■ China
Mountain gets painted
Villagers near Laoshoushan in Yunnan Province are scratching their heads over the Fumin County Government's decision to paint an entire barren mountainside green. Workers who began spraying mountain last August told villagers they were doing so on orders of the county government but were not told why, media reports said yesterday. Some villagers guessed county officials, whose office building faces the mountain, were trying to change the area's feng shui. The Xinhua news agency estimated the cost of the paint job at 470,000 yuan (US$60,600).
■ China
Family reunion ruled out
Prison authorities have ruled out a traditional Lunar New Year reunion between Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong (程翔), who was jailed for spying for Taiwan, and his wife, Singapore's Straits Times, Cheong's employer, reported yesterday. Mary Lau (劉敏儀) told the newspaper that authorities in Guangzhou Province refused to arrange the meeting between her and her husband ahead of the holiday. She was told by prison authorities that Ching, 57, would have to undergo one month of "political education" before receiving visitors, the daily said.
■ China
Water cuts planned
Beijing has set an ambitious plan to cut the amount of water it uses to increase each dollar of national income by 20 percent by the end of the decade. Until now China has focused on massive water transfer schemes to try to resolve the problem. It now aims to boost efficiency in agricultural irrigation systems, increase recycling of urban water and cut back on leaks from urban pipe networks.
■ Japan
Government wants apology
The government has demanded an apology from the Australian author of a new book accused of defaming the imperial family through its depiction of Crown Princess Masako, officials said yesterday. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, written by Ben Hills, was released by Random House in December and is billed as a biography of the 43-year-old diplomat-turned-royal, who has suffered long-standing stress-induced health problems. In official letters to the publisher and author, the Foreign Ministry condemned the book as containing "disrespectful descriptions, distortions of facts and judgmental assertions."
■ New Zealand
Parachutist releases video
A parachutist who survived a fall of 4,572m after his chute failed to open has released amazing footage of his near-death plummet filmed by a camera attached to his helmet. Michael Holmes, 25, made headlines around the world after surviving the fall during a routine jump over Lake Taupo last year. A camera attached to his helmet captured his plummet, which was aired in New Zealand on Monday. At 1,219m Holmes discovered his main parachute would not open. The reserve also did not work properly.
■ Pakistan
Shiite leader shot dead
Two men on a motorcycle shot dead a Shiite Muslim leader in a northwestern town yesterday in an apparently sectarian attack. Jawad Hussain Jawadi was leader of a Shiite youth group in the town of Dera Ismail Khan and an active member of the Shiite community. The attackers opened fire as he was walking near a town market, killing him on the spot, police said.
■ Netherlands
Stripping is `theater'
An Amsterdam judge has ruled that peep shows -- where sex workers performing strip shows and explicit acts can be watched from booths -- are a form of theater and club owners are entitled to a hefty tax break. "Admitting customers to peep shows is equivalent to admitting them to a theater performance," an Appeals Court judge wrote in a ruling late last month and publicized Tuesday. "The erotic character of the performance does not diminish that." "Working in a peep show is very labor intensive, so it's great if you have to pay less tax," Andre van Dorst of an association of Dutch sex club owners told De Telegraaf.
■ Netherlands
Toxic waste dispute settled
An oil trading company has agreed to pay the Ivory Coast government US$198.4 million to settle a dispute over toxic waste that the company dumped in the port city of Abidjan, the Ivory Coast government said late on Tuesday. Trafigura Beheer BV denied any wrongdoing in the incident, which led to the deaths of at least 10 people, saying it had properly contracted with a local company to dispose of the waste. Trafigura said the waste it dumped in August was not toxic, but a UN report found it contained lethal chemicals. Trafigura said three of its executives, jailed in Abidjan, would be released.
■ Ireland
Tsunami system under way
The government will look into setting up a tsunami warning system, even though such a threat is believed to be remote, Marine and Natural Resources Minister Noel Dempsey said on Tuesday. He said it would involve a number of ministries and state agencies like the meteorological service, the geological survey office and the marine institute. The International Oceanographic Commission, working with the World Meteorological Organization is currently coordinating international efforts to deliver an initial system in the North East Atlantic and Mediterranean by the end of this year.
■ United Kingdom
Galloway being probed
Allegations that Member of Parliament George Galloway may have broken UN sanctions by receiving oil money from late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein have been sent to Scotland Yard by the Serious Fraud Office. The office has recommended police open an investigation. The office decided that Galloway, who has denied any impropriety, will not be investigated on corruption. To prosecute for sanctions-busting, the police would have to find evidence that Galloway knew money from oil sales was being diverted to pay for his political campaigning.
■ Greece
Naps good for you
Regular naps are good for your heart, researchers said on Monday. A study of nearly 24,000 adults found those who regularly took midday naps lowered their risk of dying from heart disease by more than a third. Those who made it a practice of napping at least three times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease. The difference was even greater between employed and unemployed groups, with employed men easing the stress of work through napping, researchers at the University of Athens Medical School said. Not enough women participated in the study to make the same conclusion.
■ United States
Ex-CIA employee convicted
The first US civilian to be charged with mistreating a detainee during the wars prompted by the Sept. 11 attacks was sentenced to nearly eight-and-a-half years in prison for beating a man in Afghanistan who later died. Former CIA contract employee David Passaro, 40, was accused of hitting Abdul Wali with a flashlight and kicking him in the groin during two days of interrogation in July 2003. Wali died within 48 hours of the interrogation, after complaining of abdominal pain and an inability to urinate. US District Judge Terrence Boyle, ruling in Raliegh, North Carolina, had previously said that the absence of an autopsy probably kept Passaro from being charged with murder. Passaro told the judge that he was only trying to do his job well but that he regretted how he had treated Wali.
■ Britain
Soldiers cleared of abuse
Five soldiers were cleared yesterday of mistreating Iraqi civilians in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after a judge ruled they had no case to answer at a court martial. It was alleged that the men kept the Iraqis hooded, cuffed, deprived of sleep and beating them over a 36-hour period in September 2003. For the past five months, 43-year-old Colonel Jorge Mendonca -- the highest-ranking British serviceman to face a court martial in recent history -- has stood trial for alleged negligence, along with four of his men. The prosecution claimed Mendonca failed to ensure that the detainees were treated properly. One of his men, Corporal Donald Payne, became Britain's first convicted war criminal when, at the start of the trial last September, he admitted treating the detainees inhumanely. But Payne was cleared yesterday on the judge's orders of the manslaughter of one detainee and a charge of perverting the course of justice.
■ United States
Thieves targeting FBI
About 160 weapons and 160 computers belonging to the FBI were lost or stolen over a 44-month period, a Justice Department watchdog said on Monday. An average seven computers and weapons vanished each month between February 2002 and September 2005, according to a report by the department's inspector general. But the figures are an improvement from the previous period, when 354 weapons and 317 computers were stolen or lost over more than two years for an average of 24 per month. The report said that in 28 percent of the cases, the FBI did not even know if the computers contained sensitive information.
■ Brazil
Boy's murder sparks debate
A national outcry over the dragging death of six-year-old Joao Helio Fernandes in Rio de Janeiro has prompted Congress to vote this week on stiffening penalties for heinous crimes and possibly reducing the age juveniles can be tried as adults. Police have arrested five people in connection with the boy's death last week. Fernandes, who was in the back seat of his mother's car when it was stolen at gunpoint. His mother and sister escaped, but he got tangled in his seat belt and was dragged 7km before the thieves abandoned the car.
■ United States
Tornado hits New Orleans
A tornado hit the New Orleans area on Tuesday, killing an elderly woman, injuring at least 29 people and damaging dozens of homes and business in a region still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina. The storm destroyed at least 50 emergency trailers and dozens of homes.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
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