■ UNITED STATES
Man sentenced for spying
The brother of a jailed Chinese-American engineer has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his role in a family conspiracy to export defense technology to China. US District Court Judge Cormac Carney handed down the sentence on Monday in Santa Ana, California. Tai Mak’s brother, 67-year-old Chi Mak, was sentenced to 24 years in prison last month. Tai Mak and his wife were arrested by FBI agents at Los Angeles International Airport in 2005 as they were heading to China with encrypted CDs that contained sensitive documents on naval technologies. Prosecutors say Chi Mak stole the information from his employer, defense contractor Power Paragon.
■ HONG KONG
‘Kitty Hawk’ to make stop
The USS Kitty Hawk battle carrier group will soon make its first stop in the region since it was denied access by Beijing over the Thanksgiving holiday, a US official said yesterday. “The Kitty Hawk will stop in Hong Kong over the next few days,” US consulate spokesman Dale Kreisher said. Around 7,000 sailors from the carrier and up to six support ships will visit Hong Kong during the stay. China barred the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying ships in November last year, leaving thousands of servicemen unable to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with relatives who had come to join them. The move caused a diplomatic spat between the two countries.
■ AUSTRALIA
Toxic spiders infest hospital
A tiny hospital is closing temporarily because of an infestation of poisonous spiders. The Baralaba Multi Purpose Health Service will close for 24 hours starting today so officials can fumigate the building to get rid of redback spiders that have been found in large numbers in the main part of the hospital. Three or four patients will need to be moved to another hospital while the building is closed, Queensland state health officials said. The statement said warm weather had caused more redback spider eggs to hatch than usual.
■ CHINA
Impotence drug kills two
Two men have died and 48 have fallen sick after taking unregistered drugs claiming to cure impotence over the last six months, health officials said yesterday. The men, aged between 44 and 86, all became ill with low blood sugar after taking pills said to treat erectile dysfunction. All sought help from a hospital, where two died. A Department of Health spokesperson said some of the men admitted to taking pills claiming to treat erectile dysfunction that they had bought in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
■ CHINA
Coal reserves at 12 days
The country only has enough coal for 12 days of consumption, three days less than a month ago, state media reported yesterday, sounding the alarm bells over the country’s most important source of energy. In certain areas, such as Hebei Province, reserves are down to less than a week, Xinhua news agency said, citing the China Electricity Regulatory Commission. Since last month, coal reserves have slumped by 12 percent to 46.7 million tonnes, the commission said. Reasons for the shortage were “multi-dimensional,” the commission was quoted as saying. The country counts on coal for about 70 percent of its energy, a proportion that has stayed almost unchanged for nearly three decades.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
US woman awarded medal
Linda Biehl, of Newport Beach, California, was awarded one of the country’s highest state honors on Tuesday for forgiving the men who stoned her daughter to death in the dying days of apartheid. Biehl was among some three dozen South Africans and others President Thabo Mbeki awarded state honors at a ceremony in Pretoria. Biehl and her husband Peter (who died in 2002) publicly forgave the killers of their daughter Amy Biehl. The 26-year-old Fulbright scholar died on Aug. 25, 1993, after driving into a township outside Cape Town to drop off three black friends. She was attacked by a mob, who chased, stoned and stabbed her to death as she begged for mercy. Four black youths convicted of the crime were released from prison in 1998 after they were granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Biehls later hired two of the men to work in a charity they set up.
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