■ HONG KONG
Murder suspect arrested
Police said they arrested a Pakistani man early yesterday in connection with the murders of four sex workers. Four women have been found murdered since Saturday, prompting fears that a serial killer was targeting prostitutes. The suspect was detained in Macau and sent back by ferry to Hong Kong, where he was arrested, police said. Superintendent Steve Li said Macau police and the Hong Kong Organized Crime and Triad Bureau were involved in the case. "At the time of the arrest we were able to recover two mobile phones which had been stolen from two of the victims," Li said on local radio RTHK.
■ INDIA
Bloodsucking ring broken
Police in Uttar Pradesh state said yesterday they have broken a racket in which a gang held 17 men captive and forced them to give blood several times a week, selling it for thousands of dollars. The men -- all poor migrant workers -- were so weak when they were rescued that they could not stand up, and are now being treated in hospital, police said. The arrested men have been charged with selling blood, which is against the law, and unlawfully confining their victims. The gang promised jobs to their victims and then persuaded them to undergo blood tests by paying them 50 rupees (US$1.25).
■ NEW ZEALAND
Teen charged with murder
A 14-year-old boy was charged in a Rotorua court yesterday with the murder of a Scottish tourist last month. The boy, who could not be named, was remanded in custody after being accused of murder, aggravated robbery and intentional damage. Karen Aim, 26, from the Orkney Islands in Scotland, was attacked in the early hours of Jan. 17 as she was returning to her apartment from a night out with friends in Taupo, a lakeside tourist town in the North Island. Aim was found with severe head injuries by police investigating vandalism at a nearby high school but she died soon after in a hospital.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Villagers turn TV off
Residents of a small island turned on to their wives after turning off their TVs for three weeks in an unusual social experiment, a report said yesterday. All 28 residents of Darang island off the south coast agreed to take part in the experiment by a local educational broadcaster and surveillance cameras were set up in each home to avoid backsliding, Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported. The islanders, including the village leader, had a tough time at first fighting their viewing habits. But the vast majority said later that their lives had become much richer.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Anthony Minghella dies
Oscar-winning British film director Anthony Minghella has died aged 54, a spokeswoman for his agent said yesterday. Minghella won the Academy Award for best director in 1996 for the wartime romance The English Patient starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. Details of his death were not immediately released. Minghella was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for the crime thriller The Talented Mr Ripley. He also wrote the screenplay for Cold Mountain. Previous films included Truly Madly Deeply and Mr. Wonderful. In recent months Minghella had been making a film adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency for the BBC.
■ ZIMBABWE
Journalists warned
The government has threatened to arrest Western journalists who it accuses of spying on behalf of "hostile" countries ahead of next week's presidential election. President Robert Mugabe's spokesman, George Chiramba, said the government would "flush out" reporters he described as "agitators embedded in journalism." His statement appears to be a move to justify barring journalists from Britain and other countries during the March 29 poll.
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