Tue, Aug 19, 2003 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ Australia
  Alleged tryst leads to suit

  A lawyer is suing a psychiatrist for having sex with his wife in between the 24 marriage guidance counseling sessions they paid him for, news reports Monday said. Michael Baker alleges that unprofessional conduct by Owen Pershouse wrecked his marriage and brought on his 1993 divorce. Baker told a court in Brisbane he only found out about the alleged extra-marital affair after his wife had left him. Pershouse, who also parted from his wife in 1993, denies any wrongdoing.

  ■ Malaysia

  Wrestling pounded

  A religious leader has lashed out at wrestling shows aired on local television as the reason for an alarming increase in juvenile violence in the country, a report said yesterday. The spiritual leader of the opposition Party Islam SeMalaysia, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, said wrestling program would influence the younger generation to become a blood-thirsty, violence-loving generation. "Wrestling is an insult to man. It has an impact on our children, who will start baying for blood," Nik Aziz was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times daily.

  ■ Cambodia

  Newspaper silenced

  The Ministry of Information has suspended the Khmer-language newspaper The Voice of Khmer Youth in response to an article published last week that offended Cambodia's royal family, officials said yesterday. Ministry officials ordered the newspaper to halt publication for 30 days after it ran a story alleging that Queen Norodom Monineath and her son Prince Norodom Sihamoni often visited Prime Minister Hun Sen at his home. "They published false information about the Queen," said Information Minister Lu Laysreng. "This is totally against the law." The royal palace issued a statement over the weekend strongly denying the allegations in the article, saying the story was "written under delusion", and vowing to take legal action against the newspaper. The newspaper's editor, who ran a correction in the weekend edition, complained the suspension was an abuse of the press law.

  ■ Australia

  Tasmanian tiger spottings

  There are 63 people in and around Melbourne who reckon to have spotted an animal that died out on the Australian continent more than 2,000 years ago. Some of them claim that the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, runs wild in parks within the city limits, Australia's AAP news agency reported yesterday. Melbourne researcher Michael Moss said the state government was ignoring anecdotal evidence the Tasmanian tiger was alive and well in Victoria. He called on the government to organize a hunt.

  ■ Cambodia

  Firefighters scrutinized

  Phnom Penh's fire department has suspended two firefighters and begun measures to reduce corruption within its operations after criticism of their behavior at an Aug. 9 fire, the English language Cambodia Daily reported yesterday. Human rights groups lambasted firefighters who promptly arrived at the scene of a blaze in Srah Chak commune but allegedly demanded thousands of dollars to extinguish the blaze. The fire left nearly a hundred families homeless and two boys dead. It has long been known that cash strapped firefighters in the impoverished country demand money from affected home owners before they begin fighting fires.

  ■ France
  

  Heat-related deaths rise

  Five thousand people may have died in the heat wave that gripped France for 10 days earlier this month, Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei said yesterday. "The number 5,000 was mentioned [Sunday]. This is a hypo-thesis, [but] it is plausible," Mattei told RTL radio. The weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reported on Sunday that the death toll from the heat wave may reach 5,000. Mattei said a final death toll would not be available for "several weeks." Mattei blamed the Surgeon General's Office, which works under his ministry, for not alerting him on time to the extent of the crisis.

  ■ Iraq

  Saddam send-ups posted

  Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has his head tossed back, his blonde locks flowing and a filter-tipped cigarette dangling coquettishly between his delicate fingers. Meet "Zsa Zsa Saddam," the US Army's latest ploy in the four-month hunt for the ex- dictator. In a campaign scheduled to start yester-day, US forces plan to put up posters around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit showing his face superimposed on Hollywood heroines and other stars in an attempt to enrage his followers and draw them out. There is also a busty Rita Hayworth Saddam, a grooving Elvis Saddam and even Saddam Billy Idol. "We're going to do something devious with these," said a chuckling Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell last week, as he checked out a range of spoof Saddam pictures taken from the Internet (www.worth1000.com).

  ■ Norway

  Shooting surprises party

  A Norwegian accidentally shot and wounded six of his friends at a surprise party to celebrate his 40th birthday, police said on Sunday. The man found out about the party in a forest cabin beforehand and hid behind trees nearby with a shotgun as about 30 guests turned up on Saturday night, hoping to turn the surprise on his friends. He blasted off one round in the air as a joke. But when he came out from his hiding place, he tripped and the gun went off again, badly hurting one woman in the legs and slightly injuring five others. The party was cancelled.

  ■ United States

  Elevator decapitates doctor

  An aspiring missionary doctor was killed at Christus St. Joseph Hospital in Hous-ton, Texas when an elevator malfunctioned and decapi-tated him, the Houston Chronicle reported Sunday. Hitoshi Nikaidoh, 35, of Dallas, a surgical resident, was stepping onto an elevator Saturday when the doors closed, pinning his shoulders, said an official. The elevator car then moved upward, severing the man's head. A hospital employee on the elevator at the time witnessed the accident and was trapped for more than 15 minutes before being freed and treated for shock.

  ■ Mali

  Tourists' release delayed

  A group of 14 European tourists held hostage in Mali are safe and should soon be able to join their families but their final release had been delayed, a source close to the mediators said early yesterday. Officials in northern Mali had said earlier the nine Germans, four Swiss and a Dutchman held hostage for up to six months were freed by their captors on Sunday, but there has been no official confirmation. A source close to Mali's presidency said the reports should be treated with caution.

  ■ United Kingdom
  Planet excites scientists

  The discovery of a Jupiter-like planet 90 light years from earth has given astronomers their best hope yet of finding another solar system similar to our own. The planet, about twice the mass of Jupiter, takes an almost circular path around its sun-like parent star. It occupies a similar orbital position to Jupiter, 3.3 times further from its star as the earth is from the Sun. Dr. Hugh Jones, from Liverpool John Moores University, who headed the British-led astronomers, said: "This planet is going round in a nearly circular orbit three-fifths the size of our own Jupiter. This is the closest we have yet got to a real solar-system-like planet, and advances our search for systems that are even more like our own."

  ■ Argentina

  Hugo Chavez visits

  Venezuela's Hugo Chavez took his weekly talk-show to Argentina on Sunday, extolling his leftist revolution as he sang tango lyrics and sidestepped mention of opposition moves for a recall referendum at home. The populist president, who typically speaks six hours at a stretch when broadcasting at home, squeezed his political patter into a two-hour transmission seen live in Argentina and in Venezuela. Festive as he watched tango dancers and talked of Argentina's mouth-watering beef, the Venezuelan leader had no overt comment on moves at home this week by rivals now mounting a petition drive against him.

  ■ Serbia

  Mob attacks wedding guests

  A mob of Kosovo Serbs attacked five ethnic Albanians near Pristina on Sunday, as violence in the volatile province continued.

  The internationally-backed Radio Kosovo said the Albanians, on their way from a wedding, were beaten up by about 30 people in the Serb enclave Gracanica. The Albanians were treated in a local ambulance, the report said. The radio gave no other details. The incident followed several attacks on the Serb minority. Last week two teenagers were killed in western Kosovo and four others injured when a still unidentified gunman sprayed them with bullets while they were bathing in a river.

  ■ United states

  Embryo cells transplanted

  Cells from human embryos have been used to make paralyzed rats walk again, and scientists say human trials involving people with spinal injuries could start in just two years. They hope the work will prove to policymakers that controversial research on human embryonic stem cells and therapeutic cloning is justified. Researchers in the US first took stem cells from early-stage human embryos and transformed them in the laboratory. These were transplanted into paralyzed rats with bruised spines. After nine weeks, the rats fully regained the ability to walk, New Scientist magazine reported. Dr Hans Keirstead and his team from the University of California at Irvine now plan to use the same technique to treat human patients who have sustained recent spinal cord injuries and localized damage.

  ■ France

  Power station attacked

  A police officer was slightly injured in an attack on an office of the electricity works on Corsica Sunday. A gas bottle exploded in front of the building in Bastia in the northern area of the island, according to police reports. Two disguised men were observed fleeing the scene. The police officer was hit in the ear by shards of flying glass. Office windows were shattered in the blast and there was some material damage inside the office.
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