■ MALAYSIA
Workers stab each other
Two Indonesian workers stabbed each other to death in front of hundreds of horrified onlookers in a Malaysian town, the Star newspaper reported yesterday. The two men, in their early 20s, chased and attacked each other after a row in a coffee shop on Borneo island, the report said. They died before police arrived at the scene, it added. Local police chief Sulaiman Abdul Razak said the fight resulted from a misunderstanding. "They were with their respective groups of friends at the coffee shop. The others did not get involved," he said.
■ JAPAN
Memory lane caught on tape
Researchers have implanted a camera inside a mouse's brain to see how memory is formed, in an experiment they hope to some day apply to humans to treat illnesses such as Parkinson's disease. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods and Sensors and Actuators. Jun Ohta of the Nara Institute of Science and Technology and Kinki University researchers implanted a tiny camera designed to show blue light on a screen whenever the camera captured memory being recorded by the brain. The researchers injected the mouse with a substance that lights up whenever there is brain activity.
■ INDONESIA
Soldier slaughters rare tiger
A soldier shot dead a Sumatran tiger that was caught in a trap, then skinned it and distributed its meat to villagers, a conservationist said. The incident happened in Tenggayun, Riau Province, after residents asked the soldier to help free the animal of a pig snare, Bastoni, a Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program official, said on Thursday. "Instead, the soldier fired nine bullets," he said. "It was sadistic," said Bastoni, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name. He said he intends to file a complaint with the army. The Sumatran tiger is the most endangered tiger subspecies in the world, with fewer than 400 believed to be left in the wild.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Oxford to return remains
Britain's Oxford University said on Thursday it has agreed to return to New Zealand human remains obtained by its natural history museum in the 19th century. The four sets of remains include two Maori skulls, a Moriori skull from the Chatham Islands and a section of a pelvis. The director of Oxford's Museum of Natural History, Jim Kennedy, said on Thursday this was the first repatriation of human remains since a new claims procedure was established by the university in 2006.
■ CANADA
Macca slams seal hunt
Paul McCartney criticized Canada's annual seal hunt on Thursday and asked animal lovers around the world to pressure the EU to proceed with a ban on seal products. The former Beatle issued the appeal in a release distributed by the international and US humane societies. The EU is accepting public comments on the proposed ban until Feb. 13, and McCartney said it is a chance for people everywhere to help end the commercial slaughter of seals. He said a ban on the trade of all seal products in the EU could spell the end of many commercial seal hunts. McCartney said that if the hunt does end, governments should find employment alternatives for seal hunters and compensate them for lost income.
■ GUYANA
Forces kill gang members
Security forces have shot dead two gang members and arrested five men suspected of taking part in a weekend massacre of 11 villagers that shocked the nation, police and army officials said on Thursday. Thousands attended Hindu funeral rites on Thursday, where 10 massacre victims were cremated on open air pyres. At a joint news conference, the army and police said they had killed two men linked to the massacre in a gun battle in a village where bandits were said to hide out. Women and children were among those killed in the village of Lusignan on Saturday. Authorities said the attacks were an attempt to inflame tensions between ethnic African and Indian Guyanese. One notorious gang leader, Rondell Rawlins, is still at large. On Wednesday Rawlins called a local newspaper and pledged more violence if his pregnant, 18-year-old girlfriend does not appear. Rawlins has accused police of abducting Tenisha Morgan.
■ BRAZIL
Gamers to protest ban
Fans of the popular computer games Counter-Strike and EverQuest are to protest a ban against the titles imposed by authorities concerned they incite violence. A blog on the site Liberdade Games said a demonstration was scheduled for today in Sao Paulo, with the aim of getting the prohibition lifted. "We consider the decision absurd, and what's worse is it is unconstitutional and violates the rights of citizens as consumers and vendors," the site said.
■ UNITED STATES
Soldier suicide figures go up
As many as 121 Army soldiers committed suicide last year, a jump of more than 20 percent over the year before, officials said on Thursday. The rise comes despite numerous efforts over the past year to improve the mental health of a force stressed by a longer-than-expected war in Iraq and the six-year-old conflict in Afghanistan. Internal briefing papers prepared by the Army's psychiatry consultant earlier this month show there were 89 confirmed suicides last year and 32 deaths that are suspected suicides and still under investigation.
■ BRAZIL
Croc 'missing link' revealed
Paleontologists on Thursday unveiled a fossil of a creature that they said is the "missing link" between prehistoric and modern crocodiles. Called Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, it measured 1.5m to1.7m, weighed about 40kg and lived about 80 million years ago in the region of Palo Alto, in Sao Paulo state. Paleontologist Felipe de Vasconcellos, who helped research the fossil found in 2004, said the reptile's physical characteristics placed it between prehistoric crocodiles and their current descendants.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in