■BANGLADESH Septuplets are not related
A retired police officer could face the death sentence after DNA tests proved seven three-year-old children he brought up were not septuplets nor related to him, a lawyer said on Tuesday. Anisur Rahman had claimed that he and his wife were the biological parents of the four boys and three girls. But a rights group accused them of planning to sell the children, and a Bangladeshi court last week ordered DNA tests after a series of reports by local television stations. “Test results from all seven children show that none of them are related to each other — or to the couple who claim to be their parents,” said lawyer Elina Khan of the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights.
■SOUTH KOREA Cult leader jailed for rape
A court on Tuesday handed a six-year jail term to a religious cult leader for raping his female followers before spending several years on the run in China. Jeong Myeong-seok — whose JMS sect stands for both Jesus Morning Star and the initials of his name — was convicted of raping or sexually assaulting three women between 2001 and 2006. Jeong, now in his early 60s, fled South Korea in 1999, one day after rape allegations against him were broadcast on national television. He was arrested in Hong Kong in 2003 for visa violations and later fled an extradition hearing. China extradited him to Seoul in February. Former cult members, mostly young girls, have told police they were instructed to undress for health checks and to have sex with Jeong to remove their sins.
■HONG KONG Shop organizes ‘Olympets’
As athletes from around the world sweat it out in Beijing, Hong Kong’s pampered pets are being put though their paces in their own version of the Olympic Games. From rabbit hurdles and parrot rope-climbing to cat agility contests, a Hong Kong pet shop has organized 10 weeks’ worth of events to try to promote sport for animals. Organizer Howard Cheung, who runs the city-center PetMAX store, said he was inspired by the Beijing Games, but also wanted to help owners keep their animals healthy. Cheung said the so-called “Olympets” had proved popular, with 400 animals taking part in the heats held so far.
■JAPAN ‘Dream grapes’ cost US$30
Guests at an upscale hotel had a special treat after dinner: “dream grapes” that are fresh, juicy — and cost nearly US$30 a pop. Kagaya, a renowned Japanese-style inn in the central prefecture of Ishikawa, bought a 0.7kg bunch of Ruby Roman grapes for ¥100,000 (US$910) when the first batch of the new-variety grapes went on a local market. “We served them last evening to our repeat customers who were staying in top-notch rooms,” chief cook Fujio Uko said on Tuesday.
■CHINA Bus accident kills 24
Two dozen students and parents heading for a health check-up died in China’s far northwest on Tuesday when their bus flipped over, Xinhua news agency reported. The bus was on a mountainous road between Akqi County and the small city of Atux in the remote Xinjiang region when it turned over, Xinhua reported. Most of the 24 killed were students “on a health check-up trip after having passed entrance examinations of high schools in the developed eastern areas,” the agency said. It said the cause of the deadly incident was under investigation, but made no suggestion it was linked to recent militant attacks in heavily Muslim Xinjiang.
■GERMANY New Nabokov book
Vladimir Nabokov’s son said he will publish the Russian author’s last manuscript despite his dying request that it be burned. Dimitri Nabokov said in an interview with the German edition of Vanity Fair that his father must have wanted the work published. He was quoted as saying: “Had my father really wished that this novel not be released, he would have destroyed it himself.” The work, titled The Original Laura, was left behind on 138 notecards when the author died in 1977. He asked his wife, Vera, to burn the work. She never did. His 74-year-old son says The Original Laura is scheduled for release next month.
■GERMANY Ice cream parlor murders
Three men and a woman were killed in an attack at an ice cream parlor in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt, on Tuesday, police said. At least four assailants fled the scene and both guns and knives might have been used in the attack, a police spokesman said. The motive for the killings was not known and a manhunt had been launched for the perpetrators, he said.
■SUDAN US envoy ‘hopeful’ on Darfur
The US envoy to the north African country said he was “encouraged and hopeful” UN-African Union peacekeepers would deploy more quickly into the country’s troubled Darfur region. The joint force has been on the ground since January, but it has been under-equipped and operating at only a third of its planned size. Richard Williamson told reporters on Tuesday in Khartoum that he blamed Sudan and the UN for the slow pace. But he said he had reasons to believe that would change. He did not elaborate. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the peacekeepers says 126 Egyptian engineers arrived on Tuesday to set up camps for new reinforcements. Some 350 Ethiopians are expected next week. Williamson said “focus and attention” was increasing on Darfur, where up to 300,000 people have been killed.
■UNITED KINGDOM Prince worries about GM
Britain’s Prince Charles said on Tuesday that increased use of genetically modified (GM) crops to help solve world food shortages could lead to environmental disaster. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper, the heir to the throne was quoted as saying that he believes new experiments with GM crops could worsen problems with food supplies. The government has said that GM crops could help lower food prices and urged those opposed to the technology to reconsider their position. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told fellow G8 leaders in April that he backed attempts to develop climate-resilient varieties of crops.
■SWEDEN Apartment, stepdad included
For sale: apartment in sought-after area of Stockholm — complete with live-in stepfather. A lawyer said a woman inherited a share of a Stockholm apartment after her mother died and wants to sell the unit. But lawyer Eric Von Platen said her 52-year-old stepfather was refusing to move out, so the apartment goes to the highest bidder furnished — with the stepdad. The apartment in Sodermalm will go up for auction on Aug. 26. But another lawyer involved is warning that it may not be a clean sale. Mats Ljungquist said evicting the resident stepdad could end up being “very messy.”
■UNITED STATES Chapman parole bid denied
John Lennon’s killer was denied parole for the fifth time on Tuesday, and will remain behind bars for at least two more years. Mark David Chapman, 53, was denied parole from New York’s Attica Correctional Facility because his release “would not be in the best interest of the community” parole board members said in a statement. Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono told the New York Daily News that she had personally asked parole officials to deny Chapman’s request. “It’s dangerous for him to come out. Not only for us, but for himself.” He has so far served 27 years of a maximum life sentence for the December 1980 killing of Lennon.
■UNITED STATES MySpace clip proves costly
Burger King Corp said on Tuesday it had parted ways with an employee who was recorded taking a soapy bath in a utility sink in one of its Ohio restaurants in a video that ended up on his MySpace page. The video, which was posted online last Thursday, shows the man taking the bath to celebrate his birthday. The employee refers to himself only as “Mr. Unstable” and appears to be naked. Timothy Tackett, 25, told WDTN-TV in Dayton that he was the sink-bather. He said he regretted taking the bath because it led to the firing of the employee who did the recording, as well as the restaurant’s shift manager.
■UNITED STATES Age no bar to sex
Getting old does not mean saying so long to sex, US researchers said yesterday. More than three-quarters of American men aged 75 to 85 and half of women that age are still interested in sex, a survey of the elderly by University of Chicago researchers found. “It’s not age per se; that when you get to 80 it’s all over with,” said sociologist Edward Laumann, who led the study of 3,000 American men and women aged 57 to 85 who lived at home. “It’s driven by more proximate factors such as if you become obese, or you’re smoking too much, or you contract diabetes. Medications can depress sexual interest. The aging process itself is not a major factor driving these results.”
■UNITED STATES Spanish burglar resentenced
A confessed burglar from Spain described by police as one of the most prolific thieves in Los Angeles’ history was resentenced on Tuesday to seven-and-a-half years in prison after making a police training video showing how he stole about US$16 million in property. In an effort to win the slightly reduced sentence, Ignacio DelRio also drew a map that led police to some US$400,000 worth of stolen goods he had buried under a San Fernando Valley freeway overpass. “He confessed to 1,000 burglaries, and I have been able to find 180 victims so far,” police Detective Robert Longacre said. DelRio, 33, was previously sentenced to 12 years after being convicted of 16 counts of burglary, receiving stolen property and attempted escape. Under his new sentence, he will be given credit for nearly three years of time served and time off for good behavior.
■UNITED STATES Dog guards body for weeks
A dog stood guard over her owner’s body for up to six weeks after the man committed suicide on the remote northeastern Colorado plains, officials said. The body of 25-year-old Jake Baysinger was found on Sunday on the Pawnee National Grasslands. Cash, his German shepherd, was found beside him, thin and dehydrated but still alive. Baysinger was reported missing June 28. Cash has been reunited with Baysinger’s wife, Sara, and her two-year-old son, Lane.
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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