■ China
Nine die picking walnuts
Nine farmers fell to their deaths while picking walnuts from 20m trees made slippery from days of rain in a mountainous area in Zhejiang Province. An unnamed local government spokesman has stated that the slipperiness of the trees, along with fatigue after long days of work, could explain the accidents. Many farmers also refuse to wear safety harnesses, and some of the pickers are hired hands from outside the area who have less experience harvesting the nuts.
■ Laos
Puppets tell about bird flu
The government is turning to puppets to educate citizens about the threat of bird flu following an outbreak of the deadly virus among chickens, a newspaper said yesterday. The campaign by the Lao National Puppet Theater will begin next month to raise awareness of ways to prevent the spread of bird flu and how to avoid the disease, the English-language Vientiane Times reported. Last month, Laos reported an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu among chickens at a farm near the capital, Vientiane. There have been no reported cases of humans contracting the virus in Laos.
■ Vietnam
Forest ranger found
A forest ranger is recovering in a hospital after being lost for two weeks in Vietnam's Central Highlands. Duong Duc Cong, 57, went missing during an inspection mission on Sept. 1, prompting a search by about 200 people. Cong, was eventually found on Thursday by two members of the Hmong ethnic minority group who were collecting firewood. The ranger survived the two-week saga by eating rice which had been left behind by some villagers who came to the forest to find firewood.
■ New Zealand
Temblor sways buildings
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake shook New Zealand's lower North Island and the top of South Island late on Friday, but police said there were no immediate reports of injury or damage. The tremblor, a sharp jolt that rattled and swayed buildings in the capital, Wellington, happened at 11:43pm local time. Radio reports said the quake was felt as far away as Auckland on North Island, 660km north of the capital.
■ Australia
Irwin friend upset by scam
A close friend of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin said yesterday that he was appalled at reports of people illegally cashing in on the exuberant entertainer's legacy. A 20-year-old woman was arrested on Queensland state's Gold Coast for allegedly selling fake Steve Irwin stickers she said were to raise money for his Wildlife Warriors fund, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. The woman appeared the Southport Magistrates Court early yesterday and was fined A$200 (US$150), the ABC said. Irwin's close friend and manager, John Stainton, said he was devastated by reports that some people were using the entertainer's profile to turn a profit.
■ Seychelles
Judge blasts prison delays
Criminals and lawyers are conspiring to delay court cases so the felons can enjoy Christmas before serving their sentences, a top judge said on Friday. With holidays highly prized in the laid-back Indian Ocean islands, some prisoners have been known to bust out for festivals before then heading back to their cells. But now they are working with lawyers on delaying tactics before they're imprisoned, Allear said. "[They] hope that witnesses will die or forget key evidence with time, forcing the courts to dismiss cases," he added.
■ India
Pregnant pooch costs guard
An Indian policeman charged with guarding industrial plants in West Bengal has had his salary cut for failing to stop his guard dog from becoming pregnant, officials said on Thursday. Authorities at a steel plant in Malda, southwest of Kolkata, took a dim view of constable Sunil Kumar's oversight after the dog mated with a stray and gave birth to 10 puppies. "It is a very sensitive issue in our department," S. Bhatnagar, the deputy inspector general of the state's Central Industrial Security Forces, said. "The Labrador could not carry out her duties properly during her pregnancy and at time of delivery she was on leave." Kumar, whose pay has been cut from 3,540 rupees (US$77) a month to 3,295 rupees, on Wednesday appealed against the decision in the Kolkata high court.
■ Vietnam
PM wants money back
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered a former education minister to return thousands of dollars of state money used for his English studies in Britain following a public outcry, state-controlled media reported yesterday. Former Education Minister Nguyen Minh Hien left for Britain last month for a six-month English training course, paid for with US$10,000 in government money. Hien, 59, was replaced in a June Cabinet reshuffle. Under Education Ministry regulations, only people under age 50 are eligible for overseas training using state money. Dung said the issue "has had an adverse impact on the public," the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. Dung demanded the money be returned, it said. Hien's use of state funds prompted outrage among the public, who demanded the government take back the money, state media have reported.
■ United Kingdom
Floating table unveiled
Two designers have come up with an unusual way of escaping a flash flood: a dining table that can quickly be converted to a life raft. The table, entitled Either Oar, has removable legs that convert into paddles and a built-in buoyancy tank. It is part of a series of designs created "as a response to climate change and natural disasters of recent times." The range, designed by David Cameron and Toby Hadden, includes other dual-purpose devices such as a vase that switches to an emergency flashlight if knocked from its ledge, and a series of picture frames that turn into flashing navigational aids.
■ United Nations
Sex abuse `out of control'
A senior UN official on Friday called sexual abuse a "cancer" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and told military and civilian leaders they had to condemn it publicly and prosecute offenders. In an address to the UN Security Council on his recent trip to the Congo, Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said thousands of women and girls had been raped by soldiers in the nation's national army. "Sexual abuse has become a cancer in Congolese society that seems to be out of control," Egeland said. "Military and civilian authorities are still virtually unaccountable for crimes against civilians."
■ Russia
Officers to get new uniforms
Officers in the nation's special services are about to shed their army-green uniforms for smart new black ones the Izvestia daily reported on Friday. The move is part of a multi-million-dollar effort to smarten up the country's vast network of security officials by ordering over 150,000 new uniforms, news weekly Itogi reported last week. With an officer's uniform reportedly costing up to 8,000 rubles (US$300), the bill for the refit could reach tens of millions of dollars. The security bodies that made up the Soviet-era KGB, including the FSB secret service, will get the new bluish-black uniforms "to distinguish them from officers in the army," said FSB lieutenant-colonel Igor Barinov, Izvestia reported.
■ Madagascar
Soldier fires at leader's jet
A soldier pumped 13 shots into the aircraft of Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana, forcing him to leave for a summit in Cuba on Thursday on a commercial flight, the government said. Presidential spokesman Moxe Ramandimbilahatra said the hapless guard imagined seeing someone approach "Force One" when he fired a volley of shots into it a few days ago. "The soldier was hallucinating ... Very upset by what he did, he attempted to kill himself by taking poison but he failed," said security official Lucien Victor Razakanirina. The soldier told the local media: "I noticed somebody approaching the presidential plane and I fired on him after shouting out a warning because he was about to cross into the sensitive zone."
■ United Kingdom
Terror suspect deported
A 33-year-old man, of dual French-Algerian nationality, who can only be identified as MK, was formally deported on Thursday, the UK Home Office said on Friday. But he decided to leave without being forcibly expelled. After years in and out of the courts, and jail, MK decided to leave Britain voluntarily, according to his lawyers. British officials said yesterday that MK had links to "extreme networks."
■ United States
Survivor gets ethnic
The Asians beat the black team in Thursday night's premiere of the racially segregated reality show Survivor: Cook Islands. That was the reality of the decision by CBS network to divide contestants along racial lines. Survivor, which is in its 13th season and facing a slump in ratings of almost 50 percent from a high of 30 million viewers, was looking for a cheap publicity stunt. The program's makers said the strategy was designed to boost ethnic representation on primetime TV. Contestants on the show are divided into four ethnic groups: "Hispanic tribe," "white tribe," "black tribe" and "Asian tribe."
■ United States
Super Bowl driver guilty
A Boston motorist was found guilty of manslaughter on Friday in the death of a Super Bowl reveler who was struck when the man drove his car through a crowd celebrating the New England Patriots' 2004 football championship. Stanley Filoma was charged with killing one man and injuring four others when his sport utility vehicle struck them on Feb. 1, 2004. Prosecutors contend Filoma was drunk and fleeing police. Filoma said he panicked when two groups attacked his car. "I just made up my mind to just leave the street and get out of there," Filoma testified on Wednesday.
■ United States
Dentist pleads guilty
Barton Corbin, a dentist, pleaded guilty on Friday to killing his wife, Jennifer Corbin, in 2004 and to shooting his girlfriend to death 14 years earlier while he was in dental school. In both cases, the women's deaths had initially been declared suicides. Corbin had been scheduled to stand trial for the death of his former girlfriend. He was sentenced to two terms in prison, though the judge ordered that they be served simultaneously and that Corbin be eligible for parole. Corbin showed no motion when he entered his pleas. "God might forgive you [but] I never will," Jennifer Corbin's father, Max Barber, told Corbin. "I speak for my family when I say I just virtually hope you burn in hell."
■ Canada
More for Afghanistan
The Defence Department said it will send 200 more soldiers and a Leopard tank squadron to Afghanistan "in light of the changing tactical situation in the area."The deployment will bring to 2,500 the number of Canadian troops as part of the NATO deployment there. "We have reached the stage where, with a small increase in personnel and equipment, we can dramatically multiply our opportunities to secure and stabilize the region," General Rick Hillier said in a statement. An infantry company will protect and escort construction crews and "provide a quick reaction force for Kandahar," the announcement said. The Leopard tank squadron will allow Canadian forces to fight in those areas where Taliban fighters have built robust defenses.
■ Perubr />
Peru's `Mona Lisa' found
Peru celebrated the return on Friday of a centuries-old embossed gold headdress -- renowned as Peru's equivalent of the "Mona Lisa" -- a month after it was recovered from a dusty office cabinet in London. The antique had been stolen in 1988 from a tomb in the Jequetepeque valley in northern Peru. It was recovered last month during an undercover "sting" operation by Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques squad. Collectors. The headdress could be among Peru's most valuable treasures, worth close to US$2 million.
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
STICKING TO DEFENSE: Despite the screening of videos in which they appeared, one of the defendants said they had no memory of the event A court trying a Frenchman charged with drugging his wife and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her screened videos of the abuse to the public on Friday, to challenge several codefendants who denied knowing she was unconscious during their actions. The judge in the southern city of Avignon had nine videos and several photographs of the abuse of Gisele Pelicot shown in the courtroom and an adjoining public chamber, involving seven of the 50 men accused alongside her husband. Present in the courtroom herself, Gisele Pelicot looked at her telephone during the hour and a half of screenings, while her ex-husband
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
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