■ China
Miners killed in explosion
A gas explosion has killed 11 miners at a coal mine in the province of Jilin, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The blast happened in the early hours of yesterday morning at the Xinyu mine near Baishan city, trapping the 11 who were working underground, it said. Rescuers found their bodies five hours later, Xinhua added. China is struggling to meet booming demand for coal, which fuels about 70 percent of its energy consumption. In the rush for profits, safety regulations are often ignored, production is pushed beyond limits and dangerous mines that have been shut down are reopened illegally.
■ South Korea
Seeking solace in sex
Condom sales and pay-by-the-hour "love motel" bookings surged across the country in the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear test, the nation's top newspaper reported yesterday. South Koreans are used to living in the shadow of war, and life has continued as normal in Seoul, in the wake of the Oct. 9 test. But figures published by the Chosun Ilbo yesterday suggest that despite their apparently blase reaction to the North's nuclear bluster, many South Koreans may be seeking solace in sex.
■ South Korea
Choi Kyu-ah remembered
The country bade farewell yesterday to its shortest-serving president, holding a national funeral for a man whose eight turbulent months in office marked one of the darkest chapters of the country's modern history. Choi Kyu-ah rose to the top job while serving as prime minister in 1979, after then-president Park Chung-hee was assassinated by his own intelligence chief. However, Choi was forced to quit eight months later after a coup.
■ Japan
Apology stands
The government stands by its past apology to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said yesterday, after his deputy questioned the official line. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura called on Wednesday for a review of the landmark 1993 statement in which Tokyo apologized to "comfort women," who were forced into sex when Japanese troops invaded other Asian countries. Shimomura said in a speech that he personally believed the 1993 statement needed to be reviewed "by studying more about the facts after collecting objective and scientific knowledge." Shiozaki indicated that Shimomura would not be reprimanded as he was speaking in a personal capacity.
■ Bangladesh
New party formed
A group of politicians resigned from Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday and launched a new political group, accusing her government of corruption and incompetence. The formation of the Liberal Democratic Party was announced at a news conference in Dhaka. The desertions came only two days before Zia was constitutionally set to hand over power to a caretaker administration, completing her five-year term. The interim government will hold a national election within 90 days.
■ Australia
Cleric's words cause offense
A senior Muslim cleric triggered outrage yesterday for likening women who dress immodestly to meat that is left out for prey to eat -- a comment critics said excused rape. Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali's spokesman said the cleric's comments in a sermon last month had been taken out of context in a report in the Australian newspaper. "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's," the paper quoted Hilali as saying. "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred," he said.
■ Malaysia
Holiday proves deadlier
Eighteen more people were killed in road accidents, raising to 156 the number of traffic fatalities during a holiday period when millions traveled across the country, a news report said yesterday. The deaths on Wednesday mean that this year's total surpasses the 145 deaths recorded during the same holiday season last year, police said, despite a road safety campaign launched this year on Oct. 17. The campaign covered the Hindu festival of Deepawali last weekend and Id-al-Fitr this week to celebrate the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. The number of road accidents on the opening day of the festive season also rose to 1,042 from 1,006 a year ago.
■ Turkmenistan
No more utilities bills
President Saparmurat Niyazov had parliament promise free natural gas, power and water to every citizen through 2030. "This decision would help ensure a carefree life for our people," he said on Wednesday, adding that the nation had enough hydrocarbons to last 250 years. In 1993 Niyazov ordered that all residents receive gas, electricity, water and salt free of charge for a decade, and in 2003 had the move extended through 2020.
■ Russia
Tainted alcohol kills dozens
A region has imposed a state of emergency after more than 400 people were taken to hospital and 15 died as a result of drinking tainted alcohol, television reported on yesterday. The state of emergency was declared in the Pskov region, about 700km west of Moscow, but other regions across the country also reported mass outbreaks of alcohol poisoning with dozens of deaths. Public health officials who seized alcohol on sale in the Pskov region found it contained substances usually used in medicines, Channel One television said. The substances react dangerously when mixed with alcohol, it said. The first cases of alcohol poisoning were reported three weeks ago.
■ Azerbaijan
Foreign programs banned
Authorities will bar local broadcasters from airing programs from the BBC, Radio Liberty and Voice of America starting next year, the nation's broadcasting chief said on Wednesday. The opposition media denounced the move as part of a government campaign against the freedom of speech. Nushirrin Maharramov, the head of the National Broadcasting Council, said that local broadcasters lacked "proper licenses" allowing them to air programs from foreign radio stations. The three radio stations would be barred from airing their program through local broadcasters starting Jan. 1.
■ Ghana
Alleged cheat arrested
A 30-year-old man was arrested after writing his wife's paper in a science exam, police said on Wednesday. Kofi Ochere and his wife Christiana Yeboah, 28, a teacher, had both registered for the exam at the Presbyterian Secondary School in Legon, a suburb of the capital Accra. But Ochere, who did not need the qualification, offered to write his wife's paper while she wrote his. "He feared the woman would not do well. But at the examination hall, they noted the paper had a feminine name," police spokesman Beneso Darkwa said.
■ Italy
Pompeii brothel `opened'
Art officials yesterday opened for public viewing a newly-restored ancient brothel in the archaeological complex of Pompeii, believed to be the most popular one in the ancient Roman city. The "Lupanare" -- which derives its name from the Latin word lupa for "prostitute" -- underwent a one-year restoration of its structure and decorations, the local office overseeing the famed tourist spot said. The two-floor structure, decorated with explicit erotic frescoes, has 10 rooms, five for each floor, and a latrine. The better-decorated upper floor was destined for higher-ranking clients. The prostitutes were slaves and were usually of Greek or Oriental origin.
■ Russia
Ukrainian move sparks angst
The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday bristled at Ukrainian officials' push to declare a Soviet-era famine that killed up to 10 million people as genocide, saying it was part of Communist repression in the former Soviet Union. Up to 10 million Ukrainians died in the 1932-1933 Great Famine. Ukrainian officials have called for an official recognition of the famine as genocide. The ministry on Wednesday criticized Ukrainian authorities for what it called a "unilateral interpretation" of the famine.
■ Honduras
Natives protest dam plan
The nation's largest tribe, the Lenca are battling against a proposed binational hydroelectric dam that could displace members of their community of 20,000 people. The US$2.1 billion project will flood 62km2, affecting 6,700 residents in more than two dozen villages. On Saturday, Lenca Indians held a ceremony in San Antonio along the Lempa River, which runs along the border with El Salvador. They slaughtered a turkey and offered its blood to the earth, calling on their gods in their native language to help them in their fight. The two governments say they need the dam in the face of skyrocketing fuel prices.
■ Mexico
Footprints among oldest
A trail of 13 fossilized footprints running through a valley in a desert in the north could be among the oldest in the Americas, archeologists said. The footprints were made by hunter gatherers who are believed to have lived thousands of years ago in the Coahuila Valley of Cuatro Cienegas, 306km south of Eagle Pass, Texas, said archaeologist Yuri de la Rosa Gutierrez of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. "We believe [the footprints] are between 10,000 and 15,000 years old," De la Rosa said in a news release on Wednesday. The Cuatro Cienegas footprints were discovered in May embedded in a white rock called travertine. Each print is 27cm long and under 2cm deep.
■ Argentina
Kidnappers given life
Two men were sentenced to life in prison yesterday for the kidnapping and killing of a 23-year-old student whose abduction prompted large-scale demonstrations by Argentinians worried about rising crime. Police in bullet-proof vests stood guard as a judicial panel handed down its ruling against Martin Diego Peralta and Jose Geronimo Diaz in the March 2004 kidnapping and killing of Axel Blumberg. The case also transformed Axel's father, Juan Carlos Blumberg, into a leading anti-crime crusader. Weeks after his son was grabbed, he led more than 100,000 people to Congress demanding tougher crime laws.
■ United States
Cussing toy causes red faces
A father is asking Toys "R" Us Inc to take a police toy set off the shelves because he says the one given to his six-year-old son utters a curse word. The toy set is named the "Elite Operations Role Play Set: Police." A message that includes what sounds like a curse word plays when the nightstick is removed from the belt. "I've had to explain to parents why my son is saying the f-word; it's horrible," Philip Morton told the Daily News of Jacksonville, North Carolina. "It must have been a faulty chip," a Toys "R" Us spokeswoman said.
■ Canada
Undies rule for firefighters
A city under pressure for alleged sexual harassment within its fire department has ordered firefighters to wear only boxer-style underwear. Richmond, British Columbia will spend C$16,000 (US$14,200) to buy underwear for each firefighter in a bid to make firehalls in the suburb of Vancouver more gender neutral, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. City official Ted Townsend told the Vancouver Sun, it was part of the "integration of the sexes in the workplace." A recent investigation of the department described its workplace culture as "characterized by juvenile and hostile behavior" toward female firefighters by their male colleagues. Firefighters strip off most of their clothes in order to don protective gear when responding to alarms.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
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