■ AUSTRALIA
Ramadan lounge on offer
Queensland is hoping to attract Middle Eastern tourists with a new venue designed for Muslims observing Ramadan. Tourism Queensland regional director Paul Buggy said while some hotels, malls and theme parks already offered Muslim prayer rooms, officials wanted to go “one step further.” The result is the Ramadan Lounge at the Courtyard Marriott hotel in the town of Surfers Paradise, where people can come three evenings a week during Ramadan to break their daily fast with dates, snacks and coffee. “It’s a function room that we’ve converted into a comfortable lounge where we are inviting Muslims to come and break their fast,” Buggy said. The lounge, which is designed to accommodate about 50 people, is free and will be open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from sunset to about 9pm until early next month.
■ SRI LANKA
Veterinarians strike
Wildlife veterinarians have gone on strike to protest the alleged mishandling of elephant conservation, Vijitha Perera, the secretary of the vets’ union, said yesterday. “There is no proper management of wild elephants who are being pushed into narrow habitats as the government allows people to encroach into traditional elephant homelands,” Perera said. The five-day strike that began on Monday was aimed at highlighting the escalating conflict between humans and elephants, which left at least 50 people and 228 elephants dead last year, he said. Over the weekend, a 75-year-old man riding a bicycle was attacked and killed while another 67-year-old man was crushed to death at his home. “At least four elephants die each week due to this conflict. There is shortage of food and water for elephants living in the wild in narrow corridors between villages,” Perera said.
■ CHINA
Shan family changes name
About 200 members of a family have changed their surname because computers do not recognize the rare character used to write it, the China News Service said on Monday. The character for a variant of the surname Shan is used by one family in Shandong Province and, because of its rarity, has never been assigned a code in the country’s computer system, the report said. When members of the Shan family apply for a drivers’ license or a bank deposit book, the machine cannot print the character for their surname, the report said. To get around this problem, Shan family members have decided to change their surname to two variants of Xian, which are pronounced the same way, but written using different characters, the report said. For older members of the family, the loss of their ancestral name has been painful. “Our generation will remember what our original surname was, but the children will not,” one villager was quoted as saying.
■AUSTRALIA
Surfer dies in shark attack
A surfer died yesterday after being attacked by a shark on a western beach close to the tourist town of Margaret River, police said. “We have just had confirmation that a male has died. It looks like he was a surfer,” a Western Australia police spokesman said. “He has died as a result of his injuries.” Police gave no details on the man’s age or the attack at Gracetown, about 270km south of Perth.
■ HONG KONG
‘Spiderwoman’ sentenced
A jilted “spiderwoman” who shimmied down a drainpipe, broke into her ex-boyfriend’s apartment and held a knife to his throat has been sentenced to 15 months’ jail, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Berry Chan, 25, received the jail term on Monday after she was convicted earlier of aggravated burglary for the break-in on Dec. 23, the report said. Chan climbed down from the nine-story building’s roof along a drainpipe before dismantling a window grille at her ex-lover’s apartment, the Post said. She then held a knife to his neck, demanding a reunion, but he eventually subdued her, the paper said.
■ CHINA
IBMT regulates behavior
A Chinese-influenced meditation technique appears to help the brain regulate behavior after as little as 11 hours of practice, according to a study released on Monday. Researchers at the University of Oregon and Dalian University of Technology charted the effects of integrative body-mind training (IBMT), a technique adapted in the 1990s from traditional Chinese medicine and practiced by thousands in China. The research to be published in the upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences involved 45 test subjects, about half of whom received IBMT, while a control group received relaxation training. Imaging tests showed a greater number of connections in the anterior cingulate — the part of the brain that regulates emotion and behavior — among those who practiced meditation compared to subjects in the control group. “The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation,” said the University of Oregon’s Michael Posner, a lead author on the study. Researchers said the experimental group also showed lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue than students in the control group. IBMT emphasizes body-mind awareness using breathing techniques and mental imagery to achieve a state of “restful alertness.”
■ HUNGARY
Holy wheels a hit
A Roman Catholic priest has become a YouTube hit with his distinctive method of spreading the word on wheels. The Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45, who lives and preaches in Redics, a small village on the border with Slovenia, believes skateboarding can open the way to God for young people. The video of him in action, Funny Priest Skateboarding, has so far attracted close to 170,000 hits and now also has a music version. Lendvai says he follows the ways of Saint John Bosco, an Italian priest and educator in the 19th century who dedicated his life to improving the lot of poor youngsters and used games as part of their education.
■ FRANCE
Shark sighting ends dips
Officials banned swimming on Monday off some of the Riviera’s best known resorts after several beachgoers reported seeing a shark. Rescuers patrolling aboard an inflatable motorboat spotted a 2m long shark with a “stiff dorsal fin, gills and a white underbelly,” said Michel Gagnaire, head of public safety for the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer near the city of Nice. Swimming was to be banned for at least two days off Cagnes and the neighboring communities of Villeneuve Loubet and Saint Laurent du Var, even though shark sightings are rare off France, and attacks even more so. According to the Florida Natural History Museum’s respected “International Shark Attack File,” there has been only one fatal attack by a shark in French waters since their records began in 1847.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Lennon speaks again
A folk singer who expressed fears that success and wealth could ruin his songwriting revealed on Monday how John Lennon sent him a letter of reassurance — but it did not reach him for 34 years. Steve Tilston was just 21 in 1971 when the megastar read an interview he had done with a magazine called ZigZag. Lennon penned a handwritten letter to the aspiring singer just months after the Beatles split up in 1970, telling him not to worry about becoming wealthy because it would not change what he felt inside. He sent the letter to Tilston and the reporter who interviewed him at the magazine’s offices, but it never reached the musician. The first time he saw it was in 2005 when a US collector contacted him to verify whether the letter was genuine. “It was so frustrating because Lennon even included his home phone number on the top of the letter,” said the 60-year-old. Despite not receiving Lennon’s reassuring words, Tilston still went on to record more than 20 albums.
■GERMANY
Singer admits risky behavior
A singer facing accusations that she infected a man with the virus that causes AIDS has acknowledged in court on Monday that she had unprotected sex despite knowing she was HIV-positive. Nadja Benaissa, 28, a member of German girl band No Angels, is charged with grievous bodily harm for allegedly infecting a partner with the virus in 2004 and also faces charges of attempted bodily harm for having unprotected sex with two other men. “I am sorry from my heart,” she said in a statement read by her lawyer to the Darmstadt administrative court. The man who claims Benaissa infected him says they had a three-month relationship at the beginning of 2004, and that he got tested after Benaissa’s aunt asked him in 2007 whether he was aware that the singer was HIV-positive.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
I’m no good: party leader
The leader of a political party says he’s quitting his post because he’s not proved to be very good at his job. In a rare statement yesterday, Malcolm Pearson, head of the UK Independence Party, which advocates withdrawing Britain from the EU, said he had stepped down. The party has two members in the House of Lords, and 12 representatives at the European Parliament, but failed to win any seats in the House of Commons at a national election in May. Pearson says he’s learned he is not good at party politics and that he doesn’t enjoy it. Pearson, a member of the Lords, says he had decided to step down because he had failed to significantly increase the party’s share of the vote in the May election.
■ UNITED STATES
Senator hit by apple pie
A woman identified as an anti-war protester hit Senator Carl Levin in the face with an apple pie during the Armed Services Committee chairman’s meeting with constituents in northern Michigan, authorities said on Monday. The senator took a question near the end of a meeting in Big Rapids from a man who said he was a student, Levin’s office said in a news release. The man read a long statement, then a woman came up and hit Levin with a pie. Big Rapids police arrested Ahlam Mohsen, 22, of Coldwater, on assault and disorderly conduct charges. Mohsen told the Big Rapids Pioneer she hoped “to send a message that liberals and Democrats are just as implicated in the violence [of war] as the Republicans.”
■ UNITED STATES
Study finds romance/net link
Dim the lights, turn on the schmoozy music and log on ... Adults who have Internet access at home are more likely to be in romantic relationships than adults who don’t, a study presented on Monday found. Just over 82 percent of adults who have Internet access at home also had a spouse or romantic partner, compared to just under 63 percent of adults who did not have access to the Web, the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association says. “Our research suggests that Internet access has an important role to play in helping Americans find mates,” said Michael Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University and the lead author of the study. In addition to finding that people are more likely to be in romantic relationships if they have Internet access in their homes, the researchers found that the Internet is gaining importance as a place where couples meet, and especially same-sex couples. “Couples who meet online are much more likely to be same-sex couples, and somewhat more likely to be from different religious backgrounds,” Rosenfeld said. “The Internet is not simply a new and more efficient way to keep in touch with our existing networks; rather the Internet is a new kind of social intermediary that may reshape the kinds of partners and relationships we have,” he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Man lives roller coaster life
A 78-year-old man rode a Pittsburgh-area roller coaster 90 times in one day — bringing his lifetime total to 4,000 rides. Vic Kleman spent about five hours on the Jack Rabbit roller coaster at Kennywood Park in West Mifflin. The wooden coaster is no spring chicken, either. It’s celebrating its 90th anniversary — the number that prompted Kleman’s marathon riding session on Sunday. The Jack Rabbit has an 26m, double-dip drop. Kleman says he’s been going on it since 1959, and usually rides it about 20 times a visit. Kleman is a member of the American Coaster Enthusiasts.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number