■ Hong Kong
Thug takes man's hand, life
A man bled to death after having his hand chopped off with a meat cleaver in a savage triad gang-style attack, police said yesterday. Siu Lap-fu, a 58-year-old fishmonger, was attacked by a man carrying a beef knife as he sat in a crowded public park in Tsuen Wan district on Wednesday. The attacker chopped off Siu's hand and threw it across the park before continuing to chop at Siu as he lay screaming in a flower bed. He then coolly put the beef knife in a plastic bag and walked away in front of dozens of witnesses, leaving Siu to bleed to death.
■ China
Bomber dies in school
A man blew himself up with a bomb strapped to his body after taking four female students hostage at a college in Zhenghou, Henan, state media said on Wednesday. The man walked into the Water Resources College on Tuesday eve, seized the four girls at a dormitory and telephoned police to demand 1 million yuan (US$123,000) in ransom, reports said. Although the police later agreed to give the man some money, the man refused to release the girls, ordering them to the back of the room before exploding the bomb, killing himself and injuring a girl and a police officer.
■ Afghanistan
Rebels kill police, villagers
Rebels killed seven police officers and abducted two in an ambush in Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday. Meanwhile, two villagers were abducted and beheaded by suspected Taliban rebels in Uruzgan province on Monday, a local official said, adding that the Taliban mistakenly believed the men were working as interpreters for US-led coalition forces.
■ Australia
Toy guns spark panic
Two 16-year-olds who dressed up in camouflage gear and carried toy guns to a fancy dress day at their Tasmanian high school sparked a full scale security alert after parents mistook them for gunmen and called in the police. Police surrounded the school and kept the 690 pupils inside until a case of mistaken identity was cleared up. The lads who set pulses racing, Joshua Sinclair and Ben Quinn, said that people had become far too jumpy. "We were told to dress up as what we want to be when we are older," Sinclair said. "I dressed in military gear and my friend dressed as an undercover police officer."
■ Philippines
Arroyo urges media change
President Gloria Arroyo suggested yesterday that the Philippine press should stop covering activities of opposition groups, saying the public wants news about "winners" not "losers." Arroyo urged Filipino journalists to "cast aside the bad boy image" of the local press and not allow themselves to be used as "pawns in political games or destabilization schemes."
■ China
Minority literacy declines
Poor minority children in western regions are falling behind in school, with many unable to read or dropping out before finishing the compulsory nine years of education. China boasts one of the highest literacy rates among developing countries in the world, with 90.9 percent of its population able to read. But as of last year only 67.8 percent of the country's 699 autonomous minority counties had basically eliminated illiteracy among youth and middle-aged people or achieved nine-year compulsory education for all, the Ministry of Education said, compared to a 93.6 percent success rate in the rest of the country.
■ United States
Cola linked to hypertension
Women do not develop high blood pressure from drinking coffee, but there is a link between hypertension and drinking colas that may have nothing to do with caffeine, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday. The study is based on analysis of 12 years of data on 33,077 cases of high blood pressure among 155,594 women participating in the Nurses Health Study, which is jointly run by the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health. The association between hypertension and caffeinated colas was independent of whether the soft drinks were sugared or diet. The study did not look at non-cola soft drinks.
■ Chile
Diplomats visit Fujimori
Three officials from the Japanese Embassy have visited former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori in detention, Japan's Foreign Ministry said. The three diplomats met with Fujimori on Wednesday to assess his health and to check the conditions at the place where he is been held. Fujimori, who is wanted by Peru for alleged corruption and other charges related to his 10 years in power, was "in good health," Shiozaki said. The Japanese diplomats spoke with Fujimori for about 40 minutes. Media reports said Fujimori is detained in a room with a twin bed, a television and a laptop computer, but that he is not allowed to use his mobile phone.
■ United States
Libby book gets a boost
The indictment of Lewis Libby had one unintended benefit for the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney: The resurrection of his once forgotten literary career. Used copies of his 1996 novel, The Apprentice, a thriller set in Japan have been selling for as high as US$2,400 on Amazon's Web site. The publisher, St. Martin's Press, has decided to bring the book back into print, announcing a new run of 25,000 copies. Libby has pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to investigators about leaking the CIA status of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame to reporters.
■ United States
Plan to drill oil abandoned
House leaders abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill yesterday. They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts -- regions currently under a drilling moratorium. The actions were a stunning setback for those who have tried for years to open a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and a victory for environmentalists.
■ Canada
Early elections sought
Canadians would go to the polls in mid-February under an election plan unveiled by the New Democratic Party on Wednesday, two days after it said it would stop propping up Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberal government. Leaders of the Conservative Party and the Bloc Quebecois said they might back the NDP proposal, but want more information. Liberal officials blasted the idea, and a constitutional expert said Martin could simply ignore it. NDP Leader Jack Layton said his party's plan would avoid sending Canadians to the polls near Christmas, but it would also force an election sooner than the Liberals had wanted.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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