■INDONESIA
Zoo orangutans mistreated
Zoos are mistreating endangered orangutans, forcing the great apes to live in cages and depriving them of adequate water and food, a conservation group said on Wednesday. The Center for Orangutan Protection (COP) said its study showed that most zoos in five major Indonesian cities locked up orangutans in cages instead of keeping them in more spacious enclosures. Many of the orangutans observed showed symptoms of mental stress.
■THAILAND
Panda cub born
A panda on loan from China gave birth to a healthy cub on Wednesday at Chiang Mai Zoo, officials said. “Today Lin Hui delivered a cub at 10:10am,” Chiang Mai Zoo director Thanaphat Pongphamon said in a telephone interview. The panda mother refused to allow zoo officials near the baby, Thanaphat said. To encourage conception, frustrated zoo officials resorted to showing “panda porn” videos to the bear pair in an effort to stir their passions. Finally, the team resorted to artificial insemination.
■INDIA
Ancient leprosy case found
Leprosy is one of mankind’s most ancient scourges, mentioned in writing from ancient India to the Bible to the Middle Ages. Now researchers have uncovered what they say is the oldest case of the disease yet found. Analysis of a 4,000-year-old skeleton from India shows traces of leprosy, researchers reported in Wednesday’s edition of PLoS One, a publication of the Public Library of Science. The skeleton was buried in about 2000BC at the site of Balathal, a large settlement in what is now Rajasthan.
■JAPAN
Secret novel hits shelves
Everything is secret, except the author and title. But the first novel in five years by Haruki Murakami has become a hit even before its arrival in stores today. “It is amazing. People are craving his latest novel,” said Takashi Machii, spokesman for the book’s publisher Shinchosha, which has raised its first printing to 480,000 copies, up from 380,000 after orders flooded in. Murakami, 60, is one of the most widely translated Japanese writers alive, with global best-sellers such as Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. He is considered a top Japanese candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature. In a clever marketing scheme, the contents of his new novel have been kept secret. Fans ordering the book know nothing but the title, 1Q84, which can be read as 1984 in Japanese. Murakami, who has lived in the US, including stints at Princeton and Harvard, is fiercely private. He was not available for comment.
■JAPAN
Roos appointed ambassador
Tokyo on Thursday welcomed US President Barack Obama’s appointment of John Roos as the new ambassador to Japan, saying the move showed the continuing strong alliance between the two nations. Roos, who served as the Northern California finance chair for Obama’s presidential campaign, is chief executive officer of a law firm in Palo Alto, California.
■JAPAN
Ladies go for samurai briefs
Sexy samurai underwear are the latest trendy present Japanese women want to buy for their partners, the news agency Kyodo reported. The underwear are designed to look like the armor used by samurai warriors in the Middle Ages and are selling faster than companies like Rogin Inc can supply them — despite a price tag of almost US$100.
■SERBIA
Priest fired for attacks
The Serbian Orthodox Church has dismissed a priest running a treatment center for drug addicts after videos showed patients being kicked and punched. Bishop Artemije said he ordered an inquiry into the activities of priest Branislav Peranovic at the Crna Reka center, about 300km southwest of Belgrade. “We will shut down the facility if the reports about beatings and violence persist,” Artemije said. “We are also asking state authorities to investigate the matter and punish those responsible.” Two videos made public by Belgrade’s Vreme weekly and B92 TV showed a center employee and Peranovic repeatedly beating patients with a shovel, and kicking and hitting them inside a room decorated with icons. Peranovic told B92 TV the beatings were a “hard and unwanted, but necessary part of treatment.”
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