■ Australia
Euthanasia device unveiled
Euthanasia advocates yesterday unveiled do-it-yourself machines, designed to bring death within minutes to anyone suffering a terminal illness. Made from plastic containers, the machines cost A$15 to A$20 (US$10 to US$13.50) to build and deliver the poisonous gas carbon monoxide through plastic tubing to the nose. "You can just lie in bed, hook that up, close your eyes and go to sleep," said Sandra Milne, who built her own machine at a workshop organized by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Queensland. Milne said she was in good health and never planned to build the machine, which took around half an hour to build.
■ China
Man poisons reservoir
An unemployed man poisoned a reservoir, sickening 64 people, because he wanted to boost sales for water purifiers, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. Police detained Cao Qian, 27, after the reservoir that provides drinking water to homes in an area of Ruyang County in the northern province of Henan was found tainted by poison Wednesday. Cao, who had been laid off, was trying to run a small shop selling water purifying devices. No deaths were reported, but 42 people were poisoned badly enough to be hospitalized, the report said. It said Cao "claimed to poison the water in a bid to have his water purifying devices sell well." No details were given.
■ China
Species face extinction
About 15 to 20 percent of animal and plant species in China are in danger of extinction, higher than the world level of 10 to 15 percent, state media reported yesterday. According to statistics from the State Forestry Administration, over 300 species of terrestrial vertebrate animals and some 410 species of wild plants are at risk, the Xinhua news agency said. By 2010, China will have a total of 3,000 to 4,000 plants on the brink of being wiped out, the report cited experts as warning.
■ Japan
Another mad cow found
Japan has detected a possible eighth case of mad cow disease, the Health Ministry announced yesterday, underlining concerns about how widespread the illness may be in Japan. The finding, still to be confirmed as an actual case, comes nearly nine months after the last mad cow diagnosis in January. The latest animal tested positive for signs of the disease on Sept. 29 when it was brought to a slaughterhouse in Ibaraki Prefecture just north of Tokyo, said Health Ministry official Makoto Kanie. Follow up tests by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases backed the initial findings.
■ China
S Korean consulate to shut
South Korea's consulate in the Chinese capital will close for business indefinitely because it is housing too many North Korean refugees to continue operating smoothly, a South Korean diplomat said yesterday. The South Korean diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the closure will take effect today. She couldn't say how long the office would be shut, nor would she say exactly how many North Korean asylum-seekers were inside. The move means that anyone in China seeking a visa to South Korea is out of luck for the immediate future. "The number of North Korean refugees who are staying within the inside of the consulate is beyond our capacity," the diplomat said in a telephone interview. "So it makes it difficult to do our consular jobs."
■ United Kimdon
Magician dodges bullet
Britain's Channel Four on Sunday televised an illusionist playing Russian roulette with a loaded revolver, raising protests from police and anti-weapons organisations. The program, not aired live in case of any horrible accident, showed 32-year-old Derren Brown safely fire the revolver after a member of the public, selected from the thousands who applied, had apparently loaded the gun with one bullet in its six chambers. Viewers saw the magician point the revolver at himself before pulling the trigger. Brown said he used a series of psychological tests to try to "read" the mind of the person who loaded the handgun, to determine where the bullet was. He asked the person to count to six, using the sound of his voice to help locate the live chamber.
■ United States
Roy's crew looking for work
The future of the famed Siegfried & Roy show was in doubt with illusionist Roy Horn still in critical condition after a tiger mauling. Employees of the show were encouraged to look for other jobs. Horn remained on a ventilator on Sunday. Even if he recovers, it's unclear whether he would ever be able to perform again. Horn, 59, was bitten in the neck and dragged off stage by one of the show's signature white tigers. Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said 267 show employees met at the Mirage hotel-casino, where they were encouraged to find new jobs. The tiger, Montecore, was quarantined at the hotel, officials said.
■ Iran
Rape victim sentenced
A woman accused of killing a police chief in southern Iran who she said tried to rape her has been convicted and is to be executed, the Shargh newspaper reported Saturday. The woman, Afsaneh Noroozi, 32, who has been in jail since 1997, said during her trial that she had stabbed the chief of police intelligence on the island of Kish in self-defense when he tried to rape her. The police chief, whose name has not been made public, was a friend of Noroozi's family, and she was at his house as a guest. Her lawyer cited in her defense a section of the Islamic penal code of Iran that allows citizens to take proportionate action to defend "life, honor, chastity, property or freedom." Human rights workers have said the ruling violates the right of a woman to defend her honor.
■ Germany
Pools full of beer consumed
Beer fans drank the equivalent of six Olympic-sized swimming pools during the two-week Oktoberfest in Germany, close to the annual event's record, organizers said. The world's biggest beer festival, which ended on Sunday, reported a jump in attendance as well as beer consumption after a two-year decline. About 6.3 million people crowded into the beer tents during the festival, some 400,000 more than in the last two years, and drank 6.1 million liters of Bavaria's top export beverage -- up seven percent from last year.
■ Lithuania
Pilgrims sent to Holy Land
Europe's Catholic bishops will urge their flocks to risk visiting shrines in the Middle East in order to sow peace and support isolated Christians in the region. Church leaders from 34 countries backed the initiative at a weekend meeting in Vilnius, Juozas Ruzgys, spokesman for the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference, said. "The bishops seek to revive the ages old tradition of pilgrim journeys to the Holy Land, which has been forgotten amid all the conflicts," said Ruzgys.
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
New Zealand is open to expanding its frigate fleet beyond its current two vessels, with New Zealand Minister of Defence Chris Penk saying “no options are off the table” as the government weighs buying new warships from Japan or the UK. The government yesterday said it is looking to replace its two aging Anzac-class frigates, which were both commissioned almost 30 years ago. The UK’s Type 31 and Japan’s Mogami-class warships are the options under consideration. Speaking in an interview, Penk said there is potential to increase the number of frigates the nation purchases. “We need a certain amount of capability as a
The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday said it deployed aircraft to issue radio warnings to a Chinese research ship in a disputed area of the South China Sea “swarming” with vessels from Beijing’s so-called maritime militia. The research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 (向陽紅33), which is capable of supporting submersible craft, was operating near a reef in the contested Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The Chinese ship was deploying a service boat toward the Spratly’s Iroquois Reef on Wednesday when it was spotted by a coast guard plane, “confirming ongoing unauthorized [marine scientific research]
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