■TURKEMENISTAN
Ramadan amnesty granted
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has granted amnesties for 1,284 prisoners to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, state newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan said yesterday. At least 21 of the prisoners were foreign nationals, according to the list printed in the newspaper, though their countries of origin were not listed. The decision “was guided by the principles of mercy, philanthropy, validity and humanism, testimony to our great ancestors, and also with a view of further strengthening the unity of Turkmen society,” the newspaper said. It was the eighth amnesty since Berdymukhamedov took over the Central Asian state from his autocratic predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006.
■MALAYSIA
Hundreds tie the knot
More than 500 couples tied the knot at a Buddhist temple on Wednesday, in a mass wedding held on the auspicious “999” date which signifies hopes for a long-lasting marriage. Mass weddings were also held simultaneously at several others places in Malaysia, which has a large Chinese community alongside majority Muslim Malays and minority ethnic Indians. “I chose this date ‘999’ as it signifies everlasting love,” construction supervisor Thomas Wong, 30, said as his new bride, 25-year-old accountant Ivy Tan, stood by his side. “I hope to give my wife a memorable wedding, it’s once in a lifetime we get these auspicious numbers,” he said at the Thean Hou temple in the capital Kuala Lumpur. The date 9/9/09 is seen as auspicious by many ethnic Chinese, because the number nine sounds like “forever” in Chinese. Last year 470 couples tied the knot in a similar ceremony on Aug. 8.
■CHINA
Girl harbors twin
Doctors who examined the distended abdomen of an abandoned one-year-old girl found that she had a parasitic twin growing inside her, state radio and local Web sites said in reports seen on Wednesday. Meng Ru’s belly began to swell months after she was adopted by a childless couple in Luohe city in the central province of Henan, the reports said. As her abdomen grew to the size of a small drum, superstitious neighbors began calling Meng Ru a “monster” and saying she was pregnant. Her adoptive father, Kang Xi, who has been caring for her since she was abandoned, took the infant to a Luohe hospital, where scans showed the presence of the parasitic twin. “The identical baby would become a threat to Meng Ru if not removed soon,” a doctor at the hospital were quoted as saying. Facing a bill of 10,000 yuan (US$1,500) for surgery, Kang appealed for financial help for medical treatment, the reports said. The reports did not say if Kang had raised the money for Meng’s treatment or when surgeons planned to operate.
■CHINA
Parents ‘traffic’ newborn
A couple in Beijing has been tried on charges of trafficking children after they allegedly sold their newborn daughter to raise money to help rear their two sons, state media reported on Wednesday. The migrant couple is accused of selling their daughter to a middleman for 10,000 yuan in January as they left the Beijing hospital where she was born, the Beijing Times said. The middleman is facing similar charges after he sold the girl to another couple for 21,000 yuan, it said. The three were tried in a Beijing court on Tuesday, but no verdict was reached, the report said.
■TURKEY
‘Big Brother’ proves big fake
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