■ China
Snow snarls rail lines
Heavy snowfalls have caused chaos on China's railways, delaying hundreds of thousands of passengers as the annual travel boom for the Lunar New Year holidays neared its peak, state press said yesterday. As many as 200,000 passengers were delayed at rail stations in Beijing and Henan Province on Thursday, with as many as 90,000 stranded overnight, according to the reports and railway officials. Beijing's West Railway Station was put on "red alert" as additional security forces were called in for crowd control.
■ Hong Kong
Youth asked to report piracy
Thousands of Hong Kong youngsters were yesterday being recruited to report cases of Internet copyright piracy to customs officers. The city's Customs and Excise Department has begun training youth groups to use a Web page to report illegal file-sharing activities using BitTorrent technology. A customs spokesman said up to 200,000 youngsters were expected to be recruited in the campaign which is also aimed at raising awareness about Internet piracy issues.
■ China
Karaoke workers protest
Thousands of karaoke bar and massage parlor workers protested in China's southern boomtown of Shenzhen after their businesses were shut down in an anti-vice campaign, Hong Kong newspapers said yesterday. Four of the protest leaders were stripped to their underwear and taken away by police, another 25 were detained for 15 days, and about 1,000 were taken to police stations and made to register, the Ming Pao newspaper said. Some 2,000 police diverted traffic and surrounded some 5,000 protesters.
■ Singapore
Transsexual spared the cane
A court has spared a Thai transsexual drug dealer from caning because the nation's law does not allow women to be sentenced to that punishment, The Straits Times reported yesterday. Thai prostitute Mongkon Pusuwan, 37, who underwent a sex change from male to female a decade ago, was instead sentenced on Wednesday to six years in jail after a medical report concluded that she was a woman, the report said. District Judge Bala Reddy handed down the sentence after Mongkon pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking in cocaine and tablets containing ketamine, it said.
■ New Zealand
Burglar loses face
An incompetent burglar captured and hog-tied by elderly members of a petanque club was a "laughing stock" in prison and would never again be able to hold his head up in criminal circles, his lawyer said yesterday. Clinton Michael Dearman, 38, was captured and tied up by arriving members after he broke into the club in Christchurch on Dec. 11. The humiliation Dearman had suffered as a result of media publicity should be taken into account in sentencing, his lawyer said. But Judge Michael Crosbie showed little sympathy, sentencing Dearman to two years and four months in jail.
■ Australia
Better late than never
In a case of better late than never, a woman has collected A$100,000 (US$74,810) after cashing in a lottery ticket more than a decade after it was bought, an official said yesterday. The woman, who asked not to be identified, collected her winnings this week after discovering the ticket lodged in a greeting card she found in her home, a spokesman for New South Wales state Gaming Minister Grant McBride said on condition of anonymity. The lottery ticket was bought in 1992. The winner was doubly lucky as lottery officials are in the process of reining in the length of time people have to claim their winnings.
■ Pakistan
Cross-border service hailed
The first Pakistani bus left for India yesterday in a new cross-border service opened amid efforts to improve ties after a half-century of hostile relations. The bus rolled out amid the beating of drums from the eastern city of Lahore to Amritsar in India, the 26 passengers showered with rose petals as they boarded. "It will promote tourism, understanding and stability between the two countries," said Aslam Iqbal, Punjab's tourism minister. Iqbal saw off the bus as it left the station. The two countries signed an agreement in December to start two bus services every week between Lahore and Amritsar. The first bus from Amritsar is slated to leave for Lahore on Jan. 24.
■ United Kingdom
Blind woman regains sight
A 74-year-old woman who had been blind for 25 years awoke in a hospital after suffering a heart attack and could see again, telling her husband: "You've got older," a newspaper reported yesterday. Doctors were at a loss to explain how Joyce Urch, who lived in a world of shadows and near darkness since 1979, had recovered her sight after the heart attack 16 months ago, the Daily Telegraph reported. Urch, who was treated at Walgrave Hospital in Coventry, where doctors spent three days battling to save her life, called it a "miracle," the daily said.
■ United Kingdom
Pain more pleasure for men
Germans have a word for it -- schadenfreude -- and when it comes to getting pleasure from someone else's misfortune, men seem to enjoy it more than women. Such is the conclusion reached by scientists at University College London in what they say is the first neuroscientific evidence of schadenfreude. Using brain-imaging techniques, they compared how men and women reacted when watching other people suffer pain. If the sufferer was someone they liked, areas of the brain linked to empathy and pain were activated in both sexes. Women had a similar response if they disliked the person experiencing the pain, but men showed a surge in the reward areas of the brain.
■ Italy
Ancient tomb discovered
Archaeologists digging beneath the Roman Forum have discovered a 3,000-year-old tomb that pre-dates the birth of ancient Rome by several hundred years. State TV on Thursday night showed an excavation team removing vases from the tomb, which resembled a deep well. Archaeologists were excavating under the level of the ancient forum when they dug up the tomb, which they suspect is part of an entire necropolis, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. "I am convinced that the excavations will bring more tombs to light," ANSA quoted Rome's archaeology commissioner, Eugenio La Rocca, as saying. Also found inside the tomb was a funerary urn, it said.
■ Italy
Iraqi pullout planned
The nation will withdraw 1,000 of its 2,600 troops in Iraq by June and aims to finish its mission there by the end of this year, Defense Minister Antonio Martino told a parliamentary committee on Thursday. Italy will gradually end its military presence and phase into a new type of presence that he said would be "substantially civilian in nature." The country, which has the fourth largest foreign contingent in Iraq, faces a general election next April where the unpopular Iraq war is likely to become an issue.
■ Syria
President supports Iran
President Bashar Assad of Syria greeted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Damascus on Thursday and said he supported Iran's drive for a peaceful nuclear program. "Syria supports the right of Iran and any country in the world to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes," Assad said during a joint news conference with Ahmadinejad. "Those countries which object to this issue did not offer convincing reasons as to whether this is legitimate or not." Assad also repeated his long-standing demand that Israel give up nuclear weapons, and he insisted that any counterproliferation effort in the Middle East should begin with pressure on Israel.
■ United States
Indiana times changing
After five months of hearings and 6,000 public comments, the US Department of Transportation declared on Wednesday what time it is in Indiana. Turns out it will still depend on where you are. Eight Indiana counties will move to the central time zone, joining 10 others clustered in the northwest and southwest corners of the state. The remaining 74 counties will remain one hour ahead in the eastern time zone. The switch takes place on April 2, when Indiana along with most of the rest of the US advances its clocks forward one hour to observe daylight savings time.
■ United States
Knitting proves to be a hit
If you're stuck for entertainment in New York on a Friday night, and as long as you're man enough, you can try learning to rib at "Boyz Nite" at a Greenwich Village venue from 9 until late. That's rib as in knitting the cuff of your sweater. Knit New York, a wool and craft store, is fighting the stereotype that knitting is the province of women. "Are you strong enough to knit and man enough to purl?" says an advertisement for Boyz Nite on the shop's Web site. The store draws dozens of men to its weekly men's night where beginners and experts gather to exchange tips over beer and hot dogs.
■ United States
Shatner sells kidney stone
Going maybe where no other actor has gone before, Star Trek star William Shatner has sold a piece of his body for charity. Shatner, famed for playing Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship USS. Enterprise in the original Star Trek TV series, sold his kidney stone to online casino GoldenPalace.Com for US$25,000. The money will be donated by Shatner to Habitat for Humanity to build houses for the poor. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Shatner about his painful stone on Nov. 14 and immediately called it "the ultimate Star Trek collectible" and offered to sell it on his show.
■ United States
Soul pioneer dies
Veteran soul singer Wilson Pickett, known for such hits as Mustang Sally and In the Midnight Hour, died on Thursday of a heart attack, his manager said. He was 64. Pickett, famed for his trademark screams, flaming delivery and flamboyant costumes, performed on a regular basis until about a year ago, when he began suffering from health problems, said his manager, Margo Lewis. Dubbed "Wicked" Wilson Pickett by Jerry Wexler, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, where he enjoyed his greatest success, Pickett was one of the leading exponents of the hard-edged Memphis sound, a grittier alternative to Motown Records' pop singles.
■ United States
Milkshake poisoner jailed
A woman accused of poisoning her husband and son by lacing their milkshakes with prescription drugs was sentenced on Thursday to up to 30 years in prison. Mary Cannon, 47, pleaded no contest but mentally ill to two counts of attempted murder. A judge sentenced Cannon to a minimum of 11 years and three months and a maximum of 30 years. In 2004, prosecutors said, Cannon put drugs in milkshakes then gave them to her husband, Richard Shaw, and then-13-year-old son, Ian Shaw. Toxicologists and police said the drugs found in the victims and residue from the milkshakes matched Cannon's anti-anxiety medications. Richard Shaw was hospitalized for 11 days, seven of them in a coma. Ian, who had less medicine in his system, was hospitalized for three days.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done