■ SOUTH KOREA
Park declares candidacy
Park Geun-hye, former head of the main opposition Grand National Party and daughter of Park Chung-hee, formally declared her presidential candidacy yesterday, apologizing for those who suffered under her late father's rule while promising to resolve the North Korea nuclear standoff. "I always feel sorry for those and their families who experienced suffering and hardship due to unfortunate events during my father's era," Park Geun-hye said in a speech at the party's headquarters in Seoul. Park also pledged to cut taxes and breathe life into the South Korean economy.
■ CHINA
Chili fails safety tests
Chinese chili products have failed safety tests in the latest scare for China's maligned food industry, Xinhua news agency reported. The quality control watchdog found excessive amounts of preservatives in 13 percent of 46 chili products tested across the country recently, it said in a report issued on Sunday. Chili-based products are widely used in China to spice up a broad range of dishes. The products came from 38 companies in 12 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing and Shanghai, the report said without detailing if any of the chili was exported.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Rich dad wants son-in-law
A South Korean millionaire is seeking someone to marry his "too old and short" daughter, and a matchmaking agency tasked with the search says it has received 200 applications in four days. The Sunoo agency said yesterday that the unidentified man in his 60s wants a spouse for his daughter, a 38-year-old, US-educated Christian professional. The father wants "a man who can lead his family, which has no sons," the agency said in its Web site. "Despite the shortcomings of being a bit too old and short, she is top-notch in terms of other conditions," it said. "The man she wants should be tidy, healthy and smart and raised in the same religion in an upright family."
■ AUSTRALIA
Man missed missing finger
A man who lost part of his finger in a bar brawl walked out of the pub and down the street before he noticed it was gone, New South Wales state police said yesterday. "He didn't know it was missing until he left the [pub]," police Inspector Mark Kellert told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. "He was out on the street and realized there was blood on his hand, noticed his finger was missing, and went to hospital." Security guards later found the severed finger "and a large amount of blood" in the pub's bathroom, police said in a statement. Police brought the severed finger to the hospital, but did not say whether it was being reattached.
■ MALAYSIA
Big Brother's watching
Government employees in Terengganu state are being monitored by security cameras to keep them from slacking off at work or vanishing for long tea breaks, the Star newspaper said yesterday. Sixteen closed-circuit TV cameras were installed recently to improve security in the state's main government administrative complex, but they serve an additional purpose of keeping tabs on some 1,000 workers there, Terengganu State Secretary Mokhtar Nong said. "We would know if they are adhering to office etiquette or playing truant, and we can also gauge if they are disciplined at work," Mokhtar said, adding that another 26 cameras will be set up soon.
■ ITALY
Senator in trouble
A senator's boast on TV that he cheated traffic jams in Rome during a visit by US President George W. Bush by calling an ambulance could cost him a court appearance, officials said on Sunday. Conservative opposition senator Gustavo Selva risked being late for a TV interview on Saturday because streets around the Senate were blocked for Bush's visit. So he dialed 118 for an ambulance asking to be rushed to his heart specialist -- giving the TV studio's address. "I used an old journalist's trick to get here," he boasted on live TV.
RSS