tourists.
■ PORTUGAL
Largest solar plant opens
The world's largest-producing solar power plant was inaugurated on Wednesday. The 11-megawatt, 61 million euro (US$78.5 million) plant, a joint project of US energy companies GE Energy Financial Services, PowerLight Corporation and Portuguese renewable energy company Catavento, spreads across a 60 hectare hillside in Serpa, 200km southeast of Lisbon. Southern Portugal, one of the sunniest places in Europe, has as much as 3,300 hours of sunlight a year. The new plant will produce enough power to supply 8,000 homes and will also prevent the emission of 27,200 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year when compared to fossil fuels.It will produce 20 gigawatt hours of power per year.
■ NIGERIA
Oil tanker explosion kills 89
At least 89 people were killed when an upturned oil tanker burst into flames as it was being looted, officials said on Wednesday. More than 100 survivors were being treated for burns, they said. "From our initial record, 85 people lost their lives. But the figure has now risen to 89 because four more people died in hospital," Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency executive secretary Aliyu Saleh Raminkura said. Police said the accident happened on Monday evening in Kaduna State as the tanker tried to park in the village of Katugal. Villagers were thronging around the vehicle to loot its valuable cargo when it erupted in flames.
■ UNITED STATES
Dog does Heimlich on owner
Toby, a two-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life. Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert, Maryland, told the Cecil Whig newspaper she was eating an apple on Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself, but it did not work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed. "The next think I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled.
■ UNITED STATES
Tumbleweed takes over
Montana residents are used to digging themselves out after heavy snowstorms, but residents of one neighborhood had to put a snowplow to different use: clearing mounds of tumbleweed from their driveways. Winds flooded a neighborhood with tumbleweed on Tuesday, covering sheds, burying mailboxes and blocking a street and driveways. Residents of Shooting Star Lane in Springhill were forced to use snowplows and pitchforks to clear the debris. Tumbleweed can be pesky. The plants dry out after maturing, break off at ground level and then roll wherever the wind takes them, spreading their seeds in the process.
■ UNITED STATES
Marines ban large tattoos
Five tattooed skulls stretch from Marine Corporal Jeremy Slaton's right elbow to his wrist, spelling out the word "Death." Slaton, planned to add a tattoo spelling "Life" on his left arm, but that is on hold because of a Marine policy taking effect on Sunday. The Marines are banning any new, extra-large tattoos below the elbow or the knee, saying such body art is harmful to the Corps' spit-and-polish image. Slaton and other grunts are not pleased. For many Marines, getting a tattoo is a rite of passage. They commonly get their forearms inscribed to remember fallen comrades, combat tours or loved ones.
■ MEXICO
Nine officials on trial
A judge on Wednesday ordered five mine officials to stand trial for negligent homicide in the deaths of 65 coal miners killed in a gas explosion last year. Coahuila state Judge Sergio Tamez said lawyers for the five Industrial Minera Mexico employees will have 20 days to present evidence in their favor. He did not name the employees, who obtained an injunction from a separate court that keeps them from being jailed pending their trial. Coahuila state prosecutor Jorge Rios, who asked the judge to issue the arrest orders, said he had found that managers and inspectors at the Pasta de Conchos mine did not fix unsafe conditions detected eight months before the blast.
■ BOLIVIA
Beauty queen arrested
A former Miss Bolivia has been arrested on charges of carrying 806g of cocaine while boarding a flight to the Brazilian border, Bolivia's second former beauty queen to face legal trouble in less than a week. Police said on Wednesday that Roxana Arias Becerra, 32, was arrested with traveling companion Argentina Ardaya, 40, in Santa Cruz's El Trompillo Airport as they boarded a plane on Tuesday to Puerto Suarez on Bolivia's eastern border with Brazil. Becerra, Miss Bolivia 1993, was also traveling with her 11-month-old daughter, according to the Bolivian newspaper El Deber. Police discovered 806g of cocaine hidden in a false bottom of Becerra's nylon duffel bag.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese