■ Hong Kong
Crocodile makes appearance
Hong Kong's elusive stray crocodile resurfaced on Thursday after a prolonged absence -- but the Chinese hunter charged with its capture was out-of-town. Television footage on Thursday showed the croc, eyes bulging from the water surface, swimming along the swampy creek it's called home since first being spotted on Nov. 2. The croc has stayed out of sight in recent days, prompting Chinese hunter He Zhanzhao to return home to neighboring Guangdong Province for a break. The beast's extended absence spurred speculation that it may have died from the winter cold.
■ China
Serial killer executed
A serial killer convicted of kidnapping and killing 17 young people was executed in central China by shooting yesterday, a news report said. The official Xinhua news agency quoted Hunan provincial court officials as saying the death penalty was carried in public of 29-year-old Huang Yong. Members of the victims' families were on hand for the execution. Huang had confessed that he always admired other killers portrayed in films and said he had dreamed since childhood of becoming a professional killer. He had lured his young victims in the city of Pingyu with promises to teach them video gaming tips or give them jobs. The bodies of his victims were buried in a garden under his house.
■ The Philippines
Bomb kills soldier
A homemade bomb exploded as it was being disarmed outside an airport in the southern Philippine island of Jolo yesterday, killing a soldier and wounding another, the military said. Civilians found the improvised explosive device concealed in a cardboard box that had been left near a perimeter fence of Jolo airport. Troops were alerted and tried to disarm it, but it exploded, killing one. A second bomb was found on a roadside also near the airport but was safely detonated.
■ Cambodia
Laughter falls flat for comic
A popular Cambodian comedian complained yesterday that he could not find work and feared for his life because he campaigning for the royalist political party in the country's July election campaign. Pok Thareth, 40, better known by his stage name "Lorcy," had performed around Cambodia to help the Funcinpec Party campaign for the country's general election. However, Thareth alleges that since his performances aired on the pro-Funcinpec Ta Prohm radio station, the country's television stations, all linked to the rival Cambodian People's Party (CPP), have refused to air his routines. "They told me that my performances for Funcinpec attacked other politicians," Thareth said. "Now all TV station owners refuse to let me perform anymore. It affects my living very much."
■ Thailand
Cough drops get kids high
Teenagers in southern Thailand are resorting to large doses of cough drops to get high following the government's crackdown on illegal drugs and cough syrup, a news report said yesterday. The cough drops, available over-the-counter and costing only 1 baht (US$0.025) each, are dissolved in warm water or soda and taken five or 10 at a time by teenagers in Yala province, 750km south of Bangkok, according to the Bangkok Post. The dissolved cough drops have become popular since local authorities cracked down on sales of cough syrup containing codeine, which is widely used as an intoxicant in southern Thailand.
■ Portugal
Inmates refuse lunch
Some 50 prisoners at a jail near Lisbon refused to eat a special Christmas lunch served on Thursday because they said the bread included in the meal had not been freshly baked, local media reported. The inmates began to protest when the director of the establishment, which houses 350 prisoners, joined them for their holiday lunch, the Lusa news agency reported citing a prison services official. The prison, located in the town of Belas, opened earlier this year, making it one of the country's newest jails. Virtually all Portuguese bakeries were shut on Thursday, after closing earlier than usual a day earlier, in honor of the Christmas holiday.
■ The Netherlands
US Embassy sealed off
Dutch police sealed off the area around the US embassy in The Hague yesterday after a telephone threat, but a spokeswoman said later there was no security problem. "There was a call which we deemed had to be taken as a serious threat. But the area has been searched and all is secure. Everything is quiet now," the spokeswoman said. She declined to give any details about the threat, but it occurred at a time when Washington has warned Americans at home and abroad to be vigilant for possible terror attacks over the Christmas holiday period.
■ Germany
Forty go for icy swim
Forty Germans jumped into an ice-cold Berlin lake for their annual Christmas Day swim for good health, undeterred by floating ice chunks or water temperatures of 1?C. The men and women, nearly all of them naked, spent about five minutes in the water during the traditional swim in Berlin's Oranke Lake which they believe is good for their health and for a laugh. The tradition goes back many years though no one knows for sure how far. The swimmers -- outnumbered by people with cameras drawn to the annual event -- built up their courage for the dip by singing Christmas carols.
■ France
Comedian in hot water
A Paris prosecutor has launched an inquiry into a controversial TV sketch by a French comedian which many say was anti-Semitic. Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala appeared wearing guerrilla clothing and a Jewish skullcap and made a Nazi salute in the live show on France 3 television on Dec. 1. As he made the salute he invited "youths watching today from suburban high-rises to join the American-Zionist axis." He then cried "IsraHeil," in an apparent reference to the "Heil Hitler" salute of Nazi Germany. Dieudonne, born in the Paris suburbs to a French mother and a Cameroonian father, has previously landed in trouble after saying he "preferred Osama bin Laden's charisma to that of US President George W. Bush."
■ United States
Family dies in fire
A couple and their 7-year-old daughter died in Lititz, Pennsylvania when a dried-out Christmas tree was apparently ignited by its lights and set fire to their home early Christmas morning, authorities said. The fire broke out in the first-floor living room. The three family members were on the upper floor and died of smoke inhalation, Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Barry Walp said. The victims were identified as R. Scott Schoenberger, 37, his wife, Rebecca Lynn, 37, and their daughter, Amanda Lynn, 7.
■ United States
Three die in Chritsmas crash
A man drove his car into his in-laws' house in a fiery Christmas Day crash, killing himself and his two children minutes before he was supposed to turn them over to his estranged wife, according to media reports. Shahab Behzadpour, his 3-year-old son, Sammi, and 6-year-old daughter, Nikki, died in the crash in Altamonte Springs, a northern Orlando suburb. Behzadpour, 46, and his wife, Hope Custodio, were undergoing a bitter divorce. Behzadpour's Ford Crown Victoria hit a pillar at the front of Custodio's parents' house, in the gated community of Brantley Estates, and exploded into a fireball.
■ United states
Stowaway found dead in jet
Maintenance crews found the body of a man believed to be a stowaway inside an American Airlines jet at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, a spokesman for the airport said on Thursday. Maintenance workers discovered the dead man, estimated to be about 25, around 11pm on Wednesday in the wheel well of the aircraft. The plane, American Air flight 1190, landed at 7pm on a flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica, said Dan Maynard, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that operates the airport.
■ Turkey
Terrorists `put out of action'
The group responsible for last month's deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul has been "put out of action", the city's governor Muammer Guler told a televised news conference yesterday. The Turkish group responsible for the car bombings which left 62 dead, including the bombers, and hundreds injured "has been put out of action and other possible attacks have been prevented," he added. He confirmed that the Turkish cell was linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist group, which along with the Islamist Great Eastern Raiders Front, claimed responsibility for the bombings. The Nov. 15 and 20 twin attacks hit two synagogues, the British consulate and the HSBC bank.
■ United states
Las Vegas feared to be target
US government officials were concerned some passengers boarding one of the Air France flights from Paris to Los Angeles that were canceled this week for security reasons might intend to crash-land it in Las Vegas, The Washington Post reported yesterday. "The only big city near this route is Las Vegas, which they would consider a nice, attractive target," the Post quoted an unidentified government official as saying. A French Interior Ministry spokesman said nine people booked on Air France's canceled Christmas Eve flight AF068 had been questioned and released without being charged. Four were US nationals, two German, one Algerian, one French and one Belgian, the spokesman said.
■ United states
Flight crew lists scrutinized
US officials scrutinized passenger and crew lists of flights from overseas on Thursday amid fears of a possible terror attack involving commercial airliners. A day after Air France canceled six flights between Paris and Los Angeles at US urging, officials said terrorists might still be plotting a Christmas repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed about 3,000 people. The Los Angeles Times said France had acted after US intelligence found as many as six people, including a licensed pilot, booked on Air France's scheduled Christmas eve Flight 68 from Paris to Los Angeles "might be al Qaeda or Taliban terrorists."
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Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
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China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing
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