■CHINA
Fast rail to open in 2011
A high-speed railway that will cut the travel time between Beijing and Shanghai to four hours will open a year ahead of schedule next year, state media said yesterday. Once operational, the line is expected to carry 80 million passengers a year — double the current capacity on the 1,318km route, which takes 10 hours, the China Daily reported, citing railway officials. No one at the railways ministry was immediately available to comment on the report, which did not say why the project was ahead of schedule.
■AUSTRALIA
Woman, 92, faces charges
Police have charged a 92-year-old woman with killing her 98-year-old husband. Clare Tang is scheduled to appear in court today on a murder charge after her husband was found dead in their apartment in downtown Sydney on Friday night. New South Wales state police said in a statement that C.Y. Tang was found in the living room and that he had suffered head wounds. The cause of death was still being determined. Clare Tang was arrested at the scene. Family friend George Tsoi said the couple were from Shanghai, China, and owned restaurants in Singapore. He said they had been married for about 70 years, and that Clare Tang appeared to love her husband deeply, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
■CHINA
Zoo probed over deaths
A zoo in Shenyang where three dozen animals, including 13 endangered Siberian tigers, died from malnutrition is to receive a cash boost of US$1 million, state media said yesterday. The China Daily said Shengyang officials have launched a probe into the deaths. The deaths have occurred at the Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo since November and have been blamed on a combination of inadequate funding, an unusually cold winter and poor general conditions at the facility, the report said. Zoo workers fed the tigers cheap chicken bones in recent months as funding dried up. Twenty-two other animals have died, including rare species such as a red-crowned crane, four stump-tailed macaques and one brown bear, Xinhua news agency said.
■INDIA
Murdered tot cremated
Hundreds of mourners attended the final rites yesterday for a three-year-old Gurshan Singh, who was killed in Australia this month. “We have cremated our little boy. Everybody is sad and we want justice,” said Gurjeet Singh, uncle of the victim, at the funeral in Kotkapura, 430km from New Delhi. He urged New Dehli to pressure Australia to speed up the investigation into the murder.
■ITALY
Pope visits Lutheran Church
Pope Benedict XVI visited the Lutheran Church of Rome on Sunday in a show of unity between Catholics and Protestants as the Vatican fights to limit damage from child sex abuse scandals. With Catholic authorities in Germany facing a series of revelations about sexual abuse against children in schools, the pastor of the Lutheran community called for the two Christian churches to face difficulties together. “If when in pain we are close to each other ... that would be a fundamental step toward rendering the unity that we live together more visible and effective,” Jens-Martin Kruse said. “We shouldn’t quarrel, but rather try to be more united,” he said, while acknowledging that Catholics and Protestants still diverged on “essential issues.”
■DUBAI
Kissers waiting on appeal
A British couple accused of kissing in public in the Muslim emirate will find out next month if an appeals court will uphold their one-month prison sentence, their lawyer said on Sunday. The couple is accused of “committing a sexual act [by] kissing on the lips and touching,” lawyer Khalaf al-Hosani said. “A final verdict will be reached on April 4,” by the misdemeanours appeals court, he said. The two, named by the British press as Ayman Najafi, 24, a British expat in Dubai, and British tourist Charlotte Lewis, 25, were arrested in November after a woman accused them of kissing in a restaurant in the Jumeirah Beach Residence neighborhood. They are also accused of consuming alcohol, to which they pleaded guilty, but said they only kissed on the cheek.
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