■ China
Cattle prods used in raid
Police raided a bible school run by an underground Protestant church, detaining 36 people amid a nationwide crackdown on Christians worshipping outside state-controlled churches, an overseas support group said. About 50 officers armed with electric cattle prods and backed by more than 10 police vehicles surrounded the school in Anhui Province on Wednesday, the China Aid Association said. Students, teachers and church leaders, were taken away in police vans, the group said. The school's owner, Chu Huaiting, was later arrested at his home, it said.
■ China
6,000 chicks die on farm
Six thousand chicks have died on a farm from a suspected parasite-related illness, but officials have not ruled out bird flu as a cause, a government Web site and a news report said yesterday. The birds died over several weeks in the Guangzhou, the Guangzhou Food Safety News Network Web site said. The report said the chicks are suspected of falling ill due to cold and rainy weather. Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po daily, quoting local residents, put the toll at nearly 9,000. It quoted agricultural officials as saying the parasite Coccidia is suspected, but it also quoted an animal disease prevention official as saying bird flu could not be immediately ruled out.
■ China
Labor activist released
Beijing has released labor activist Xiao Yunliang (肖雲良) 24 days before his four-year jail term for subversion was due to end, a Hong Kong human-rights report said. Xiao led workers in a three-day siege of a city hall in their demand for back pay, the China Labor Bulletin said. He was released last Thursday.
■ Japan
Drinking saves lives
Teetotalers and heavy drinkers face a greater risk of suicide than moderate drinkers, according to a study released yesterday. Heavy drinkers and men who never have a drop both commit suicide at 2.3 times the rate of those who enjoy only a few drinks a month, said the study released by the health ministry. Heavy drinkers were classified as men who knocked back the equivalent of six glasses of wine or three double-shots of whisky a day more than once a week. However, the researchers cautioned that drinking more moderately would not necessarily decrease the risk of suicide as other factors such as stress were also important.
■ Indonesia
Elephants probably poisoned
Six wild Sumatran elephants found dead with blackened mouths on the jungle floor of Mahato, Riau Province, were believed to have been poisoned, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) official said on yesterday. "We have a strong belief that they were all poisoned," Desmarita Murni, WWF communications officer for species programs said, adding that the WWF planned to perform an autopsy later yesterday to find out exact details on how and who might poisoned the wild beasts. Continuous conflicts between the wild beasts and villagers encroaching into the jungle have often been cited as the cause of the elephants' occasional rampages that damage houses and kill villagers in Riau Province.
■ Hong Kong
`Wizard' cons women
A man tricked two women into having sex with him by telling them he was a wizard and it would bring them luck, a court report said yesterday. The man, a 47-year-old Indonesian-Chinese, is alleged to have told the two women they were possessed by demons and bad luck and that they needed to perform a ritual to change their fortune after reading their palms. The ritual involved going back to a guest house and having unprotected sex with the man on five occasions over a period of 12 months from February 2003, said the report in the South China Morning Post.
■ Japan
Students become apathetic
High school students in Japan are less interested in academic achievement and family ties than peers in the US, China and South Korea, but more enthusiastic about comics and other entertainment, a poll said. The four-nation survey, published on Wednesday by the government-backed Japan Youth Research Institute, also showed that the Japanese felt most fondly about the US but least friendly toward China. Only one-third of Japanese students cared to improve grades, sharply below the three-quarters in the other three nations.
■ East Timor
Deserters to be punished
Hundreds of soldiers who deserted their barracks alleging poor treatment will no longer receive pay and have been stripped of their right to bear arms and wear uniforms, a top officer said yesterday. "Military personnel who leave their barracks to protest in Dili will from now on not receive their pay," deputy chief of the armed forces, Lere Annan Timor said. Timor declined to say how many soldiers had joined the protest but an officer among those protesting said earlier this week that 404 soldiers left their barracks on Feb. 8. The fledgling army has about 1,500 regular soldiers and 1,500 reservists. Many of them were former resistance fighters unused to the discipline of a regular military force, local media quoted him as saying.
■ Germany
Dinner and a movie
A real-life cannibal who ate a willing victim is being immortalized on the big screen, like the fictional Hannibal Lecter, despite his legal bid to block the movie version of his gruesome crime. Rohtenburg (Butterfly -- A Grimm Love Story) is set to open in Germany next Thursday and will hope to profit from the shock and fascination the case of Armin Meiwes evoked in a transfixed public. The movie tells the tale of fictional US criminal psychology student Katie (Keri Russell) who is drawn in by the bizarre case of a Meiwes-like character called Oliver Hartwin. The cannibal plot of the movie, seen in a preview on Tuesday, is almost identical to real-life events.
■ Gaza /West Bank
Signs of al-Qaeda noted
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in remarks published yesterday there were signs of an al-Qaeda presence in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. "This is intelligence information. We have not yet reached the point of arrests," Abbas said. "The last security report I received was three days ago," he told the London-based al-Hayat newspaper. Israeli officials said they were worried that foreign militants and al-Qaeda agents entered Gaza from Egypt during a brief period of chaos on the border following the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza last year. The Palestinian Authority said that was untrue.
■ Cyprus
Poor spelling foils forger
A court jailed Pakistani national Fazal Ur Rehman for eight months for forgery after police spotted spelling mistakes on stamps on an Afghan passport he was carrying -- otherwise it was a near-perfect copy, the Cyprus Mail said on Wednesday. "Ministry" was spelled "Menistry" and the first "n" was missing from government, the newspaper said. "The passport looked perfect and professionally made ... almost deemed original by forensics," a police officer told a magistrate in the Cypriot capital Nicosia.
■ United Kingdom
Queen opens new Welsh HQ
Queen Elizabeth II opened a new headquarters for the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff on Wednesday, which is seen as one of the world's most environmentally friendly parliamentary buildings. The Senedd building draws its heat from the earth and toilets are flushed by rain water collected on the roof. It features a glass exterior, designed to represent transparent democracy, a curvy, wood-panelled roof interior, and a funnel topped by a mirrored cone to allow for natural light and ventilation.
■ United Kingdom
Record heist: More arrests
Police on Wednesday recovered a "substantial amount" of cash hidden on a farm southeast of London, according to neighbors, as six people were questioned over the UK's biggest robbery. Kent police refused to comment on reports that money had been recovered from the farm, but officers spent a fourth day at the address conducting searches. According to neighbors who live near the manor farm house owned by John Fowler, police said they had discovered the money buried under bracken and branches on the isolated property. Police sources confirmed that Fowler and his wife had been arrested over the Feb. 22 £53 million (US$93 million) robbery of the Tonbridge Securitas depot in Kent alongside three other men and a woman.
■ United States
Man indicted for taped death
A Toms River, New Jersey, man accused in the 1996 slaying of a teacher who surreptitiously tape-recorded her pleas for mercy has been indicted on felony murder and other charges. The five-count indictment against Michael LaSane, 26, was handed up on Tuesday, two years after an appeals court overturned his conviction because his mother had an affair with his lawyer. LaSane is charged in the death of Kathleen Stanfield Weinstein, who used a microcassette recorder to tape 46 minutes of conversation with LaSane before being smothered in a wooded area. The tape was found in her coat pocket.
■ Colombia
President on campaign trail
President Alvaro Uribe kicked off his re-election effort on Wednesday as leftist rebels stepped up an offensive aimed at disrupting the campaign. In response to the new wave of attacks, Uribe ordered the police and armed forces to increase patrols to prevent violence ahead of the May 28 presidential vote. Uribe's supporters in Congress passed a constitutional amendment last year lifting a long-standing ban on presidents seeking a second consecutive term.
■ United States
Pentagon wants shark spies
The Pentagon is funding research into neural implants with the ultimate hope of turning sharks into "stealth spies" capable of gliding undetected through the ocean, the New Scientist says. The research builds on experimental work to control animals by implanting tiny electrodes in their brain, which are then stimulated to induce a behavioral response. "The Pentagon hopes to exploit sharks' natural ability to glide quietly through the water, sense delicate electrical gradients and follow chemical trails," says the report, carried in tomorrow's New Scientist. "By remotely guiding the sharks' movements they hope to transform the animals into stealth spies, perhaps capable of following vessels without being spotted."
■ Latin America
Coca cultivation increasing
Coca cultivation was up in Bolivia and Peru last year and Venezuela is doing little to halt the smuggling of Colombian cocaine across its borders, the US government said in its annual narcotics report on Wednesday. Growth of coca leaf was up 38 percent in Peru and 8 percent in Bolivia last year compared with 2004, despite coca eradication and programs that encourage farmers to grow alternative crops, the US said. Critics of the US-funded war on drugs in the region pointed to the increased cultivation in the second- and third-largest coca-producing nations as evidence of its failure. The report did not provide an estimate for cocaine production in Colombia, the biggest producer.
■ United States
Performing cats a big hit
Russian clown Yuri Kuklachev has a troupe of cats who do handstands, crawl along high wires and balance on balls and he says the secret to training them is realizing that you can't force cats to do anything. "The Moscow Cats Theater" has done so well at a small theater in New York that it recently moved to a bigger venue near Times Square. Kuklachev has 120 cats in Moscow and has brought 26 of them to New York. "If the cat likes to sit you can't force her to do anything else," he said, adding that several of the cats in the New York show simply sit and watch the others. "Each cat likes to do her own trick," Kuklachev said.
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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