■ China
Shanghai sperm failing
The bright lights and fast living of Shanghai have taken a heavy toll on the local sperm count, a newspaper said yesterday. The city's sperm bank had managed to collect just 6,000 samples in two years and many of those were of "poor quality," the Shanghai Daily said. "More than 2,000 people came here for physical checks and only 400 were found to be qualified" to donate sperm, the paper quoted the sperm bank director as saying. Unhealthy lifestyles, stress and pollution were to blame for deteriorating quality, it added. Almost a 10th of married couples in Shanghai were believed to be infertile, and about 10 percent of those turned to a sperm bank for help, it added.
■ China
More coal mine deaths
An accident yesterday at a coal mine in the northern city of Datong trapped 11 miners, while the death toll in an explosion at another mine rose to 72 after grieving families forced authorities to reopen a search for missing miners, the government said. The official Xinhua News Agency said a 40m-long section of the Datong's mine's ceiling collapsed at 12:40am as workers were tunneling beneath it. Xinhua said the bodies of three more people killed in a March 19 blast at the Xishui Mine in Shuozhou were found during the weekend. Authorities had called off a search on March 22 after finding 69 bodies but relatives who complained that their family members were still missing lobbied them to keep looking, Xinhua said.
■ Hong Kong
Ten nabbed in triad raids
Ten people were arrested yesterday in the latest in a series of police raids on triad gangs in the heart of the tourist district, officials said. The midnight raids followed two nights of standoffs between triads and police as officers cracked down on gangs in nightclubs in the Tsim Sha Tsui district. Seven men and three women were arrested for assaulting and obstructing police, drug possession and claiming to be triads, a spokeswomen said. On Saturday night some 50 gang members were involved in a standoff with police during a routine search of a nightclub notorious for its links with the underworld. Six people were later arrested on Sunday.
■ Japan
Tsunami alerts to be given
The Meteorological Agency will give tsunami-warning data to Russia, South Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea if an earthquake measuring magnitude 6.5 or greater occurs in a northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean near Japan and such countries. "This will provide a reference for strengthening measures against disasters and have the benefit of decreasing damage from tsunamis," said an agency official. The agency will assess the risk of tsunamis after such quakes and estimate when they may hit a number of set points. The agency hopes to be able to start offering separate provisional tsunami warning information as early as this month, along with the US, to Indian Ocean countries hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
■ Australia
Drummer found dead
Paul Hester, the drummer from popular 1980s rock band Crowded House, hanged himself in a Melbourne park over the weekend. Hester, 46, had failed to return home after taking his two dogs for a walk near his home on Friday night. His body was found in a park on Saturday, reportedly hanging from a tree.
■ United Kingdom
Treasure hunt is on
HMS Sussex has lain undisturbed on the seabed for more than 300 years, but since researchers discovered the ship was carrying more than US$3.7 billion worth of English gold and silver, it has become the focus of a bitter dispute as the Spanish authorities try to frustrate the attempts of a private company to locate it and start salvage work this month on behalf of Britain. International law gives UK authorities jurisdiction over the wrecks of British ships wherever they might lie, but the regional government of Andalucia says permission from Spain is required to carry out exploration in Spanish waters, and has sent out coastal patrols to disrupt the salvage operation. The Sussex was carrying a payment for the Duke of Savoy, a key ally in Britain's war against the French.
■ Germany
Dresden dogs in DNA mess
The dogs of Dresden could soon land their owners in a great big pile of trouble if they are not careful. Politicians want to force the city's 12,000 dogowners to register their pets for compulsory DNA tests, so that any careless deposit on a pavement or in a park can be tested and traced to the animal responsible -- triggering a hefty fine for its registered owner. "In this way, Dresden will once again be one of the cleanest cities in Germany," said Roland Putzger, the leader of the local council. The notion that this might infringe "canine rights" has been dismissed by Saxony's data protection commissioner, who ruled that as dogs were not human they had no rights over their data and could not object to the compulsory tests.
■ United Kingdom
Ice cubes keep cat alive
The owners of a cat trapped for a week in the home of a holidaying neighbor have been pushing ice cubes and cat food through the letter box to keep their pet -- named Lucky -- alive. The black-and-white cat was spotted fast asleep in the neighbor's house after she went missing from her home near Bristol. "I just hope our neighbor has gone away for a week and not for months," owner Tracey Venables said. Venables said it was likely Lucky had slipped into the neighbor's house unnoticed before the man headed off on holiday ahead of the Easter weekend. Police have told Venables they are powerless to release her errant cat. But Venables said she would break in should Lucky show any signs of ill health. "I don't care if I get arrested."
■ Russia
Muslim protesters rally
Some 500 people gathered in the mainly Muslim Russian republic of Ingushetia to demand the region's Kremlin-backed leader step down. The rally in the republic's main city, Nazran, was organized by a non-governmental organization and was not authorized by authorities, said an official. The participants were demanding that the central government in Moscow redraw the boundaries between Ingushetia and the neighboring Orthodox Christian republic of North Ossetia to return territory that previously belonged to the Ingush.
■ United Kingdom
Blair pledges more time off
Prime Minister Tony Blair promised more holidays to 2 million people whom he said had bank holidays included in their annual vacation time. He promised, prior to the May 5 elections that "a third term Labor government will help those still missing out by ensuring bank holidays come on top of the right to four weeks' paid holiday."
■ Iraq
Iraq's media at risk
Political and religious partisans are corrupting Iraq's emerging independent media, warns the head of a Canadian training mission for journalists from the US-occupied country. "We're anxious to communicate the need for responsible and ethical reporting [in Iraq]," said Karim Alrawi, director of international media programs at the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society in Vancouver. "We're seeing an increased polarization of the media along sectarian or political lines and once the media becomes a servant of a party or political movement, the truth becomes the first victim."
■ Afghanistan
US upgrading air base
The US is spending US$83 million to upgrade its two main air bases in Afghanistan, an Air Force general said yesterday, the latest indication that US forces will remain in the country for years. Brigadier General Jim Hunt said the money was being spent on construction projects already underway at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, and Kandahar Air Field in the south. A new runway is being built at Bagram, the biggest Afghan airfield used by the US military. "We are continuously improving runways, taxiways, navigation aids, airfield lighting, billeting and other facilities to support our demanding mission," Hunt said at a news conference in the capital.
■ United States
Sculpture stolen in New York
Beware -- "The Ides of March" are missing. The sculpture by artist Philip Pavia was in storage in midtown Manhattan awaiting shipment to a permanent home at Hofstra University on Long Island. The work consists of four diamond-shaped bronze pieces, and was seen by tens of thousands of people while on display for years outside the New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue. This past week, the 94-year-old Pavia received a call from one of the owners at the building where the sculpture was stored. Three of the four pieces were missing from the building, the New York Times reported.
■ Iraq
US captain faces charges
A US Army tank commander was to face a court-martial yesterday in connection with the killing last year of a critically wounded Iraqi, which was filmed by a surveillance drone. Captain Rogelio Maynulet, 30, from Chicago, has been charged with assault with intent to commit murder and with dereliction of duty -- charges that carry a maximum combined sentence of 20 1/2 years. He has not yet entered a plea. The charges stem from an incident on May 21 last year when Maynulet was leading his 1st Armored Division tank company on a patrol near the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where heavy fighting had been reported.
■ United States
Truckers to be scrutinized
The truck drivers who haul cargo labeled as flammable, combustible, radioactive or poisonous across the US are now going to be scrutinized as closely as the hazardous materials that fill their tankers and trailers. In the coming months, roughly 3 million drivers will begin to be fingerprinted and put through FBI criminal background checks. Their names also are cross-referenced with federal databases related to terrorist activity, a practice the US Transportation Security Administration began last year. The moves are supported by some truck drivers, but opposed by others who fear for their privacy and consider that they have been singled out.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
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