■ CHINA
World's tallest man marries
After searching high and low, the world's tallest man has married a woman two-thirds his height, a Chinese newspaper reported yesterday. Bao Xishun (包喜順), a 2.36m tall herdsman from Inner Mongolia, married saleswoman Xia Shujian, who was 1.68m tall, several days ago, the Beijing News reported. Bao's 28-year-old bride is half his age and hailed from his hometown of Chifeng even though marriage advertisements were sent around the world, it said. "After a long and careful selection, the effort has been finally paid off," the newspaper said. Bao was confirmed last year by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's tallest person.
■ CHINA
Burglar steals a night's sleep
A Beijing worker who broke into luxury villas to steal property and get a good night's sleep has been jailed for a year, state media reported on Tuesday. The court heard that Ye, a migrant worker, broke into five villas "out of curiosity," took showers, tried on clothes and slept in beds -- even when the householders were at home, the Shanghai Daily said. When Ye found a woman sleeping in the house on his third break-in, he took a carton of milk from the fridge and went to bed on a separate floor, the paper said.
■ AUSTRALIA
Monster cane toad found
A huge cane toad the size of a small dog has been captured in the Australian tropical city of Darwin, startling environmentalists who are fighting to stop the poisonous reptiles from spreading across the country. "It's a monster toad," said Paul Cowdy from FrogWatch, which captured the cane toad on Monday night. "We've never seen a cane toad this big," he said on Tuesday. "It's a male and normally females are bigger." The cane toad, regarded as a major pest in Australia, was one of 39 caught by a group from FrogWatch near Lee Point in Darwin. It measures 20.5cm in length and weighs 840g -- twice the normal weight.
■ Afghanistan
Suicide bomber blends in
A suicide bomber trying to blend in with street beggars exploded himself near a top intelligence official in a crowded part of the capital early yesterday, killing four people and wounding 12, police said. The bomber apparently targeted the investigations chief of Afghanistan' intelligence service, said deputy police chief General Zulmay Khan. The explosion went off near Kabul's main market place, killing four people and injuring 12, Afghanistan's intelligence service said. The attack's apparent target, Kamulladeen Khan Echekzai, is a powerful Afghan elder from the southern city of Kandahar.
■ CAMBODIA
Thieves poison elephant
Thieves in the northeast part of the country poisoned a domesticated elephant before sawing off its valuable tusks to sell on the black market, police said on Tuesday. The 62-year-old bull elephant was found dead on Saturday some 100m from its owner's home in Ratanakkiri province, police said, adding that it appeared to have been fed jack fruit laced with rat poison. "The elephant's tusks, measuring between 70cm to 80cm long each, were sawed off," said deputy provincial police chief Hor Ang. He said the tusks could fetch thousands of dollars on the illegal ivory market. No one had been arrested for the killing, Hor Ang said, adding the elephant's body had since been butchered for meat.
■ West Bank
Jewish settlers forced out
Hundreds of Israeli police in riot gear dragged squatters from the ruins of a Jewish settlement yesterday, ending a three-day showdown between the government and Jewish settlers trying to reclaim an area. The confrontation played out in the former Homesh settlement, dismantled in 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank. On Monday, some 2,500 protesters had marched to the ruins of Homesh, pledging to rebuild it. Demonstrators set up large canvas tents on the site and started piling up rocks, in a symbolic attempt at reconstruction.
■ GAZA STRIP
Croc smuggler stopped
A Palestinian woman wearing a strangely bulging robe was caught at the Gaza-Egypt border trying to smuggle three baby crocodiles strapped to her waist, an official said on Monday. The reptiles, their jaws tied shut, were apparently bound for a Gaza zoo, said Maria Telleria, a spokeswoman for European observers who run the Rafah crossing. "She looked strangely fat," Telleria said, explaining why the woman was ordered by a policewoman to submit to a search as she tried to enter Gaza from Egypt last Thursday. Surprised by the three crocodiles, the policewoman screamed, other guards raced to the scene.
■ ISRAEL
Pot banned during Passover
In bad news for its religious Jewish supporters, a pro-marijuana party announced on Tuesday that pot is forbidden on Passover. Cannabis is among the substances Jews are forbidden to consume during the week-long festival, which begins next Monday, said Michelle Levine, a spokeswoman for the Green Leaf party. Biblical laws prohibit eating leavened foods during Passover. Later injunctions by European rabbis extended those rules to forbid other foods like beans and corn, and more recent rulings have further expanded the ban to include hemp seeds, which today are found in some health oils -- and in marijuana.
■ UKRAINE
Sniper shoots businessman
A Russian businessman allied with Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was shot dead by a sniper on Tuesday as he was being escorted from a Kiev courthouse by police, an official said. A police officer who was guarding Maksim Kurochkin, 38, was seriously wounded in the incident, which occurred during a break in his extortion trial, said Volodymyr Polishchuk, head of the Kiev department of the federal Interior Ministry. He died on the spot after being hit by a bullet fired from a building neighboring the Svyatoshynsky District Court, Polishchuk said.
■ FRANCE
Bove trial postponed
A court postponed the trial of anti-globalization farmer and presidential candidate Jose Bove and 38 others suspected of destroying a genetically modified crop, Bove's lawyer said on Tuesday. Marie-Christine Etelin said the court postponed the trial, which was to take place on Tuesday, to Oct. 2 because "one of the defendants is a presidential candidate." The two-round vote takes place April 22 and May 6. Bove and the other activists are to stand trial for allegedly destroying a field of genetically modified corn near the town of Saint-Hilaire on July 31 last year.
■ UNITED STATES
Underwear thief nabbed
A Washington state man was charged with theft and burglary after police said they found 42kg of women's panties, brassieres and other underwear at his home. Investigators believe Garth Flaherty, 24, took as many as 1,500 undergarments from apartment complex laundry rooms before he was caught, police Commander Chris Tennant said. A man was seen taking underwear from two laundry rooms on Saturday, a witness recorded his license number, and Flaherty was identified from photographs, Tennant said. Police found enough underwear in his bedroom to fill five garbage bags, Tennant said.
■ UNITED STATES
Snow's cancer returns
A growth that was surgically removed from White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, 51, was cancerous and the cancer has spread to his liver, the White House disclosed on Tuesday. Snow, a colon cancer survivor, underwent surgery on Monday to remove the growth from his abdomen and all indications going into the procedure were that it was not cancerous. Snow had his colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy.
■ NETHERLANDS
Mushroom effects probed
The health minister will order an investigation into the health risks of hallucinogenic mushrooms, he said on Tuesday, after a teenage French tourist jumped to her death after eating them. Pressure for an outright ban grew in parliament after the girl, identified as 17-year-old Gaelle Caroff, jumped off an overpass earlier this month. Her mother, Nathalie, was quoted by De Pers newspaper as saying that hallucinogenic mushrooms were responsible for her daughter's death and should be outlawed.
■ MEXICO
Investigation office closed
A special prosecutor's office created by former president Vicente Fox to investigate political crimes was shut down on Tuesday without having attained any convictions. Regular federal prosecutors will now handle the office's open cases, including one against former president Luis Echeverria, who has been accused of genocide. The decision to shut down the office was made by Fox just before he handed power to President Felipe Calderon, but it took three months to take effect.
■ UNITED STATES
Family gets US$2.4m for son
Authorities in Bay County, Florida, have agreed to pay US$2.4 million to the family of a teenager who died last year after being roughed up in a state-supervised boot camp, an attorney for the family said on Tuesday. The settlement with the county where the camp was located brings the total settlement to more than US$7 million, including US$5 million that Governor Charlie Crist has asked the state to pay the family of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, attorney Ben Crump said. Anderson's family initially had sued for US$40 million.
■ UNITED STATES
Rare eagle spotted
A threatened eagle native to coastal Europe and northern Asia has made a surprise appearance on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. "This is history in the making," said Brenda Zaun, a wildlife biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who confirmed sightings of the white-tailed eagle. It is not unheard of to see the species outside of its range covering Norway, Iceland, Poland,Greece, Siberia and northern Asia. One eagle lived on Kauai for 17 years until its was reportedly killed by a helicopter, Zaun said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
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