■AUSTRALIA
Surgeon’s killer deported
A man convicted of killing one of the nation’s top heart transplant surgeons was sent home to Malaysia yesterday after serving an 18-year prison term. Phillip Choon Tee Lim, 50, was one of two men jailed over the fatal shooting in 1991 of Victor Chang during a failed extortion attempt. Chang was gunned near his home on his way to work. Lim and accomplice Chew Seng Liew were sentenced to maximum terms of 24 and 26 years respectively, but Lim had served his non-parole period of 18 years by last November. He was released from prison into immigration custody on Monday.
■AUSTRALIA
Arrests made in tattoo case
A teenager was forcibly given a one-word tattoo on his forehead and beaten with a baseball bat over a number of hours last month, New South Wales police said yesterday. The 18-year-old was attacked in the suburb of Albion Park Rail, south of Sydney, on Feb. 23. “One of the men also allegedly assaulted the man with a tattoo gun, by forcefully tattooing a word on the man’s forehead,” the police said in a statement. A 34-year-old man was arrested and charged with wounding with intent to commit grievous bodily harm and drug offences on Tuesday. Four other people have been charged as accessories.
■AUSTRALIA
Fifty fake bombs found
Sydney police used explosives to blow up suspected bombs found throughout a dead man’s house but then discovered they were fake. More than 50 bomb-like devices were found in the house and in the man’s car, New South Wales state Detective Superintendent Gavin Dengate said yesterday. The 69-year-old man, who died last week in hospital, was known as a recluse.
■NEW ZEALAND
McNuggets put on diet list
Meals approved by Weight Watchers are going on sale at McDonald’s, the companies said yesterday, in a deal trumpeted as an enjoyable way to lose weight but that nutritionists criticize as a marketing ploy that doesn’t promote healthy eating. Several items on the fast food giant’s menu — the Filet-O-Fish, Chicken McNuggets and Sweet Chilli Seared Chicken Wrap — have been approved for the Weight Watchers program. Each meal is worth 6.5 points on the program, which assigns points to food items and allows dieters to consume 18 to 40 points each day to achieve their goal weight. Nutritionists and obesity experts said the menu items are merely a marketing ploy to lure customers into the restaurant. Australian Obesity Policy Coalition senior adviser Jane Martin said: “It implies this food is healthy ... when often it is high in fat and salt. Chicken McNuggets are Chicken McNuggets whether its got Weight Watchers on it or not.”
■NEW ZEALAND
Man jailed over geckos
A German man was jailed yesterday for 15 weeks after admitting trying to smuggle endangered reptiles worth US$132,000 out of the country. Thomas Benjamin Price, listed as both a Swiss-based stockbroker and unemployed, is the second German jailed in the past two months for being in possession of geckos. Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, received a 14-week sentence in January for trading in endangered species after he was found with 44 geckos and skinks hidden in a hand-sewn package concealed in his underwear. Price had 16 rare jeweled geckos, of which nine were pregnant, when he and two other men were arrested in Christchurch three weeks ago.
■PAKISTAN
Suicide-jacket supplier slain
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