■NEW ZEALAND
Kiddie disco gets too loud
A group of children rocking out to kiddie tracks at a kindergarten disco party were told to turn down the tunes or face a shut down of their party by noise control officials who raided the soiree. The noise abatement raid — called “absurd” by one teacher — happened on Friday night at One Tree Hill Kindergarten in Auckland. As parents and the gaggle of children blasted the theme song to Bob the Builder and the Chicken Dance, an irate neighbor spoiled the fun by calling noise control.
■CAMBODIA
Man arrested for child pics
A Japanese man has been arrested for allegedly taking nude photographs of at least six boys in the country’s popular seaside town of Sihanoukville, police said yesterday. Shunichi Nakagawa, 32, was seized on Sunday, accused of taking pornographic pictures of boys aged between 13 and 15, said Suon Sophan, deputy police chief for the town’s anti-trafficking and child protection unit.
■HONG KONG
Cabbie bites off finger
A Hong Kong cabbie bit off the fingertip of a drunken passenger who refused to clean up vomit from the taxi, a court report said yesterday. The fingertip was later recovered by police from the vomit and sewn back on, according to the report in the South China Morning Post. Taxi driver Hui Man-yu appeared on Monday in court after admitting inflicting grievous bodily harm on the passenger, Australian Caleb Chau. The 54-year-old was sentenced to 160 hours of community service. However, the court accepted that the trouble in the taxi ride in November last year was initiated by the passenger, rather than the driver. Hui claimed that he had only wanted Chau to clean up the mess that the passenger had made by vomiting in the taxi.
■VIETNAM
Glitter heads for Britain
Gary Glitter, the former British glam rock star who spent the past two years and nine months in a Vietnamese prison for sexually abusing minors, was released early yesterday morning and escorted to Ho Chi Minh City to board a flight for Britain. Glitter had been expected to be released at noon, but was let out early to avoid media waiting for him at the prison gates. He was scheduled to take a 4pm flight to London, his lawyer said on Monday.
■JAPAN
Wrong breast removed
A hospital said yesterday that doctors mistakenly removed a healthy woman’s left breast because of a mix-up in samples from tests for breast cancer. The woman, in her 40s, last year went for a mammogram at a hospital in the western city of Okayama and was told there was a possibility she had breast cancer. Doctors removed her breast. But a detailed examination of the tissue showed that she had a mastopathy, which includes symptoms similar to those of cancer but does not require surgery.
■JAPAN
Plane crashes on city street
A small plane crashed into a city street in the western part of the country yesterday, scattering debris across a neighborhood crowded with factories and restaurants. The two men aboard escaped with light injuries, and no one else was hurt. The Cessna slammed into a sidestreet beside a thoroughfare in Yao city, tearing off a wing and buckling its body nearly in half. The two men inside escaped the wreck and were taken to a hospital.
■GERMANY
Undertakers in murder suit
Two undertakers have been arrested in Bavaria on suspicion of killing a funeral home owner, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Erlangen said on Monday. Andreas Quentin said authorities believed the two suspects, detained on Aug. 6 and Aug. 13, burned the body in a crematorium under a false name after a dispute over a business deal. The mass-market daily Bild reported that the victim, identified as 43-year-old Erich W., sold his funeral home to Michael S., 52, a rival in 2005. A dispute over the sale price arose when Michael S. was unable to come up with the sum.
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