■ Bangladesh
Ferry collision kills 12
Two ferries collided in southern Bangladesh yesterday, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens, an eyewitness said. Police have confirmed the accident in the remote area but could not immediately say if there were any casualties. The two ferries ran into each other on the Meghna river near Barisal, 112km from the capital Dhaka, police and a TV network reported. Bangladesh is crisscrossed by more than 230 rivers and ferries are one of the main modes of transport.
■ Australia
Contract killings come cheap
Want someone killed in Australia? The average price for a "hit" is US$12,700, but you can get it as cheap as US$380. A study of contract killings in Australia has found most are not ordered by criminals, but by angry spouses and jilted lovers. The Australian Institute of Criminology and South Australia's major crime investigation branch studied 163 attempted and actual killings between 1989 and 2002. "The most common motive or reason for hiring the services of a hit man was in relation to the dissolution of an intimate relationship," Toni Makkai, acting director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, said in a statement on Wednesday.
■ Vietnam
Agent Orange victims sue US
For the first time, Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange have filed a suit against the US companies that produced the toxic defoliant used by American forces during the Vietnam War. The lawsuit, filed by the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange on behalf of three people, was submitted to the US Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York, on Jan. 30, said the group's vice president Nguyen Trong Nhan. Nhan said 10 companies are named in the suit, though he declined to specify them by name.
■ Singapore
Teacher jailed for sex
A teacher was jailed for seven years for having sex with a 14-year-old student whom he wooed with flowers and jewelry. The 27-year-old man was solemn as Singapore District Judge Jasvender Kaur said on Wednesday that he had disgraced the teaching profession, The Straits Times reported. During the time he was romancing the student, he married his steady girlfriend, also a teacher, and enjoyed a fling with a woman he met over the Internet. When he appeared in court five days earlier, the secondary school mathematics teacher admitted to having sex with the student 18 times from May 2002 to July last year. The affair came to light after her father read a message on her mobile phone.
■ China
Attack victim wants action
He Jinsheng says he was just trying to help. Trouble is, he says, no one returned the favor. The deliveryman pointed out a man who had just stolen a fellow bus passenger's wallet, the newspaper Shanghai Daily reported yesterday. But after the wallet was returned and the victim had left, the pickpocket and two accomplices attacked the deliveryman while bus staff and other passengers stood by. Now He is suing the bus company, saying the bus driver and ticket taker should have at least tried to intervene. The case hints at citizens' growing impatience with rising crime and the lack of an effective response from authorities -- and other citizens eager to avoid entanglements with criminals seeking revenge.
■ United Nations
Funds sought for Liberia
The UN and the US are asking rich nations for nearly US$500 million to put Liberia firmly on the road to peace after nearly two decades of civil war. A two-day donors conference to address Liberia's reconstruction needs opened yesterday with technical discussions. But today's pledging session will be attended by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and other high-level representatives. "I think the international community has an obligation to help Liberia pick itself up," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday.
■ Canada
Bush unpopular up north
A majority of Canadians hope US President George W. Bush loses the upcoming election and do not really care who beats him, according to a magazine poll that hit newsstands on Wednesday. In an article entitled "Canadians to Bush: Hope you lose, eh," Maclean's magazine said a national survey found only 15 percent of Canadians would definitely vote for Bush if given the opportunity. Forty percent said they would definitely vote for someone else, while 28 percent said they would consider choosing someone other than Bush. Seventeen percent said they did not know.
■ Rwanda
Minister `ordered rapes'
A witness told the UN tribunal trying suspected ringleaders of Rwanda's 1994 genocide that she had been repeatedly raped on the orders of the country's then minister of the family and women's protection, the independent Hirondelle news agency said Wednesday. The witness, whose name was not disclosed, said the former minister, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, who is being prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, gave orders that "all Tutsi women and girls" should be raped. The witness was unable to give the precise dates of the alleged crimes, which she said took place in the southern region of Butare. She said she had been infected with HIV during the alleged rapes.
■ United States
Oil floods Texan's home
A Texas woman has struck oil -- or maybe it struck her. Leila LeTourneau returned from work late Monday to find crude oil covering her home's floors and spilling from the toilets, bathtub and sinks. Experts have told her the oil kind of "burped up." Longview city crews and representatives from Basa Research, which owns some wells in the area, are trying to help find the source of the oil. Local station KLTV reported one theory is that the house may have been built on an abandoned well that wasn't properly plugged. "I always tease people about `doesn't everybody in Texas have an oil derrick in the back yard?' Then when I came home I discovered I struck oil inside the house," LeTourneau said.
■ United Kingdom
Roof blasted off toilet
An underground explosion blew the roof off a public toilet on Wednesday in the central English city of Stoke-on-Trent. "Fortunately nobody was inside at the time, but it is right in the city center, near our night clubs and cultural quarter," said Terry James, spokesman for the city council. He said the explosion, which happened about 4am, had been caused by a high voltage power cable running beneath the "superloo," an automated toilet. The electricity supplier was investigating the incident, James said.
■ Italy
Europe to levy fines
Italy is facing massive daily fines by the European court for failing to end discrimination against foreign language lecturers in its universities. The European commission said Wednesday it was seeking an unprecedented fine of 310,000 euros (US$388,830) a day until the matter was resolved. The demand from Brussels is the latest move in an 18-year campaign to force Italian universities to give foreign language teachers the same rights as Italian lecturers. In 1995, the government attempted to solve the problem by issuing new contracts that gave the foreigners the same status as laboratory assistants. Those who refused to sign were sacked or suspended.
■ United States
No fake girlfriends on eBay
Need a girlfriend but want none of the hassle of actually spending time together? You'd better act fast if you want to find her on eBay. A crop of crafty eBay entrepreneurs are offering "imaginary girlfriend" services to the highest bidder, staying just ahead of the Web auctioneer's efforts to ban such listings, which it now deems inappropriate. The latest bid, with nearly six days to go, is US$11.50. EBay started pulling the "imaginary girlfriend" listings, which have run the gamut from the very naughty to the mostly nice, late last month. The company had initially allowed the imaginary girlfriend listings -- which had numbered in the low hundreds -- then decided that they had crossed the line "into something that was clearly inappropriate," said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.
■ Great Britain
BBC's pot tips a blunder
A Scottish radio phone-in gardening program gave new meaning to the term "potting shed" when its experts unwittingly offered listeners useful tips on how to cultivate cannabis. A caller had cheekily asked for advice on growing a hybrid species of cannabis called Northern Lights, but the experts thought they were being asked how to propagate a type of cabbage with the same name and eagerly offered a range of tips. Cannabis was downgraded to a Class C from Class B drug in Britain last week, making possession not an automatically arrestable offence. "When you listen to the show it is quite clear they are not giving advice on how to grow cannabis but how to use a propagator," a BBC Scotland spokesman said.
■ Great Britain
Brits know pop, not Bard
Shakespeare's most famous quotations are less memorable than the painful sayings of TV boss David Brent in The Office, a British survey found on Wednesday. More than one-third knew it was Brent who said "Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue" in the award-winning comedy. But only one in 10 aged between 25 and 44 knew "Now is the winter of our discontent" came from Richard III, one of the Bard's most popular plays. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar also proved tricky. Some thought Mark Anthony's eulogy called for "friends, Romans, countrymen" to lend him money rather than their ears.
■ Sweden
Cat feces poisons vet
A veterinarian sent to inspect a strong stench coming from an uninhabited rural cottage in southwest Sweden collapsed, poisoned by fumes from the feces of some 20 cats locked inside for months, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The regional daily Goteborgs-Posten said the vet spent three days in the hospital with hydrogen sulphide poisoning.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
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