■ Cambodia
Police in wild buffalo chase
Police have been ordered to capture dozens of buffalo and cows roaming in the Angkor Wat heritage zone because of the dung they are leaving among the ruins, an officer said yesterday. Colonel Tan Chay, commissioner of police for the World Heritage-listed area, complained that at least 30 buffalo and 10 cows have been regularly meandering through the ruins seeking food and leaving a mess behind. He said that half a dozen police had spent around six hours yesterday trying to catch buffalo bathing at Sras Srang, or the pool of ablutions, but only managed to seize one.
■ Hong Kong
Live fast, die with hair
Hong Kong men would rather die younger than lose their hair, with almost 60 per cent saying they would exchange two years of life to avoid going bald, a news report said yesterday. Ninety percent of men interviewed said they believed thicker, fuller hair would make them more attractive and more confident at work, the South China Morning Post reported.
■ New Zealand
A real pain in the neck
A five-year-old boy spent two days with a 12cm-long plastic tube in his throat, which doctors had forgotten to remove after an operation to extract several teeth, the child's mother said yesterday. Kurtis Matthews emerged severely distressed from the hour-long dental operation on Friday, his mother said. For two days, the boy suffered coughing fits and was unable to speak, eat or drink properly, but his mother thought the discomfort was part of side-effects from a general anesthetic he received during the operation. She finally brought him to a local medical center, where a doctor spotted the end of the tube in the boy's throat. The boy was rushed to a hospital where the tube was extracted.
■ Malaysia
Free drugs for addicts?
The government yesterday said it is considering a proposal to supply drugs to addicts for free in a guarded environment where authorities can monitor them in an effort to tackle the country's escalating drug problem. The addiction rate continues to rise despite Malaysia's tough drugs laws which impose mandatory death by hanging for drug traffickers, said Baharum Mohamed, a senior member of parliament. He suggested the government should supply free drugs to addicts on a remote island so that those who need their supply can be closely monitored by authorities.
■ Malaysia
Web site in hot water
The government plans to penalize an independent news Web site for an April Fool's prank in which it reported that three ministers were being prosecuted for corruption, news reports said yesterday. The Cabinet has decided that Malaysiakini.com should be punished, Parliamentary Affairs spokesman Nazri Aziz was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper. "You cannot just relay news which is not accurate," Nazri was quoted as saying. "It is irresponsible and tantamount to slandering the government."
■ China
24 die in bus plunge
At least 24 people died after a passenger bus plunged over a 170m-high cliff in Sichuan Province, state media reported yesterday. The bus was carrying 37 people when it left a section of highway on Mount Balang, in the traditionally Tibetan Aba region of Sichuan, on Tuesday morning, the official Xinhua news agency said.
■ United States
Wife's lover lived in closet
A man was beaten to death, allegedly by his wife's lover, whom the husband had just discovered was living in a closet in his home. Rafael DeJesus Rocha-Perez, 35, was charged with homicide in the slaying of 44-year-old Jeffrey Freeman over the weekend. Freeman's wife had allowed Rocha-Perez to live in a closet of the Freemans' four-bedroom house for about a month without her husband's knowledge. Her husband heard Rocha-Perez snoring and discovered him. Freeman ordered his wife to get the man out of the house while he went for a walk. Martha Freeman said that when her husband returned, Rocha-Perez confronted him with a shotgun, forced him into a bathroom and bludgeoned him.
■ United Kingdom
Dog rescues canine friend
A dog which fell 30m down a cliff on the Welsh coast was saved by a canine friend in a "Lassie-style" rescue. Lacey, a Golden Labrador, was trapped after slipping down a rocky slope. Lying at the bottom of a gully in a pool of water, helpless Lacey was spotted by Sheena, black Labrador friend. Sheena ran for help and found Lacey's owner, whom she alerted to the danger by repeatedly barking and directing her to the stricken animal. Lacey would not have been able to climb out of trouble herself after falling down the cliff. Lacey, shivering from shock and cold, was winched back to the top by the rescue team in a 40-minute operation. "She was wagging her tail," the coastguard said.
■ Iran
Canada demands probe
Iran rejected a Canadian demand for an international forensic team to examine the body of an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who died in Iranian custody. Canada is campaigning to determine the cause of death of Zahra Kazemi, who died in 2003, several days after being arrested for taking photos of a demonstration outside a Tehran prison. Hard-line Iranian authorities said Kazemi died of a stroke, but a commission appointed by Iran's president found she died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage caused by the impact of a hard object. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew demanded an international forensic examination. Iran's judiciary said, "Such a demand does not conform with Iranian laws or international regulations."
■ United Kingdom
Separate shots better
A combination vaccine developed to reduce the number of shots given to infants provided less immunity to some diseases than vaccines administered separately, a British study said. In a trial, 240 infants were divided into two groups: one receiving a nine-vaccine combination and the other getting immunized separately with several vaccines. Infants receiving the combination vaccine, known as Pnc9-MenC, had "diminished" immunity to meningococcal disease, influenza, diphtheria and tetanus, compared to infants whose vaccines were administered separately.
■ United States
Britney Spears expecting
Pop princess Britney Spears confirmed yesterday that she is pregnant with her first child, ending weeks of frenzied speculation over whether she was launching a new career as a mother. "The time has finally come to share our wonderful news that we are expecting our first child together," Spears and her husband of seven months, Kevin Federline, announced on the singer's Web site.
■ Gas, oil spill in Alaska
About 40,000 cubic meters of natural gas and an unknown quantity of crude oil have spilled at a Prudhoe Bay drilling site operated by energy giant BP, state environmental regulators said. Crews were cleaning up the spill, which was released on Tuesday as a spray. The mist was released in 24kph winds, BP spokesman Andrew Van Chau said. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the affected area measured nearly 1.6km by 90m. Most of the spray landed on surrounding structures and a gravel pad. Most of the remaining area was lightly misted. Investigators said the spill appeared to have been caused by a split in a pipe weld.
■ Poland
Troops to leave Iraq
Ending months of uncertainty over the precise timing, Poland announced on Tuesday that it would withdraw all its troops from Iraq once the UN mandate for the multinational force expires in December. Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said the Cabinet had decided to bring home the 1,700 troops in Iraq. He left open the possibility that the mission could be extended if the UN mandate were renewed, but said that Prime Minister Marek Belka's government would not in the meantime be committing troops to any new missions. Poland was the fourth largest contributor of troops to Iraq.
■ Canada
Gay marriages on track
Members of the Canadian parliament on Tuesday voted down a Conservative motion that would have derailed the minority Liberal govern-ment's bill to legalize gay marriage. New Democratic Party and most Bloc Quebec-ois lawmakers joined with a majority of Liberals in voting 164 to 132 against a Tory motion to block legislation to legalize gay marriage nationally. The Conservative Party motion called for no second reading of the bill. Canada would join Belgium and the Netherlands in allowing gay marriage if parliament passes the bill, which has yet to come up for a vote.
■ United States
CD-player carrier detained
The man who was tackled and detained at the Capitol on Monday is an Australian citizen and will be expelled for violating the terms of his visa, a federal immigration official said. The man, Wen Hao Zhao, is a native of China who entered the US legally on Friday through Los Angeles International Airport. US Capitol Police officers knocked him down, detained him and blew open his luggage on Monday after he stationed himself on the west plaza of the building, a suitcase on either side of him, and refused to speak or move. The luggage contained a CD player, police said later.
■ United Kingdom
`Superwoman' foils muggers
Assailants smashed a celebrated "superwoman" over the head in London after she refused to hand over her valuables when they tried to mug her, police said yesterday. Nicola Horlick, who became known as superwoman for juggling a high-flying career in the city with looking after five chil-dren, was attacked outside her home in south Kensing-ton on Monday night. Two men drove up to the 43-year-old on a scooter, one jumped off and threatened her with a handgun, demanding she hand over her possessions. Horlick refused and threw a diamond ring into a nearby bush to prevent them from grabbing it. She was then struck across the head with a pistol and knocked to the ground, but her attackers fled empty handed.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
A US federal judge on Tuesday ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration to halt efforts to shut down Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the news broadcasts of which are funded by the government to export US values to the world. US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits from employees and contractors affected by the shutdown of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), ordered the administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and contractors to their positions and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts. USAGM placed more than 1,000
RSS