■ China
Singaporean journalist held
China has arrested a senior journalist working for Singapore's Straits Times as he tried to obtain a manuscript of secret interviews with deposed Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), the reporter's wife said. Ching Cheong, 55, chief China correspondent for the paper, was detained on April 22 in Guangzhou and authorities were preparing to charge him with "stealing core state secrets," his wife Mary Lau told reporters. "I don't think it's because of the articles Ching has written. It's because of Zhao Ziyang. ... China is trying to prevent the manuscript from being published. They think it's very sensitive," Lau said from Hong Kong where Ching was based. The interviews were conducted by Zong Fengming, a former Xinhua news agency reporter, who had rare access to Zhao before his death in January.
■ China
Body parts found
A man's body parts have been found scattered in three neighborhoods in Shenzhen, Hong Kong newspapers said yesterday. A scavenger found two thighs and an arm in a trash bin last Thursday, the Oriental Daily News and the Apple Daily quoted police as saying. Police later recovered the victim's head and parts of other limbs on a street and at a grassy strip near a water company, the papers said. Only the torso was missing, the reports said. The papers said officials confirmed all the body parts came from the same person. The victim has not been identified, but police officials were quoted as saying the male was in his 40s and may have come from Hong Kong.
■ Thailand
Maggot therapy a hit
Thai hospitals are experimenting with maggot therapy as a cheap, effective treatment of diabetes, ulcers, wounds and infections, a news report said yesterday. Maggot therapy, which has been used to treat wounds since the time of French Emperor Napoleon, was reintroduced to Thailand in April this year with the importation of green bottle flies -- Lucilia sericata -- from Germany by BioMonde (Thailand) Company, said the Nation newspaper. The flies' larvae are sterile.
■ Japan
Court approves reactor
The Japanese Supreme Court upheld government approval of an experimental fast-breeder nuclear reactor yesterday, paving the way for the reopening of a plant that was shut down a decade ago by an accident and cover-up. The ruling reversed a 2003 decision by a high court that had nullified the government's 1983 approval to build the Monju reactor in Tsuruga, 320km west of Tokyo, said Takao Arakawa, a court spokesman. The decision was a major boost for the plutonium-fired plant, the centerpiece in the government's campaign to expand resource-poor Japan's reliance on nuclear energy.
■ Japan
ID system `violates privacy'
A court yesterday said the government's national computerized ID system "seriously violates" citizens' constitutional right to privacy, and ordered a prefectural government in western Japan to remove data on dozens of residents from the system. Kanazawa District Court Justice Kenichi Ido ruled the Juki Net system was unconstitutional because citizens have no control over their own personal data, media said. Ishikawa prefectural government was told to remove the 28 plaintiffs from its system. The ruling was the first of several lawsuits aimed at forcing the government to shut down its online database.
■ United States
Conspiracy suspects arrested
A martial arts expert from the Bronx and a doctor from Florida have been arrested on charges that they conspired to train and provide medical assistance to al-Qaeda terrorists. The men, who were identified as Tarik Ibn Osman Shah and Rafiq Sabir were captured in early morning raids on Friday as part of a two-year sting operation. While authorities said that they had no evidence that either man had actually provided support to terrorists, they said they had taped each man swearing his allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
■ United States
TV thief finishes sentence
A man was released from a North Carolina jail over the weekend after serving 35 years for stealing a black and white television set. Junior Allen, a black migrant worker from Georgia, will remain on probation for another five years, so he will not be entirely free until he is 70. "I'm glad to be out," Allen said. "I've done too much time for what I did. I won't be truly happy until I see a sign that says I'm outside of North Carolina." A judge sentenced Allen to life in 1970, when he was 30 years old. He was convicted of sneaking into the unlocked home of an 87-year-old woman and stealing her black-and-white Motorola TV, worth US$140. Today the crime would draw a maximum of three years' imprisonment.
■ United States
Anti-missile laser to be tried
The government is to begin testing a laser device which is bolted to the belly of US commercial airliners to protect against shoulder-launched missiles. The device is meant to locate an incoming heat-seeking missile and then hit it with a laser to disrupt its guidance systems. Fearing a terrorist attack on a civilian plane and its impact on the US economy, the Department of Homeland Security has funded a US$120 million trial. Three prototypes are soon to be fixed to commercial planes at a Texas airfield. However, there are persistent concerns about the US$11 billion cost of equipping the whole US fleet. Airlines would almost certainly have to pay for maintenance and operating expenses of US$2 billion, significantly raising the cost of air travel.
■ United Kingdom
Sheriff wants Robin Hood
The legendary thief who robbed from the medieval rich to give to the poor in nearby Sherwood Forest has had his image removed from the city's logo and his old enemy's successor is demanding that it be put back. "Contrary to what the media says, Robin Hood and I are the best of friends," Nottingham Sheriff Derek Cresswell said. Nottingham's advisers replaced Robin's image on the city's logo with a large, backward-leaning N as part of their efforts to reduce dependency on the outlaw to attract tourists and investors. "How can we drop Robin Hood? We have got to get him back," Cresswell said.
■ Germany
Baby dinosaurs really `cute'
Baby dinosaurs really were sweet-looking and even infant predators looked up at their flesh-eating mothers with large round eyes, according
to the Bavarian State Palaeontological and Geological Society. The findings are based on studies of fossilized embryonic craniums of Allosaurus-like dinosaurs found at a late-Jurassic dinosaur nesting site in Portugal, adding evidence that dinosaurs may have been caring parents, if not loving ones. The craniums exhibited all the signs of "cuteness" attributed to the offspring of warm-blooded animals that depend on their parents for food and protection.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests. Analysis by London-based think tank Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island (Jhongjian Island, 中建島) on the southwest corner of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), building what might be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery and sophisticated radar system. “By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send
HAVANA: Repeated blackouts have left residents of the Cuban capital concerned about food, water supply and the nation’s future, but so far, there have been few protests Maria Elena Cardenas, 76, lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana’s colonial old town. The building has an elegant past, but for the last few days Maria has been cooking with sticks she had found on the street. “You know, we Cubans manage the best we can,” she said. She lives in the shelter because her home collapsed, a regular occurrence in the poorest, oldest parts of the beautiful city. Cuba’s government has spent the last days attempting to get the island’s national grid functioning after repeated island-wide blackouts. Without power, sleep becomes difficult in the heat, food
Botswana is this week holding a presidential election energized by a campaign by one previous head-of-state to unseat his handpicked successor whose first term has seen rising discontent amid a downturn in the diamond-dependent economy. The charismatic Ian Khama dramatically returned from self-exile six weeks ago determined to undo what he has called a “mistake” in handing over in 2018 to Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who seeks re-election tomorrow. While he cannot run as president again having served two terms, Khama has worked his influence and standing to support the opposition in the southern African country of 2.6 million people. “The return of
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rejected a plan for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to visit Kyiv due to Guterres’ attendance at this week’s BRICS summit in Russia, a Ukrainian official said on Friday. Kyiv was enraged by Guterres’ appearance at the event in the city of Kazan on Thursday and his handshake with its host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Guterres, who called for a “just peace” in Ukraine at the BRICS event and has repeatedly condemned the invasion, discussed a visit to Ukraine with Zelenskiy when they met in New York