■NEW ZEALAND
Schools restore fatty food
Schools in the country, where one in five children are officially overweight, were given approval yesterday to restore fatty foods and fizzy drinks to shops selling food on their premises. Teachers would no longer have to act as “food police,” said Education Minister Anne Tolley, whose conservative government was elected in November, as she abolished a ruling that schools selling food must “make only healthy options available.” The instruction issued by the former social democratic government, which Tolley’s National Party accused of running a “nanny state,” was an example of “unnecessary bureaucracy,” she said. Opposition Green Party legislator Sue Kedgley dubbed it “an astonishingly stupid move which will cost the nation dearly.”
■CHINA
Oldest man goes on trial
A 98-year-old man has become the oldest person to face trial in Beijing after being charged over an alleged scam to cheat an academic out of more than US$100,000, state media reported. The intricate plot allegedly involved the man, Zhou Zhiping, posing as a well-connected former government official able to access funds frozen from the communists’ war with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forces, Xinhua news agency said. The target of the scam, a 74-year-old American-Chinese man with doctorates in physics and chemistry, was promised 20 million yuan (US$3 million) if he helped finance the unfreezing of the money, Xinhua reported on Wednesday. The alleged victim paid 749,000 yuan to Zhou and two younger accomplices before realizing he had been conned, the agency said.
■SOUTH KOREA
Granny fails test 771 times
A dogged grandmother has failed her driving test 771 times, police said yesterday, but a local newspaper reported she will keep trying. The 68-year-old, identified only by her last name Cha, has taken the test almost every working day since 2005 in the southwestern city of Jeonju. She failed again on Monday for the 771st time. The Korea Times said Cha will in fact be back for another attempt. Officials said that Cha could not pass the preliminary written section of the test, averaging scores of 30 to 50 whereas the pass mark is 60 out of 100.
■HONG KONG
Police shoot wild boar
A wild boar was shot dead by police on Wednesday to stop it from attacking residents in one of the territory’s high-rise apartment estates. Marksmen were called when officers failed to disable the animal with tranquilizer darts, after it was seen lurking in thick bushes near the housing block in the built-up Tuen Mun district. A police spokesman said the boar was killed because of concerns for safety of the residents. Wild boar are common in rural areas near the border with China but are rarely seen in congested urban areas.
■HONG KONG
Residents want vouchers
More than half of the territory’s residents responding to a recent opinion poll would like to see their government give free consumer vouchers to them like those given out in Taiwan, pollsters said on Wednesday. The academic, non-profit Hong Kong Research Association conducted the survey from Jan. 25 to Sunday to gauge residents’ expectations on how the government, faced with an economic downturn, should spend public money this year.
■UNITED KINGDOM
BBC drops Carol Thatcher
The BBC said it has dropped Carol Thatcher, daughter of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, as a contributor to a TV show after she reportedly used an offensive term in front of colleagues. The broadcaster said it was “no longer working with Carol Thatcher” on The One Show, a popular current affairs program. The BBC did not elaborate. But media outlets — including the BBC — reported on Wednesday that Thatcher had referred to an unidentified tennis player as a “golliwog” during a backstage conversation last week with the show’s presenter and guests. A spokeswoman for Carol Thatcher said on condition of anonymity that the remark had been made “in jest.”
■UNITED KINGDOM
Council stops work in Iran
The British Council said it has suspended work in Iran because of what it calls intimidation by the authorities there. The cultural arm of the government said in a statement that it halted operations after “cases of intimidation of our local staff in Iran.” The council said all 16 of its local staff had been told to resign by the authorities in Tehran. Council chief executive Martin Davidson said yesterday that no staff had been able to get visas to work in Iran for two years. He said that without staff the council office had to close. He called the Iranian authorities’ actions unacceptable. Davidson says he hopes to meet Iranian authorities to work out a solution.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Army leak suspect arrested
The military said an army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of leaking official secrets. The Ministry of Defense said the officer was being flown back for questioning and his case had been handed over to London’s Metropolitan Police. If charged and convicted, the officer could face a maximum 14-year jail sentence. The Sun newspaper on Wednesday identified the officer as Lieutenant Colonel Owen McNally. The newspaper said he had leaked figures about civilian deaths in coalition operations to a worker from a human rights group. Last year, Human Rights Watch said civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and NATO air strikes nearly tripled between 2006 and 2007, from 116 to 321.
■KUWAIT
Australian still in jail
A judge has ordered that an Australian woman detained for allegedly insulting its emir be held behind bars for another two weeks, her lawyer said on Wednesday. Nasrah Alshamery was arrested in late December upon arriving at the Kuwait International Airport with her family. Attorney Falah al-Hajraf said a misunderstanding between family members and an airport official turned into a melee during which Alshamery, 43, screamed obscenities at the official, including insults of the ruler. She was subsequently taken into custody.
■NETHERLANDS
Obama flowers hit shelves
Obama flowers are expected be the trend of the upcoming gardening season in Europe. Flower farm Royal van Zanten in Valkenburg has developed a special chrysanthemum that it has named after US President Barack Obama. “We expect to sell 250 million Obama flowers in the next three years,” Ton Griekspoor of Royal van Zanten told Dutch TV. “Yes, we can,” he said, laughing. Royal van Zanten said it has chosen a flower with the same characteristics as the US president, who radiates charisma, hope, change and strength.
■UNITED STATES
Rent sought after murder
The former husband of one of the nine people killed at a Christmas Eve party has been asked by a landlord to pay the dead woman’s rent. Broadcrest Foothill Apartment Homes said Alicia Ortiz broke her lease and gave “insufficient notice to vacate.” Ortiz and her 17-year-old son were killed by her sister’s disgruntled ex-husband. The landlord of her Upland apartment informed her former husband, Carlos Ortiz, that he owes US$2,821 in rent and penalties. “I just don’t understand it,” Carlos Ortiz said. The manager of the property, Candyse Wardlow, declined to comment.
■UNITED STATES
Sword used in robbery
Police say a man set his phasers to rob when he used a sword modeled after one on the TV show Star Trek to demand money from two convenience stores. Investigators say the man took an unknown amount of cash from a 7-Eleven store in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Wednesday, but left empty-handed when he tried to rob another store 25 minutes later. Police Lieutenant David Whitlock said no one was injured. The StarTrek.com Web site says the sword used by the Klingons on Star Trek was crescent-shaped and about a yard long.
■BRAZIL
Germans strip down
Two German tourists have been detained for taking their clothes off in the lobby of an airport, authorities said on Tuesday. The two men allegedly changed their clothes in front of other passengers at the Salvador International Airport while awaiting a flight back to Germany on Monday. They could face one year in prison on obscenity charges. They were released and allowed to leave the country after signing a document promising to return if requested by authorities. The men were not identified. Police said the men said they thought it “was normal” to change clothes like that in Brazil, especially in a beach city. They said they were late for their flight and needed to change into new clothes because one of them got wet during a boat trip and the other felt sick.
■BRAZIL
TV ‘essential,’ judge says
A judge awarded US$2,600 in “moral damages” to a man who sued a store for not replacing his faulty TV set, ruling that it was an “essential good” needed to watch soccer and a popular reality TV show. The customer took Casas Bahia, the country’s largest furniture and home appliances retail chain, to court for “moral damages” inflicted by not being able to watch TV. “In modern life, you cannot deny that a television set, present in almost all homes, is considered an essential good,” the Campos judge said. “Without it, how can the owner watch the beautiful women on Big Brother, the national news broadcast or a football game,” the judge said.
■MEXICO
Shoe shiners fight crime
Some 3,000 shoe shiners on the streets of Mexico City on Wednesday took on the extra task of crime busting. The capital’s shoe cleaning union signed a deal the previous day with the city prosecutor and a citizens’ group for public security to agree to denounce criminal acts in the capital, Reforma newspaper reported. The shoe shiners would be “our eyes and ears on the streets,” said Luis Wertman, of the citizens’ council set up to promote the reporting of crime in the sprawling city. The council, set up in February 2007, said the shoe cleaners could give anonymous tips by telephone about suspected crimes.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of