■ HONG KONG
All live poultry to be killed
The territory will begin culling all live poultry in a bid to stop the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus among its many markets, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Director Cheung Siu-hing (張少卿) said yesterday. H5N1 was found at a poultry stall in a market last week, prompting the culling of 2,700 birds. Cheung said results yesterday showed birds infected in four markets, but not in samples from chicken farms and distribution centers. The government has also temporarily banned all live poultry from China.
■AFGHANISTAN
Officials cancel census
The first planned census for 30 years has been canceled, delivering a serious blow to humanitarian aid in the country. It was planned to take place this summer, but officials have halted the project, citing security concerns. Abdul Sakhri, vice-president of the central statistics office, said: “We were planning to track each village’s humanitarian needs — for instance water supply or educational requirements — as well as the population. It’s a huge missed opportunity.”
■VIETNAM
Former PM dies, aged 85
Vo Van Kiet, the former prime minister who led the country through economic reforms and turned around foreign policy, died yesterday in Singapore at age 85, the government said. Kiet, a former Viet Cong revolutionary in South Vietnam, was considered the chief architect of the doi moi (renewal) market reforms of the late 1980s and 1990s. He served as prime minister from 1991 until 1997. Kiet was admitted to Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital on June 3 with unspecified ailments, an admissions officer said.
■CHINA
Rules target foreign press
Reporters Without Borders condemned on Tuesday regulations to increase control on foreign media and their local assistants and translators. Under the new regulations all Chinese citizens who work for foreign media as translators and assistants must be registered with the authorities. The Paris-based rights group quoted the Foreign Correspondents Club of China as saying the change could increase “oversight by authorities.” Authorities will “select and name appropriate candidates” to help foreign journalists. The foreign media may recommend a specific person only if they provide a criminal record, medical documents, CV and personal ID information.
■CHINA
Parents name kids ‘Aoyun’
More than 4,000 Chinese have been named “Aoyun” (奧運), or “Olympic Games,” in an apparent nod to the Beijing Olympics, state media reported yesterday. Nearly 680 of the names were registered in 1992, when Beijing first applied to host the Games and another 553 were registered in 2001, when it was awarded the 2008 Olympics, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
■AUSTRALIA
Sudoku causes mistrial
Sydney District Court Judge Peter Zahra aborted a drug conspiracy trial on Tuesday after jurors were found to have been playing Sudoku. The trial had run for 66 days and had cost an estimated A$1 million (US$950,000). The two defendants were facing a possible life sentence. The judge was alerted after it was observed the jurors were writing vertically, rather than horizontally. “Some of the evidence is rather drawn out and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time, and that doesn’t distract me too much from proceedings,” the jury foreman told the judge on Tuesday.
■ SWITZERLAND
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