■ MYANMAR
Party asks to meet Suu Kyi
The pro-democracy party has asked the military government for permission to meet with its detained leader, Nobel Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a spokesman said yesterday. No one from the National League for Democracy has met her since 2004. Spokesman Nyan Win said the party leadership wanted to see her to discuss legal options for appealing for her release from house arrest. Myanmar's military government extended Suu Kyi's house arrest last month by another year, defying international demands for her immediate release.
■ INDIA
Bomb mars sports event
A bomb exploded near a crowded bus stand in the restive northeastern state of Assam yesterday, killing four people hours before the opening of an international athletics meeting, police said. More than 200 athletes and officials from 19 Asian countries have gathered in Guwahati, the state's main city, to participate in a grand prix organized by the Asian Athletics Association. No athletes were hurt in the blast, which injured a dozen people. The separatist United Liberation Front of Asom -- fighting for independence for the oil and tea-rich state of 26 million people -- is suspected to be behind the blast.
■ INDIA
Police fight cuddling couples
Police in Kashmir usually accustomed to fighting separatist militants have a new target in their sights -- teenagers canoodling in parks, restaurants and Internet cafes. The crackdown aims to curb "immoral activities," a senior police officer said on Friday, adding that dozens of places had been raided across Srinagar and at least 10 couples detained over the last three days. Restaurant and Internet cafe owners had also been asked to get rid of cabins and cubicles, as they were being "misused" by teenagers, he said. "Many boys and girls were seen in objectionable postures ... we informed their parents to take them home," he said.
■ CHINA
Pilots must speak English
Tough new rules on English language standards could ground thousands of commercial airline pilots, state media reported on Friday. Xinhua news agency said the rules, approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization last year, require all airline pilots who fly overseas to pass an English-language competency test by next March -- just months before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics. "A considerable number of Chinese pilots are ex-military who speak little or even no English,'' Xinhua said. Airlines such as China Southern Airlines tackled the problem by making all its pilots take English courses for six straight days each month.
■ CHINA
Airport combats pigeons
Pigeons are thronging to Beijing airport, crashing into planes and threatening public safety, the government's China Daily said yesterday. Some are carrier pigeons raised as pets. "Pigeons are now one of the greatest threats for airplanes," said Huang Jianjun, an airport manager. On Monday, an aircraft collided with nine pigeons but managed to land safely. The airport has strung nets and tried to scare away pigeons with loudspeakers. "It is with urgency that local authorities ban pigeon breeding, feeding and flying anywhere near the airport," Huang said.
■ SCOTLAND
Woman avoids deportation
A US-born woman who faced deportation despite living in the country for 78 years said she will be allowed to stay in Britain. Marguerite Grimmond moved from the US as a toddler in 1929 but never applied for British citizenship. In May, the 80-year-old went on a family vacation to Australia -- her first trip outside Britain -- with a newly acquired US passport. When she returned, officials said her US passport did not have the necessary stamp allowing her to remain in Britain. They gave her four weeks to leave the country.
■ QATAR
Finger gives away cannibals
Four Asians who allegedly murdered a compatriot and then ate the body were caught when a finger of their victim was found in the stomach of one during treatment for acute food poisoning, the daily al-Sharq said on Friday. The Qatari newspaper said the four men had to seek emergency hospital treatment after eating part of the corpse, various bits of which, including a finger, showed up on hospital X-rays. The paper did not give the men's nationalities. It said their victim was also of Asian origin and that the affair was now in the hands of prosecutors.
■ FRANCE
Eiffel embezzlers fined
Fifteen former workers at the Eiffel Tower got suspended jail sentences and fines on Friday for embezzling hundreds of thousands of euros from ticket sales. The 12 women and three men were found guilty of breach of trust for taking advantage of weaknesses in the ticket office's computer system to steal part of the sales revenues from 1996 to 2002. They were handed suspended sentences ranging from three months to one year and fines of between 2,000 euros (US$2,690) and 10,000 euros. They were also ordered to pay 700,000 euros to the company that manages the Eiffel Tower.
■ ITALY
Ferrari disputes Vatican list
When it comes to luxury sports cars, Ferrari begs to differ with the Pope. The Vatican issued a document listing its rules of the road, including one warning against using cars "as a means for outshining other people and arousing a feeling of envy." Ferrari's general manager ack-nowledged the Vatican's concern that some drivers could use the cars as status symbols, but said most people bought Ferraris for the love of driving. "Unless having fun has become a sin, I don't believe it [to be wrong]," Amedeo Felisa said last week at an event celebrating Ferrari's 60th anniversary.
■ SPAIN
Gaudi church lacks permit
Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church, an unfinished Barcelona landmark that is considered a marvel of modern architecture, has lacked a construction permit for more than a century, city officials said on Friday. Gaudi first presented a design for the church in 1883 and two years later suggested changes to the blueprint. Both times he won permission. But planning officials never responded to two later requests to change the construction plans, in 1916 and 1990. The administrative silence amounted to acquiescence, a town hall official said. "As it is an exceptional work, it goes through other channels, different from those for normal buildings," the paper quoted a city official as saying.
■ UNITED STATES
Police on lookout for pants
The police department has run out of two popular sizes of the custom-made navy blue uniform pants it provides to every officer, a department spokesman said Wednesday. Officers who wear size 36 or 38 will have to wait for new pants until a special order comes through. "We are officially out," said Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. "We're putting in an emergency order for those two sizes," he said. The department attributed the shortage to the recent hiring of 240 new officers. Cadets receive four pairs of pants when they leave the police academy. When officers need a new pair, they get them free but are required to turn in their old ones.
■ UNITED STATES
Ugly dog contest held
Elwood, a 2-year-old Chinese Crested and Chihuahua mix, was crowned the world's ugliest dog, a distinction that delighted the mutt's owners. Elwood, dark colored and hairless -- save for a mohawk-like puff of white fur on his head -- is often referred to as "Yoda" or "E.T." for his resemblance to those famous science fiction characters. "I think he's the cutest thing that ever lived," said Elwood's owner, Karen Quigley, a resident of Sewell, New Jersey. "The breeder was going to euthanize him because she thought he was too ugly to sell," said Quigley.
■ HONDURAS
President's guard killed
Gunmen shot and killed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's chief bodyguard outside his house on Friday, the government said, a brazen attack in one of Latin America's most violent countries. Captain Alejandro Motino, head of Zelaya's three-man security detail, was dressed in his army uniform when two men shot him outside his home in a lower middle-class neighborhood in the capital Tegucigalpa, the security ministry said. Zelaya said the killing was part of a campaign to discredit his government, which is battling a violent crime wave blamed on mafia groups and mara street gangs. Zelaya, who took office last year promising to end violence, has been heavily criticized by the opposition for failing to take action.
■ UNITED STATES
Pot goes up in smoke
Firefighters who spent half an hour fighting a blaze in which 900kg of marijuana went up in smoke breathed so much of it that they would have failed a drug test, a fire chief said. It took more than 35 firefighters, 3,785 liters of water and 19 liters of chemicals to extinguish the warehouse blaze on Wednesday, said Fire Chief Shawn Snider of Edinburgh, Texas. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were investigating the origin of the drugs.
■ UNITED STATES
Prisoner weds pen pal
It began with an inmate pen pal program. Now Tracy Morgan of England has married death row prisoner James Lewis Morgan in a prison ceremony in the US. Tracy began her courtship of James more than four years ago. She visited him in prison from England five times before she moved to North Carolina. James, 52, was convicted of the November 1997 stabbing death of Patrina Lynette King, 34. Tracy, 44, said they talked about the crime and it was no longer a concern to her "once I found out all the details." The North Carolina Department of Correction said Morgan is one of only two people to get married at Central Prison in the past five years. While prison officials allowed the couple to hold hands, hug and kiss during the ceremony, their visits from now on will last about 1 1/2 hours a week through a glass partition.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese