■ AUSTRALIA
Man crushed by elephant
An elephant crushed a circus worker to death at Yamba, about 680km north of Sydney, yesterday after it was being unloaded from a truck, police said. Media reports said the dead worker was a 50-year-old man who had worked as an elephant handler for two years, although police were unable to confirm the details. An ambulance service spokesman said the deceased suffered a cardiac arrest at the scene and could not be revived.
■ CHINA
Income disparity widening
The politically sensitive gap in incomes between the nation's booming cities and the poor countryside is widening, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai (孫政才). The average city dweller's income was 3.28 times that of a rural resident's last year, up from 3.23 times in 2003, Sun said in a report to the legislature. The widening gap between the mostly urban elite who have benefited from three decades of economic reform and the poor majority has fed political tensions, prompting protests over poverty and tax burdens.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Mouse found in cracker
Betty Lawrence was sharing Christmas crackers with her family in the city of Invercargill shortly after Christmas dinner when a dead, decaying mouse was found in one, the Southland Times newspaper reported on Wednesday. "I had said to my granddaughter, `What's that smell?' and we couldn't work it out until we pulled the cracker," Lawrence said. "My niece started pulling it out, thinking it was a soft toy," she said, adding that the discovery wrecked the festivities. "It ruined my appetite for the rest of the day." The Indonesia-manufactured crackers, branded "Mayfaire," were part of a hamper supplied by nationwide supermarket operator New World.
■ JAPAN
Cheerleader kills self
A male cheerleader at Tokyo's Meiji University killed himself after he was bullied by his fellow cheerleaders, media reported on Wednesday. The dead student, whose name has not been released, committed suicide in July after he was forced to strip naked and was videotaped by senior students, the Sankei Shimbun reported. A recent investigation by authorities at Meiji University found violence was rife in the cheerleading squad, which ceased activities in September, the reports said. Younger members were hit in the face, chased with fireworks and forced to eat grass, the Asahi Shimbun said. "I just wanted him to have a good time," the student's weeping father told TV Asahi on Tuesday. "It's so sad."
■ JAPAN
Lunar probe operating
The nation's first lunar probe has gone into full operation on schedule, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Wednesday. The Kaguya orbiter completed a two-month initial phase to inspect the functioning of all the equipment before starting its main mission on Friday last week, JAXA said. "Normal operations will continue for 10 months to collect data for lunar and other research," it said in a brief statement. While the operation began on schedule, JAXA said it was still ironing out some technical issues to ensure the receipt of data from the orbiter. The ¥55 billion (US$478 million) lunar probe is on the most extensive mission to investigate the moon since the US Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s.
■ IRAN
Suspected smugglers killed
Police killed four people during a clash with what were described as drug smugglers in the country's southeastern province of Kerman, state television reported yesterday. The incident occurred about 1,000km southeast of Tehran, the report said, in an area that has frequently witnessed clashes between police and gangs of drug smugglers. The report said police also uncovered guns and ammunition in the smugglers' den. The country lies on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Persian Gulf states, and confiscation of large amounts of narcotics is common. Every year, Iran burns more than 60 tonnes of seized narcotics as a symbol of its determination to fight drugs. Last year, Iranian authorities seized about 300 tonnes of narcotics.
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