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World News Quick Take

■ NIGERIA

Man arrested for child abuse

Police have arrested a man who said in a television documentary he had killed 110 children he believed to be possessed by evil spirits, officials said on Wednesday. Rights campaigners say fraudulent pastors or “witchdoctors” convince parents that their children are possessed and will bring misfortune, such as divorce or disease, so as to extort money to perform exorcisms. Some accused children fall into the hands of child trafficking networks after being handed over by their parents. “We are working on the orders of the state governor to arrest all those involved in all forms of child abuse and trafficking,” said Aniekan Umanah, Akwa Ibom State’s commissioner for information. “I am not denying that I am a witchdoctor, but what I killed are witches in my patients with herbs, not children,” Ulup-Aya said while in detention.



■CHINA

Bird’s Nest trinkets on sale

Beijing has started selling souvenir sets of left-over grass and steel from its famed Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium for 2,900 yuan (US$420) each, local media reported yesterday. The packs include grass cut on the night of the Games’ closing ceremony, preserved in a clear box, and model Olympic torches made of steel that was not used in the construction of the stadium, the Beijing News said. There are 10,000 souvenir sets available for sale at the Bird’s Nest, as well as at Beijing department stores and online. The Bird’s Nest, which seats 91,000 people, became the symbol of the August Games, attracting worldwide attention for its striking design of interlocking steel girders.



■CHINA

Environmental pacts inked

Beijing and Washington were scheduled to sign two agreements yesterday on cooperation in projects promoting energy conservation and water quality. The US Trade and Development Agency and National Development and Reform Commission and the countries’ Export-Import Bank were to agree on partnerships in energy efficiency investments, a document obtained by Bloomberg News in Beijing said. The nations were also to sign a second accord to provide funding and resources toward water quality projects in China.



■AUSTRIA

Thief pays up, 25 years late

An anonymous thief has offered 1,400 euros (US$1,770) in damages to the former owner of a moped the thief stole 25 years ago. Police in Bregenz said they had received an anonymous letter and 1,400 euros in cash from a person asking them to deliver it “to the victim, in a penitent bid to make amends.” “In 1983, I stole a moped from outside the Metro cinema,” the letter said. “I wasn’t aware at the time of the psychological and material consequences of such a crime,” it added, requesting the police “to kindly find the details of the victim of this crime in their files.” If this was not possible, the money should go to local social services, added the letter, which arrived in the police station mailbox on Tuesday morning.



■FRANCE

Doctors leave miracles biz

An international panel of doctors panel appointed by the Roman Catholic Church says it’s getting out of the business of judging if pilgrims to the French shrine of Lourdes may have benefited from miracle healing. The panel decided last weekend that it will still acknowledge cases of “remarkable” healing, but leave it up to the church to decide whether they make the cut as miracles.

■ UNITED STATES

Obama call assumed prank

When a man sounding remarkably like president-elect Barack Obama called a Florida congresswoman on Wednesday, she assumed it was a hoax. So Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen hung up. But, the Miami Herald reported, this was no prank. “I thought it was one of the radio stations in South Florida playing an incredible, elaborate, terrific prank on me,” Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper. Obama congratulated her on her re-election, saying he was looking forward to working with her as the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper. The conversation lasted about a minute when she cut Obama off, telling him she wasn’t falling for the hoax.



■MEXICO

Wandering camels found

It may have seemed like a mirage: Two camels nibbling on a pine tree along a street in Ciudad Juarez on the Texas border. Police tried lassoing the animals, which lunged at the officers with snapping teeth as onlookers chuckled. But in the end, officials say all it took was some juicy green leaves on a branch held by the caretaker to lure the camels back into captivity. Police spokesman Jaime Torres says the camels named Yull and Tobi escaped early on Wednesday from the warehouse of a businessman, who had bought the animals for a planned amusement park.



■YEMEN

Bodies of 24 migrants found

The Interior Ministry says that strong winds and high waves have washed up 24 bodies of Somali migrants on the shore. A ministry statement says the bodies surfaced on Tuesday and Wednesday along the coast near the town of al-Qasha’a. It says another 184 Somalis involved in the same accident at sea survived and managed to swim ashore. It’s not clear what kind of accident it was. Hundreds of Africans die every year trying to reach Yemen.



■UNITED STATES

Jail death ruled suicide

An autopsy has determined the death of a Japanese businessman found dead in a jail cell after being extradited to California in a decades-old murder conspiracy case was a suicide, the coroner’s office said on Wednesday. Kazuyoshi Miura, 61, was found hanging in a Los Angeles Police Department cell on Oct. 10. His lawyer Mark Geragos hired an independent pathologist to examine the body, then said injuries found on Miura were consistent with murder. Police said Miura hanged himself with a piece of his shirt less than 24 hours after he was returned to the US to stand trial for conspiring to murder his wife 27 years ago. The Miura case was a sensation in Japan.