■ INDIA
Fishermen catch a big one
Two men hoping to catch fish were stunned when they found a 4m crocodile tangled in their net, officials said yesterday. The amateur fishermen summoned firefighters to help haul the reptile out of the water at a popular coastal fishing area in southern Johor Bahru city on Monday, said Abdul Hamid Abdullah, head of operations at the city's fire department. Firefighters took 20 minutes to pull the crocodile out with ropes."It was very big. We were surprised," firefighter C. Kesavan said. "In my lifetime, this is the first time I have seen a crocodile in saltwater."
■ JAPAN
Police nab suicide operator
Police arrested a man who ran an Internet suicide site for allegedly killing a woman who paid him to kill her, a police official in Kanagawa said yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Kazunari Saito, a 33-year-old electrician, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly giving Sayaka Nishizawa, 21, sleeping pills and suffocating her in April, the official said. Nishizawa contacted the suspect through an Internet suicide site he hosted and paid him ?200,000 (US$1,700), the official said. Her body was found on April 16 in her apartment in Kanagawa, the official said. The suspect told police the woman had asked him to "see through" the dying process, Kyodo News agency said.
■ CHINA
Pudong official under probe
A former top official for Shanghai's stunning new financial district has quit the city's local congress and is facing investigation for alleged corruption, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. Kang Huijun (康慧軍), former deputy director of the Pudong District, "lost his seat" in congress, it said, citing a statement from the congress saying Kang had resigned amid allegations he "seriously violated discipline by taking bribes." Public tip-offs prompted the investigation, Xinhua said. The financial magazine Caijing reported that Kang, also a former chairman of the Shanghai Lujiazui Development (Group) Co, the biggest property developer in the district, also was suspected of abusing his position to obtain real estate on the cheap.
■ CHINA
Activists missing: group
Two leading democracy campaigners have gone missing amid an intensified crackdown by the Chinese Communist Party on political dissent ahead of the party congress next week, rights groups said yesterday. Yao Lifa (姚立法) and Lu Banglie (呂邦列), activists promoting local democratic elections in Hubei Province, disappeared in recent days, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement. Both Yao and Lu once served as elected legislators to lower-level people's congresses in Hubei, but their outspoken criticism of local polls soon found them in trouble with authorities.
■ MALAYSIA
First Malaysian in space
Malaysians celebrated yesterday as its first astronaut hurtled through space on board a Russian Soyuz rocket in a landmark for the nation which is marking 50 years of independence. "It's a small step for me, but a great leap for the Malaysian people," said Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, the 35-year-old doctor and part-time model who blasted off late on Wednesday from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Muszaphar, along with Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko and American Peggy Whitson, will circle the earth for the next two days before docking at the International Space Station where he will spend nine days.
RSS