■ China
Big Brother is watching
Internet users in Shenzhen now have a constant reminder that Big Brother is watching them as online cartoons of police officers float on their screens to warn them not to access banned sites or discuss sensitive topics, state media said yesterday. The Shenzhen Public Security Bureau's Internet Surveillance Division this month launched the cartoons of a male and female police officer, which are designed to appear whenever someone logs onto a Web site or enters a chat room, the China Daily newspaper said.
■ China
Shop extortionists nabbed
Police have arrested three men suspected of trying to extort money from supermarkets in Shenzhen, following a small explosion that forced the evacuation of 1,000 customers at a Carrefour store, state media said yesterday. The three men are believed to have made several bombs to use in their extortion attempts, but police caught them by depositing money into one of their bank accounts and arresting one of the men after he withdrew cash from the account, the China Daily newspaper said. The 23-year-old man "quickly confessed and identified his two accomplices.
■ China
Store blast kills eight
An explosion at a grocery store in Henan Province killed eight people, including the store owner and his wife, state media reported yesterday. Another eight people were injured when a gas tank exploded on Tuesday afternoon at a store in Xiangcheng City, Xinhua reported. The store owner, Li Guochang, his wife and two members of their family were killed, as well as two customers who were in the store at the time.
■ Australia
Cartoonist helps nab thief
A professional cartoonist helped nab a suspected burglar by drawing a caricature of the would-be offender and handing it over to police, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported yesterday. Bill "Weg" Green, 82, confronted the alleged thief while he was trying to steal a bicycle parked in the backyard of his Melbourne home, the newspaper reported. "I came out the back door and suddenly saw this bloke tearing through the [yard]," Green said. Green, a professional cartoonist, sketched a caricature of the man and handed it over to police, who arrested the alleged offender within 30 minutes at a nearby shop, the paper said. "We just couldn't believe how much of a likeness he was to the picture that Weg had drawn," Melbourne police officer Aaron Roche told the paper.
■ Indonesia
King visits Indonesia
King Syed Sirajuddin Putra Jamalullail was due to arrive in Indonesia yesterday for a six-day visit during which he will receive an honorary degree from a leading university, officials said. The king and his wife Queen Fauziah Abdul Rashid were to be welcomed to the country by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at an official ceremony at the state palace. Later yesterday, the king was scheduled to visit the headquarters of Indonesia's special forces and pay a call on the speaker of parliament, said presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng.
■ Malaysia
Tycooon sues family
A 92-year-old tycoon has sued his wife and children for the control of a 100 million ringgit (US$26 million) business, saying they drugged him to make him sign over the assets, a news report said yesterday. Loh Kim Foh, the founder of Lohman Holdings, alleged that the defendants conspired to defraud and deprive him of his fortune, the Star newspaper said. Those named in the suit are Loh's second wife, Wong Kim, 84, a son and three daughters, the Star said. Loh's suit claims he signed over a controlling share of the company to them in July 2001 after they secretly drugged him using prostate cancer medication.
■ India
`Ghost' terrifies village
A man who was believed dead caused panic when he returned, causing villagers to think he had come back as a ghost, the Times of India reported on Monday. Children screamed "Ghost! Ghost!" and villagers locked their doors when Raju Raghuvanshi returned from jail earlier this month to his village in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. Villagers and family members have ostracized him, forcing Raghuvanshi to file a complaint with police. The village council has demanded he prove he is not a ghost. Raghuvanshi's troubles arose after he was became sick while jailed last year and a distant relative told his family he had died.
■ Hong Kong
Fish poses health risk
Health authorities yesterday warned of health risks associated with a popular Lunar New Year dish made up of seafood, meat and vegetables and all served in one big bowl. Poon choi, a traditional local cuisine, consists of several layers of ingredients and takes a long time to prepare, leading to concerns over food poisoning if it is not properly cooked or kept at the correct temperature. The dish is mainly served in restaurants but some families also order home delivery, which can exacerbate the health risk. Food cooked too far in advance is prone to a higher risk of cross-contamination.
■ Germany
Bird-brained thief caught
A bungling thief left a Hansel and Gretel-style trail of feathers which led police from the crime scene to his front door, authorities said on Tuesday. Police in the western city of Bochum said the man ripped open his quilted jacket as he broke into a shop to steal a karaoke set and did not notice it was leaking feathers all the way home. A witness saw the break-in and quickly told police. "Luckily they were able to act before the next story was played out -- Gone with the Wind," said Bochum police spokesman Frank Plewka. "All they had to do was follow the trail."
■ Italy
Bedroom TV affects love life
A study by an Italian sexologist has found that couples who have a TV set in their bedroom have sex half as often as those who don't. "If there's no television in the bedroom, the frequency [of sexual intercourse] doubles," said Serenella Salomoni whose team questioned 523 Italian couples to see what effect television had on their sex lives. On average, Italians without TV in the bedroom have sex eight times a month. This drops to four times a month for those with a TV, the study found. For over-50s the effect is even more marked, with the average of seven couplings a month falling to just 1.5 times.
■ Germany
Cannibal makes his case
A cannibal who killed a man who wanted to be eaten told a court on Monday that he had only been carrying out his victim's wishes and had not expressly sought to kill him. "I wanted to eat him, but I didn't want to kill him," Armin Meiwes, 44, told judges in three hours of testimony at his retrial. Meiwes was sentenced in January 2004 to eight-and-a-half years for manslaughter, but the Supreme Court ruled last April that the judges had been too lenient and ordered a retrial. He had admitted killing computer specialist Bernd-Juergen Brandes, 43, but was spared a murder conviction and a possible life sentence because the victim had demanded to be eaten.
■ Czech Republic
Officials being watched
A version of Big Brother on Tuesday started watching from ceiling cameras as citizens paid overdue water bills and traffic tickets. Officials in Pardubice, a factory city 100km east of Prague, installed the camera system to prevent bribery and other corruption in city offices that collect fines. "The cameras monitor the conduct of citizens and municipal officials," said Petr Kramar, city hall security chief. "We installed them mainly as a precaution against potential corruption." The city spent about 220,000 koruna (US$9,200) to install the cameras in six offices.
■ United Kingdom
Dentist barred from work
A dentist has been banned from working after allowing her unqualified boyfriend to carry out dental work on patients in her surgery, the profession's UK regulatory body said on Tuesday. Mojgan Azari was found guilty of serious professional misconduct for letting boyfriend Omid Amidi-Mazaheri work at her practices in south London between 2002 and 2003, the General Dental Council (GDC) said. The boyfriend worked on more than 600 people, drilling out cavities without local anaesthetic and installing expensive fillings that crumbled within days, often leaving patients in agony, the BBC said. The GDC said Azari had pleaded guilty in February last year to four counts of obtaining money by deception and had been jailed for 12 months.
■ United States
Oregon suicide law upheld
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the right of doctors in Oregon to help terminally ill patients commit suicide, in a ruling that marked a serious defeat for the Bush administration. The court voted that the federal government did not have the power to overrule Oregon's voters, who voted twice for the state's unique "death with dignity" law, which has been used by more than 200 people since it took effect in 1997. The six to three majority left the new chief justice, John Roberts, appointed last year by US President George W. Bush, in the minority. It suggests that even if the president's second court nominee, Samuel Alito, is confirmed by the Senate, as expected, the administration will not be able to count on a majority for its actions.
■ United States
Woman found in chimney
Firefighters have rescued a woman who was found mysteriously stuck in the chimney of a house in Los Angeles, California, officials said on Tuesday. "We were called out and discovered the female, who was approximately 20 years old, was stuck about eight feet [2.4m] down from the top of the chimney," a fire department spokesman said. "We have no idea how she got in there in the first place or what she was doing," he said. It took 40 minutes to free the woman. Police were investigating the incident.
■ United States
Scientists find new species
Spiders, centipedes and scorpion-like critters are among the 27 new animal species that biologists have discovered in the dark, damp caves of two national parks in Central California, park officials said. The finds announced on Tuesday were made during a three-year study of 30 caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. Many of the creatures live only in caves -- and some only in one particular cave of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, according to the study, conducted by park staff and biologists from Austin, Texas-based Zara Environmental.
■ United States
Car recovered after 37 years
A Corvette sports car stolen when it was brand new in New York 37 years ago has been recovered in California and will be returned to its rightful owner, authorities said on Monday. The 1968 car, which vanished from Alan Poster's garage in the borough of Queens on Jan. 22, 1969, was identified as stolen as it was being loaded on a container ship for Sweden last November, the US Department of Homeland Security said. The car had recently been purchased for US$10,000 by a man in Sweden who was unaware it had been stolen nearly four decades earlier.
Since Poster's insurance at the time did not cover the Corvette's theft and he was never compensated, he is entitled to get it back.
■ United States
Horse takes chilly dip
A horse that got loose and broke through a fence wound up taking a dip in a neighbor's ice-covered swimming pool. Fortunately for the horse named Dancer, the pool also had a cover over it when the accident happened on Sunday in Genesee, Wisconsin. "He was caught up in the pool's cover which was probably a good thing because it kept him from going to the deep end," horse owner Gayle Loiselle said. The pool's owner called for help, and local firefighters used netting to hoist the horse out. The horse, believed to have been in the water at least an hour and a half, was treated for scrapes and sore muscles.
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
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
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
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