■ Hong Kong
Student affairs `acceptable'
More than one in seven Hong Kong teachers believe it is acceptable to have a relationship with a student in certain circumstances, according to a survey released yesterday. The survey of 700 teachers found 12.3 percent believed a relationship with a student was acceptable depending on the circumstances. A further 2.4 percent said they believed relationships between teachers and students were acceptable without stipulating that it depended on the circumstances. However, 85.3 percent of teachers surveyed by the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers said teacher-student relations were unacceptable. In an identical survey on the matter in 2002, only 74.5 percent of teachers believed that such relationships were unacceptable, according to the South China Morning Post, which published the results of the survey yesterday.
■ Singapore
Jail for nude photo threat
A man was sent to jail after he threatened to post nude photos of his former girlfriend on the Internet, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Friday. The 27-year-old man was sentenced to one month in prison for intimidating his 18-year-old girlfriend after she ended their relationship, the newspaper said. He sent the woman numerous threats using phone text messages, the newspaper said. Singapore is known for its tough laws and strict social controls. Three men were convicted earlier this year for threatening to post nude photos of women on the Internet unless they were paid or unless the women agreed to meet them.
■ Malaysia
Teen sheds weight to enlist
An overweight Malaysian teenager has shed 30.5kg in five months in a bid to fulfill his dream of enlisting for national service, a report said yesterday. Muhamad Said Ibrahim, 19, who tipped the scales at 158kg when he was first rejected by the defense ministry, weighed in at 127.5kg on Friday after undergoing a rigorous weight loss program, said the New Straits Times. The chubby teen was put on the strict regime at a local university, which saw him eat two slices of bread and jam for breakfast instead of his usual "roti canai," a greasy flat bread eaten with curry. His trainers started him off on a mild exercise program taking up three hours a week, which progressed to a daily three-hour get-fit routine.
■ Sri Lanka
Rebels seek catchy anthem
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels -- who already have a national flower and flag for their self-proclaimed state in the parts of the island they control -- are now on a quest for a catchy national anthem. The Tigers -- who say they want contributions from Tamils both in Sri Lanka and abroad -- circulated a statement to media offices in the government-controlled north and east, including the largest northern town, Jaffna, as well as on pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com.
■ Singapore
People told to limit showers
Singaporeans were urged yesterday to shower a minute less as part of a national water conservation effort in the hot and humid city-state. If the entire population of 4.2 million people takes the advice to heart, environmental officials said the savings would fill nearly 16 Olympic-size swimming pools daily. Each person currently uses an average 162 liters a day. Public Utilities Board director Yap Kheng Guan told the newspaper the board is promoting several schemes to reduce water consumption in homes.
■ Finland
Pedophile charged
A man will stand trial for 163 acts of pedophilia allegedly committed in Thailand over the past 16 years, Finnish media reported on Friday. The man, who is in his 40s, has been charged with indecent behavior towards 47 children, 43 counts of aggravated sexual assault on children and 73 counts of purchasing sexual services from minors, Finnish public broadcaster Yle reported. The man has also been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography. All but one of the alleged crimes were committed in Thailand, a country the man has visited 26 times since 1989.
■ South Korea
Police on wild boar chase
This wild piggy went to an upmarket hotel. This wild piggy went to a historic palace. And all the wild piggies were chased by South Korean police. Police in the capital have been battling an invasion of wild boars that have come down from the mountains into densely populated areas in and around Seoul foraging for food before the onset of winter. On Friday, one turned up at an apartment complex in Kuri, east of Seoul, media reported. Police failed to catch it after a 90-minute chase. Earlier this week, about 200 tourists were evacuated from Changkyong Palace in central Seoul after a wild boar was spotted on the grounds and hunters and police gave chase. Last week, a wild boar was spotted near a Seoul luxury hotel. Police, hunters and dogs chased the animal to the banks of the Han River, where the beast drowned while trying to swim to safety.
■ Zambia
Food aid needed
At least 1.7 million people need food and the situation is deteriorating rapidly. "Villages are on the brink of starvation," World Food Program (WFP) Country Director David Stevenson said on Friday. UN officials have been sounding the alarm. Zambia had been one of the region's success stories, recovering from a 2001-2002 drought to produce agricultural surpluses in the past two years. Water levels in Southern Province are at near record lows. More than 70 percent of bore holes and wells have dried up, the WPF said.
■ Portugal
Abortion vote blocked
Portugal's Constitutional Court on Friday disallowed the Socialist government's plan to hold a referendum before year's end on easing restrictive abortion laws in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. The court ruled the planned ballot unconstitutional because of procedural irregularities. The center-left Socialists, who want to introduce abortion-on-demand in Portugal through the 10th week of pregnancy, must now decide whether to postpone the ballot until the end of next year or change the current law in parliament.
■ Russia
US$1m bid for Lenin body
The head of the Russian Buddhist region of Kalmykia said he was willing to stump up US$1 million to give a new home to the embalmed body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Last month a top aide to President Vladimir Putin suggested burying Lenin, now a tourist attraction in a guarded mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square, prompting a debate about the revolutionary's place in post-Soviet Russia. Kalmykia's leader, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, offered to put Lenin on permanent display in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, on the Caspian Sea. Some say Lenin was one quarter Kalmyk. "I have officially informed Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Russian Communist Party, that if the question of burying Lenin arises, we would be prepared to allocate US$1 million to bring the body and the mausoleum to Elista," he said.
■ United Kingdom
Three jailed for eBay fraud
A British judge jailed three Romanians on Friday for tricking thousands of eBay customers around the world into paying for nonexistent goods advertised on the Internet auction site. Nicolae Cretanu, 30, his wife Adriana Cretanu, 23, and George Titar, 26, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain property by deception and money laundering in London, and were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. More than half of the 3,000 victims were from the US and they paid more than US$450,000 for advertised goods including cars, binoculars, parachute trousers and tickets to sporting events. Payment was sent by instant money transfer via Western Union, but the buyers were left empty-handed.
■ Bulgaria
Crackdown on gangsters
Police raided gangster hideouts and searched luxury cars on Friday in a crackdown on organized crime following the murder of a top banker this week. Police said they had arrested 144 suspected criminals since Wednesday when an assassin gunned down Emil Kyulev, Bulgaria's second richest man, as he sat in his car in rush-hour traffic. The latest in a string of underworld-linked murders, it came a day after the EU said Bulgaria's inability to eradicate organized crime groups could delay its 2007 membership by a year.
■ Bolivia
Dispute hinders elections
A Bolivian court on Friday indefinitely postponed elections scheduled for Dec. 4 because of a dispute in Congress over redistricting, moving the poor Andean nation toward a possible power vacuum when the current president steps down. Both leading presidential candidates criticized the ruling by the National Electoral Court, with the leftist Evo Morales warning that the "people could rise up against the court." His main rival, Jorge Quiroga, urged Congress to move on the redistricting dispute, saying Bolivia's fragile democracy was at risk.
■ Jamaica
Priest trainees shot dead
Two trainee Roman Catholic priests from India and the Philippines were shot dead as they washed dishes at their missionary base in the Jamaican capital, police said on Friday. Police said they believed the same bullet may have killed Suresh Barwa, who was from India, and Marco Laspuna, from the Philippines. Barwa died on the spot at the Missionaries of the Poor kitchen on Thursday night while Laspuna died in hospital four hours later. The incident happened at about 9pm in the missionary group's Corpus Christi premises in the crime-riddled downtown district of Kingston.
■ United States
Sex Web site thief detained
A man who stole the hugely lucrative sex.com Web site and was ordered to pay US$65 million in compensation has been arrested in Mexico and handed over to US authorities. Stephen Michael Cohen was arrested in a mansion in the Mexican border city of Tijuana on Thursday and is being held in a San Diego jail, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday. The case goes back to 1994 when San Francisco engineer Gary Kremen registered the Internet name sex.com in the early days of the World Wide Web. A year later, Cohen forged a letter to domain-name registrar Network Solutions, ostensibly from Kremen's firm, saying that Kremen had been fired and that Cohen should get control of sex.com. Network Solutions handed the name over.
■ Brazil
Police remove abused lion
Police seized a lion in poor health from a private home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday after scared neighbors squawked about the beast's roar, police said on Friday. Inspector Ione Rodrigues said the owners of the 15-year-old retired circus lion called Baby did not have a license for the animal and would face criminal charges for ill-treatment. "The lion was kept in a small cage in the covered backyard of the house. It was very skinny," she said. The animal was transferred to the Rio Zoo. "The neighbors were scared by the roaring and feared the cage did not provide enough security," Rodrigues said.
■ Cuba
Castro slams rights prize
President Fidel Castro on Friday blasted EU nations as "hypocrites" after the European Parliament granted a group of wives, mothers and sisters of jailed Cuban dissidents, its top annual human rights prize, the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought. The Cuban leader, 79, lashed out at the EU saying Cuba "can look at you in the eye, keep on staring and accuse you: You are corrupt, immoral, exploitive hypocrites ... You are the ones who created modern slavery in recent centuries, after what was called the discovery of America," Castro said. "You created colonialism, and keep it in place even today," Castro said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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