■ INDIA
Man offers tongue to god
A jobless devotee was admitted to hospital after he cut off his tongue and offered it to a Hindu goddess, police said yesterday. Doctors stitched the wound but said the man, identified as Suresh Kumar, 24, may not be able to speak again. The incident took place on Tuesday evening when Kumar visited a temple dedicated to Hindu goddess Kali on the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital of Indian Kashmir. Inside the temple, he cut his tongue off with a knife and gave it to the priest to offer it to the deity. He was immediately rushed to hospital.
■ INDIA
Questions infuriate staff
Female civil servants are furious with new government guidelines that force them to list intimate details, including their menstrual history, in appraisal forms, a newspaper reported yesterday. The All-India Services Performance Appraisal Rules 2007 -- which apply to senior government workers -- ask female employees to record their last menstrual period, as well as when they last took maternity leave, the Hindustan Times said. "The questions are too intrusive and have no bearing on our work," Seema Vyas, a senior bureaucrat in Maharashtra state, was quoted as saying. India's Ministry of Personnel, which drew up the new appraisal guidelines, says it has not received any complaints.
■ CHINA
Corrupt officer jailed
A philandering policeman has been jailed for life for taking 5 million yuan (US$625,000) in bribes so he could lavish his six mistresses with cash and gifts, the Shanghai Daily reported yesterday. Xu Xiaogang (許曉剛), 56, former vice director of public security in Jiangxi Province, was convicted by a court on Monday of taking advantage of his post to seek personal benefits, it said. The daily said Xu admitted to taking bribes from criminal suspects under investigation between 1997 and 2005. He then used that money to shower his mistresses in various different cities with cash and gifts.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Scientific paper pulled
A US publication has withdrawn a paper by Seoul National University scientists about the world's first cloned wolves in a further disgrace for a team that embarrassed the country with a stem cell research fraud. The university said on Monday it was investigating a team of scientists at the school for possibly inflating data in its wolf experiment to increase its cloning success rate. After that, the US periodical Cloning and Stem Cells said on its Web site it "will await the outcome of this investigation before deciding upon any action."
■ EGYPT
Architect can't test theory
The powerful head of the nation's antiquities department in Cairo on Tuesday ruled out any on-site tests to check the veracity of a new French theory about the building of the Great Pyramid. French architect Jean Pierre Houdin put forward a theory on the construction of the Great Pyramid in March, suggesting it had been built using an internal spiral ramp, rather than an external ramp as had long been suggested. Using 3-D technology from Dassault Systems, the architect built a model of the 4,500-year-old structure with the internal tunnel and he has said he wants to test the veracity of his theory on site.
■ NETHERLANDS
Prince shows off daughter
A beaming Crown Prince Willem-Alexander showed off his new daughter early yesterday in the Hague, just hours after his Argentine wife Princess Maxima gave birth. "She is an exemplary daughter, we're very proud," the prince said, carrying his third daughter on a white embroidered pillow. "We had a relaxed night and the delivery went very well," Willem-Alexander said at a nationally televised news conference. "We can't wait to show her to [her elder sisters] Amalia and Alexia." The girl, who is fourth in line to the throne after her father and two sisters, weighed in at 4.2kg and was 52cm long.
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