■ INDIA
Teen `surgeon' on the run
Police are hunting for a 15-year-old boy accused of illegally performing a cesarean operation because his doctor parents wanted to set a record, an officer said on Wednesday. The parents, from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, were arrested this week after an inquiry found them guilty of medical malpractice for allowing the boy to carry out the surgery in order to win a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Authorities launched an investigation after the parents screened a video of the surgery to other doctors, claiming their son as the world's youngest surgeon. The operation on the 20-year-old woman was successful and the baby was born healthy.
■ HONG KONG
Activists jump into harbor
More than a dozen pro-democracy lawmakers and activists jumped into the harbor yesterday to lobby support for a weekend rally on the 10th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule. Wearing bright yellow swimming hats with "democracy" stamped on, 15 of them dived into Victoria Harbor and displayed a massive red banner. Shouting "democracy must not die," they urged the public to participate in Sunday's protest march marking a decade since the territory reverted from British to Chinese sovereignty. "Since the Hong Kong handover, Hong Kong still has a half-baked democracy," said Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), one of the organizers.
■ JAPAN
Former PM dies at 87
Former prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa, whose career stretched from Japan's defeat in World War II through the 1990s "lost decade" of economic stagnation, died yesterday at the age of 87, his office said. A finance expert at ease on the world stage and a diplomatic dove keen on better ties with Asia, Miyazawa first served as finance minister from 1986 to 1988, when low interest rates fuelled soaring stock and land prices. Miyazawa was forced to resign the post over a shares-for-favours scandal that ensnared his party -- only to return as prime minister three years later.
■ KYRGYZSTAN
Death penalty abolished
The government abolished the death penalty on Wednesday following a nine-year moratorium, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's office said. The law signed by Bakiyev "aims to humanize the penal code and above all concerns the abolition of the death penalty and its replacement with life imprisonment," a spokesman for the presidency said. The former Soviet republic has observed a moratorium on the use of capital punishment since 1998.
■ EGYPT
Nasser's son-in-law dies
Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of former president Gamal Abdel Nasser who was suspected of being an Israeli double agent, died in London, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Wednesday. He was 62. MENA said initial indications suggested Marwan fell from his apartment balcony. Some opposition lawmakers recently demanded an investigation into his activities after Israeli media reported on Marwan's possible role as a double agent involving the 1973 war. He reportedly tipped Israel off about the start of the war, but Israeli leaders ignored the warning and were caught by surprise when Egypt and Syria attacked.
■ IVORY COAST
Qaddafi wants African army
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi said on Wednesday his plan for a United States of Africa should include a 2 million strong army to staunch conflicts which have ravaged the continent. Qaddafi was addressing hundreds of youths in Abidjan, the final leg of a tour of several West African states before he attends an African Union summit beginning Sunday in Ghana. "One sole African government, one sole African army to defend Africa with a force of 2 million soldiers. One currency, one passport. Accra must hear this message," he said. Qaddafi has won backing from Senegal, Zimbabwe and others for a continent-wide government, but South Africa and Uganda are opposed.
■ FRANCE
Baggage thieves go on trial
Twenty-one baggage handlers accused of stealing money, telephones and cameras from suitcases at Charles de Gaulle airport between 2001 and 2003 went on trial in the Paris suburb of Bobigny on Wednesday. The accused in the latest case worked in Terminal 2F, which handles long-haul Air France flights. Cash, perfume, video cameras, mobile phones, cigarettes and brand-name pens were among the objects stolen. Air France received 1,700 theft claims from passengers in 2002. It estimated the value of goods stolen between March 2001 and March 2002 at 1.35 million euros (US$1.8 million).
■ GERMANY
Cruise role draws protests
Two sensitive issues -- the Nazi era and Scientology -- have come together in a controversy over the production of a new film in which Tom Cruise plays the country's most famous anti-Hitler plotter. Cruise, one of Scientology's best-known adherents, is to play Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg -- the army officer executed after a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944 -- in the new film Valkyrie. Lawmakers and Stauffenberg's son have expressed unhappiness about a Scientologist playing a German hero. The government considers Scientology a commercial enterprise that takes advantage of vulnerable people.
■ RUSSIA
Chavez visits Putin
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Moscow yesterday for talks with President Vladimir Putin as media speculated about a major weapons deal. Chavez has expressed interest in buying Russian submarines. Caracas has already bought some US$3 billion worth of Russian arms, including 53 military helicopters, 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles and 24 SU-30 Sukhoi fighter jets. Interfax said Chavez could end up buying sophisticated air defense systems.
■ UNITED STATES
Paris Hilton trash for sale
An empty gourmet dog food can plundered from Paris Hilton's trash has launched an eBay bidding war reaching US$1.5 million. A pair of enterprising scavengers from the Web site HollywoodStarTrash.com also put three other Hilton items for sale on eBay: a used toothbrush, an autographed postcard and a fan letter to the celebrity heiress. The highest bid for those was US$285 offered for the toothbrush. Bidding closes on Sunday. Although the top bidder's eBay profile shows the person has gotten no complaints from sellers, one of the scavengers said he has asked the Web site to check on the bid's legitimacy and pull it if it is fake.
■ UNITED STATES
`Die Hard' shirt donated
Die Hard hero John McClane's dirty undershirt is moving in with the rest of America's favorite movie memorabilia. Bruce Willis gave the Smithsonian Institution the sleeveless shirt, a promotional poster, an ID badge and the original script from the latest film, Live Free or Die Hard, which was released on Wednesday. The script arrived only on Wednesday morning, Museum of American History Director Brent Glass said. The items will be displayed in the Treasures of American History exhibit, which also includes Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and Rocky Balboa's boxing gloves.
■ UNITED STATES
Risks of games questioned
The American Medical Association (AMA) called for more research into the public health risks of video and Internet games on Wednesday but stopped short of declaring them addictive. The AMA, which recommended a review of the current video game rating system, also said it would leave it up the American Psychiatric Association and other experts to decide whether video game addiction should be designated a mental illness. "While more study is needed on the addictive potential of video games, the AMA remains concerned about the behavioral, health and societal effects of video game and Internet overuse," said AMA president Ronald Davis.
■ UNITED STATES
Bullet found behind ear
A Florida man awoke with a severe headache and asked his wife to drive him to a hospital, where doctors found a bullet lodged behind his right ear, sheriff's deputies said. The wife, April Moylan, fled the emergency room when the bullet was discovered but later told deputies she had accidentally shot her husband as he slept early on Tuesday. She was jailed on a weapons violation charge while deputies pursued additional charges. The husband, 45-year-old Michael Moylan, woke up with a head pain so severe he suspected he was having an aneurysm and asked his wife to take him to the emergency room, deputies said. They arrested the wife after obtaining a search warrant and finding a gun and bloody rags in the couple's home.
■ IRAQ
Baghdad car bomb kills 20
A parked car bomb exploded at rush hour on Thursday in a busy bus station in southwest Baghdad, killing at least 20 people, police said. The blast went off at 8:15am at a bus station in Baghdad's Baiyaa neighborhood, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. At least 40 minibuses were incinerated in the explosion, he said. Many of the victims had been lining up for buses at the station. Bystanders, some weeping, gingerly loaded human remains into ambulances.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of