■ CHINA
Official fired over funeral
A ranking official in the southern part of the country has been sacked for arranging an extravagant funeral for his mother, state media reported yesterday. Xie Pingfa (謝平發), former director of the highway bureau in Lufeng city in Guangdong Province, invited more than 1,000 people to the funeral in November which included a 100-table banquet, Xinhua news agency said. The event caused outrage among local residents and the local branch of the Communist Party's discipline commission launched an investigation leading to Xie's dismissal as a "bad social influence," according to Xinhua.
■ CHINA
Teens arrested for murder
Police have arrested four teenage boys for kidnapping their classmate for ransom and killing him, media said yesterday, amid worsening crime in the booming southern province of Guangdong. The suspects, aged 15 to 17, kidnapped their classmate, Zhao Shaoxu (趙少旭), in Shantou city in Guangdong on Dec. 29, the online edition of Xinhua news agency said, quoting the Guangzhou Daily. They murdered the 15-year-old victim within hours but phoned his father repeatedly to demand 500,000 yuan (US$67,000) in ransom. The father, a private entrepreneur, recognized the voice of one of the callers and reported it to police. The boys were found the next day and confessed.
■ CHINA
Vulgarity crackdown begins
The government is launching a nationwide crackdown on sexually suggestive video and audio products, in the latest effort by government censors to curb content considered to be in bad taste. During the three-month campaign, audio and video producers should stop making "vulgar" products and recall those that are already on the market, the country's General Administration of Press and Publication said. "Some of the video and audio products are coarsely made, containing materials of bad taste," the regulator said in a notice on its Web site. The questionable material includes suggestive language and partially nude images used to promote sales, it said.
■ MALAYSIA
More arrests made over tape
Police have made two more arrests over a sex tape featuring the health minister who was forced to resign over the scandal last week, reports said yesterday. The New Straits Times said a 48-year-old DVD vendor found in possession of three copies of the recording, and a woman in her 20s, were detained on Saturday on suspicion of distributing the footage. Police have already arrested a 29-year-old beauty salon owner and a 50-year-old farmer over the video, which showed married minister Chua Soi Lek having sex in a hotel room with an unidentified woman.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Missing sailor found dead
One of the 14 sailors missing from a cargo ship that sank off the south coast last week was found dead on Saturday, the Coast Guard said. Local fisherman found the body in their net at around 1:50am at a site 19km from where the cargo ship sank on Dec. 25, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Family members later identified the body as that of Ye Heung-rak, 54, the Coast Guard said. Ye was one of 15 sailors aboard the ship, which sank in bad weather off the coast of Yeosu, 455km south of Seoul, while carrying 2,000 tonnes of nitric acid. One crew member was rescued hours after the accident, but 13 others are still missing. On Friday, divers found the ship on the sea floor in about 67m of water.
■ UNITED STATES
Truck full of bulls hijacked
Somebody hijacked a truck full of rodeo bulls bound for a professional bull riding show, then abandoned them after running out of gas, authorities said. The truck and its cargo were found early on Saturday with an empty gas tank on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee, police said. The bulls -- about a dozen valued at US$100,000 -- were unharmed. A suspect had not been arrested. Police Sergeant Robert Durbin said the animals were being delivered to Nashville's Municipal Auditorium for the show when the thief jumped into the cab late on Friday. A woman in the truck escaped despite the carjacker's attempts to keep her inside, witnesses said.
■ UNITED STATES
Mum sorry for Iraq lies
A Texas woman apologized on Friday for a "bad decision" in helping her six-year-old daughter win tickets to a Hannah Montana concert with an essay that falsely claimed the girl's father died in Iraq. Priscilla Ceballos said she had not intended to mislead the contest sponsor but got caught up in helping her daughter "realize her dream of seeing Hannah Montana." "Instead I brought so much negative attention to my family," Ceballos said, reading a statement on NBC's Today show. "Please accept my heartfelt apology and please do not punish my child for my mistake." Ceballos apologized specifically to the military and military families for falsely claiming the girl's father died in a roadside bombing in Iraq.
■ UNITED STATES
Trail hole digger arrested
Police said they arrested a man who admitted digging holes on a park bicycle trail in Fullerton, California, as payback for nearly being run down by a cyclist. Warren John Wilson, 52, faces a single felony count of vandalism, police Sergeant Linda King said on Friday. King said nearly 50 holes measuring about 30cm by 60cm have been found since June along a trail at Laguna Lake Park and in some cases attempts had been made to hide them from cyclists. She said some riders went over their handlebars after hitting the holes, but none reported major injuries. Detectives watching the trails questioned Wilson, who said he had nearly been run over by a mountain bike rider and began digging the holes in retaliation, King said.
■ UNITED STATES
Chicken bones lead to arrest
A trail of chicken bones left at a burglary scene more than a year ago has led investigators to a Kansas prison inmate with a long rap sheet and a hefty appetite. Authorities on Friday charged John Wyatt Weaver, 43, with two counts of burglary and one count of stealing a firearm. No bond was set because Weaver is already serving time at Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas for an unrelated crime. Police tracked down the suspect through DNA left on six chicken bones strewn throughout an apartment where several firearms were stolen in November 2006.
■ UNITED STATES
Hacker attacks state site
Hackers from China infiltrated the Web site of the Pennsylvania state government, but officials said they found no evidence of damage. Four state departments had security problems with their Web pages, leading to a decision to take down nearly all of the state's Web site on Friday morning. Spokeswoman Mia DeVane said there was no reason to think anyone's personal data had been compromised or that any damage occurred when a hacker "got into what we would say is a back door." By late afternoon, nearly all of the site was back online.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number