■ Australia
Lean prisoner escapes
A prisoner lost some 14kg so he could squeeze through a hole he chiseled in a brick wall and escape from a maximum security jail in Sydney. Robert Cole, 36, who was serving time for stealing and assault, was being treated in the Long Bay prison hospital when he broke out of jail either on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. New South Wales state corrective services deputy commissioner Ian McLean told reporters it appeared Cole had deliberately lost weight so he could slip through the small hole next to a window in the hospital wall, scaled a wire fence crowned with razor wire and walked along a prison wall, before jumping to freedom.
■ Australia
`Devil' exports blocked
A christening gift for Denmark's newest prince could lead to the spread of a disfiguring disease among animals in the Scandinavian country, Greens lawmaker Nick McKim warned yesterday. Tasmania, the southern state where Denmark's Crown Princess Mary grew up, plans to send two Tasmanian devils to a Copenhagen zoo as a gift to Mary and Crown Prince Frederik's son, who is to be christened on Saturday. But McKim said authorities should rethink the decision because of an ailment called devil facial tumor disease that is ravaging the animals in the wild. The cancerous condition leaves the devils' faces disfigured by tumors, reducing their ability to hunt and kill prey.
■ Hong Kong
Health officials recall coil
More than 4,000 women fitted with a contraceptive device have been told to have them removed after several women reported cases of the devices breaking up, health officials said yesterday. The Family Planning Association has sent out letters to all women fitted with a type of intrauterine device, also known as the coil, and offered them replacements. The recall came after the association recorded five cases of breakage and expulsion of the coil. As a result, the family planning clinics contacted 300 women and discovered 20 more such cases. Four of the new cases reportedly needed surgery to remove the coil.
■ Malaysia
Fire officers get better pay
What's in a name? More money. At least for the country's 11,000 firefighters. "Firemen," the lowest ranking personnel in the country's fire departments, will now be designated "fire officers," a higher grade that also bumps up their starting monthly salary by 113 ringgit (US$30), a government announcement said yesterday. Under a new scheme starting Jan. 1, all new entrants will be taken in as "fire officers" with a monthly starting salary of 662 ringgit (US$176). In the earlier scheme, fire officers were a grade higher than "firemen," whose starting monthly salary was 549 ringgit (US$146).
■ Malaysia
Anti-theft injury purse offered
Miroza Leather, a feminine accessories company, is offering a so-called "anti-theft injury" handbag -- and free insurance to back up their claims that their product will prevent serious purse-snatching injuries. Hoping to cater to women worried about soaring purse-snatching incidents, the Giossardi handbag is designed to break free from both ends of its strap on being yanked hard. This will prevent victims from being dragged by the thief holding the bag, and falling to the ground, a company official said. The more than more than 50,000 ringgit (US$13,400) in insurance coverage would be provided by ING Insurance Bhd, officials said on Wednesday.
■ Russia
Ice cream profits rise
While the nation is shivering through record cold temperatures, Russia's ice cream makers are rubbing their hands with glee. "Because of the cold snap, the walls of the cold rooms where we keep the ice cream freeze over, minimizing electricity use," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Valery Yelkhov, executive director of the Ice Cream Makers Union, as saying. "We are saving cash." Temperatures hit -30oC on Wednesday in Moscow but Itar-Tass quoted industry insiders as saying ice cream sales were holding up despite the extreme cold.
■ Germany
Smugglers' tricks revealed
Hashish stuffed into cricket and field hockey balls on a plane from India, oversized chess pieces stuffed with cocaine from Argentina and a cocaine-filled bicycle from Bolivia were among foiled attempts to smuggle drugs through Frankfurt International Airport in December, officials said on Wednesday. The biggest find by agents at the airport was 33kg of raw opium shaped to look like chocolates on a plane from Istanbul, German customs said. Overall last month, authorities seized 130kg of illegal drugs at the airport, mainly cocaine, heroin and opium.
■ Ireland
`Super dad' discovered
Scientists from Trinity College Dublin may have found the Ireland's most fertile male, with more than 3 million men worldwide among his descendants. The scientists have discovered that as many as one in 12 Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th century warlord who was head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland. The research, testing the Y chromosome which is passed on from fathers to sons, examined DNA samples from 800 males across Ireland.
■ Bulgaria
Drugs priest busted
Police have arrested an elderly village priest on drug charges after he refused to stop growing marijuana, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. The 63-year-old clergyman from Kladensti, a mountain village near the Macedonian border, was arrested on Tuesday after police found 5kg of marijuana in his house and numerous plants in abandoned fields nearby. Police had confiscated the drug at his house numerous times before and believed he was growing it for sale, said a police spokesman.
■ Spain
Museum loses sculpture
The nation's most important modern art museum on Wednesday admitted it had lost a 38 tonne sculpture by the prestigious American artist Richard Serra. The valuable sculpture, titled Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi, was commissioned from the artist by Madrid's Reina Sofia modern art museum in 1986, and was displayed there until 1990. The museum admitted yesterday that the last document it had relating to the piece and the payments made for its storage was dated 1992. The four blocks of metal Serra used for the sculpture were cleared away in 1990 and, as they were too big and heavy to keep at the Reina Sofia, were sent to a private storage depot in Madrid, the museum said. When new Reina Sofia director Ana Martinez ordered her staff to produce an inventory last year, they discovered that the storage company had gone into receivership in 1998. The four 1.5m wide blocks of solid metal that made up the Serra sculpture had disappeared.
■ Israel
Bomber kills self, wounds 15
A bomber killed himself and wounded at least 15 people yesterday afternoon when he blew himself up near Tel Aviv's old central bus station, Israeli police said. One of the injured was reported to be in serious condition. Reports said the bomber apparently detonated an explosive he was carrying in a bag as he stood next to a fast-food stand. Police said the amount of explosives used in the blast was relatively small and there had been no warning that an attack was imminent. There was no official immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but unconfirmed reports said the militant Islamic Jihad movement claimed credit.
■ United States
Nude break-in at car show
Officials are trying to figure out how a woman sneaked into the North American International Auto Show after closing time to pose naked atop the new Dodge Challenger. It happened around 2:30am on Monday when only workers and security guards were supposed to be inside the Cobo Center, the Detroit News reported on Wednesday. Guards found the woman and about a dozen gawkers taking photographs with camera phones the paper quoted workers as saying. Cobo director Glenn Blanton said disciplinary action would be taken if employees were involved in the security breach.
■ Brazil
Stone Age tribe threatened
A sharp rise in malaria among Yanomami Indians threatens the existence of one of the world's last remaining Stone Age tribes, an Indian rights group said on Wednesday. According to the Pro Yanomami Commission, there were 1,400 reported cases of malaria among the Yanomami Indians last year -- more than twice as many as in 2004. The disease, which is occasionally fatal, can also lead to starvation because it prevents Indians from farming, hunting and fishing. The weakened Indians have also become susceptible to tuberculosis, influenza and other respiratory diseases that are on the rise among tribe members.
■ United States
Koala has weeks to live
The only male koala in Riverbanks Zoo in Colombia, South Carolina, has cancer and will likely live for just a few more weeks. A worker found a large node on the koala's neck a week ago. Zoo veterinarian Keith Benson removed it and tests showed it was cancerous. "We're not shooting for a cure here," Benson said on Wednesday. "We're just making him as comfortable as possible." Cancer treatments common for humans, such as chemotherapy, have been tried on captive koalas with bad results. Often, the koalas die within days, and it's not clear whether the cancer treatment or the cancer itself kills them, Benson said.
■ United States
Chili finger couple jailed
A California court judge sentenced a Las Vegas couple who admitted to planting a severed human finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili to lengthy prison terms on Wednesday. The couple, Anna Ayala and Jaime Placencia, pleaded guilty in September to planting the finger as part of an extortion scheme. The couple's story drew widespread attention from the news media and briefly threatened a public relations nightmare for the fast food chain. Ayala and Placencia apologized on Wednesday in state court in San Jose. Placencia was sentenced to 12 years and four months, said his lawyer, Charles Kramer, while Ayala received a nine-year sentence.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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