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■ MALAYSIA

Parole system planned

The government plans to introduce an early release program for prisoners next year to cut costs and overcrowding in prisons, a report said. Home Ministry Secretary-General Abdul Aziz Mohamad Yusof said the prison department will implement the system after it is approved by lawmakers in the next few weeks. "Prisoners serving light sentences of not more than one year will be considered for early release," Abdul Aziz was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency on Saturday. He said at least 2,000 prisoners qualify for parole, adding that the plan would cut overcrowding at 29 prisons currently housing 35,000 prisoners while their capacity was only for 28,000.



■ PHILIPPINES

Ban on Afghan work lifted

Manila has lifted its travel ban to allow Filipinos to work for subcontractors employed by the UN, the US and coalition forces in Afghanistan. The Labor Department said a travel ban will remain in force in Iraq, although Filipinos will once again be able to travel to Lebanon, as well as to oil companies in Nigeria's delta region. Filipinos may now work in Kabul and other areas of Afghanistan for coalition forces, UN agencies, the Red Cross and similar aid agencies, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said in a written order. The travel bans were imposed due to war or deteriorating security situations that have seen Filipinos abducted or, in the case of Iraq, killed in attacks against coalition convoys.



■ THAILAND

Muslim couple shot in home

Suspected separatist rebels have killed a Muslim man and his wife at their home in Yala Province, police said yesterday. The 63-year-old man and 53-year-old woman were shot dead on Saturday.



■ CHINA

Dead miners recovered

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of 12 workers who were trapped after a gas explosion tore through a coal mine, state media said yesterday. The miners went missing after the blast earlier this week at the No. 10 mine of the Pingdingshan Coal (Group) Co in Pingdingshan, Henan Province, Xinhua news agency said. Twelve other workers escaped, it said. Search and rescue operations have ended, Xinhua said. Coal mines in the country are the world's deadliest, with an average of 13 deaths a day in fires, explosions and floods.



■ CHINA

Hackers use `Lust, Caution'

Ang Lee's (李安) steamy Lust, Caution has become a massive hit in the country and the award-winning film is also helping spread online computer viruses, state media said yesterday. Internet users who download the World War II thriller are very likely to see their computers infected because hackers are planting viruses on sites where it can be acquired, Xinhua news agency said. The issue highlights emerging security problems as a growing number of people download movies from the Internet, it said.



■ AFGHANISTAN

Report sees little progress

The country ranked No. 5 from the bottom on a global index of human development, a report released yesterday said, despite billions of dollars in aid and help since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The country's ranking on the Human Development Index -- a composite survey of education, longevity and economic performance -- was the lowest outside Africa, the Afghanistan Human Development Report 2007 said. The ranking of No. 174 out of 178 was above only Niger (the lowest), Sierra Leone, Mali and Burkina Faso, the study said.



■ RUSSIA

Deputy minister detained

Investigators detained Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, one of the country's top officials on international financial relations, on suspicion of large-scale embezzlement and fraud, news agencies reported yesterday. The investigation of Storchak, announced on Friday, is likely to renew questions among many investors about corruption in the country and how well the government is fighting it. A prosecutors' spokesman said that Storchak was detained on Thursday, along with two businessmen. A law enforcement official was quoted as saying that investigators had searched Storchak's office, the three suspects' residences and a country house.



■ RUSSIA

Rescuers take food to cult

Rescuers planned yesterday to take medicine and food to more than two dozen members of a doomsday cult holed up in an underground forest hide-out in central Russia awaiting what they say is the end of the world, a regional official said. The cult members have threatened to blow themselves up with about 400 liters of stockpiled gasoline if authorities force them out of what officials described as a cave or bunker near the village of Nikolskoye. Police were guarding the site, but there are no plans to forcibly remove the 29 people -- including four children, one only 18 months old.



■ UNITED KINGDOM

Brown hits new low

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's approval ratings have hit their lowest level since he took over as prime minister, a Sunday Times /YouGov poll said. Brown has slumped 40 percentage points in the poll within a month -- in last month's poll, 59 percent thought he was doing a good job, while 29 percent said he was doing badly, giving him a 30 percent net approval rating. Now only 33 percent think he is doing well and 43 percent say he is doing badly, making his figure minus 10 percent.



■ UNITED KINGDOM

Tutu criticizes church

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu slammed the church for being "obsessed" with homosexuality in a BBC radio program scheduled to be broadcast tomorrow. The South African 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, 76, said he felt ashamed of his church for its attitude toward gays. He also criticized Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Anglican leader, for not showing the attributes of a "welcoming God." The world is "facing problems -- poverty, HIV and AIDS -- a devastating pandemic, and conflict," Tutu said. He said the Anglican church had appeared "extraordinarily homophobic" and that "If God as they say is homophobic I wouldn't worship that God."



■ SWITZERLAND

Dignitas eyes Germany

Swiss right-to-die group Dignitas wants to set up an organization in Germany to carry out assisted suicides there, Dignitas head Ludwig Minelli was quoted as saying on Saturday. Minelli said that his organization had found someone in Germany who was prepared to risk facing prosecution to offer the seriously ill a chance to get assisted suicides at home rather than having to travel across the border to Switzerland. "It is not right that Germany forces its seriously ill patients to leave their beds instead of us being able to come to them," Minelli said. He said Dignitas was prepared to take the case to the German court.



■ UNITED STATES

Hawaiian shirts donated

Anyone can donate money. A Tennessee artist turned over something of greater personal value -- his collection of 700 Hawaiian shirts. John McIntire, a sculptor, gave the shirts to the Memphis College of Art, where he once worked. He had collected the colorful garments over 50 years, picking them up at yard sales and junk stores, never paying more than US$5 apiece. McIntire, 72, wears Hawaiian shirts most days. The college plans to display the shirts for a sale to benefit a scholarship in McIntire's name. He decided to give all but four away to make room for a studio in his attic.



■ UNITED STATES

Cat takes 1,244km trip

A cat accidentally took a 1,244km ride from New Jersey to Georgia, apparently in a neighbor's moving van, authorities said. Heathcliff, an orange-and-white shorthaired cat, was reported missing on Oct. 24 from Sicklerville, New Jersey. The cat was identified on Nov. 9 at Gwinnett Animal Welfare and Enforcement Center in Georgia. An animal control officer scanned Heathcliff for a microchip, as she does with all the animals that come to the Lawrenceville shelter. The microchip led to information that the cat was reported missing. A volunteer rescue group shuttled the cat back to its owner.



■ UNITED STATES

Cyclist dies after bridge fall

A cyclist riding on the Manhattan Bridge in New York late on Friday died after taking a wrong turn and flipping over a retaining wall on the bridge's upper level, causing him to fall 4.5m to the lower level, where he was hit by a car. Sam Hindy, 27, of Brooklyn, was riding shortly before midnight with a friend on the bridge when they decided to turn around. Hindy's father, Steve Hindy, said the police told him that the two riders had taken the wrong ramp and found themselves on the roadway with trucks and cars.Hindy, a computer engineer with Double Click, a digital marketing firm in Manhattan, suffered severe head injuries and was pronounced dead at New York Downtown Hospital on Saturday.
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