■ United Kingdom
Face transplants planned
Surgeons are preparing to carry out an unprecedented full face transplant operation next year after being granted ethical approval to actively seek patients. The 30-strong team headed by Peter Butler, a leading plastic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, was given the go-ahead by the hospital's bioethics committee on Thursday. The announcement follows the partial face transplant in France last month of a woman whose face was mutilated by a dog. The controversial operation has raised concerns, not least that some patients could suffer psychological trauma because their new appearance will resemble that of the donor.
■ Germany
Saluting pair arrested
Two women have been arrested for giving a Hitler salute and singing a neo-Nazi song to foreign tourists on their way to Sachsenhausen concentration camp museum, prosecutors said on Thursday. "The tour group was joined on a commuter train platform by two women who marched alongside them, sang the song White Aryan resistance and gave them the Hitler salute," the prosecutors office in Neuruppin said in a statement. The women, who were under the influence of alcohol at the time, were taken into police custody, the prosecutors said.
■ United Kingdom
Pole turns up in airport
An 84-year-old man, missing since he left home to ride his bike in the small town of Znin last week, has been found wandering around London's Heathrow airport, police said on Wednesday. "According to the family, he just took his bike and left," a police spokesman said. He said police had been searching for the man, identified as Ludwik Z, when they got a telegram from the Polish consulate in London informing them he was safe. "The family have been unable to explain how he got to London," the spokesman said.
■ Ireland
Chickens cause road chaos
A hazardous slick of broken eggs caused traffic chaos on Thursday after a truck carrying thousands of broody hens lost its load. "Chickens have begun to lay eggs on the roads and the conditions are quite treacherous at the moment, very slippy," AA Roadwatch said on its traffic advice line, warning up to 7,000 chickens were on the loose. Police said the vehicle carrying the birds may have hit a ditch, causing its boxes to "cascade off the lorry." "The lorry has been moved but the cargo is wandering around out there," Sergeant Jim Greene said, adding there were no human casualties. A team has been scrambled to help catch the birds, Greene said.
■ United Kingdom
Mistletoe running out
An outbreak of mistletoe rustling is threatening a Christmas kissing crisis, environmental experts said on Wednesday. The Wildlife Trusts said over-harvesting of the plant that only grows in the wild and is mainly found on old apple trees meant it was becoming increasingly rare. "Mistletoe is being taken in increasingly large quantities to be sold at markets to Christmas shoppers," said The Wildlife Trusts. "There are cases of mistletoe rustling, and once the whole plant has been removed from its host tree it won't grow back." The parasitic plant with white berries has been associated with fertility since the time of the ancient Druids and kissing under the mistletoe has long been a Christmas party tradition.
■ United States
Bush eyed in CIA scandal
US President George W. Bush was drawn directly into the CIA leak affair for the first time on Thursday after the journalist whose column prompted the investigation said the president knew who outed the undercover operative Valerie Plame. "I'm confident the president knows who the source is," the conservative columnist Robert Novak said in a speech earlier this week in Raleigh, North Carolina. The White House yesterday declined to respond to Novak's charges. "I don't know what he is basing it on," the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, said.
■ Russia
Smelter blast injures three
An explosion in a smelter at a nuclear power plant severely injured three people, but radiation levels were normal, the state nuclear agency Rosenergoatom said yesterday. The blast occurred on Thursday at the Leningrad nuclear power plant in the town of Sosnovy Bor, outside St. Petersburg. The Emergency Situations Ministry said that two of the injured had burns over 90 percent of their bodies. A spokesman at the plant said that the blast had caused molten metal to burst out of a smelter used by a private company called Ekomet-S, which is reprocessing scrap metal on the site.
■ United States
Cursing becomes costly
Students at two Connecticut schools can either watch their language or watch their money disappear. In an effort to curb abusive language directed at school faculty, Bulkeley High School and Hartford Public High School has instituted fines for students who use foul language. Police officers stationed in the schools issue US$103 tickets to students who curse, said Miriam Morales-Taylor, principal of Bulkeley High School in Hartford. The citations are similar to speeding tickets and require a court appearance if the fine is not paid, Morales-Taylor said.
■ United States
Man gets surprise gift
An anonymous gift-giver, apparently depressed over a lost love, left a US$15,000 diamond engagement ring in somebody's else's unlocked car in a commuter parking lot near Boston. The ring was accompanied by a note which read: "Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present. Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now. Merry Christmas to you." A 37-year-old Northborough man found the three-diamond, white gold ring on the seat of his car, which he had parked at the train station in Westborough on Dec. 7, the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham reported on Thursday.
Heavy rain and strong winds yesterday disrupted flights, trains and ferries, forcing the closure of roads across large parts of New Zealand’s North Island, while snapping power links to tens of thousands. Domestic media reported a few flights had resumed operating by afternoon from the airport in Wellington, the capital, although cancelations were still widespread after airport authorities said most morning flights were disrupted. Air New Zealand said it hoped to resume services when conditions ease later yesterday, after it paused operations at Wellington, Napier and Palmerston North airports. Online images showed flooded semi-rural neighborhoods, inundated homes, trees fallen on vehicles and collapsed
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
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