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■ CHINA
Lover to die for kiss of death
A Chinese woman who killed her lover with a rat poison-laced kiss when she suspected him of being unfaithful has been sentenced to death, a newspaper said on Thursday. Xia Xinfeng, from Maolou in Henan Province, passed a capsule with rat poison from her mouth to her long-time lover, Mao Ansheng, during a kiss, the Shanghai Daily said. Mao swallowed the capsule and died soon afterwards. "The couple had said that if either one of them cheated on the other, he or she would have to die," the paper said in explaining the mouth-to-mouth assault. Xia found Mao had been "talking" with another woman which she felt broke their promise.

■ CHINA
Sentence for `spy' reduced
A Hong Kong resident and naturalized British citizen jailed in China for life as a spy has had his sentence commuted to 19-and-a-half years, a human rights watchdog said yesterday. Chan Yu-lam's (陳瑜琳) new sentence will expire on Feb. 14, 2027, after the Shaoguan Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province commuted his sentence last month, the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation said in an e-mailed statement. Chan was arrested in 2003 after crossing the border at Shenzhen to attend a business meeting.

■ HONG KONG
No new maids for pop star
Hong Kong Canto-pop star Jacky Cheung (張學友) has been banned from hiring any more maids from the Philippines after firing 21 in three years, a newspaper said on Thursday. Cheung and his wife, former actress May Lo (羅美薇), were placed on a "blacklist of sub-standard employers" maintained by the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong after hiring and firing 21 maids in three years, the South China Morning Post reported. His track record has earned him the nickname of the "the terminator" within the local Filipino community.

■ THAILAND
Air crash survivor dies
A 22-year-old British woman has died of injuries she suffered in a plane crash in Thailand nearly two weeks ago, the Foreign Office in London said on Thursday. Bethan Jones, 22, from Wales, died in hospital surrounded by family in Thailand on Wednesday, bringing the death toll from the Sept. 16 crash to 90, a spokeswoman said. Her boyfriend, Alex Collins, 22, died in the crash. The couple were just three days into a six-month round-the-world trip when their plane crashed at the Thai resort of Phuket.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Coroner files open verdict
A coroner ruled on Thursday that he could not determine whether a teenage chess prodigy had committed suicide shortly before she was to testify against her father, who was accused of raping her. Jessica Gilbert, 19, plunged to her death from the eighth floor of a Czech Republic hotel in July last year, five weeks before she was due to give evidence against her father, Ian, who faced five charges of raping her. He was later acquitted. Coroner Michael Burgess recorded an open verdict on Gilbert's death, meaning that he could not be certain of the reason for her death.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Famous pearls on sale
A set of pearls once belonging to Marie Antoinette and taken into the country by a friend for safekeeping will go on sale in December and are expected to fetch up to US$800,000. Now part of a diamond, ruby and pearl necklace, France's last queen gave a bag of pearls and diamonds to Lady Sutherland, the British ambassador's wife, before she fled revolutionary France in 1792, a year before Marie Antoinette's death. "Lady Sutherland was wife of the ambassador and friends with the queen, and they had children of the same age," said Raymond Sancroft-Baker, senior director of Christie's jewelry in London.

■ ISRAEL
Jets rush to border
Several fighter jets were scrambled toward the border with Syria on Thursday after air force radar screens showed Syrian attack helicopters in flight on the Syrian side of the frontier, Israel Radio reported, adding that when the choppers were seen landing in Syrian territory, minutes afterward, the warplanes returned to base. A military spokeswoman said it was standing policy not to comment on reports of air force operations but a defense official said planes had been sent in a standard response to investigate aerial activity in the border region.

■ FRANCE
Shoplifter caught on eBay
A debt-ridden shoplifter who sold stolen supermarket items on eBay is to face justice after police became suspicious about her low-priced loot, officials said on Thursday. The 33-year-old woman, who is estimated to have stolen more than 85,000 euros (US$120,000) in goods from the Leclerc store in her hometown of Doubs since 2005 is due to appear in court on Dec. 7. Officers zeroed in on eBay vendor "RapidDVD" after coming across DVDs, videogames, CDs and razor blades she was selling well below market price, still in their original wrapping. The woman, who alternated between temp secretary jobs and unemployment, stole 3,504 items on her spree.

■ NIGERIA
Witchdoctor caught
Police arrested a witchdoctor employed by a politician to perform rituals at an election tribunal, media reported on Thursday. Officers caught Oluwole Abiodun on Wednesday at the court building in southwestern Ondo State with charms and copies of the Bible and Koran in a black plastic bag. A pot containing a rabbit, seven eggs, cowrie shells and palm oil was found nearby, the state News Agency of Nigeria said. "Abiodun said that he was sent by one of the principal officers of the state House of Assembly to perform some rituals in the court premises," the agency said.

■ UNITED STATES
Court stays Texas execution
The US Supreme Court stepped in late on Thursday to halt the execution of a Texas man convicted of killing his parents nine years ago. Carlton Turner Jr. received a stay handed down by the US Supreme Court, said Michelle Lyons, public information director for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "He is being transported back to the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas," Lyons said. "We asked him how he felt and he said, `All I can say is glory to God,'" she said. Turner's lawyers filed appeals asking the court to consider whether lethal injections should continue in the state. No reason was given for why Turner's execution was not carried out. When Turner was convicted of murdering his adoptive parents, Carlton Turner Sr. and Tonya Turner, he claimed the pair abused him.

■ BRAZIL
Soap opera blackout feared
The national electricity grid was laying on extra energy to avoid a nationwide blackout expected yesterday when the final chapter of the hit soap opera Tropical Paradise was to air, officials said on Thursday. TV Globo expected that 90 percent of television viewers in the country of 186 million people would tune in for the final chapter to learn who murdered the scheming villain Tais and to find out if Bebel, the Pygmalion-like prostitute, will live happily ever after. "When it is all over, millions of people will get up from their armchairs and sofas to turn on the lights of their living rooms, open the refrigerator for a cold beer or heat a meal in the microwave oven," a spokesman for the electricity company said.

■ UNITED STATES
Man admits stealing shoes
A man pleaded guilty to stealing more than 1,500 pairs of girls' shoes from schools in a deal that calls for prosecutors to recommend probation. Erik Heinrich, 26, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty on Thursday to three counts of burglary. He told police he did it for sexual gratification. He was arrested on May 24 after a security video showed him entering North High School and leaving with some items. Police tracked him through his vehicle registration, searched his home and a rented storage unit and found the shoes.

■ ARGENTINA
Court backs teen sex change
A 17-year-old Argentine has won a court battle to undergo surgery to become a female, an operation the teenager hopes can be scheduled within two months. Ending a three-year legal battle, a court in Cordoba Province authorized the surgery on Tuesday, the first decision of its kind involving a minor in Argentina. In Argentina, the surgery requires court approval because of laws against mutilation. Medical experts testified that the teenager has a condition called gender dysphoria in which she has a man's body but is psychologically a woman.

■ UNITED STATES
Man slices house in half
A man angry that he was not going to be sold a house is accused of using a power saw to slice it in half. Rodney Rogers apparently thought an acquaintance was going to build a house in Hillsboro, Ohio, and sell it to him, and he was living in it while it was being completed, Highland County Sheriff Ronald Ward said on Wednesday. After the acquaintance refused to complete the sale, Rogers used a power saw last week to make a lateral cut through the walls and siding at about chest level, authorities said. Only one thing was keeping the top half of the house in place on the bottom half. "Gravity," Ward said.


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