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World News Quick Take

■ JAPAN
Patriotism push approved
The lower house of parliament approved legislation yesterday requiring schools to teach patriotism as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to instill national pride. A house panel approved a set of three bills on Thursday after the main education law was revised in December, requiring teachers to encourage patriotism as part of compulsory education for the first time since World War II. The legislation cites "love of country" as a goal of Japanese education, compulsory from elementary through junior high school. The package will be sent to the upper house for further debate beginning next week, and is expected to be passed into law before the current parliamentary session ends late next month.

■ INDIA
Eighteen killed in crash
Eighteen people were killed and a dozen injured when their lorry crashed into a bus in southern India yesterday, police said. The victims were returning from a wedding in the southern state of Karnataka, the Press Trust of India reported, quoting unnamed police officials. Five of the injured were reported to be in a critical condition. Road accidents are common in India because of poor quality roads, overloaded public transport and careless driving.

■ MALAYSIA
Mahathir has heart attack
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad suffered another heart attack this week that led to breathing problems and subsequent hospitalization, an aide said yesterday. Mahathir, 81, was rushed to hospital on Monday while vacationing on the northern resort island of Langkawi, and was treated overnight in intensive care before being moved to the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The heart institute said in a statement on Thursday that Mahathir's breathing problems were caused by lung congestion that is "associated with myocardial infarction," or a heart attack. Mahathir led Malaysia for 22 years until October 2003.

■ MALAYSIA
Thief proves too confident
A thief rejoiced too early -- he was caught red-handed while counting his loot not far from the place where he snatched a woman's handbag. The thief was emptying the stolen handbag by the roadside in Kuantan city when his victim caught him with the help of bystanders, the Star newspaper reported yesterday. It didn't say when the incident happened. The thief walked into the victim's office and grabbed her purse, containing close to 300 ringgit (US$88) and a cellphone. The woman chased after him but failed to catch him. She was then heading to the police station with a colleague on a motorcycle when she saw the man by the roadside behind two parked trucks, emptying her purse.

■ UNITED STATES
Firemen in python shock
Firefighters responding to a small basement fire in New York's Queens Borough on Thursday morning were startled to find a 3m-long python, two cobras, tarantulas and an assortment of other creatures inside. "It was like out of a science fiction scene," said Lieutenant Ed Ireland, whose company responded to the blaze. The fire, whose cause had not been determined, was reported at about 11:20am in the borough's Corona section. Once it was extinguished and the smoke cleared, Ireland noticed the python writhing near his feet. In cages and tanks, there also were two small alligators, frogs, turtles and tarantulas, he said.

■ NICARAGUA
Pyongyang ties restored
The leftist administration of President Daniel Ortega has re-established formal diplomatic relations with North Korea and rejected criticism of the Asian country's nuclear weapons program, the government said on Thursday. Relations between the two countries had been suspended since 1990, when Violeta Barrios de Chamorro defeated Ortega in presidential elections and ended 11 years of rule by Ortega's Sandinista Front. But Ortega returned to office in January, and on Wednesday he revived relations when he received the credentials of North Korean Ambassador Jae Myong-so, the Ministry of Communication said.

■ UNITED STATES
Baby found in freezer
A Pennsylvania woman was charged with abuse of a corpse after police found the remains of a baby in her freezer. Police charged Christine Hutchinson, 22, of Pittsburgh, after interviewing her on Thursday evening, several hours after the remains were found in her apartment. Officers got a tip from someone who knew Hutchinson that there was "possibly a baby that was dead and was in a freezer in an apartment in Bloomfield," a working-class neighborhood several miles east of downtown, Pittsburgh police Commander Thomas Stangrecki said. Detectives found what initially appeared to be a late-term fetus in a brown bag in the freezer, police said.

■ UNITED STATES
Woman fraudster gets jail
A Washington State woman who coached her children to fake mental retardation to collect disability benefits was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday. Rosie Costello, 46, must also pay nearly US$288,000 in restitution after pleading guilty in the US District Court to conspiracy to defraud the government and Social Security fraud. Last week, a judge sentenced her son, Pete Costello, to 13 months in prison. The scheme was discovered after Pete Costello, now 28, was caught on surveillance video contesting a traffic ticket in a Vancouver, Washington, courtroom.

■ COSTA RICA
Government pans Castro
The government accused Cuba on Thursday of meddling in its internal affairs after Cuban President Fidel Castro criticized free trade agreements between Latin American nations and the US. The Central American nation charged that Cuba was attempting to "mar" a referendum on its free trade deal with the US scheduled for September 23. "The government of the Republic of Costa Rica expresses its concern and unease over a foreign government's interference in the internal affairs of Costa Rica," President Oscar Arias' office said in a statement. "The declarations of the president of Cuba ... represent a serious affront on the residents of a sovereign, democratic, free and independent Costa Rica," the statement said.


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