■ PAKISTAN
Wife, `husband' arrested
Police arrested a wife and her husband -- who was born a woman and underwent sex reassignment surgery 16 years ago -- and accused them of lying about the husband's gender to a court. The case pits the bride's father, who wants to annul his daughter's wedding on the grounds that it is against Islam for two women to marry, against the couple, who said they married to protect the bride from being sold into marriage to pay off her uncle's gambling debts. The husband, Shumail Raj, 31, first brought the case to court, appealing for protection from harassment by their relatives. But earlier this month the Lahore High Court ordered the arrest of Raj and his wife, Shahzina Tariq, 26, for lying to the court. Raj told the court he is male.
■ CHINA
Cancer rates rising
Pollution and the excessive use of chemicals in foodstuffs are sending cancer rates soaring in the country, where it is already the No. 1 killer, state press said yesterday. Cancer was the most lethal disease in both urban and rural areas last year, the China Daily said, citing a recent health ministry survey. Ministry statistics showed that it has been the leading killer since at least 2002 but is now rising at an alarming rate. The survey, carried out in 30 cities and 78 counties, found the death rate from cancer rose by 19 percent in urban areas and 23 percent in rural areas, although the report did not give a timeframe.
■ INDONESIA
Man catches `fossil fish'
A fisherman has caught a coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct at the time of the dinosaurs, a fishery expert said yesterday. Yustinus Lahama caught the fish on Saturday in the sea off North Sulawesi Province, said Grevo Gerung, a professor at the fisheries faculty at the Sam Ratulangi University. After being told by neighbors it was a rare fish he took it back to the sea and kept it in a quarantine pool before it died. The fish was 131cm long and weighed 51kg, Gerung said.
■ MALAYSIA
`Stillborn' baby lives on
A baby girl declared stillborn by a hospital shocked her grieving parents when she started moving as they prepared to bury her, a report said yesterday. The father, Azmi Masiron, said he and other mourners in a village in northern Kedah state noticed a tiny movement from the baby as she lay on a funeral shroud, shortly after being declared dead on Sunday. "When my father-in-law placed the baby on the burial shroud, she suddenly moved, shocking about 200 villagers who had gathered for the funeral," Azmi was quoted saying by the New Straits Times. The 26-year-old father said he had been informed by the doctor of his daughter's death minutes after his wife, Nordewiyana Din, 28, delivered the baby prematurely.
■ VIETNAM
Elephant kills two handlers
An elephant has killed two handlers who had worked with the animal for almost 20 years, a local official said yesterday. Ha Van Hoang, 46, was killed on the spot and 42-year-old Le Van Lanh died in hospital after the elephant gored both of them with his tusks on Saturday, said Ngan Van Thiep, chairman of the Son Ha commune in Thanh Hoa Province. "We have caught the elephant, which had run away after the attack," he said. "It is now tied up deep in the forest, close to the border with Laos. We really don't know what to do with it now."
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