■ HONG KONG
Thaksin `buys' property
Ousted Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra has purchased a HK$210 million (US$27 million) townhouse on the Peak -- an exclusive Hong Kong neighborhood that's home to tycoons, celebrities and diplomats, the Standard newspaper reported yesterday. The buyer's name was not made public, but the newspaper quoted three unidentified sources close to the deal as saying Thaksin bought the 474m2 property, called "House 1 at Severn 8." Thaksin has visited Hong Kong a few times since being ousted in a bloodless coup last September. The Thai government has frozen more than 52 billion baht (US$1.6 billion) of his assets.
■ BANGLADESH
Storm death toll hits 125
Emergency workers continued their gruesome search for bodies in southeastern Chittagong yesterday as the death toll from landslides and storms rose to at least 125, officials said. The search was being concentrated on two sites in the seaport city where residents said shanty houses were completely engulfed in mud. Officials said 114 bodies had been recovered from under the mud, while 10 people also died in lightning strikes during severe storms in four districts across the country, and one more person was electrocuted in floodwaters. Rains which had hampered the search for victims has now stopped and floodwater has receded from most parts of the city.
■ CHINA
Thirteen jailed over Jilin fire
Thirteen people have been jailed for their part in a fire at a Jilin Province hospital that killed 37 patients and relatives, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Ninety-five people were also injured in the December 2005 blaze at the four-story City Central Hospital, which occurred after the building's electrical system caught fire. Among the convicted were five hospital officials, including the facility's president, who was sentenced to one year, as well as the workers who installed the substandard cables, one of whom was sentenced to seven years, Xinhua said. The offenders faced charges ranging from neglecting their duties to the production and sale of substandard products.
■ HONG KONG
Cockroaches can learn
Cockroaches have a memory and can be taught to salivate in response to neutral stimuli in the way that Pavlov's dogs would do when the famed Russian doctor rang his bell, Japanese researchers found. Such "conditioning" can only take place when there is memory and learning, and this salivating response had only previously been proven in humans and dogs. Writing in the latest edition of the online journal Public Library of Science, the researchers said they hoped to learn more about the human brain by exploring what goes on in the simpler brain of the cockroach.
■ AUSTRALIA
Man attacked with swordfish
Two assailants broke into a man's trailer and attacked him with a swordfish snout in the eastern city of Bundaberg yesterday, leaving the victim with cuts to his arms, back and hands, Queensland state police said. The victim, who was not identified, claimed the two suspects assaulted him with the serrated, sword-like bill during a home invasion, police said. Paramedics treated the man for his injuries. It was not clear where the alleged attackers found the swordfish snout, or how big it was. Police said they were not investigating the incident because the man had withdrawn his complaint.
■ FRANCE
Strike blocks newspapers
Millions of readers were deprived of their morning newspaper yesterday as a printers' strike blocked the distribution of all national dailies. The strike was called by the printing and distribution branch of the Communist-backed CGT union following a dispute over annual pay negotiations for the sector. The press owners' group SPQN firmly condemned the decision to call a strike four days before the second round of parliamentary elections, saying it "deprives readers of particularly vital information in this electoral period." It accused the union of resorting to "tactics based on an archaic view of labor relations."
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Duchess to sit for sculptors
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall will join the royal family at Madame Tussauds, more than two years after she married Prince Charles, the London waxworks museum said on Tuesday. Camilla, who married the heir to the throne on April 9, 2005, has agreed to sit for sculptors. The wax model should be ready later this year. She will join Charles and Princes William and Harry -- his sons by his first wife Diana, princess of Wales -- in the refurbished royal zone. "The Duchess of Cornwall is really pleased to be coming in to sit for us," said Madame Tussauds' Ben Lovett.
■ UNITED STATES
Pants case judge gets teary
A judge in Washington who is suing a South Korean immigrant dry cleaner for US$54 million over his lost trousers left the courtroom in tears on Tuesday after saying he was acting in the interest of all the city's residents against what he says are poor business practices. Administrative law judge Roy Pearson first sued Custom Cleaners over a pair of pants that went missing two years ago. The bulk of the original demand came from Pearson's strict interpretation of the city's consumer protection law, which imposes fines of US$1,500 per violation, per day. Pearson counted 12 violations over 1,200 days, then multiplied that by three defendants.
■ UNITED STATES
Released man still in jail
A man sentenced to prison for 10 years for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17 will stay there for at least three more weeks despite a judge's ruling on Monday that he should be released, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Genarlow Wilson's attorney had been seeking a quick hearing in a court in Douglas County, Georgia, even though the district attorney there has said he opposes such a move. But Judge David Emerson ruled on Tuesday that the hearing would be held on July 5. "It's a long ways away, especially when we just had a judge say he could be released," Bernstein said.
■ UNITED STATES
Drug seller goofs up
A 14-year-old boy in Gulfport, Florida, who apparently dialed a really, really wrong number has been arrested on drug charges. Authorities said the boy offered to sell drugs to the person he dialed, who happened to be a police detective. Detective Matt Parks arranged to meet the teen in a school parking lot to buy 28.3g of marijuana and some crack cocaine, a police report said. When the boy showed up on Sunday, he was charged with possession of 18g of marijuana with intent to distribute within 305m of a school. Detectives said the boy, whose name was not released, likely dialed a random number looking for a customer.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of