BANGLADESH
Talk shows banned
Bangladesh's army-backed emergency government has banned two popular live political talk shows, the private satellite television channel ETV said yesterday. The two prime time shows, off the air since Thursday, hosted political and civil society leaders and took questions from viewers and journalists on political, economic, social and cultural issues.
■ INDIA
Bird flu outbreak worsens
The Indian state of West Bengal, battling the country's worst outbreak of deadly bird flu, appealed to the federal government yesterday to send "all possible help to defeat" the virus. The call by state animal resources minister Anisur Rahaman came as authorities struggled to stop the disease spreading beyond the 12 out of 19 state districts already affected. "We have to control the disease immediately as the deadly H5N1 virus has been spreading fast," Rahaman said, adding "avian flu is knocking on the doors of Kolkata," the eastern state's congested capital of 13.5 million people.
■ THAILAND
Bus crash kills nine
A bus packed with passengers heading to a funeral tumbled down a mountain yesterday in western Thailand, killing nine people and injuring 26 others, police said. The accident occurred after the driver lost control of the bus in Kanchanaburi Province, about 210km west of the capital, Bangkok, said police General Raewat Klinkaeson. The driver then fled the scene, he said. "It is a steep path down and we are investigating if the accident occurred because the brakes failed or if the driver was negligent," he said, adding that authorities are looking for the driver for further investigation.
■ JAPAN
Flatfish delivers letter
A letter that a young girl in Japan sent into the sky tied to a balloon some 15 years ago has been found on a fish hauled from 1,000m below the Pacific. A fisherman found the still legible piece of paper sitting on a sticky flatfish in his catch on Thursday, along with a torn-off string and the fragment of a red balloon. The handwritten letter was from a six-year-old girl at an elementary school in Kawasaki, 150km away from where the fish was caught off Choshi port. The sender, Natsumi Shirahige -- now a 21-year-old university student -- and her friends released letters as part of events to mark the school's 120th anniversary in 1993. "Our school is 120 years old ... If you pick up this letter, please write to me," the letter reads, listing the school's address.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Crooner nearly mooner
An aging South Korean crooner stunned a live, national TV audience on Friday by dropping his trousers and saying he was ready to prove he had not been castrated in a love quarrel. Na Hoon-a spoke at a packed news conference to deny rumors he had been castrated off by a Japanese yakuza gangster. Media reports have said the gangster was angry the 60-year-old singer had a fling with one of his favorite South Korean actresses. "Do I have to show you, or will you just believe me?" Na asked. Saying he was ready to prove he had not been damaged "down there," he jumped on a table, slightly lowered his pants and was revealing his underwear when the live TV broadcast cut away, with surprised reporters heard shrieking in the background. Results were inconclusive as Na pulled his pants back up.
SOUTH AFRICA
Schoolboy stabs cell thief
A schoolboy who had his cellphone stolen at knife point on the playground hunted down the robber and stabbed him to death, police said on Friday. The 15-year-old pupil, a student at Delft, a suburb of Cape Town, took his revenge after being stabbed in the back by one member of a five-strong gang of adults who had come to the high school on Wednesday. "One of the men robbed a 15-year-old boy of his cellphone, stabbing him in the back with a knife in the process. The other four men ran away," police spokesman Andre Traut said.
■ GERMANY
Diplomat abuses maid
A Yemeni diplomat stationed in Berlin treated his Indonesian maid like a domestic slave, the German foreign ministry said on Friday, confirming media reports. The 30-year-old woman told a newspaper she was forced to be on call 24 hours a day and was beaten by her employer if she failed to work quickly enough. "I wasn't allowed to touch the food that I cooked for him. For breakfast I was permitted a slice of bread and in the evening a bowl of rice with tomatoes," the woman, using the pseudonym Dewi Hasniati, said in the Frankfurter Rundschau.
■ SPAIN
Man sues family of cyclist
A driver who collided with a cyclist is suing the dead youth's family 20,000 euros (US$29,000) for the damage the impact of his body did to his luxury car, a newspaper reported on Friday. Businessman Tomas Delgado says 17-year-old Enaitz Iriondo caused 14,000 euros (US$20,500) of damage to his Audi A8 in the fatal 2004 crash in La Rioja region, the El Pais newspaper reported. Delgado, who has faced no criminal charges for the incident, wants a further 6,000 euros to cover the cost of hiring another vehicle while his car was being repaired, El Pais said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Haggis dish under threat
Exports of Scotland's fabled dish haggis are under threat because of a shortage of young people wanting to becoming butchers, the Financial Times said Saturday. The dish -- sheep's heart, liver and lungs with oatmeal, herbs and spices -- is the traditional fare on Burns Night (Jan. 25) in honor of the poet Robbie Burns, who hailed it as "great chieftain o' the puddin' race." The chief executive of the Scottish skills council Improve, Jack Matthews, told the business daily it was the epitome of Scottish industry: traditionally made and a premium product.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Stash of false limbs found
A massive stash of false limbs found in the cellar of a retired British taxi driver's home are to be sent to Pakistan to help victims of the 2005 earthquake, a charity said on Friday. More than 100 artificial limbs and about 100 crutches and walking frames were found by a plumber fitting central heating at Mike Sutton's home in Bridport, southwest England, soon after he and his wife Teresa moved in. The Limbless Association has now collected the hoard, which includes a mixture of left and right legs in different sizes, most with pristine leather straps attached, and a solitary prosthetic hand.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion