■ CHINA
HIV tests enforced
After announcing plans last month to scrap immigration laws that restrict people with HIV/AIDS traveling to the country, Chinese authorities said Chinese citizens who leave for more than a year are required have HIV tests on their return, the Beijing News said yesterday. The apparently contradictory regulations, introduced by quarantine authorities, started this month and also apply to Chinese air and ship crew members working abroad, the report said. The newspaper did not elaborate on how the tests would work, for instance, for air crew coming in and out of the country every few days.
■ India
Encephalitis kills 484 kids
An outbreak of a mystery strain of encephalitis has killed nearly 500 children in northern India this year and seems to be getting worse, doctors said yesterday. Doctors in Uttar Pradesh State, the center of the outbreak, have been unable to identify the strain of the disease, which has affected only children, killing 484 of them since the beginning of the year, said state Health Minister Anant Kumar Mishra. And the outbreak is spreading quickly, doctors said. The problem has been made worse because many people delay bringing their children to hospitals or seek traditional treatment first, said Akhilesh Srivastava, a senior government doctor.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Lee's popularity surges
Presidential frontrunner Lee Myung-bak has seen a surge in popularity after prosecutors cleared him of involvement in a major fraud case, a survey showed yesterday. The prosecutors announced on Wednesday they had found no evidence that Lee was linked to a stock manipulation case allegedly engineered by his one-time business partner. Support for the conservative opposition Grand National Party candidate jumped 6.1 percentage points from a week earlier to 45.3 percent, a survey by South Korea's CBS Radio and RealMeter, a polling agency, showed. The biggest loser was rightwing independent Lee Hoi-chang, whose support plunged 7.1 percentage points to 13.1 percent.
■ ITALY
Building ready to blow
Customs officials seized a "powderkeg" of more than 6 tonnes of fireworks stored illegally in an apartment block in Rome on Wednesday, a statement said. "The residents of this building in ... a quiet residential neighborhood were sleeping on a powderkeg without knowing it," the customs statement said. "Just one spark would have caused an explosion with tragic consequences." The Chinese-made fireworks, firecrackers and fuses worth some 3 million euros (US$4.4 million) were imported clandestinely into Italy to sell to New Year's Eve revelers, the statement said.
■ EUROPEAN UNION
Consular aid to be pooled
Travelers from the EU who run into problems abroad should be able to use the consular services of any of the EU's 27 members, the EU executive proposed on Wednesday. The plan could also lead to some EU countries pooling consular offices and the introduction of common rules for repatriating corpses from abroad. Under an EU treaty, any of its 490 million citizens can use another EU state's consulate if their country is not represented in a foreign nation. But few people are aware of that, consular rules differ and cooperation is at times patchy.
■ SPAIN
Police locate treasures
Police have found a treasure-filled chamber containing thousands of items including missing gold artifacts from Peru's glittering pre-Inca past and possibly from museums elsewhere, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. Museums around the world have been alerted to check their collections for missing art, after police investigators specialized in tracking down historical objects uncovered a privately owned reinforced chamber containing 1,800 items in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela. The discovery followed a tip-off from Peru.
■ PRESS FREEDOM
RSF honors Tsehaye
Global media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Wednesday it has named the jailed Eritrean reporter Seyoum Tsehaye as Journalist of the Year 2007. "Beyond the case of this brave journalist held in Eritrea's appalling jails since September 2001, the ... panel of judges sought to highlight the catastrophic state of press freedom in this small Horn of Africa country," RSF said in a statement. The press rights group and the Foundation of France, which co-chaired the award, said that at least four journalists have died in prison in Eritrea in recent years. The jury also acknowledged the television and radio network Democratic Voice of Burma.
■ ISRAEL
Olmert to have surgery
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will likely undergo surgery for prostate cancer next month, after an expected visit by US President George W. Bush, Israel's Channel Two television reported on Wednesday. Olmert went public with his early stage cancer in October, saying it would require a minor operation but that the procedure was not urgent and would allow him to continue governing. The surgery would require Olmert take a short leave of absence. Citing political sources, Channel Two said that Olmert provisionally planned to have the operation late next month.
■ UNITED STATES
Triplets, quadruplets born
Doctors at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, delivered triplet boys and quadruplet girls within 24 hours. Pamela Kocke's boys made their appearance early on Tuesday, while Alisha Murphy's girls began showing up about 12 hours later, according to a hospital news release. All were doing well on Wednesday. "The trips were natural," hospital spokeswoman Katherine Voss said. The odds of naturally born triplets are about one in 8,000.
■ UNITED STATES
Sigmund Freud 'hangs out'
A body seen hanging from the top of a Grand Rapids, Michigan, building turned out to be a life-sized sculpture of Sigmund Freud -- part of an international series of installations by a Czech sculptor. The work, called Man Hanging Out, showed Freud suspended by one hand from a pole, seven stories up atop the Trade Center Building in Grand Rapids. Surprised onlookers called police. Sculptor David Cerny's work also has appeared in Prague and London and was in Chicago over the summer. The Grand Rapids police and fire departments said they were not informed of the statue's placement, but the owner of a local art gallery said she has a permit for it.
■ UNITED STATES
2.3m in prison last year
About one in every 31 adults was in prison, in jail or on supervised release at the end of last year, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday. An estimated 2.38 million people were incarcerated in state and federal facilities, an increase of 2.8 percent over 2005, while a record 5 million people were on parole or probation, an increase of 1.8 percent. Immigration detention facilities had the greatest growth rate last year. The number of people held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities grew 43 percent, to 14,482 from 10,104. The data reflect deep racial disparities in the nation's correctional institutions. In several states, incarceration rates for blacks were more than 10 times the rate of whites.
■ UNITED STATES
Policewoman fired after suit
A police officer in Casselberry, Florida, has been fired for suing a family after she slipped and fell in their home while trying to rescue a one-year-old boy who nearly drowned, authorities said. Police Chief John Pavlis fired Sargent Andrea Eichhorn on Tuesday, saying the lawsuit brought public ridicule to the department and damaged its reputation. Eichhorn, a 12-year veteran, can appeal. She dropped her negligence lawsuit in October. It claimed there was water on the floor at Joey Cosmillo's home on Jan. 9 when police arrived to try to resuscitate the boy, who had fallen into the family's swimming pool. Eichhorn claimed she broke her knee and missed two months of work after falling. The boy suffered brain damage and can no longer walk or talk.
■ UNITED STATES
Immigrants get protection
Illegal immigrants living in Manhattan who have been victimized by crimes or who are aware of crimes can now report the incidents without fearing arrest and deportation, officials said. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced on Tuesday that he has created a unit to address issues that confront immigrants, regardless of status, and to prosecute people who prey on them without reporting their immigration status. Morgenthau said his office handles 110,000 cases a year and one-third of them involve people who do not speak English.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
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