■ China
Skulls hacked for art
The police have concluded that the 121 skulls found in a ravine with their tops missing were byproducts of a local handicraft industry using human bone as a vital ingredient, state media reported yesterday. A farmer surnamed Qiao, from Qinghai Province, had hacked the skulls from the bodies of unmarked graves and sold them to two artists in neighboring Gansu Province, Xinhua news agency said. The two artists only needed the top of the skulls and dumped the rest in the ravine, leading to speculation after their discovery that the skulls might be anything from monkeys to the victims of a serial killer. Art involving the use of human bones is a prominent part of, among others, Tibetan folklore. Handicrafts claiming to be made from human skulls are often on prominent display in many Tibetan markets.
■ Hong Kong
Breast gel injections risky
Health officials yesterday warned women to avoid controversial breast enlargement gel injections after operations for six women went horrifically wrong. Fifty three women from Hong Kong have complained about suffering complications such as infections and abscesses after having polyacrylamide gel injected into their breasts. Six of those women have had to have parts of their breasts surgically removed after suffering severe complications from the operation, a spokesman for the Department of Health said. Ninety percent of the women who suffered complications had the gel injected at hospitals in China while the other victims had operations in Hong Kong and Thailand. Hong Kong officials are now seeking to ban the use of the gel for breast enlargements, the spokesman said.
■ New Zealand
Mollusks to be mollycoddled
State-owned mining company Solid Energy said yesterday it will shell out NZ$2 million (US$1.2 million) to move a colony of endangered snails from the site of a planned coal mine. The company will deploy a team of 15 snail catchers to pluck 250 giant Powelliphanta augustus snails from their home on a hill rising from the country's South Island -- the only place the snails are known to live -- and transport them each in their own sterile plastic container to a new home. The relocation bill comes in at NZ$8,000 per snail. Among other conditions was that the snails must be moved by hand and not by mechanically scooping up their habitat, as earlier proposed.
■ India
Pilot tried to fly while drunk
An Indian low-cost airline suspended a pilot after he was found drunk shortly before he was due to fly an aircraft with about 100 passengers on board, officials said on Wednesday. A surprise check on Tuesday at Mumbai airport -- India's busiest -- threw up several minor violations of safety norms by airlines, including an instance of a pilot in another low-cost carrier trying to fly in a T-shirt because his only uniform had gone to the laundry. Aviation officials said Captain N. Ronaldo, a South American pilot flying an Air Deccan plane from Mumbai to Kolkata, was referred for "action" after being found drunk on duty.
■ Malaysia
Trillion-dollar bill explained
Malaysia's largest telephone company blamed a debt collection agency yesterday for a misplaced decimal point that resulted in a US$218 trillion phone bill being sent to a dead man. Telekom Malaysia said the agency mistakenly sent out a notice demanding payment of 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit (US$218 trillion) instead of the actual 80.640000000000001 ringgit (US$21.80). The notice threatened court action if the bill was not paid. Telekom spokeswoman Mariam Bevi Batcha said the mix-up had been explained to Yahaya Wahab, who received the bill on behalf of his late father.
■ Malaysia
`Playboy' hopes dashed
An Indonesian maid posed in her underwear for pictures her female employer promised would appear in the Indonesian version of Playboy, but complained after receiving no payment, a Malaysian social group said on Wednesday. Playboy magazine caused a stir at its launch in Indonesia last week, despite having less skin on display than US issues of 50 years ago. In exchange for a promise of 1,000 ringgit (US$272) and the use of her connections with the magazine to get the pictures printed, the woman took pictures of her 25-year-old maid in seductive postures, the Star newspaper said.
■ Malaysia
Weird reptiles discovered
Residents in rural Malaysia have found a two-tailed lizard and a toad with a 40cm tail, news reports said yesterday. Farmer Ahmad Mustafa caught the unusual green lizard with a split tail near his house last month in the Penang State, the New Straits Times said in a report accompanied by a photograph of the reptile. The lizard "has found a special place in Ahmad's heart," the Times said. Also yesterday, the Star said that Chiew Ah Chan was cleaning her house on Wednesday when she saw the toad trying to hop out of a drain with a tail measured at 40cm. The family intends to release it in a few days after curiosity in the neighborhood has subsided.
■ United Kingdom
Chinese corpse expo opens
An exhibition of corpses from China opened in London on Wednesday to teach people more about their bodies, organizers said, but concerns were raised about the identity of the dead. Clutching a basketball, holding a baton or just sitting down -- these are some of the poses struck by 22 genuine human bodies, naked and with their organs and bones exposed, that form part of the display. "Bodies ... The Exhibition," at Earls Court in west London, offers a rare glimpse of the insides of real human bodies, organizers said.
■ United Kingdom
Britons top chocoholics
Britons are Europe's top chocoholics, according to a survey by Datamonitor published on Wednesday which shows average consumption of 10kg a year, nearly five times the amount eaten by the more weight-conscious Italians. The UK spent £4.3 billion (US$7.5 billion) to chomp its way through 605,000 tonnes of chocolate last year and Britons ended up consuming a quarter of the continent's entire chocolate supply, it said. The survey showed that the average spending on chocolate was £72 a head in Britain last year, compared with £40 in France, £31 in Germany and £18 in Italy.
■ United Kingdom
`Lotto Rapist' victim loses
The elderly victim of a convicted rapist lost a legal bid on Wednesday to make the attacker pay compensation after he won millions on the national lottery while in prison. But her legal representatives said they would appeal to the House of Lords -- the country's highest court. Iorworth Hoare, dubbed the "Lotto rapist" by the media, spent 16 years in jail and while on weekend leave from prison in 2004 prior to his release he bought a lottery ticket which netted him £7 million (US$12.29 million). His 77-year-old victim had argued Hoare should be made to pay for his "violent and disgusting sexual assault" that left her mentally scarred.
■ Ukraine
Official told to drop new car
The president has told a top member of his government to sell a flashy new car with built-in massage seats, paid for with state funds because the official was used to riding around in the latest top of the range models. "Yesterday ... we had a talk and I asked him that the car be sold immediately," Viktor Yushchenko told a news conference in Kiev on Wednesday. The move came after a muckracking online newspaper reported last week that Olexiy Ivchenko, head of the state oil and gas firm Naftogaz, was riding around in a new Mercedes. Ivchenko said the car was bought by a Naftogaz subsidiary for his use because "since 1992 I've ridden around in the latest models."
■ South Africa
Dissatisfied client barred
A judge on Wednesday barred a dissatisfied customer from entering any Absa bank branch after his pet snakes bit one person when he released them inside the headquarters of the country's largest bank. Absa had requested the restraining order against Jan Abel Manamela, who released five poisonous Puff adder snakes at the bank's Johannesburg headquarters in 2004, the South African Press Association said. Manamela was sentenced to three years in prison after the incident but was released on parole in February. Manamela had accused Absa of defrauding him after it sold his pickup truck following what it said was his failure to pay off a loan.
■ Mexico
Five die in drug violence
Gunmen shot dead four men in a northern border city and a man was killed in a grenade attack at a Pacific coast restaurant as drug violence spiraled, police said on Wednesday. Hitmen armed with assault rifles shot dead four men and wounded three others as they drove through the streets of Nuevo Laredo, which lies over the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas, late on Tuesday, police said. In the western state of Guerrero, a man was killed and eight people were seriously injured, police said, after a man lobbed a grenade into a restaurant in the town of Petatlan, some 300km southwest of Mexico City, early on Wednesday.
■ United States
Second Disney ride death
A 49-year-old woman died a day after becoming ill after riding ``Mission: Space'' at Walt Disney World -- the second death in less than a year related to the ride. The woman became ill after the rocketship ride on Tuesday and was transported to hospital she died, Walt Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said. The Epcot space ride was closed in June after the death of a four-year-old boy but reopened after company engineers concluded it was operating normally. The Florida state Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection has been notified and will monitor an inspection of the ride, Disney officials said.
■ Brazil
Ex-presidential aide accused
Federal prosecutors have accused the former chief of staff of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of being the ringleader of a "sophisticated criminal organization" that allegedly bribed congressmen to support the ruling Workers Party. Chief Prosecutor Antonio Fernando Souza asked the Supreme Court to investigate Jose Dirceu and 39 other high-ranking politicians, bankers and businessmen for links to the corruption scandal. Dirceu, accused of planning and operating the bribes-for-votes scheme, resigned last year and was expelled from Congress. Silva was not cited in the report, and an independent congressional probe into the scandal said that Silva was not responsible for the actions of his subordinates.
■ United States
`Sextuplets' couple exposed
A couple who lied about giving birth to a set of sextuplets apologized on Wednesday for the scheme aimed at tapping neighbors' generosity. Sarah and Kris Everson of Grain Valley, Missouri, could face criminal charges for collecting cash and other gifts after going public with a story of six newborn babies clinging to life. As the couple told it,the pregnancy came as a surprise discovered during a routine doctor's appointment. The births were said to have happened on March 8, but the Eversons said they kept it quiet because of a family dispute. A story on the front page of the Examiner in Independence newspaper showed a photograph of the couple holding six one-piece baby outfits and announcing the births.
■ Mexico
Experts give cash warning
A proposal in US Congress to legalize millions of undocumented migrants could have a paradoxical effect, experts say, slashing the amount of money they send home and blocking economic development. Experts say mass legalization could allow many migrants to bring their families north to live with them, eliminating the main reason they send money home. That would affect local businesses that have come to depend on money sent from the US.
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