■HONG KONG
Psychiatrist visits rising
The number of people seeking psychiatric help has risen since the onset of the economic crisis, a leading doctor said yesterday. Patient numbers have risen by between 20 percent and 30 percent since last October, mental health specialist Lee Wing-king told state-run radio station RTHK. Separately, a survey by the Democratic Alliance political party found that 80 percent of people in the territory had suffered from insomnia or mood disorders because of the downturn. The territory slipped into a technical recession at the end of last year.
■AUSTRALIA
Pope-mobile case dropped
Police have given up trying to prosecute civil libertarian Ian Bryce for driving around in Sydney in a fake pope-mobile during the real pope’s visit in July for World Youth Day. Charges were dropped yesterday after the police case collapsed for a fourth time. A Sydney judge dismissed the case. “It was against the pope’s claims to have supernatural authority and all the harm he’s doing in the world in banning condoms and trying to avoid family planning,” Bryce said. “And now he’s said that gays are an equal threat to mankind as climate change, and I can’t for the life of me see what harm they’re doing anyone.” Police alleged the modified car was a distraction for other motorists. Bryce had fitted an illuminated canopy to the roof with a mannequin dressed as the pope inside.
■MALAYSIA
Welfare limit to be dropped
An official says the government will scrap a rule that denies state welfare to poor people if they own a TV set or cable connection at home. Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said assets such as a TV and refrigerator were no longer an indication of wealth. Her comments were reported yesterday by the New Straits Times daily. Shahrizat’s announcement follows a Times report that several disabled people did not receive aid after welfare workers found out they owned TVs.
■INDONESIA
Priest and wife murdered
An elderly Christian priest and his wife were hacked to death with machetes, police said yesterday. Frans Koagow, 64, and his wife, Femy Kumendong, 73, were found dead in the priest’s home in Manado city, North Sulawesi, on Saturday, provincial police spokesman Benny Bella said. “The priest was cut from behind in the neck while his wife was cut in the head while she lay down sick with a stroke,” Bella said. “The priest had been squatting down to tie his shoes when he was attacked ... there was no time for him to fight back.” Bella said police were looking for suspects but were unsure how many people were involved in the attack.
■SOUTH KOREA
Police stop suicide attempt
Police said yesterday they had foiled an Internet-based group suicide attempt, as media reports warned that the practice was spreading. Five people who had agreed online to kill themselves were stopped by police at a Seoul hotel on Sunday, Seodaemun district police said in a statement. The group were allowed to return home, but police said one may face a charge of abetting suicide since he opened a Web site on the subject. Aiding or encouraging suicide is punishable by up to 10 years in jail. Police said they were cracking down on “suicide” Web sites. The country had 18.7 suicides per 100,000 people in 2007.
■SWITZERLAND
Swiss ban naked hiking
Voters in the heart of the Swiss Alps on Sunday passed legislation banning naked hiking after dozens of mostly German nudists started rambling through their picturesque region. By a show of hands citizens of the tiny canton of Appenzell Inner Rhodes voted overwhelmingly at their traditional open-air annual assembly to impose a 200 Swiss franc (US$176) fine on violators. Only a scattering of people on Sunday opposed the ban on the back-to-nature activity that took off last autumn when naked hikers started showing up in eastern Switzerland. The cantonal government recommended the ban after citizens objected to encountering walkers wearing nothing but hiking boots and socks. “The reactions of the population have shown that such appearances over a large area are perceived as thoroughly disturbing and irritating,” the government said in a statement.
■NIGERIA
British oil worker released
A British oil worker kidnapped two weeks ago in southeastern Nigeria has been released, police spokeswoman Rita Abbey said. The oil worker, who wasn’t identified, was released at about 6pm on Sunday, Abbey said from Port Harcourt. “We are not aware if any ransom was paid,” Abbey said. A one-and-a-half-year-old girl was also released on Friday after being kidnapped from her parents’ home five days earlier, Abbey said. The baby, identified only as Angel, was rescued by authorities in Bori, about 25km east of Port Harcourt. Angel was found in the house of a woman who had been taken into custody, Abbey said.
■YEMEN
Marines capture 11 pirates
Yemeni forces have freed an oil tanker seized off Yemen’s coast and arrested 11 pirates on board, the defense ministry said yesterday. The empty Yemeni oil tanker, Qana, was captured on Sunday, sparking a battle with Yemeni marine troops in which two pirates were killed and one wounded. Two Yemeni coast guards were wounded in the clash. “Yemeni forces have freed an oil tanker that was hijacked by pirates on Sunday and 11 pirates were arrested,” a statement on the defense ministry’s Web site said, without giving details of how and when the ship was freed.
■RUSSIA
Cop goes on shooting spree
An off-duty police chief opened fire in a supermarket in southern Moscow yesterday morning, killing at least two people and wounding seven. “During the night Denis Yevsyukov had a fight with his wife and had a nervous breakdown,” a city police spokeswoman said, adding that he then went on a shooting spree in the shop, randomly spraying bullets at passers by. The spokeswoman said two people were killed and seven wounded, while Russian media reported Yevsyukov killed three and wounded six. It was not immediately clear what kind of weapon he used, the spokeswoman said. Russian news agencies reported Yevsyukov was celebrating his 32nd birthday in a cafe with his wife and father-in-law before he became enraged and started shooting.
■FRANCE
Cult leader in daring escape
A cult leader jailed for sex attacks on children escaped in a helicopter from a prison on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion yesterday, the regional administration said. Juliano Verbard, who was serving a 15-year term for rapes and sex assaults on children, and two of his jailed followers were hauled on board a hijacked tourist chopper by accomplices, local paper Le Quotidien reported.
■CHILE
Prison fire kills at least 10
At least 10 people were killed on Sunday when a fire broke out at a prison outside Santiago, said the director of the security force that oversees prisons. Three people were also seriously injured in the blaze, which was ignited during a fight between rival gangs of inmates, said Alejandro Jimenez, head of the Gendarmes. Local radio reported that all the dead were inmates. Jimenez said one group of prisoners threw fuel into the communal cell where rival inmates were holed up. The fuel likely came from small, portable stoves the inmates are allowed to have, he said.
■IRAN
Jailed journalist ‘very weak’
An American journalist jailed for allegedly spying for the US is vowing to remain on a hunger strike until she is freed even though she is “very weak,” her father said yesterday. Roxana Saberi, who was been on a hunger strike for a week, was sentenced to eight years in prison after a one-day trial behind closed doors. Her parents said they brought her flowers on Sunday — her birthday — and were able to visit her again yesterday. “Roxana is very weak and pale. She has been on a hunger strike for a week now,” her father, Reza Saberi, said. He said he tried to persuade his daughter to end her hunger strike but she refused.
■COLOMBIA
Kidnapping report issued
Eighty-seven people have been abducted since the beginning of the year, although only 10 remain hostages, Bogota’s official anti-kidnap agency said. The 10 are included in the 125 still being held, mostly by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, the Fondelibertad agency said in a report. Fifty of those taken hostage this year have been released through the intervention of security forces, four had been killed by their captors, 14 were released in exchange for ransoms and nine had escaped, Fondelibertad director Hernan Henao said. He said 63 of the kidnappings were carried out as part of “regular” crimes, 16 people were abducted by FARC, five by “criminal gangs” and three by the National Liberation Army.
■UNITED STATES
Ex-student shoots two
A former Hampton University student armed with three guns followed a pizza delivery man into the student’s former dorm on Sunday, shot the delivery man and a dorm monitor, then turned the gun on himself, officials at the Virginia university said. All three survived. Both victims and the alleged shooter were expected to recover. Officials could offer no motive for the shooting. The 18-year-old former student apparently parked his car off campus to avoid a vehicle checkpoint, then followed the delivery man on foot and inside a freshman dormitory. Once inside, he shot the pizza man and entered the monitor’s office and fired three shots at him, then shot himself, Hampton University Police Chief Leroy Crosby said.
■UNITED STATES
Nuclear plant shut down
The operator of the country’s oldest nuclear power plant has manually shut down its reactor after equipment failed on one of its two transformers. Officials at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey say Saturday night’s shutdown occurred without incident. But they won’t say how long it’s expected to last or when repairs will be completed at the facility in Lacey Township. Plant spokesman David Benson says the shutdown caused no risk to the public.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese