■ Baby tossed from sixth floor
A Chinese teen afraid to reveal she had given birth tossed her baby girl out of the sixth-story window of her family's Shanghai apartment, a report said yesterday. The 18-year-old, whose name was given as Mei, did not want her parents to find out she was pregnant, and gave birth in the bathroom of her apartment, the Shanghai Daily reported. Neighbors found the crying newborn but she was pronounced dead at the hospital. Mei refused to reveal who the father was, the newspaper said. "It was a girl and the baby was bloody and definitely still moving. We heard her cry," said neighbor Qin Zhirong. Mei's parents found her in the bathroom after kicking down the door, worried about the inordinate amount of time their daughter has spent in the room. The report did not say what crime Mei, currently undergoing treatment at Putuo District Central Hospital, would be charged with.
■ China
Five killed in botched arrest
A police chief and four others were killed when an armed robbery suspect detonated two hand grenades as police tried to arrest him in southern China's Hainan province, state press said yesterday. Six others, including two policemen, were injured in the Saturday night blast in Mutang township, the Hainan Daily said. The bomber, identified as He Dengtian, also died in the explosion, while a third grenade failed to detonate, it said. Among the dead was Li Juerong, police chief of the Wangwu precinct in Zhanzhou city. Police in Zhanzhou were tipped off about He's whereabouts and dispatched Li to detain him. But as he attemped an arrest, He, who was suspected of 17 armed robberies, exploded the grenades, the report said.
■ Indonesia
Prisoner reprieves planned
The government plans to grant reprieves to convicted militants, including 2002 Bali bombing conspirator Abu Bakar Bashir, to mark the Muslim festival Id al-Fitr on Thursday, a report said yesterday. Further sentence cuts for militants such as Bashir are likely to anger Australia, which has protested over previous remissions for people convicted over the 2002 Bali bombings. "As long as the regulations have not been revised, all prisoners will be given a sentence cut in line with their rights under prevailing laws," Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin was quoted by the Pikiran Rakyat newspaper as saying.
■ Australia
Work options for foreigners
The government will make it easier for foreign students to gain visas and increase the opportunities for foreigners to work under changes that go into effect today. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the changes would benefit employers who were struggling to find workers because of a skilled labor shortage. Several new categories of visas will be available, including one which will allow foreign students to undertake vocational study while completing a trade apprenticeship in a rural area. Another new category will allow foreign students to work for up to 12 months in their area of expertise after they complete their studies.
■ Japan
Bird flu found near Tokyo
Chickens at a farm near Tokyo have tested positive for an antibody indicating that they were infected with a bird flu virus at some time in the past, a local official said yesterday. The strain of the virus has not been confirmed, but the farm in Ibaraki will destroy all its roughly 82,000 chickens, the official said. "It is the H5 type of bird flu, but we don't have details about the strain," he said. The farm in Ibaraki is inside a zone where a ban had been imposed on the movement of chickens and eggs because of previous outbreaks of a weaker strain of the disease.
■ Hong Kong
PETA activists cause stir
Two naked animal-rights protesters attracted hundreds of onlookers in Causeway Bay yesterday causing the closure of a main road and a heated exchange with police. The two women, painted deathly grey and lying in cardboard coffins covered in flowers, pulled the stunt outside a branch of US fast-food chain KFC. Their call for a boycott of KFC over its alleged mistreatment of chickens was almost lost as a huge crowd jostled for a better view of the two women, who have staged similar protests in recent weeks in Seoul and Tokyo. "The police were worried by the size of the crowd we were attracting," said Jason Baker, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the international animal-rights group behind the spectacle.
■ Vietnam
Church denies tears
The Catholic Church has been forced to deny that a statue of the Virgin Mary is crying after thousands had flocked to observe the "miracle" at Ho Chi Minh City cathedral. Rumors spread on Saturday that the statue in front of the cathedral was crying, drawing thousands of the faithful and curious and creating serious traffic jams. Yesterday morning, according to a church worker, around a thousand people were still gathered in front of the statue but traffic was back to normal. "This is superstitious and fabricated news," the church worker said. "Don't believe it!" He said the statue had been left in the open for a long time and attributed the "tears" to rain and dust.
■ United States
Pastor electrocuted
A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church in Waco, Texas, after grabbing a microphone while partially submerged. The Reverend Kyle Lake, 33, was standing in water in a baptistery at University Baptist Church when he was electrocuted on Sunday morning. Doctors in the congregation rushed to help him when he collapsed. He was taken by ambulance to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
■ Tanzania
Opposition celebrates early
Riot police used tear gas and water cannon yesterday to disperse opposition supporters celebrating what their leader called a clear early lead in returns from crucial elections on this semiautonomous archipelago. The demonstrations began shortly after early morning prayers. Police arrested at least three men during a cat-and-mouse game with supporters of the opposition Civic United Front. Judging by results phoned in by opposition observers at 20 polling stations, which CUF leader Seif Shariff Hamad said were representative of the whole archipelago, he said about 61 percent of voters had chosen him to be the next president. "We are winning these elections despite having a lot of irregularities," Hamad said shortly after midnight.
■ Spain
It's a girl!
Princess Letizia, the wife of Crown Prince Felipe, gave birth early yesterday to the couple's first child, a baby girl named Leonor, the royal palace announced. Letizia, a 33-year-old former television news presenter who married the heir to the throne in May last year, and Leonor were said to be doing well, royal sources said. The princess' gynecologist, Luis Ignacio Recasens, said he had performed a caesarian section for the birth of the baby who weighed in at 3.54kg. Later Prince Felipe explained that the name Leonor was chosen "because it is a name with many historical links, but also because we liked it."
■ Ivory Coast
President vows to stay
The president vowed to stay in power for another year, as security forces fired into the air and hurled tear gas at opposition militants protesting a bitterly disputed, UN-backed extension of his mandate. Laurent Gbagbo also said on Sunday that he would name a new prime minister within days to ensure presidential elections are held within 12 months. Late Sunday, the rebels issued a statement proclaiming their leader Guillaume Soro as the new premier, although they have no legal authority to do so. The move, sure to increase tensions in the West African country, underscored the profound differences between the two sides.
■ United Kingdom
Britons prefer ghosts
More Britons believe in ghosts than in God, according to research published yesterday. In a poll of 2,012 people, 68 percent said they believed in the existence of ghosts and spirits, while 55 percent said they believed in the existence of a god. Some 26 percent said they believed in the existence of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, while 19 percent believed in reincarnation. Of those who believed in ghosts, 12 percent said they had actually seen an apparition and 76 percent said that TV reality shows about the supernatural and films like The Blair Witch Project had played a part in convincing them that ghouls exist.
‘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,”
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
‘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
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
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