■ China
Small coal mines to be shut
The Chinese government has announced it will shut down all small coal mines by the end of next year, as it tries to encourage smaller mines to merge with larger, supposedly more safety-conscious ones, state media reported yesterday. All mines with an annual production capacity under 27,215 tonnes will be closed, the official China Daily newspaper said. "Large firms usually pay more attention to work safety," the paper paraphrased Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, as saying on Monday.
■ Hong Kong
Smokers may face fines
Smokers who light up in no-smoking areas could be landed with a US$193 on-the-spot fine, a news report said yesterday. The fixed penalty, which could be in force within 18 to 24 months, is part of the government's plan to make Hong Kong a smoke-free city. It would mean police and Tobacco Control inspectors would have the power to issue fixed penalty notices to anyone caught smoking in non-smoking areas.
■ China
Tomb sweeping goes online
Virtual carnations, memorial messages and tribute songs were some of the online services available to China's Web surfers too busy yesterday to pay proper respects at the graves of their ancestors. As China passes Tomb Sweeping Day, authorities are urging people to care for the environment and honor relatives online instead, Xinhua news agency said. Several cemeteries and funeral companies in China have heeded the call, establishing online memorial halls promising access to relatives within seconds, 365 days a year.
■ India
Donkeys better than wives
A textbook used at schools in the Indian state of Rajasthan compares housewives to donkeys, and suggests the animals make better companions as they complain less and are more loyal to their "masters," the Times of India reported on Tuesday. "A donkey is like a housewife ... In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents' home, you'll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master," the newspaper reported, quoting a Hindi-language primer meant for 14-year-olds.
■ Singapore
Unfaithful killer jailed
A man who killed his wife after she refused to give him money for his pregnant Indonesian mistress has been jailed for 10 years, news reports said on yesterday. Balakrishnan Doraisamy, 64, told Justice V.K. Rajah he had a daughter and was now a changed man. Rajah said his past convictions showed him to be a father who paid scant attention to his family, the Straits Times said. The judge said on Tuesday he accepted with some difficulty the arguments of the two defense lawyers that life imprisonment was not appropriate because of Balakrishnan's medical condition and age.
■ Cambodia
Four killed at housewarming
A housewarming party turned tragic when four people were crushed to death while inside a house that was knocked down by a thunderstorm in central Cambodia -- one of 40 houses destroyed by torrential rains, officials said yesterday. Seventeen other villagers were injured during the storm on Monday evening that pummeled a district of Kampong Thom Province, about 130km north of Phnom Penh, said Chou Sam Arn, the province's police chief. Separately, two orphaned boys, aged 8 and 12, were killed by lightening on Tuesday while in a rice field searching for frogs to cook for food in Pursat Province, about 165km northwest of Phnom Penh, a police official said.
■ Japan
Focus turns to India
Japan's foreign ministry plans to reorganize itself this year to focus more on India and check China's growing influence in Asia, a newspaper reported yesterday. The ministry plans to create a South Asia Department after the current parliament session ends in June, the conservative Sankei Shimbun said. "The move is aimed at making clear the diplomatic stance of attaching importance to India, whose political and economic presence is growing while checking China, whose influence is spreading among Asian nations," it said.
■ India
Fashion slip-ups face probe
Outraged officials in largely conservative India will examine video clips to see whether a halter slipping off a top model or another's skirt zip splitting at a fashion show were "deliberate" acts, a state minister said. Last week, model Carol Gracias' skimpy halter slipped down to her waist showing her breasts to snapping photographers and rolling TV cameras during a fashion show in Mumbai. This was followed by another "wardrobe malfunction" when former Miss India Gauhar Khan's skirt zip split, revealing her bottom to the media and Mumbai's smart set. This has not gone well with Mumbai's politicians who have been waging a morality campaign which shut down the city's famous dance bars, making thousands of female dancers jobless.
■ United States
Frog cartoon rips French
A sense of humor was holding -- just -- on both sides of the English Channel yesterday, after a budget airline from Yorkshire in northern England posted a Web site cartoon of a French frog blocking a runway with a placard reading "I am lazy." The jibe was prompted by widespread disruption to flights in France, culminating in British passengers chanting "Rosbifs want to go home" for two hours when their plane was marooned at Chambery in the Alps. "It seems to me that either the air traffic controllers or the students run France at the moment," said Philip Meeson, chief executive of Jet2.Com.
■ Germany
Keys to nuclear plant lost
German authorities are changing 150 locks at a nuclear power plant after its owner said they had lost keys to a security area, a ministry spokesman in the south western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said on Monday. Plant operator EnBW said that in spite of intensive searches and questioning it had not been able to recover 12 keys for its Philippsburg plant after discovering they were lost in March. The environment ministry said EnBW informed it the keys were missing and the operator had put extra safety measures in place to control access to the secure area.
■ Iran
Fake wrestlers caught
Police have caught seven young men who were trying to emigrate to Hungary by masquerading as members of the national wrestling team, the official Iran newspaper reported on Monday. Airport police arrested the seven men after a tip-off from the Iranian Wrestling Federation that warned 15 imposters would attempt to slip out of Iran under the pretext of attending a Greco-Roman wrestling contest in Hungary. Getting visas to leave the Islamic Republic for EU countries is a very difficult process for most Iranians. "Seven out of the 15 phoney wrestlers were arrested and warrants have been issued for the arrest of the remaining eight," the newspaper quoted prosecutor Ataollah Roudgar as saying.
■ South Korea
Fishing boat hijacked
A South Korean fishing boat with 25 Asian crew has been hijacked by armed pirates off the coast of Somalia, officials said yesterday. The crew included eight Koreans, nine Indonesians, five Vietnamese and three Chinese, the foreign ministry said. The 351-tonne Dongwon-ho No. 628 was captured early on Tuesday while it was operating with two other South Korean tuna ships owned by Dongwon Fisheries in international waters, the ministry said. The ship was taken to a village near the Somali port of Obbia, Dongwon said, adding there were no reports of any of the crew being harmed in the incident.
■ South Africa
Cop kills eight in rampage
A rampaging South African police detective killed eight people including four colleagues and an infant before being shot dead by police on Tuesday. Superintendent Chippa Mateane, 42, shot three women and a two-year-old boy on Monday night, then opened fire at Kagiso police station in Krugersdorp, a town west of Johannesburg. The killings, shocking even by the standards of South Africa's violent crime epidemic, prompted calls for compulsory psychological counseling for police officers.
■ United States
Souvenir maims teacher
Part of a California teacher's hand was blown off when a 40mm round of ammunition he used as a paperweight on his desk exploded in his classroom. Robert Colla struck the round with an object on Monday afternoon while teaching 20 to 25 students at the Ventura Adult Education Center. Part of Colla's right hand was severed and he suffered severe burns and minor shrapnel wounds to his forearms and torso, a fire official said. "It was just a horrible accident," said Dennis Huston, who teaches computer design alongside Colla. Houston said Colla found the 40mm round while hunting years ago, and "obviously he didn't think the round was live."
■ United States
Jet engine lands on farm
A large part of an engine from an MD-10 cargo jet operated by FedEx fell into a farmer's field near Otwell, Arkansas, officials said. A 1.5m to 1.8m portion of the engine's rear section plummeted from the sky on Tuesday and partially buried itself in the soil, officials said. The engine section came from a plane that had left the airport in Memphis, Tennessee -- about 110km away -- on its way to Seattle, Washington, FedEx officials said. The plane returned safely to the Memphis airport, and no injuries were reported.
■ United States
Murder victim's brother slain
The brother of an investment banker poisoned in Hong Kong in what became known as the "milkshake murder" was found stabbed to death in his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, police said. When movers found the body of 46-year-old Andrew Kissel on Monday, his hands and feet were bound, a manager for JB Moving Services said. There were no signs of forced entry or burglary, Police Chief James Walters said. "This was not a random act," he said. "We do believe that Mr. Kissel was the intended target of this assault." Kissel was facing federal and state criminal charges in New York, including fraud and grand larceny. Andrew Kissel's brother, Robert, was killed in 2003 after his wife fed him a drug-laced milkshake and beat him to death with a statuette. She was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence.
■ Mexico
Border program expanded
Mexico and the US announced on Tuesday they were expanding their intelligence-sharing program aimed at cracking down on people smugglers. The OASISS Program will now operate from San Diego, California, to El Paso, Texas, Mexico's Foreign Relations Department and the US Department of Homeland Security said. The expansion adds 720km or so of the border to the program. Mexican and US agents share real-time information on the movements of traffickers and exchange evidence to prosecute them in court. The program already has helped put 120 migrant traffickers in prison, Mexican President Vicente Fox said last week.
■ Venezuela
US experts turned away
A group of American conservationists who have been teaching Venezuela National Guards how to spot illegal trading of exotic animals said they had been told their services were no longer needed. Ed Clark, president of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, said on Tuesday that no official explanation had been given for canceling the training session, although a military officer told them: "No Americans are allowed to speak to these people."
‘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
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
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
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
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