■ CHINA
Olympic site lightning prone
The Beijing area where some of next year's Olympic venues are located is prone to being struck by lightning. The findings were reported yesterday by the Xinhua news agency, summarizing a study by two Chinese meteorologists. The findings indicated the Haidian area in north Beijing had a high frequency of lightning strikes over a period from 1995 to 2005. The meteorologists said the location of the universities and research institutes, sophisticated electronic equipment and tall buildings might explain the frequency. The study showed Haidian was hit 4.7 times per year.
■ NEPAL
Villagers retaliate for attack
Villagers retaliated against a group of ethnic rights activists who attacked a teacher in the south, killing two and injuring two others, officials said yesterday. The 15 attackers shot and seriously wounded the teacher on Thursday in Biruwaguthi village, about 200km south of Kathmandu, said Raj Kumar Niroula, chief administrative officer in the Parsa District. Villagers who heard the shots retaliated against the attackers, killing two and injuring two others, Niroula said. The attackers belonged to the Tarai People's Liberation Front, a small armed group which claims to fight for the rights of the people in the southern area.
■ INDONESIA
Bombers sentences reduced
Ten Islamic militants jailed for suicide bombings on Bali in 2002 and 2005 that killed more than 220 people -- many of them foreign tourists -- had their sentences cut yesterday to mark the country's Independence Day. It is a tradition to cut jail terms on holidays, but the decision was likely to anger countries that lost citizens in the attacks. Those who benefited from the sentence reductions were found guilty of everything from helping plan the bombings, to sheltering the main suspects, to setting up a Web site on how to kill foreigners. Six men involved in the 2002 terror strikes had their sentences cut by five months.
■ CHINA
Parents name baby `@'
A couple seeking a modern and distinctive name for their new child chose the common Internet symbol "@" or "at," much to the consternation of officials. The unidentified couple was cited on Thursday by a government official as an example of bizarre names creeping into the Chinese language. The baby's father reportedly chose the name because the symbol "@" in Mandarin sounds like the phrase ``love him,'' State Language Commission Vice Director Li Yuming (李宇明), said at a news conference in Beijing. As of last year, only 129 surnames accounted for 87 percent of all surnames in the country, he said. Li did not say whether police, who are the arbiters of names because they issue identity cards, rejected baby '@'
■ DENMARK
Ex-inmate accused of theft
A former Guantanamo detainee has been arrested in Copenhagen on suspicion he withdrew 105,000 kroner (US$18,900) by using stolen debit cards and PIN codes, police said on Thursday. Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane, a Danish citizen, was released from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center in 2004 after nearly two years in captivity. Abderrahmane, 34, was arrested on Wednesday and ordered held in jail for two weeks on preliminary fraud and theft charges, police said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Muslim juror listens to MP3
A female Muslim juror who allegedly listened to an MP3 player under her headscarf during vital evidence at a murder trial will not be prosecuted, Britain's attorney-general said on Thursday. Baroness Patricia Scotland, the government's most senior law officer, said there was "insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of proving beyond reasonable doubt any alleged contempt of court." The woman, in her early 20s, had been part of a 12-member panel trying a pensioner accused of bludgeoning his wife to death after 50 years of marriage. He was later convicted. The judge had received a note from another juror suggesting that the woman may have been listening to music during the defendant's evidence.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Patient told to walk off pain
A man who was shot three weeks ago was told to "walk the pain off" and is still trying to persuade hospitals to remove the bullet lodged in his side, the Star newspaper said on Thursday. Three Johannesburg hospitals refused to remove the bullet for security guard Phillip Mashiane, 38, who was shot during a burglary at the property of South Africa's ambassador to the UN. He said he was turned away by one hospital because he could not afford the bills while a public hospital patched him up and sent him home with painkillers. When he returned a doctor told him to "walk the pain off." Doctors at a third hospital said it could not remove the bullet because Mashiane had started treatment elsewhere.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Officer keeps one ear open
A British police officer who had sexual relations while on duty was acquitted in court because he had been in constant radio contact through a police earpiece during the sex romp. Police transport inspector Massoud Khan, 41, had conducted his illicit encounter in a room at the police station at Gatwick Airport, near London, it was revealed during the trial on Wednesday. "If there was a call for me, I would have answered it and I would have dealt with it," he told the court, the Times newspaper reported.
■ LITHUANIA
Bodyguard shoots at chef
An ex-president's bodyguard allegedly shot at a chef who refused to serve him an early morning meal during a drunken night out. The VIP protection department said it had opened a probe into an incident involving Major Jonas Paulikas, who watches over the 1990s head of state Algirdas Brazauskas. Lithuanian media reported Paulikas, 39, got into an argument with a chef who declined to serve him at a restaurant in Vilnius which was about to close at 5am on Thursday. Paulikas allegedly fired seven shots at the chef with his SIG-Sauer service pistol. The chef was unhurt. Paulikas has previously received an award for his SIG-Sauer handling skills.
■ UNITED STATES
Man hurt hugging robber
A man visiting a convenience store in Michigan was struck in the head with a gun when he mistook a robber for a friend playing a practical joke, police said. The masked man entered Sandler's Party Store in Fort Gratiot Township about 10:30pm on Wednesday, brandished a handgun and demanded money. Police said Patrick O'Bryan, 21, walked up to the man, thinking he was a friend, and grabbed him in a playful way. The gunman hit O'Bryan in the head with the gun, and the clerk opened two cash registers. The gunman took an undisclosed amount of cash and took off. O'Bryan was not seriously injured, the Times Herald of Port Huron reported.
■ UNITED STATES
Thief apologizes to nun
A would-be thief who came up empty-handed after trying to rob a Catholic nun wonders if he will be forgiven, police in Madison, Wisconsin, said. The man broke into the 61-year-old nun's home on Tuesday morning, police said. He forced her to drive him around in her car for almost an hour in search of money after she told him she did not have any since she had taken a vow of poverty. As they drove, the robber apologized "to the victim and wonders if he's going to be forgiven by her and the Catholic Church," a police spokesman said. Eventually, the man gave up and had the nun drop him off. She then drove to the Catholic school where she works and called police who arrested a 41-year-old man later on a probation violation and tentative charges of kidnapping, burglary, battery and possession of drug paraphernalia.
■ UNITED STATES
Investigator sentenced
A former private investigator who admitted forging documents to try to save the lives of four California death row inmates was sentenced on Thursday in Sacramento to five years in state prison. Kathleen Culhane, 40, admitted that she made up statements from real witnesses and jurors and forged their signatures to try to stop the executions. The fake statements were turned over to attorneys and filed with the courts and governor's office as they considered whether to commute the men's death sentences. Culhane said she acted out of her moral opposition to the death penalty. "I was very conscious that a life held in the balance," she told the judge. "My crimes are crimes of conscience." But prosecutors said her actions threatened the same legal system she was sworn to support.
■ UNITED STATES
Small plane crash kills five
Five people were killed when a small airplane crashed on Thursday night north of Ketchikan, Alaska, authorities said. There were four survivors, including a two-year-old girl, an Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman said. Three of the four were to be transported to hospitals in the US mainland for burn treatment, Ketchikan Public Safety Director Rich Leipfert told the Ketchikan Daily News. Information about the fourth survivor was not immediately available.
■ UNITED STATES
Woman charged in patricide
A New York City woman who reportedly claimed she suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of her father has been charged in his death and mutilation, prosecutors said. Brigitte Harris, 26, was arrested on Thursday and removed from a psychiatric facility where she had been since the July 28 slaying of Eric Goodridge, they said. Harris pleaded not guilty. She faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors said Goodridge's attacker had handcuffed him, gagged him with a towel and then wrapped the towel around his head with duct tape. After he died, his penis was sliced off, prosecutors said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the