■ Hong Kong
Arsonist receives life
A 68-year-old man began a life sentence on Thursday after being found guilty of setting fire to a commuter train during rush hour, the South China Morning Post said. The man, Yim Kam-chung, ignited a bottle of solvent in a train carriage in February as it left a busy station in Tsim Sha Tsui, the daily said. The fire was extinguished by a passenger who stamped on the bottle and alerted fellow passengers. Yim later told police he had set out to "cause a tragedy" because the government has confiscated six of his vehicles.
■ Hong Kong
Old food seller arrested
A street hawker has been arrested for selling tins of food out-of-date by up to six years scavenged from trash cans, officials said yesterday. The 47-year-old woman was buying foodstuffs and other items collected from rubbish collection points by scavengers for around a US$1 a bag. She was then selling them on at prices well below the normal market value. They included tea, dried noodles, soy sauce and potato chips. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department was alerted to the case when a woman became ill after eating soup she bought from the hawker that had an expiry date three years earlier.
■ South Korea
Agent Orange makers lose
The Seoul High Court yesterday ordered two US manufacturers of the defoliant Agent Orange to pay US$62 million in medical compensation to South Korean veterans of the Vietnam War and their families. The court ordered Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan, and Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri, to pay the compensation to about 6,800 people. The herbicide was widely used to destroy jungle cover used by communist troops during the war, but South Koreans, Vietnamese and many US veterans later blamed their exposure to the chemical for a variety of illnesses and reproductive disorders, including miscarriages, birth defects, cancers and nervous disorders.
■ Philippines
Rebels battle each other
Fighting broke out between rival factions of the largest Muslim separatist group on Mindanao island on Thursday, highlighting what analysts have said could be a split in the rebels. Hundreds of people have fled a remote village in Maguindanao province after some 200 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) occupied the area following two days of fighting, a rebel spokesman and army officials said. An army spokesman said the fighting was between MILF's radical faction.
■ Egypt
Farmer dumps chicks
A farmer abandoned 10,000 newly hatched chicks to their fate on a desert road east of Cairo fearing they might be infected with the deadly bird flu virus, a police official said on Wednesday. Shocked motorists traveling on the road about 130km east of Cairo contacted police after seeing the chicks running loose on the tarmac on Tuesday, the official added. Health officials gathered the chicks and confirmed after testing that they were not carrying the virus. The farmer has taken back the birds and would not be facing legal proceedings, the official said.
■ Russia
Alleged spies urged to stay
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday said that four British diplomats accused of espionage in Moscow should not be expelled, as their replacements might be cleverer than they were and harder to catch. Putin said he wanted the Russian security services and the foreign ministry to suggest a line of approach to the Kremlin, but questioned the wisdom of expelling the four men. The diplomats were shown on Russian state television on Sunday allegedly retrieving data from a Russian agent, by palmtop computer, via a transmitter hidden in a fake rock. The program claimed that Britain was using spies to fund and communicate with Russian non-governmental organizations.
■ Colombia
Hiccups lead to two deaths
A man accidentally shot his nephew to death while trying to cure his hiccups by pointing a revolver at him to scare him, police in the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla said on Tuesday. After shooting 21-year-old university student David Galvan in the neck, his uncle, Rafael Vargas, 35, was so distraught he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police said. The incident took place on Sunday night while the two were having drinks with neighbors. Galvan started to hiccup and Vargas, who worked as a security guard, said he would use the home remedy for hiccups of scaring him. He pulled out his gun, pointed it at Galvan and it accidentally went off, witnesses told local TV.
■ Libya
Rights record praised
Tripoli won praise on Wednesday for taking "important steps" to improve human rights but was warned it will have to do more to meet international standards. Despite improvements, including the release of 14 political prisoners, Libya continues to hold other political prisoners, conducts unfair trials and restricts free speech, Human Rights Watch said. Monitors from the New York-based body were allowed to visit Libya for the first time last year, a move it welcomed as a step towards greater transparency. Libyan authorities provided access to top officials as well as police stations, an immigrant detention centre and five prisons, where 32 prisoners were interviewed in private, the report said.
■ Bolivia
Sister appointed first lady
Bolivian President Evo Morales' sister will give up her butcher shop to become Bolivia's first lady, filling the role because the new leader is single, his office said on Wednesday. Esther Morales, 54, is married with three children and owns a grocery shop that sells beef and llama meat in the small town of Oruro. Esther Morales, who raised her younger brother after their mother died, has refused to be referred to as first lady, saying it was contrary to her humble social class.
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
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