■ China
Baby formula recalled
Beijing has ordered the recall of baby formula with dangerously low nutritional value, two years after dozens of babies died after drinking counterfeit formula, news reports said yesterday. The recall was ordered by the Health Ministry after inspectors discovered the inferior formula at rural markets, the official Xinhua news agency said. Xinhua didn't say whether any deaths or injuries were blamed on the formula or whether the producer was suspected of knowingly selling an inferior product.
■ China
Two ships sank, 57 missing
A Panamanian freighter and Chinese fishing boat sank within hours of each other in rough seas off eastern Fujian Province, leaving 57 sailors missing, emergency services and official media reported yesterday. Rescuers were still searching for 33 of the freighter's 37-member crew after it sank late on Thursday about 5km from Pingtan island, an official with the provincial maritime rescue center said. A Chinese fishing boat with 27 people on board sank in the same area early yesterday, reports said. Three sailors were rescued, but rest have yet to be found, Xinhua said.
■ Philippines
Arroyo orders commutation
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the commutation to life imprisonment of the death sentences of 280 convicts for humanitarian reasons, a government statement said on Thursday. Arroyo issued the order on Wednesday after a visit to the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa, where more than 1,000 death convicts are imprisoned. She directed the department of justice and the Board of Pardons and Parole to immediately facilitate the commutation, it said.
■ Australia
Not so lucky refugee
Ruol Agang thought himself one of the luckiest men alive last year when he was picked to be among the 5,561 Sudanese resettled in Australia under a humanitarian program. It wasn't to be: four months after arriving in Sydney with his wife and four children, Agang was beaten to death on the street. The 28-year-old had been pelted with eggs by a group of youths in a car. He retaliated, throwing a drink can at the vehicle. It was then that he was bashed senseless. Agang's cousin, Majok Atok, voiced the despair of Sydney's growing Sudanese community. "When we came here we felt we had come to a safe place where nobody could be killed," Atok said. "We ran away from killing."
■ New Zealand
Canine protest planned
Farmers, angry at a new law making microchip identification of their dogs compulsory, are planning an offbeat canine protest outside parliament. "Our dogs will piss on the steps to parliament ... and we won't clean anything up," a farmers' spokesman, Bryan Hocken, warned yesterday. "And if we end up in jail, then we'll take our dogs with us and they'll do their business on the floors there as well." The new law was framed after a series of attacks on people and is aimed to allow instant identification after a dog attack. Farmers are upset they may have to pay NZ$50-NZ$110 (US$33-US$73) to microchip each dog.
■ Japan
One last shot
The nation's obsession with camera-equipped mobile phones has taken a bizarre twist, with mourners at funerals now using the devices to capture a final picture of the deceased. "I get the sense that people no longer respect the dead. It's disturbing," a funeral director told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. At one ceremony several people gathered round the coffin and took out their phones to photograph the corpse, as preparations were made to begin a cremation, she was quoted as saying. "I'm sure the deceased would never want their faces photographed," she said. But others called it a form of a memento in the modern age.
■ Australia
`Supertoads' evolving fast
Cane toads are evolving longer legs so they can be first to the juicy bugs in virgin areas, a researcher said on Thursday. New arrivals in wetlands have legs that are closer to half the length of their bodies compared with just a third in stay-at-home populations of the toxic amphibians. "These supertoads are sprinting along like trained athletes," Sydney University biologist Rick Shine told Australia's ABC Radio. "Short of them developing jet propulsion, it's hard to imagine them going all that much faster."
■ Spain
Bomb explodes near Bilbao
A bomb planted by suspected Basque separatists exploded overnight near Bilbao without causing injuries, news reports said yesterday. The bomb had been left in a bag in front of a construction company near Bilbao. An advance warning allowed police to evacuate the premises and to cordon off the zone. The blast caused material damage. Political leaders attributed the attack to the Basque separatist group ETA. It was the second attributed to ETA within 48 hours and followed speculation that the group was about to declare a ceasefire. Analysts said ETA could be staging minor attacks to demonstrate its capacity to act despite the arrests of hundreds of its members in recent years.
■ Israel
New cartoon contest begins
An Israeli cartoonist has launched an "anti-Semitic cartoon contest" in response to furor among Muslims over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Cartoonist Amitai Sandy said he was inspired by violent Muslim protests and the launching of a Holocaust cartoon competition by an Iranian daily that said it wanted to test the boundaries of free speech espoused by Western countries. There will be no limitations on entries other than that they be witty, he added. "We will show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published," Sandy wrote on his Web site. "No Iranian will beat us on our home turf," he added in reference to the cartoon competition being held in Iran.
■ United Kingdom
Chief Rabbi slams Church
Britain's most senior Jewish leader has condemned the Church of England for voting this month to review its investments in companies whose products are used by Israel in the occupied territories. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said the Anglican vote on whether to pull money from "companies profiting from the illegal occupation" was ill-judged and would inflame relations between the two religions. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the world's 77 million Anglicans, sparked anger by supporting the vote at a meeting of the church's governing body.
■ Italy
Singer's body exhumed
Prosecutors exhumed the body of a popular singer on Wednesday, later saying they had laid to rest suspicions he had been murdered. Luigi Tenco was found dead in his hotel room with a gunshot wound to the head on Jan. 27, 1967, hours after learning that his song had been eliminated from a national music competition. A hand-written note found near Tenco said he had decided to kill himself as a protest against the jury and members of the public who had voted against him. Doubts over his death lingered as no autopsy was carried out and, although a pistol was found next to Tenco, the bullet that killed him was not.
■ United Kingdom
Mechanics get top pay
Visiting a garage can prove costlier than you think, according to new research yesterday which reveals that the average car mechanic in the country often charges more an hour than a doctor or a lawyer. A survey for What Car? magazine shows that drivers frequently pay more than £100 (US$173) an hour for labor at franchised car dealers. The magazine contrasted this with the fees earned by a doctor, charging up to £500 a day, and a junior barrister, who can earn as little as £30 an hour.
■ South Africa
Lion song to pay off for heirs
The family of the Zulu man who penned the original version of the hit song commonly known as The Lion Sleeps Tonight or Wimoweh and featured in Disney's Lion King production, have won a drawn-out court battle for past and future royalties, it was reported yesterday. Solomon Linda wrote the song in 1939 as UyiMbumbe -- meaning "you are a lion" in Zulu. It was recorded by the Gallo music company and later made available for international release in the US in the 1940s. The song went on to become a huge international hit and money spinner with nearly 200 versions. US-based Abeline Music, which has the copyright to the song, is to pay an undisclosed but reportedly significant sum of money into a trust set up for his family. Linda's family, including his daughters who were reportedly living in abject poverty in Soweto, began their legal bid for compensation in 1999.
■ United Kingdom
No kisses for drama students
To kiss or not to kiss? That could be the question for drama teachers if proposed guidelines for love scenes in high-school Shakespeare productions come into force. A peck on the cheek is as far as most on-stage portrayals of love should go in order to protect youngsters from abuse, according to the guidelines, reported in the Times Educational Supplement yesterday. Teachers should also weigh the impact of strong language and consider banning it from lessons and plays if this is in the best interest of pupils, say the guidelines. A review of drama teaching was a key recommendation from a 2004 inquiry into allegations of child abuse at a Welsh high school involving a drama teacher who used his classes as a vehicle for improper activity with children.
■ United States
Rice lobbies against Chavez
Washington wants to curb Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's anti-US influence by lobbying allies to try to expose any anti-democratic policies, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday. In what she termed an "inoculation" strategy, Rice said she had sought support from Europe and other Latin American nations to highlight US charges that Chavez abuses his power to target political opponents and business leaders. She said she had urged governments to go public with criticism of a treason trial against leaders of a movement, Sumate, that failed to oust Chavez in a recall referendum. And she urged labor movements to back striking workers.
■ United States
Officer escapes charges
Federal authorities decided not to file civil-rights charges against a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in 2001, triggering Cincinnati, Ohio's worst racial unrest in decades. The US Justice Department on Wednesday closed its investigation of Stephen Roach. Investigators found inconsistencies in Roach's statements about whether he shot 19-year-old Timothy Thomas accidentally or because he thought Thomas was armed, but decided that wasn't enough to bring charges, authorities said.
■ Brazil
Police on alert for Stones
Police will occupy slums next to Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro for tonight's free Rolling Stones concert, officials said on Wednesday. Rio de Janeiro State Public Security Secretary Marcelo Itagiba criticized the choice of the venue by city authorities, but said everything will be done to prevent clashes, robberies and thefts.
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
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
‘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
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