Print

Mail

wiki links

World News Quick Take

■HONG KONG

Pilots mix up runways

A pilot and his co-pilot have been suspended after they tried to take off from a taxiway rather than a runway at Hong Kong International Airport, investigators said yesterday. An air traffic controller raised the alarm when he saw a South Korea-bound Hong Kong Airlines Boeing 737 carrying 122 passengers hurtling down a taxiway running parallel to the airport’s north runway. The controller radioed the pilot and alerted him in time for him to abort the takeoff after around 500m and take off from the runway instead, Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department said. Since the incident, a memo has been sent out by management to all Hong Kong Airlines pilots saying, “Ensure you are on a runway before taking off.”

■HONG KONG

Teacher arrested for camera

A primary school teacher was arrested after spy cameras were found in a girls’ changing room, a newspaper reported yesterday. Pinhole cameras were put in a room where girls changed for dance classes at a primary school in the city’s Mongkok district, the South China Morning Post said. A 10-minute videotape showing nine girls changing their clothes in the classroom was also discovered after a dance teacher and students found the cameras, the newspaper said. A 32-year-old teacher who helped teach dance was arrested in connection with the incident and has been sacked by the school.

■VIETNAM

Rare otter spotted

Researchers said on Thursday they have found two hairy-nosed otters, which have been listed as the world’s rarest species, in a national park in the south part of the country. Scientists came across the pair in U Minh Ha National Park in March, a statement from the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Program said. “We were only about 2.5m away from them when we spotted the two otters. It was truly amazing to see such a rare species in the wild,” said research officer Nguyen Van Nhuan. Hairy-nosed otters were thought to be extinct in the 1990s. However, they have since been rediscovered in Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia.

■HONG KONG

Pilot charged with murder

A pilot with Cathay Pacific Airlines has been charged with murder after a man died in a seaside brawl, the airline confirmed on Friday. Airbus 349 senior first officer David Chan, 33, was arrested and charged along with seven other suspects after the fracas in Hong Kong’s Big Wave Bay seaside resort last Saturday. A postmortem examination found that a 36-year-old man died from a blow to the head from a hard object during a fight between two groups of men. Chan, who joined Cathay Pacific in December 1998, telephoned his employers to say he was “unfit for duty” following his arrest. The married pilot is accused of murder along with suspects including a 34-year-old TV director, a 48-year-old company director and an office clerk aged 34.

■HONG KONG

Teen arrested for uploads

Customs officials on Friday arrested a 14-year-old boy suspected of placing 2,000 Chinese-language pop songs on a Web site for free downloading. The suspect, who was not identified because he is underage, is accused of uploading mostly Cantopop songs, as pop songs performed in the Cantonese language are known, customs official Michael Kwan said in a telephone interview. He said the boy is free on bail and has not been charged as the investigation continues.

■EGYPT

Donkey thrown in jail

A donkey has been jailed for stealing corn on the cob from a field belonging to an agricultural research institute in the Nile Delta, local media reported on Thursday. The ass and its owner were apprehended at a police checkpoint that had been set up after the institute’s director complained that someone was stealing his crops, the state-owned Al-Ahram daily said. The unnamed ungulate was found in possession of the institute’s corn and a local judge sentenced him to 24 hours in prison. The man who had his ass thrown in jail got off with a fine of 50 Egyptian pounds (US$9).

■UNITED KINGDOM

Author gives to Labour

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has donated £1 million (US$1.8 million) to the ailing British Labour party, the author confirmed yesterday. Rowling said she wanted to support the party’s work against child poverty. She also criticized plans by the opposition Conservative party to grant tax break to married couples. Her announcement came coincided with the start of the annual Labour Party conference in Manchester yesterday and at a time in which the party led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing its most serious crisis to date. Rowling is close friends with Brown and his wife Sarah, but it is her first donation to Labour.

■UNITED KINGDOM

Nannies hit by financial woes

Watch out Mary Poppins, the hurricane howling through the world’s financial markets is starting to be felt in the rarefied world of the British nanny. As bankers and money dealers fall like flies to a credit crunch that has seen three major US investment banks disappear in a puff of smoke, so the nannies they have employed on salaries of up to £40,000 (US$73,000) have suddenly become expensive luxuries. “The problems are just starting. In the last week or two I have started getting calls from nannies saying one or both of their employers have lost their jobs and so they have too,” said Kate Baker of Abbeville Nannies in south London.

■ITALY

Comic spared prosecution

A comic who said Pope Benedict would be punished in hell for the Church’s treatment of homosexuals was spared possible prosecution on Thursday when the government blocked an investigation against her. Sabina Guzzanti, one of the country’s most biting political satirists, made the remarks before a cheering crowd of thousands gathered at Rome’s piazza Navona in July. A Rome prosecutor suspected the comments broke a law protecting the honor and dignity of the leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics under a 1929 Italian treaty with the Vatican. But the treaty, signed by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, required government approval before the investigation could go forward. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano decided to block it.

■SPAIN

Brothel remark criticized

A politician’s public description of how he lost his virginity in a brothel has angered his female counterparts, who accused him of encouraging prostitution. Miguel Angel Revilla, head of the government of the northern region of Cantabria, told a TV interviewer last week that he had paid the first time he had sex at the age of 18. Female members of the regional parliament from the opposition conservative Popular Party were outraged. “As the head of the regional government, he should be an example for the young people of Cantabria,” they said in a communique.