■ India
Fire kills at least 45
An apparent electrical short circuit ignited a fire yesterday in a marriage hall in southern India which killed the groom and 44 others and injured about 60, including the bride, officials said. Some of the victims were burned in the flames, while others were crushed in a stampede down a narrow staircase, the officials said. "Forty-five bodies have been recovered from the marriage hall," said K. Manivasan, the top administrator for Tiruchi district in southern Tamil Nadu state, where the fire broke out at 8:45am. "About 60 have been admitted to various hospitals, some with burn injuries and others with injuries sustained in the stampede," he said. The bride, Jaishree Ramanathan, a schoolteacher, was in serious condition with burns, Manivasan said. The groom, Guru Raghavender, worked at an insurance company, he said.
■ New Zealand
Elephant escapes from zoo
An Auckland Zoo elephant named Burma disrupted rush-hour traffic when it staged a breakout yesterday, dropping a large log on an electric fence before marching out to munch leaves and grass at a nearby park, zoo officials said. Burma spent 25 minutes on the loose in Western Springs Park next to the zoo while police and fire fighters closed nearby roads and onramps to the city's busy northwestern highway as a precaution. The breakout began when the 21-year-old, 2.5-tonne Asian elephant broke the electric fence's circuits by dropping the large log, zoo director Glen Holland said. Burma then climbed into a moat and walked along the zoo fence. Next, she lifted a large gate from its hinges and walked into the adjacent park.
■ The Philippines
WHO issues sex warning
Asia's adolescents are turning increasingly to risky sexual behavior, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday, urging governments to do more to promote the sexual health of younger people. WHO regional chief Shigeru Omi said that while "social norms regarding sexual activity and sexual behavior have changed ... [the] environment to support the adolescents to face these changes has not." The organization's studies showed adolescents were uninformed about how best to avoid risky behavior that leads to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, pregnancy-related complications and sexually transmitted diseases, it said. Acceptable, affordable and appropriate sexual health information and services were also lacking, while poverty and unemployment put adolescents in a vulnerable position, it added.
■ Hong Kong
Number portends better year
Last year's ceremony to predict Hong Kong's prospects yielded an unlucky number, and the following months saw SARS ravage the territory. This year, a Hong Kong official picked a better number. Lau Yong-fat, a top rural official, chose number 76 for the Year of the Monkey, from 100 numbered slips in a round bamboo container at the famous Che Kung Taoist temple in Shatin district. The number 76, according to tradition, augurs a mixed year of difficulty and opportunity for Hong Kong. It also means that unity can overcome any problem and pave the way for a better future. That number is certainly better than the No. 83 that Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho picked last year. That number, which means "nothing will be good" and portends a very difficult time, matched by what Hong Kong experienced last year.
■ United States
Priest growing marijuana
A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested for allegedly growing marijuana in his church living quarters. The Reverend Richard A. Arko, 40, was charged Wednesday with illegal cultivation of marijuana. He remained jailed Thursday on US$3,000 bail. Police said they found a marijuana growing system in a spare bedroom and confiscated about 35 potted marijuana plants ranging from 15cm to 1.2m tall, along with grow lights, electric transformers, air purifiers and instruction books for growing marijuana. They also seized two small plastic bags with marijuana.
■ United States
J-Lo and Ben split up
Hollywood's hottest couple, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, have split up, four months after calling off their wedding amid a media frenzy, J-Lo's spokesman said Thursday. "I am confirming the reports that Jennifer Lopez has ended her engagement to Ben Affleck," Lopez's New York based publicist Rob Shuter said. "At this difficult time, we ask that you respect her privacy," he added. Another source close to the US actress and diva said: "I can tell you that Jennifer and Ben have ended their engagement and that there are no plans for a reconciliation." Affleck's publicist however declined to comment on the break-up.
■ United States
Biblical nude camp to open
The first nudist resort created primarily for Christians in the US is due to open in Florida and its co-founder claims that he can provide passages in the Bible where nudity is prominently mentioned. "Depending on the version of the Bible you use, there are as many as 40 passages that refer to nudity," said Bill Martin, co-founder of Natura, which will be the first Christianity-themed nudist colony in the country when it opens in a Tampa suburb in April. "In Isaiah 20.2, God tells Isaiah to go into the wilderness naked for three years. So there's historical basis for a Christian nudist lifestyle," continued Martin, who is a Quaker.
■ Italy
Berlusconi reappears
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made his first public appearance in a month looking trim and tanned after weeks of media speculation he had had plastic surgery. But Berlusconi laughed off the reports, saying: "I spent three hours every morning to get back in shape. I didn't go on a Tibetan diet. Actually I had fun reading all of the fantasies that have come out in the newspapers." Berlusconi's vanishing act had been hot gossip in Italy's squares and cafes with media reports saying the 67-year-old had had a nip and tuck at a private Swiss clinic and undertaken a gruelling training regime. On Thursday evening he was stopped by journalists as he headed out for a shopping spree in central Rome.
■ Israel
Success gets police high
Israeli police had to close an entire floor of their station because the pungent scent of tonnes of confiscated marijuana was making them high, an Israeli newspaper said yesterday. The drugs, smuggled from Egypt, are kept in a storeroom of a police station in the southern town of Dimona. Police have confiscated so much, that the room is filled up almost immediately after its contents are sent to be incinerated. "Every time I came to work I felt ... like I was high," the Maariv newspaper quoted one officer as saying.
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
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