■ Japan
Man develops space shoes
A shoemaker is developing lightweight sneakers for outer space, hoping to help astronauts keep their muscles from wearing down due to the rigors of zero-gravity. Asics Corp has teamed up with the Japanese space agency to create the sneakers and plans to donate a pair to Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, who will join a US space shuttle mission late next year. "In an environment of no gravity, human muscles become atrophied and astronauts need to train themselves on machines," said Takehiro Tagawa, who developed the far-out footwear.
■ China
Unresponsive officials fired
Beijing has sacked five officials in Sichuan Province after they failed to respond to an outbreak of bird flu in poultry, state media said yesterday. The disciplinary action was announced a week after the WHO highlighted China and Indonesia as two countries that had "room for improvement" in their fight against the virus, citing inadequate response on the local government level. The five officials from Dazhu County were found guilty of dereliction of duty and incompetence in responding to the province's first outbreak of bird flu.
■ China
Evacuees return after blast
More than 16,000 people were allowed to return home a day after being evacuated when chemicals exploded at a warehouse in Guangzhou, state media said yesterday. Some 49 people were injured when the explosion occurred in the city's Tianhe district on Wednesday evening, resulting in the evacuation of the 16,000 -- 10,000 of whom were students from nearby universities, the China Daily said.
■ Australia
New Zealand not for sale
New Zealand is not for sale, despite somebody in Australia trying to offload the nation of 4 million to the highest online bidder. With a starting offer of just A$0.01, brisk bidding for the prime chunk of South Pacific real estate quickly boosted the price to A$3,000 before eBay pulled the plug on the auction this week. "Clearly New Zealand is not for sale," eBay Australia spokesman Daniel Feiler told the New Zealand Press Association, adding that 22 bids had been made before the company acted. The trader has not been named. Apparently unimpressed with the country he was trying to sell, his advertisement described New Zealand as having"very ordinary weather."
■ Indonesia
Suharto charges dropped
Corruption charges against ailing former Indonesian dictator Suharto have been dropped, and he is a "free man," the attorney general announced yesterday. "Now Suharto is no longer a defendant, he is a free man," Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said. Suharto, 84, is currently in hospital in Jakarta, where he has undergone colon surgery. Doctors say he is in frail health, which may have influenced the decision to drop the charges. Rahman said, however, that the decision was made solely on the basis of the law. Rahman's announcement came just hours after the country's president said he had abandoned a plan to drop the corruption charges, citing what he said was public anger over the proposed move.
■ Kyrgyzstan
`Gangster' politician buried
A politician described as a gangster by police was buried on Thursday, a day after gunmen shot him in the head and chest as he left a mosque in the ex-Soviet state, officials said. Ryspek Akmatbayev, was imprisoned for assault and racketeering in the 1990s. Police said it appeared to be a gangland killing. "We only confirmed his death after the examination of his body," Interior Minister Murat Sutalinov told reporters. "I think this [killing] was the action of a criminal group."
■ Afghanistan
Taliban suspects arrested
Canadian forces arrested 10 Taliban suspects during a raid in the southern province of Kandaha and handed them over to Afghan authorities, the Canadian military said yesterday. The men were arrested on Monday in an area where four Canadian soldiers were killed in a bomb blast last month. They were rounded up in a village in a strike launched after tip-off and suspected of being "Taliban or their sympathizers," a Canadian military spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
■ Somalia
Militias battle for capital
Islamic fighters and warlord militias battled for control of Mogadishu for the sixth day yesterday, with the death toll approaching at least 130 in the worst violence in a decade. The Islamic side said five people had died in overnight fighting, bringing the death toll to at least 126. Warlord spokesman Hussein Gutale Rage said the death toll had reached 150 but this could not be immediately verified. Hundreds of people have been wounded in the clashes, which started last Sunday, with shells regularly hitting houses and killing many civilians, including women and children. The rivals have used artillery, mortars and anti-aircraft missiles in the fighting, which analysts see as a proxy battleground for al-Qaeda and Washington, which is widely believed to be funding the warlords.
■ United Kingdom
Blindness coup touted
Researchers reported yesterday in the British medical journal The Lancet that they have taken a big step toward developing a reliable, simple test to detect trachoma, the world's leading cause of preventable blindness. In a study in Tanzania, they found that the test, which uses a swab and an indicator dipstick, was a more accurate way to diagnose trachoma. Repeated infections can lead to a scarring of the underside of the eyelid, which can cause the eyelashes to turn in on the eyeball. This painful affliction can lead to disabling pain and blindness. The WHO estimates that 70 million people are infected with trachoma and 2 million are blind because of it.
■ Nigeria
Oil workers freed
Three foreign oil workers, including an Italian, taken hostage on Thursday were released yesterday, police said. The three employees of Italian oil contractor Saipem were abducted at gunpoint by members of a community where Saipem was working and which was in dispute with the company over its community program. "They have been released. The disagreements must have been resolved," Rivers State Police Commissioner Samuel Agbetuyi said. A Bukuma leader told a local radio station that that the community was demanding 300 million naira (US$2.3 million) in compensation for environmental damage caused by Saipem's laying of a pipeline through the area.
■ Guinea
China offers free stadium
China has offered to build a 50,000-seat soccer stadium in the capital Conakry free of charge, Sports Minister Fode Soumah said on Thursday, in the latest act of "stadium diplomacy" by the Asian giant. The gift could allow Guinea -- the world's largest exporter of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum -- to realize its aim of hosting the 2012 African Nations Cup. The Chinese government has allocated US$50 million to build the stadium in the outskirts of Conakry, which should be finished within two or three years, he said.
■ Denmark
Students stage pasta protest
Seven young activists were detained in Copenhagen on Thursday after pouring some 200kg of spaghetti and tomato sauce on the stairs leading up to the Finance Ministry, police said. The protest was staged against a proposal to cut student grants, the activists said. "The government's planned reduction ... forces young people to live below subsistence level," they said, mocking the government by setting up a "youth buffet on the stairs" of the ministry. Students get up to 4,724 kroner (US$810) per month.
■ United States
Subway foot freak confesses
A 23-year-old with a foot fetish has admitted he tried to kiss, fondle and lick the legs and toes of more than 70 women on the New York subway over the last three years, prosecutors said on Wednesday. In a handwritten confession to police released by the Manhattan district attorney's office, Joseph Weir said his aim was "to make them laugh and smile and open to talk to me." He has been released on US$6,000 bail until a court hearing on June 26. In a rambling confession Weir, who lives in Brooklyn, detailed how he accosted the women between Manhattan and the borough of Queens.
■ Venezuela
Gas cheaper than water
Taxi driver Jaime Tinoco works the streets of Caracas in a 1976 Chevy Nova that guzzles 72 liters of gas a day. But he doesn't worry about fuel efficiency because in Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, drivers fill their tanks for less than the price of a cheap breakfast and love to point out that gasoline costs less than mineral water. President Hugo Chavez vows to maintain subsidies that keep fuel dirt-cheap. "Those gringos have everything -- so why does their gas cost so much?" asked Tinoco between chuckles as he navigated a midday traffic jam. "Don't they have oil reserves?"
■ Argentina
Mystery spill kills penguins
About 100 oil-coated Magellanic penguins have turned up dead in recent weeks off the nation's coast, most in a nature reserve near the southernmost tip of Patagonia, environmentalists and authorities said on Thursday. The Coast Guard said it was sending flights in search of oil spills, but reported finding none that could have caused the birds coated in black crude to begin arriving on shores off the Straits of Magellan. "This is very worrisome. We don't know the source," said Francisco Anglesio, environmental undersecretary for Santa Cruz province where the deaths occurred, speaking with reporters.
■ United States
Cartoon sandwiches a reality
The oversized sandwiches lovingly constructed by Dagwood Bumstead in the Blondie comic strip will soon be on real-life menus thanks to cartoonist Dean Young, the character's alter-ego. Young said on Thursday that the first of his Dagwood's Sandwich Shoppes should open this summer in Clearwater, Florida and then spread across the US and internationally. "This is a dream come true for me," Young, 66, said at a news conference. He said he has been collecting sandwich recipes for over 20 years. One of Dagwood's passions is eating, especially the multi-layered sandwiches of cold-cuts and leftovers he often has before going to bed.
■ Canada
Hunter shoots `grolar bear'
Tests confirmed that a bear killed by a hunter in the far north last month is the first Grizzly-Polar bear cross ever discovered in the wild, officials said on Wednesday. Jim Martell, 65, shot the animal, described by local media as a "pizzly," a "grolar bear," or Martell's favorite, a "polargrizz" on April 16. The Idaho native told the National Post: "Everybody thought it was a Polar bear, and then they started looking more and more and they seen other features that resembled some of a Grizzly as well." The bear had thick, creamy white fur, typical of Polar bears, but its long claws, humped back and shallow face, as well as brown patches around its eyes, nose, back and on one foot are Grizzly traits.
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
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