■INDONESIA
Man killed by dragons
Police and witnesses said two Komodo dragons killed a man picking fruit in the eastern part of the country — the latest in a string of attacks on humans. Police Sergeant Kosmas Jalang said yesterday the mauling on Komodo, one of three islands where the world’s largest lizard is found in the wild, occurred minutes after 31-year-old Muhamad Anwar fell out of a sugar-apple tree. The man’s neighbor, Theresia Tawa, said he was bleeding badly from bites to his hands, body, legs and neck by two lizards on Monday and died at a clinic on the neighboring island of Flores.
■PHILIPPINES
Government slams report
Manila criticized yesterday a report from a New York-based media watchdog listing the Southeast Asian country as among the world’s most dangerous places for journalists because of many unresolved murders since 1998. About 24 killings of Philippine journalists have remained unresolved since 1998, said the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), calling on the government to prosecute and punish those behind the murders. In its latest Impunity Index report, the CPJ ranked the Philippines as No. 6 in a list of 14 countries across the globe with high numbers of unresolved killings of journalists against the size of the population. The government denied it has ignored the killings.
■CHINA
Thousands ill with HFMD
Thousands of children in eastern and central parts of the country have been sickened with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), a highly contagious illness that is sometimes fatal, the government and state press said yesterday. Two children died of the disease, also known as enterovirus, over the weekend in Heze, Shandong Province, the provincial medical department said on its Web site. The Beijing News paper said tests on the causes of another four recent infant deaths in and around Heze were still being confirmed by doctors.
■THAILAND
‘Spider-Man’ saves child
A fireman turned superhero when he dressed up as comic-book character Spider-Man to coax a frightened eight-year-old from a balcony, police said yesterday. Teachers at a special needs school in Bangkok alerted authorities on Monday when an autistic pupil, scared of attending his first day at school, sat out on the third-floor ledge and refused to come inside, a police sergeant said. Despite teachers’ efforts to beckon the boy inside, he refused to budge until his mother mentioned her son’s love of superheroes, prompting fireman Sonchai Yoosabai to take a novel approach to the problem. The rescuer dashed back to his fire station and made a quick change into a Spider-Man costume before returning to the boy. The young boy immediately stood up and walked into his rescuer’s arms, police said.
■JAPAN
Opposition chief could resign
An aide to opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa was charged yesterday with violating a political funds law, setting the stage for Ozawa to decide whether to resign ahead of an election this year. Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura confirmed media reports of the indictment at a news conference. Before the scandal broke, voters’ frustrations with unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso had boosted the chances Ozawa would lead his Democratic Party to victory in an election that must be held by October. An opposition victory would end more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.
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