■ INDIA
Poultry culled after outbreak
Health workers yesterday began slaughtering hundreds of thousands of chickens after an outbreak of bird flu killed more than 35,000 birds in eastern India over the last week, officials said. The federal government confirmed on Tuesday the birds were infected with the H5 strain of bird flu, and tests were under way to determine whether it was also the dangerous N1 subtype. No human deaths or unusual illnesses had been reported in the region.
■ THAILAND
Al-Manar deal scuttled
A satellite company said yesterday it stopped airing broadcasts of a Middle East-based TV channel after learning it was tied to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, a company spokesman said. The broadcasts of Al-Manar were halted on Friday after just three days of a "test run" beamed through THAICOM satellites, said Piyanuch Sujpluem, a spokeswoman for Shin Satellite Public Company. Piyanuch said the contract with Al-Manar was a purely commercial deal "without knowledge that such a station had connections to [what some have called] a terrorist group." She said the company found out about the channel's background from foreign media.
■ VIETNAM
Ten fishermen feared dead
Ten Vietnamese fishermen were missing and feared dead after their boat was hit by another vessel and sank off the central coast, an official said yesterday. Fishermen on three other boats near the accident tried to search for the missing men, but suspended their efforts on Tuesday due to rough seas, said Nguyen Truc Thom, head of the border guard command for the central province of Phu Yen. The Defense Ministry sent a helicopter to the site on Tuesday but it did not succeed in finding any bodies, he said. All search and rescue operations were halted yesterday because of bad weather in the search area. Thom said fishermen saw an unidentified vessel leave the area after hitting the fishing boat about 130km off the coast of Phu Yen.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Paraglider tops Mount Cook
German tourist Gerry Mayr yesterday became the first person to fly a powered paraglider over New Zealand's tallest mountain, the 3,754m Mount Cook -- surviving severe turbulence on the downward leg. Mayr's paraglider feat went well going up, peaking at about 3,960m. But wind turbulence on the way down caused the flimsy craft to fall hundreds of meters before he managed to stabilize it. Mayr said the midair plummet was frightening. "It was like a hand throwing you down to earth," he said, "and this was a very big hand with a long movement, so I went whoosh!" Mayr said he got the idea for the flight while at home looking at photos of mountain scenery in New Zealand.
■ MALAYSIA
Shirtless singer censured
A popular rock singer has apologized for sparking an uproar in Muslim-majority Malaysia by baring his chest during a live TV concert and will do community service to atone for the stunt, his record company said yesterday. Faizal Tahir -- one of Malaysia's most exuberant stage performers -- stripped off his jacket, undershirt and belt and flung them into the audience at a Kuala Lumpur concert on Sunday. The moves revealed a bright red Superman logo painted on his chest. Television network 8TV said in a statement it was "utterly shocked and caught by surprise" by the stunt.
■ NIGERIA
Port official attacked
Attackers tossed an explosive device into the vehicle of a top port official working in the country's chaotic oil region, killing the official's driver and wounding a guard, police said on Tuesday. Militants claimed responsibility for the attack. The driver had just dropped off the regional port director, Sotoye Itomi, when assailants threw an as-yet unidentified device into the vehicle late on Monday, said a Rivers State police spokeswoman, Ireju Barasua. The driver died in the blast and a police guard was injured, she said.
■ ITALY
EU gets tough on Naples
The European Commission on Tuesday threatened to take legal action against Italy if it does not resolve the garbage crisis in Naples that has left an estimated 100,000 tonnes of waste on the streets. The EU executive was ready to use "all available measures," including fines, to force Italy to comply with EU waste rules, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said. Collectors stopped picking up garbage in Naples and the Campania region more than three weeks ago because there was no more room for the trash at dumps.
■ RUSSIA
PM concerned by blasts
The prime minister expressed concern on Tuesday over a series of gas explosions that killed 18 people in apartment buildings and residences in less than a week, demanding that authorities closely examine the causes and improve safety. Seeking to fend off criticism, a top government regulator, however, suggested consumers were largely to blame for the blasts, at least one of which was attributed to the use of a gas cooking stove to heat an apartment. Pre-dawn gas explosions ripped through two apartment buildings in Russia on Monday.
■ ITALY
Court OKs sex videos
Recording secret videos of sex with your partner is not illegal, the supreme court has ruled. Rome's highest appeals court acquitted a 49-year-old man who, unbeknown to his girlfriend, had recorded and kept films of them having sex. It overruled two previous verdicts that had given him a four-month jail sentence. The woman had agreed to the man using a video camera to project live images of them having sex onto the bedroom wall, but did not know he was recording the action. The court acquitted the man because he had not distributed the films. When the relationship ended, the man gave her the videos, with a note saying: "These are my last thoughts for you."
■ MOROCCO
Jail sentences upheld
An appeal court on Tuesday upheld the convictions of six men jailed for homosexual acts after video images of a man dressed as a woman dancing at a party sparked street protests and a police investigation, lawyers said. The six were arrested in late November after rumors spread that a party they had held in the northern town of Ksar el Kebir was really an illegal gay wedding. The national press pounced on the story, and Islamist groups condemned what they saw as an attack on public morals and demanded an official investigation. Hundreds of angry residents marched through Ksar el Kebir to demand "justice" and put pressure on the authorities to hand out harsh sentences.
■ UNITED STATES
'Popcorn lung' suit filed
A suburban Denver man believed to be the only consumer to develop the ailment called "popcorn lung" from regular servings of microwave popcorn filed a lawsuit claiming injury from the artificial butter flavoring that previously sickened only popcorn factory workers. Wayne Watson's case of "popcorn lung" and his two-bags-a-day diet gained national attention last year when doctors at National Jewish Hospital diagnosed him with the rare lung condition that has been linked to the flavor chemical diacetyl. Popcorn lung, officially called bronchiolitis obliterans, generally has been associated with people who worked in microwave popcorn plants mixing large vats of flavors.
■ UNITED STATES
Heated sidewalks approved
Things are heating up in Wisconsin. After the second snowiest December on record in the state capital -- and with temperatures hovering around minus 6.67oC on Tuesday -- the legislature abolished a statewide ban on heated sidewalks, stairs, entrances and pedestrian walkways. The bill, which cleared the state Assembly in October and was approved unanimously on Tuesday by the state Senate, overturns a law passed in the 1980s in response to the energy crisis of the 1970s. Wisconsin is the only state that had such a prohibition on the books.
■ UNITED STATES
Man jailed for leveling trees
This week in Las Vegas, 61-year-old Douglas Hoffman found that the law was not impressed by his feat of cutting down 500 of his neighbors' trees which blocked his view of the mountains and casinos. He has now been jailed for five years. Hoffman, who has hip, heart, prostate and back problems, informed the court: "I am not a bad person. I am a good person." Hoffman and his wife had bought a second home in a retirement area just south of Las Vegas, according to the Los Angeles Times, but soon found that recently planted Mesquite trees were obscuring the view from the deck of their house.
■ UNITED STATES
Official kicks photographer
Carrying a family Bible, a Colorado state lawmaker-elect kicked a photographer who took a picture of him during a statehouse prayer -- then was sworn into office. The Colorado legislature launched an investigation on Tuesday into whether Representative Douglas Bruce should be disciplined for the kick. Bruce, a Republican, accused the photographer of causing a disruption by snapping his photo during the traditional session-opening prayer in the House of Representatives on Monday morning, hours before Bruce was sworn in as a midterm replacement.
■ UNITED STATES
Poll mixes politics and sex
Republicans and Democrats may be dominating the US presidential race, but when it comes to the bedroom, it is independents who have better sex, according to Playboy magazine's Politics of Sex survey. More than 45 percent of those questioned said independents were better in the sack, against 36 percent who thought Democrats were the best lovers and just over 18 percent who rated Republicans as the real Don Juans. The survey also found that Michelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama, was considered by almost one in five respondents as the sexiest woman in politics. She was followed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with 17.5 percent, first lady Laura Bush on 16.3 percent and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with 14 percent.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese