■CHINA
Stabber sentenced to death
A court yesterday sentenced a man to death who was convicted of stabbing to death six police officers at a station in Shanghai, state media said. The Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court convicted Yang Jia, 28, of premeditated murder in the attack on July 1, Xinhua news agency said. Unemployed Yang reportedly told investigators that his attack, which also injured four other people, was in revenge for mistreatment last October by police who accused him of stealing bicycles.
■CHINA
Fake quake man jailed
A university student has been jailed for 18 months for hacking into a government Web site and posting a fake earthquake alert, state media reported. The computer science student, surnamed Jia, was convicted by a court in Shaanxi Province last week for deliberately spreading false information, the Xian Evening News said. Jia hacked into the Shaanxi Provincial Seismic Bureau’s Web site on May 29 and posted a warning that a strong earthquake would hit the province that night. His report immediately caused panic. Jia’s posting had 767 clicks within 10 minutes after its release and the seismic bureau received constant call-in inquiries, the report said.
■HONG KONG
Fire kills 32 home pets
Thirty-two cats and dogs were burnt to death yesterday in an arson attack on the home of an animal lover who took in strays, police said. Ten other animals survived the blaze in the early hours yesterday morning at the home in Kam Tim in the New Territories. Firemen said a total of 42 animals lived with the owner in the house. They said the blaze was started deliberately in several locations simultaneously.
■HONG KONG
Monkey mugs woman
A 25-year-old woman was taken to hospital after being mugged by a monkey for a box of egg tarts at a bus stop, police said yesterday. The primate struck seconds after the woman got off a bus for a Sunday picnic in rural Sai Kung Country Park in the New Territories. The monkey scratched her arm as it grabbed the box of egg tarts, police said. The shocked victim was taken to hospital for treatment for minor injuries, a spokesman said.
■MYANMAR
Leader well, but slimmer
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is well but has lost some weight, her lawyer said yesterday, following reports that she had refused new food supplies since Aug. 15. Kyi Win, who met Aung San Suu Kyi at her Yangon home where she has been under house arrest for five years, said she had not indicated whether or not she was on a hunger strike. “I am well, but I have lost some weight. I am a little tired and I need to rest,” Kyi Win quoted the 63-year-old Nobel Peace laureate as saying during their 30 minute meeting.
■PHILIPPINES
Bus bomb kills four
At least four people were killed and 19 wounded when a powerful bomb ripped through a packed passenger bus in the south yesterday, police and disaster officials said. The blast, caused by an improvised explosive device, tore through the bus owned by Metro Shuttle company, which was parked inside a terminal in the city of Digos on troubled Mindanao island, they said. It was not immediately clear how many passengers were aboard the bus or how many people were at the terminal at the time of the explosion.
■
GREECE
Pagan rite at Acropolis
In what organizers said was the first such ceremony performed at the ruins of the Acropolis in Athens since the ancient pagan religion was outlawed in the fourth century, dozens of pagans huddled near the Parthenon in a downpour on Sunday to worship in protest of a museum being built at the foot of the site. They gathered before the temple’s east wing and prayed to Athena, goddess of wisdom, to protect the Parthenon. “Oh, goddess,” the priestess Doretta Peppa said over an offering of water and olive oil. “We are ready to defend your grounds.” The rite was organized by Ellinais, a group that recently won a court battle for state recognition of the religion. Followers object to the removal of marble pediments from the Parthenon to be installed in the US$190 million museum.
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