■ JAPAN
Prankster likes firemen
A man arrested for making 388 prank phone calls to his local fire station between May last year and last month said he did it because he was lonely. "I live by myself and I was sad. I like the fire services and the police so I called them. I wanted them to come and look after me," the 58-year-old man was quoted as saying by the daily Yomiuri Shimbun. A police spokesman in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, said the man had been arrested on suspicion of obstructing the emergency services. The Yomiuri said the man would phone the fire station shouting: "Fire! Fire! I've set gasoline and kerosene alight!"
■ JAPAN
Pot plants keep popping up
A prison is scrambling to eradicate marijuana plants that keep sprouting up on its exercise ground, officials said on Tuesday. The marijuana plants started sprouting at Abashiri Prison on Hokkaido island about a year ago, prison official Takeshi Okamura said. He said officials plucked out as many as 300 marijuana plants and treated the ground last year, but several more sprouted again this year. Prisoners reported them to the guards. Officials believe the plants are wild. "Apparently, somebody knew how to tell marijuana from other plants," Okamura said. Local botanical experts concluded the marijuana seeds were inadvertently brought in with the soil used for the exercise ground, Okamura said.
■ CHINA
Manager goes postal
A bad-tempered French manager of a factory in China overshot the mark at a meeting when he pulled out a pistol and shot the ceiling, state media said yesterday. The manager, referred to only as Pierre by the China Daily, became enraged over a woman colleague's refusal to approve an overtime payment for an assistant, the newspaper said. It said he "fired at the ceiling in rage" at the factory in the booming southern Pearl River Delta. "Several employees said the French manager was overbearing and moody and had a very bad temper," the newspaper said, quoting a reporter for the South Metropolis Daily, who said this was not the first time Pierre had drawn his pistol and fired.
■ UNITED STATES
Carrey makes YouTube plea
Hollywood actor Jim Carrey posted a message on the video-sharing Web site YouTube on Tuesday urging US citizens to join a global campaign for the freedom of Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. "I want to tell you about a hero of mine, her name is Aung San Suu Kyi. She is a champion of human rights and decency in Asia," he said.
■ CHINA
Web game too popular
A government-sponsored online game that allows players to battle corrupt officials and their mistresses has been overwhelmed by users, state media reported on Tuesday. The Ningbo Haishu District Discipline Commission in Zhejiang Province launched Incorruptible Warrior to show how to fight corruption, Xinhua news agency said. But demand for the game was too much. "It has been closed so it could be updated," Xinhua quoted an unidentified commission official as saying. "The game requires players to learn government anti-corruption measures and to kill corrupt officials while avoiding attacks by their henchmen and mistresses clad in bikinis," Xinhua said. Xinhua said it was criticized for encouraging "players to kill corrupt officials in violent ways."
■ AUSTRALIA
Cannibalism suspected
Police arrested a 19-year-old homeless German on Tuesday on suspicion of murdering a roommate in a homeless shelter and eating parts of his body. A cleaning woman found the naked, sliced-open corpse of a 49-year-old man on Tuesday morning in the apartment he shared with the German, a Vienna police spokesman said. The victim's skull had been crushed with a bar bell, and his chest and stomach cut open with a large knife, spokesman Gerald Hoebarth said. Hoebarth said some brain tissue was found arranged on a plate -- "whether the suspect ate from that, we don't know yet."
■ CANADA
Tunnels to save amphibians
Researchers know why the salamander crossed the road, and now they hope to fix things so it won't have to. The federal parks agency plans to install tunnels under a stretch of highway to end carnage among the long-toed salamander of Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. The project is aimed at diverting the 13cm-long amphibians under the pavement during their nocturnal journeys between a mountainside and a lake where they breed. Mortality rates for the salamander as a result of being squashed by cars and trucks have been estimated at 10 percent to 40 percent, said Cyndi Smith, a Parks Canada conservation biologist.
■ TANZANIA
Witch doctor drowns
A traditional medicine man drowned after jumping in a river and promising to resurface three days later with relevations from spirits, police said on Tuesday. The local witch doctor, Nyasio Alfonso, staged his stunt last week at the village of Masingo in the western Mpanda District, Rukwa regional police commander Daudi Siadi said. Dozens of villagers chanted and drummed as the fortune-teller dove to confer with river spirits, he said. The police officer said the incident was the first of its kind in the region. "We are not aware of such practices although belief in witchcraft is widespread," he said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Mandela statue unveiled
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised Nelson Mandela as the greatest leader of his generation on Tuesday, before the unveiling of a statue of the former South African president in London's Parliament Square. Brown and Mandela held private talks at the prime minister's residence. Brown has often expressed admiration for the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner and profiled Mandela in his book Courage: Eight Portraits. "I'm proud to welcome to Downing Street the most inspiring, the greatest and most courageous leader of our generation," Brown said. Mandela said he and his wife, Graca Machel, were happy to visit No. 10 Downing Street.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Prosthetic hand stolen
Teenager Jack Baker had only planned to visit his girlfriend for 10 minutes. So he parked his motorcycle outside her home in Bristol last week and left his prosthetic hand gripped to its handlebar. When he came back outside two hours later, the hand was gone, apparently taken by a thief or a prankster who found it more interesting to make off with than the bike. "I came out and found the hand was gone. I thought it was my girlfriend's parents messing about, but they said it wasn't them," said Baker, 19. "I went for a look around, but I couldn't see my hand anywhere."
■ UNITED STATES
Robber waits for change
A knife-wielding robber in Greenburgh, New York, needed only US$4, so he refused to take a US$10 bill from his victim and waited while the teenager made change at a pizza parlor, police said. He then took the US$4 and ran off, only to be captured a few blocks away, police said on Tuesday. The suspect, James Mitchell, 48, was arraigned on Tuesday on robbery and weapon charges in Greenburgh Town Court. The confrontation began over an artificial rose that the 18-year-old victim had just bought, the police said. Mitchell allegedly demanded the rose, but the teen refused to give it to him. Mitchell then said he wanted the rose and money and pulled out a knife, police said. "All the kid has is a US$10, and the perp says, `I only want US$4.' He tells the kid to go into the pizza parlor and get change. Then the kid comes out, he takes his US$4 and he leaves," police said. DeCarlo said the teen and his mother, who was across the street, called police and led officers to Mitchell.
■ MEXICO
Kidnapped dog found
An elite sniffer dog kidnapped five days ago was found abandoned in a Mexico City park on Monday and reunited with its police handlers. Working on a tip, federal police found Rex IV tied to a tree in a park, a Public Security Ministry spokesman said. The dog was snatched from Mexico City airport on Aug. 22 while it was en route for an operation in Sinaloa state. The thieves left a black mongrel puppy in its place. Two transport company employees have been arrested, the spokesman said.
■ CHILE
Security chief's term upheld
The Supreme Court has upheld a life sentence for a retired chief of the feared Pinochet-era security services for the 1987 killings of 12 suspected urban guerrillas. Retired General Hugo Salas Wendzel was convicted in 2005, along with several subordinates from the National Information Central, in the killing of 12 suspected members of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front. The government initially said the suspected guerrillas had been killed in clashes with security agents, but a judicial investigation revealed they were killed in three separate incidents after being arrested. Salas Wenzel was released during the appeals process and will be notified so that he can serve his sentence.
■ UNITED STATES
Store sues over video
Two brothers sacked from their jobs in a Califon, New Jersey, grocery store for filming a rap parody at the store now face a defamation lawsuit from A&P. Their former employer claims the video by Mark and Matthew D'Avella motivated at least one customer to boycott the supermarket. A&P wants at least US$1 million in compensation and for the D'Avellas to remove Produce Paradise from the Internet. The brothers' video was posted on Aug. 6 and they were fired on Aug. 23.
■ COLOMBIA
Quake rumor triggers panic
Rumors of an earthquake on Tuesday led to the collapse of emergency phone lines and forced thousands of office workers to evacuate high-rise buildings in Bogota. A man identifying himself as an engineer from Ingeominas geological institute sparked the rumor by calling several businesses and government offices and warning a quake would strike Bogota at 5 pm. Workers rushed to evacuate hospitals and high-rises, and an emergency phone line temporarily collapsed under the weight of 50,000 calls. Ingeominas later disavowed the prank call on its Web site.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was