■CHINA
Drought affects 240,000
Officials warned yesterday that 240,000 people were suffering from water shortages in a mountainous region that has been hit by a five-month-long drought, state media reported. Parts of the Guangxi region have had little rain since August, forcing villagers to travel kilometers to fetch water, Xinhua news agency reported. “Local governments have been sending water trucks to those villages that suffer severe shortages,” a spokesman at the drought relief headquarters was quoted as saying. “We are organizing local residents to dig wells and divert water from elsewhere to the drought-hit areas,” he said. Drought has hit several parts of China in the past year, leaving millions short of water.
■PHILIPPINES
Japanese robbed, killed
A Japanese man living in the Philippines has been robbed and shot dead by fellow bus passengers near Manila, police said yesterday. Hiromi Honda, 59, was attacked by five unknown suspects shortly after he boarded the bus in Dasmarinas town, south of Manila on Friday morning, a police report said. The attackers, who were also aboard the vehicle, ordered the driver to stop and immediately opened fire with at least two handguns, it added. Honda, who lived in the area with a Filipina girlfriend, avoided the initial volley by running away but the suspects chased him and shot him dead, the report said. The gunmen stole the victim’s necklace and wallet and fled, it added.
■INDIA
Boat sinks, 12 dead
Twelve people died and at least 20 others were missing and feared drowned yesterday after an overcrowded boat jammed with Hindu pilgrims capsized in a river in the south, police said. The accident occurred as the boat was crossing the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh state, police superintendent Madhava Chary said from West Godavari district, 500km from state capital Hyderabad. About 50 passengers were on the boat, which capsized early in the morning and had the capacity to carry 35 passengers, police said. “We have retrieved 12 bodies so far, including five women and four children. Another 20 to 25 people are still missing,” Chary said, adding some of the passengers were able to swim to safety. Rescue vessels and divers were dispatched to search for missing passengers, most of whom hailed from nearby villages.
■NEW ZEALAND
Virginity up for auction
A cash-strapped student has gone online to auction her virginity to help pay her university fees. The 19-year-old has offered her virginity “by tender to the highest bidder” on the ineed.co.nz website which is based in Hamilton, where Waikato University has its headquarters. Under the heading “Relationship For Sale,” the teenager, calling herself “Unigirl,” said she was attractive, from the North Island, and desperate for money to pay ongoing university fees. “I have never had a sexual relationship and am still a virgin,” her advertisement said. “I am offering my virginity by tender to the highest bidder as long as all personal safety aspects are observed. This is my decision made with full awareness of the circumstances and possible consequences.” She said she was fit, healthy, with a trim physique and had “no medical conditions of any nature,” however she did not respond to a local newspaper request for an interview. Web site proprietor Ross McKenzie told the Waikato Times the Web site’s policy was that if an ad was legal and did not offend the general standards of society “it was okay.”
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