HONG KONG
Infected fowl washes ashore
A dead chicken found on a Lantau Island seashore had the H5N1 virus, and officials are trying to determine how the bird got there. There are no chicken farms within 3km of where the carcass was found on Dec. 18. There also was no evidence of any backyard poultry being kept in nearby villages. The territory banned backyard poultry in 2006 to prevent bird-to-human spread of the virus. Agricultural officials said yesterday lab tests confirmed the bird had H5N1. A woman who visited the mainland was confirmed last month as Hong Kong’s first human case of H5N1 in seven years. Her condition has since been reported as stable.
SWEDEN
Suspect packet a scary hoax
A suspect packet that forced the evacuation of a metro station in central Stockholm, less than two weeks after the country’s first suicide bombing, turned out to be a fake bomb. “It looked like a real bomb. Someone made it to frighten people,” Stockholm police spokesman Henrik Billestam said. Police described the packet as about the size of a milk carton, wrapped with silver adhesive tape with cables connected to a cellphone. On Thursday night, police completely evacuated the Kungstraedsgaarden metro station and sent in deminers after a train driver alerted authorities to the possible threat. The metro station is close to the seat of government in the Swedish capital.
SWITZERLAND
Present sparks evacuation
Part of the EU embassy in Berne was evacuated on Thursday after a scare over a suspect package — but it turned out to be a Christmas present, Swiss police said. The parcel was investigated and was quickly declared safe, police said.
UNITED STATES
Placebos can help: study
Placebos can help patients feel better, even if they are fully aware they are taking a sugar pill, researchers reported on Wednesday on an unusual experiment aimed to better understand the “placebo effect.” Nearly 60 percent of patients with irritable bowel syndrome reported they felt better after knowingly taking placebos twice a day, compared with 35 percent of patients who did not get any new treatment, they report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE. “Not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made from inert substances, but we actually had ‘placebo’ printed on the bottle,” Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement.
AFGHANISTAN
Arms ‘facilitator’ captured
A member of the elite al-Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been captured in the south accused of cross-border weapons smuggling, international forces said yesterday. The man, described as a “key Taliban weapons facilitator,” was captured last Saturday in Zhari district, Kandahar Province. He was targeted “for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz Province,” a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. It is thought he was connected to smuggling small arms between the countries. “The now-detained man was considered a Kandahar-based weapons facilitator with direct ties to other Taliban leaders in the province,” the ISAF spokesman added in a statement.
NIGERIA
Iranian bailed on charges
A court granted bail on Thursday to an alleged member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who along with three Nigerians was charged last month with illegally importing arms into the country. The government reported the seizure of the shipment — including rockets and other explosives hidden in containers of building materials — to the UN Security Council last month for an apparent breach of UN sanctions on Iran. Azim Adhajani, identified on the charge sheet as a Tehran-based businessman and a Revolutionary Guard Corps member, says he’s not guilty. A trial date of Jan. 31 has been set.
UNITED STATES
Tunneling burglar sought
Police are looking for the person who tunneled through a wall into a New York City apartment while the owner was away around Thanksgiving and made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of artwork by Andy Warhol and other artists. They say the thief broke through a hallway wall into the Manhattan apartment and stole limited-edition artwork, watches and other jewelry worth a total of about US$750,000.
UNITED STATES
Contraception fights cancer
Birth control pills have long been known to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, but a new study suggests any type of contraceptive — even a vasectomy — may also be protective. After comparing women with ovarian cancer to those without, researchers found that women who used any type of contraception — birth control pills, tubal ligation, intrauterine devices, barrier method or a partner with a vasectomy — had between a 40 percent and 65 percent lower risk of ever developing ovarian cancer.
CUBA
Two more headed for Spain
Two political prisoners are set to be released and sent to Spain, the Roman Catholic Church said on Thursday. The prisoners are not among 52 jailed dissidents Havana agreed to release earlier this year, the office of Havana Archbishop Jaime Ortega said. I Miguel Vidal and Hector Larroque had agreed to leave for Spain once they are released from jail at a date yet to be announced, the office said. It said Vidal was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2003 on charges of violence and terrorism, while Larroque was serving a 22-year-sentence for weapons possession and trying to leave the country illegally in 2000.
NEW ZEALAND
US officials ‘bullying’
US officials engaged in “bullying” when they tried to stop then-environment minister Marian Hobbs from attending a screening in 2004 of anti-war film Fahrenheit 9/11, former prime minister Helen Clark said yesterday. US diplomats in Wellington complained to Clark over Hobbs’ support for the Michael Moore documentary, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. Clark, now the head of the UN Development Programme, said the US actions were unprofessional.
“This comes down to really outright bullying,” she told the New Zealand Herald. “It’s pretty crazy. I just find it unprofessional.”.
CUBA
Leaks to be translated
State-run media says the government will publish Spanish translations of US diplomatic cables about the nation, released by WikiLeaks. Cubadebate Web site said on Thursday that the “Razones de Cuba” site has already posted literal translations of seven of the cables.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia