■ Japan
Berries for sour desserts
A cafe started serving up berries that make sour desserts sweet yesterday, offering dieters the chance to indulge in snacks without piling on the calories. The desserts at the Miracle Fruits Cafe in Tokyo contain almost no sugar and are unbearably sour, but come with a berry from the Synsepalum dulcificum plant -- also known as miracle fruit -- which make the sour desserts sweet to the taste, according to Namco Ltd, who runs the cafe. "You could eat a whole lemon and it would taste sweet," Namco's spokesman said.
■ Thailand
Meditator shoots self
A 28-year-old French man who was in Chiang Mai practicing meditation snatched a gun from a policeman and killed himself, officers said yesterday. Police Sergeant Sawat Kamlun was on duty on Monday evening when Martial Gabriel Rene Gaudout, of La Rochelle, France, came and sat on a bench next to the police outpost, said police Major Witaya Winyayong. When Sawat left, Gaudout followed and grabbed the gun from Sawat's waist. Sawat fled but later heard a gunfire and returned to find Gaudout had apparently shot himself.
■ Philippines
Soldiers killed in ambushes
Communist rebels dealt fresh blows to the military, killing three soldiers and wounding nine after a weekend of deadly ambushes. Major Bartolome Bacarro said troops on Monday encountered ``50 black fatigue-clad armed communist terrorists'' in Quezon province, 90km southeast of Manila, and engaged them in a firefight that left three soldiers dead and nine wounded. There were no reports of rebel casualties.
■ Malaysia
Swordfish kills fisherman
A fisherman died two days after a swordfish pierced his brain while he was out at sea fishing, a report said yesterday. In the freak accident at sea on Saturday off the northern state of Kedah, a swordfish measuring 0.3 meters leapt out of the water and stabbed Adnan Walid, 39, in his right eye, the Malay Mail newspaper reported. Though the swordfish missed his eyeball, the fish's beak pierced the brain. Although the fisherman managed to pull the fish out of his eye socket, a piece of its beak lodged in his brain, and he died at the hospital on Monday without having regained consciousness.
■ Sri Lanka
Cabinet to form soon
Newly elected President Mahinda Rajapakse was expected to name his Cabinet within hours, his media spokesman said yesterday, amid concerns over the future of the peace process with the Tamil Tiger rebels. Rajapakse -- elected largely on his promise to take a tough approach toward Tigers -- narrowly won the Nov. 17 election over former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had signed a 2002 ceasefire with the rebels and was seen as likely to try reviving stalled peace talks if he'd won the latest vote.
■ Bangladesh
Massive rally planned
Security was tight in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka yesterday as the opposition planned a massive rally calling for the ouster of the ruling Islamist-allied coalition amid efforts by police to avert new violence. Security across the Muslim-majority nation has been tight since last week's murder of two judges by a suspected member of the hardline Jamayetul Mujahideen, which has been waging a bloody campaign to impose Islamic law in the country. The main opposition Awami League, which leads the 14-party so-called "grand coalition", said it expected more than one million people to attend the rally slated to be held in the heart of Dhaka.
■ Singapore
Employer pimps for maid
A mother-of-three has been fined US$8,823 after she pleaded guilty to pimping for her Indonesian maid, court officials said yesterday. It is the first time that an employer in Singapore has been convicted of acting as a maid's pimp. Min Yek, 35, admitted in court on Monday to asking Awunningsih, who arrived from Indonesia in April, to work as a prostitute and telling her she could provide clients. The court was told the 24-year-old maid had sex with five men between April 21 and early May in her employer's house and was paid S$80 (US$47) in total while her boss kept US$300. The court heard that Awunningsih was a willing participant as she wanted to pay off a US$1,177 debt to her maid agency.
■ China
Turtle thefts hit park
A nature park is tightening security after suffering a mini-crime wave of turtle thefts. The Shanghai Natural Wild Insect Kingdom has lost 13 of its 18 turtles in recent weeks after visitors walked away with them, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported. The park has put bars around the turtle tank and posted security guards to protect the animals, one of its managers, Chen Min, told the newspaper. The stolen turtles were about the size of a child's hand, Chen said. "It is very difficult for our security guards to detect someone stealing a turtle, because the turtles can be put into pockets, and they don't utter sounds, even if they are attacked," she said.
■ United States
Accused spies deny charges
A Chinese-American engineer who worked on US Navy warship technology, his wife and younger brother pleaded not guilty Monday to an indictment alleging they were unregistered agents for China. Chi Mak, his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, and brother Tai Wang Mak entered their pleas before US Magistrate Judge Robert Block. Trial was set for Jan. 10. Federal prosecutors estimated the trial could take up to 16 days. The case originally involved charges ranging from stealing government property to aiding and abetting, transportation of stolen goods and conspiracy.
■ Nigeria
Governor sneaks back home
The governor of an oil-rich state who is accused of embezzling millions of dollars in public funds disguised himself as a woman and used a fake passport to skip bail and escape Britain, officials said on Monday. Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State arrived back in his local capital on Monday and made a televised address to crowds of joyful supporters after escaping a British money-laundering trial and flying back to Nigeria, where he enjoys immunity from prosecution. "What happened this morning is a very sad development," said Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
■ Honduras
Storm kills at least 32
Tropical Storm Gamma killed at least 32 people in Honduras and many more are feared dead in mudslides in two remote villages, an emergency official said on Monday. Dozens of homes may have been buried by mud after heavy rains at the villages in the eastern province of Olancho, said Randolfo Funez, an official at the national civil protection agency. Officials had earlier put the death toll in Honduras from Gamma, which pushed through Central America last weekend, at 11 people, but it rose on Monday.
■ Switzerland
UN lauds breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is saving the lives of 6 million babies a year, but the number could be even higher if more mothers would use the time-honored method, the UN children's agency said yesterday. "Only 39 percent of infants in developing countries are exclusively breast-fed" said UNICEF. "Lack of awareness amongst mothers, and lack of support from health workers and communities, is largely to blame." A separate joint statement by UNICEF, the WHO and other organizations said, however, that HIV-positive mothers needed counseling and advice in deciding how to breastfeed their babies because of the risk that the infant could be infected.
■ Sudan
UN warns on Darfur anarchy
Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Monday that Sudan's volatile Darfur region faces an increasing threat of complete lawlessness and anarchy, and said it is crucial that the government and rebels conclude a peace agreement by the end of the year. In his monthly report to the UN Security Council, Annan said "a dangerous increase" in violence in Darfur that began in September, and continued last month, is seriously affecting the delivery of humanitarian aid, and has claimed the lives of civilians and five members of the 6,700-strong African Union peacekeeping force.
■ United States
ACLU sues volunteers
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued volunteers for an event with President George W. Bush, saying they violated the civil rights of two people who were tossed out because of their political views. Leslie Weise, 40, and Alex Young, 26, were escorted from the March 21 event in Denver, Colorado, after they arrived in a car with a bumper sticker reading "No more blood for oil," and wearing T-shirts saying "Stop the lies" under other clothes, the federal lawsuit said. The suit filed on Monday names as defendants Michael Casper, Jay Bob Klinkerman and five unknown people who the ACLU says contributed to the decision to remove the pair.
■ France
Mitterrand `blackmailed'
Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher forced French president Francois Mitterrand to give her the codes to disable Argentina's deadly French-made missiles during the Falklands war by threatening to launch a nuclear warhead against Buenos Aires, according to a book. Rendez-vous -- the psychoanalysis of Francois Mitterrand, by Ali Magoudi, who met the late president up to twice a week in secrecy at his Paris practice from 1982 to 1984, also reveals that Mitterrand believed he would get his "revenge" by building a tunnel under the Channel which would forever destroy Britain's island status. The book, to be published on Friday, is one of several on France's first Socialist president to mark the 10th anniversary of his death on Jan. 8, 1996.
■ United Kingdom
Britons blame rape victims
One in three people believe female rape victims who flirt, dress sexily or get drunk are wholly or partly to blame for sex attacks, according to a survey released on Monday. The poll for human rights group Amnesty International found 6 percent of respondents believed rape victims who had behaved in "a flirtatious manner" were entirely responsible, while 28 percent said they were partly responsible. Of the 1,095 people surveyed for the ICM poll, four percent said victims who had been drunk were entirely to blame and another 26 percent said they were partly to blame. The fact of dressing sexily or wearing revealing clothing was also likely to expose women to attack, one in four respondents said (6 percent totally to blame, 20 percent partly to blame).
■ United Kingdom
Last truce survivor dies
Alfred Anderson, the last surviving soldier to have heard the guns fall silent along the Western Front during the spontaneous "Christmas Truce" of World War I, died on Monday at the age of 109. More than 80 years after the war, Anderson recalled the "eerie sound of silence" as shooting stopped and soldiers clambered from trenches to greet one another on Dec. 25, 1914. Anderson's parish priest, the Reverend Neil Gardner, said Anderson died in his sleep early on Monday at a nursing home in Newtyle, Scotland.
■ The Netherlands
War crimes trial begins
The first EU citizen to face charges of complicity in genocide and international war crimes went on trial in the Netherlands on Monday accused of aiding former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to gas the Kurds of Halabja almost 20 years ago. Frans van Anraat, a 63-year-old Dutch businessman who fled to Saddam Hussein's Iraq and lived there from 1989 to 2003, faces charges of supplying the Saddam regime with the ingredients for the chemical weapons used in the gassing in Halabja in the 1980s.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
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