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World News Quick Take

■AUSTRALIA

Superjet technology tested

Australian and US scientists have successfully tested hypersonic aircraft technology that could revolutionize international flight, officials said yesterday. The trial was the first of up to 10 tests to be conducted at the Woomera desert range as part of a joint US-Australian military research operation, Defense Science and Personnel Minister Warren Snowdon said. The vehicle was carried into space aboard a rocket launched from Woomera and then dived back into the atmosphere to test the flight technology. Hypersonic technology could offer “quantum leaps” in speed and fuel efficiency and had the potential to dramatically reduce intercontinental travel times, Snowdon said.



■THAILAND

Brits top foreign choice

A recent survey of marriage preferences among women in the impoverished northeast region found that more than three-fifths wanted to marry foreigners, with British husbands topping the wish list, the Nation Daily Express reported yesterday. Of 488 single women living in the 19 northeastern provinces surveyed from March to last month, 61 percent said they deemed foreign men attractive matches because they are rich, and 53 percent said they thought foreign men respected women more than their Thai counterparts, the report said. Asked about their marital preferences among foreigners, 32 percent picked British men, 21 percent opted for Americans and 8 percent for Germans.



■NEW ZEALAND

Toddler bids for excavator

Three-year-old Pipi Quinlan is pretty smart on the computer — too smart for her parents, who woke up one morning to find she had bought a full-size excavating digger on an auction Web site for NZ$20,000 (US$12,200), the Rodney Times newspaper reported yesterday. Playing with the computer while her parents were sleeping at their home in Stanmore Bay, Pipi found the auction site TradeMe, which her mother had bookmarked, the report said. After a few clicks of the mouse she unwittingly made the top bid for a Kobelco digger. Her mum, Sarah Quinlan, immediately called TradeMe when she found out what Pipi had done. The computer is now kept out of her reach, the paper said.



■AUSTRALIA

Driver fined for drunken sex

A court in Darwin yesterday fined Brad Milne for driving while having sex with his girlfriend. The 33-year-old builder was also convicted of drunk driving and not wearing a seatbelt. A fellow motorist witnessed erratic driving and called police after Milne drew level with him at a traffic light, and he observed the amorous behavior.



■HONG KONG

Infants overpampered: poll

The attention of preening parents and maids might be hindering the development of pampered infants in the territory, doctors warned yesterday. Nearly eight out of 10 babies from nine to 12 months were reliant on spoon-feeding by parents or maids at a time when they should be starting to feed themselves, a survey found. And almost nine out of 10 infants surveyed had been taken to the doctor in the past six months with an average visit count of 3.47 times. The survey of more than 1,100 families in the city of 7 million by Hong Kong Chinese University confirmed suspicions that babies are being mollycoddled, researchers concluded. Pediatric specialists who supervised the survey warned that Hong Kong children might “lag behind” in development if parents and maids were overprotective.



■SPACE

Astronauts toast with urine

It was a toast a bit like no other when astronauts on the International Space Station drank to their health for the first time with water recycled from urine, NASA said. “NASA’s Mission Control gave the Expedition 19 astronauts aboard the International Space Station a ‘go’ to drink water that the station’s new recycling system has purified” from urine, NASA said in a statement received on Thursday. The urine was recycled by a “Water Recovery System” machine that cost US$250 million. “This has been the stuff of science fiction,” gushed flight engineer Mike Barratt. “Everybody’s talked about recycling water in a closed loop system but nobody’s ever done it before. Here we are today with the first round of recycled water.”



■UNITED STATES

Climate improves birdsong

A hostile environment and inconsistent weather may explain why some birds become better singers than others, and also likely have superior learning and mating skills, a study said on Thursday. The research is based on a large-scale study of mockingbirds in different habitats carried out by researchers at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, North Carolina, the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and McGill University. “As environments become more variable or unpredictable, song displays become more elaborate,” said Carlos Botero, a postdoctoral researcher at NESCent.



■UNITED STATES

Bearded ladies gene found

New research published on Thursday shed light on the genetic underpinnings of a bizarre syndrome — first exhibited by a mid-1800s bearded lady — that has fascinated the public for centuries. The case of bearded Mexican-born woman Julia Pastrana in the mid-1800s was the condition’s first appearance in medical literature, said Chinese researchers whose study was published in the May 21 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics. Researchers uncovered the specific genetic mutations that underlie congenital generalized hypertrichosis (CGH), a condition that spurs excessive hair growth over the entire human body.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Bomb hoax leads to jail

An Australian flight attendant who sparked a mid-air emergency by leaving a bomb hoax note on board an Emirates aircraft was on Thursday jailed for 18 months by a British court. Matthew Carney, 23, from Melbourne, had admitted hiding a note in the toilet of an Emirates flight from Dubai to London on March 22 that was found by a passenger. “Explosive material can be found in the FWD [forward cargo department]. We have the Taliban to thank for this,” the note said.



■UNITED STATES

Casual soldier honored

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday praised an Army soldier in eastern Afghanistan who drew media attention this month after rushing to defend his post from attack while wearing pink boxer shorts and flip-flops. In fact, Gates said he wanted to meet the soldier and shake his hand the next time he visits Afghanistan. “Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage,” Gates said in remarks prepared for a speech in New York. “I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban. Just imagine seeing that: a guy in pink boxers and flip-flops has you in his cross-hairs. What an incredible innovation in psychological warfare,” he said.
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