■ CHINA
Commerce minister named
Beijing approved its top energy official, Chen Deming (陳德銘), as the country's Commerce Minister yesterday, one of a slew of personnel changes following a five-yearly Communist Party meeting. Chen, 58, had been deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission since June last year. He replaces Bo Xilai (薄熙來), who was named to head the huge western municipality of Chongqing earlier this month. The announcement was made as the Standing Committee of China's legislature wrapped up a week-long session.
■ INDIA
BJP makes more gains
The ruling Congress party was ousted from power in another state, the latest in a string of electoral reverses this year, results showed yesterday. The main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in the northern hill state of Himachal Pradesh by grabbing 41 seats in the 68-member house, the Election Commission Web site said. Congress, which rules at national level, won just 23 constituencies. The BJP was predicted to win because of a strong anti-incumbency factor against its rival.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Government budget expands
Parliament said yesterday it had approved a rise of more than 7 percent for next year's budget to expand social welfare programs and increase military spending. A compromise between pro-government and opposition lawmakers led to a budget of 256.17 trillion won (US$273.5 billion). It was approved late on Friday, the parliament said in a statement. The budget was lower than the administration's initial proposal, but up 7.46 percent from last year.
■ UNITED STATES
Feral cats put to work
A Los Angeles-based animal advocacy and rescue group, The Working Cats program of Voice for the Animals, has placed feral cats in several police stations where rodents are a problem. Beauty queen punished
Miss France 2008 has been barred from upcoming international beauty pageants, organizers said on Friday after a gossip magazine published racy photos of her last week. Valerie Begue, 22, will not compete in the Miss World or Miss Universe beauty pageants, Miss France organizers said. But Begue will not be stripped of the Miss France title she won on Dec. 8. Begue described the outcome as "a compromise which satisfies all parties." The pictures in Entrevue magazine included one of her licking what looked like yogurt.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Rottweiler mauls boy
A one-year-old boy has died after being attacked by a dog at the home of a relative, West Yorkshire Police said. The dog, a family pet, attacked the boy while he was in the yard of the home in Wakefield on Friday afternoon. The boy suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital, but died later in the evening. Police officers killed the dog, a Rottweiler, at the scene. The attack comes almost a year after five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson was mauled to death by a family pit-bull terrier at her grandmother's house on Jan. 1.
■ AUSTRIA
White elephants recycled
The Viennese have a new resource for "recycling" unwanted Christmas gifts: an online flea market set up by the city. Vienna's government said on Friday it recently launched a free Web forum for people to trade, sell and give away things they do not need. The idea is simple. People from the area post their offerings online and are contacted by those interested. Requests can also be submitted. Ulli Sima, city councilor for environment issues, hopes the flea market on the city's Web site will lead to less trash. "Whoever uses the flea market does something good for the environment and, at best, will save money," Sima said.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Ambassador attacked
Tanzania's ambassador to South Africa was beaten and his wife stabbed and wounded in a robbery during his farewell dinner in the capital Pretoria late on Friday, police said. Police spokesman Paul Ramaloko said seven people were admitted to hospital after the attack at the home of a friend that left ambassador Emmanuel Mwambulukutu unconscious and his wife with a stab wound to the head. "They were attacked by four heavily armed suspects but we managed to arrest one suspect. We are hoping to make more arrests soon," he said yesterday. South Africa has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world and attacks on high-profile figures have sparked new calls for a crackdown on violent crime.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Explorer breaks record
An explorer has broken the speed record for reaching the north and south poles and the summit of Mount Everest, the Daily Telegraph said yesterday. Adrian Hayes slashed five months off the "Three Poles" record, completing the feat in 19 months. He reached the South Pole on Friday, unassisted and unsupported, 47 days after setting off across Antarctica from Hercules Inlet. The former British Army Gurkha officer, 45, is only the 15th person to achieve the feat. "I'm super-fit and that really helps," he said by satellite phone. His trip raised funds for the Children's Hope Foundation and Friends of Cancer Patients charities.
■ FRANCE
Beauty queen punished
Miss France 2008 has been barred from upcoming international beauty pageants, organizers said on Friday after a gossip magazine published racy photos of her last week. Valerie Begue, 22, will not compete in the Miss World or Miss Universe beauty pageants, Miss France organizers said. But Begue will not be stripped of the Miss France title she won on Dec. 8. Begue described the outcome as "a compromise which satisfies all parties." The pictures in Entrevue magazine included one of her licking what looked like yogurt.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Rottweiler mauls boy
A one-year-old boy has died after being attacked by a dog at the home of a relative, West Yorkshire Police said. The dog, a family pet, attacked the boy while he was in the yard of the home in Wakefield on Friday afternoon. The boy suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital, but died later in the evening. Police officers killed the dog, a Rottweiler, at the scene. The attack comes almost a year after five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson was mauled to death by a family pit-bull terrier at her grandmother's house on Jan. 1.
■ AUSTRIA
White elephants recycled
The Viennese have a new resource for "recycling" unwanted Christmas gifts: an online flea market set up by the city. Vienna's government said on Friday it recently launched a free Web forum for people to trade, sell and give away things they do not need. The idea is simple. People from the area post their offerings online and are contacted by those interested. Requests can also be submitted. Ulli Sima, city councilor for environment issues, hopes the flea market on the city's Web site will lead to less trash. "Whoever uses the flea market does something good for the environment and, at best, will save money," Sima said.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Ambassador attacked
Tanzania's ambassador to South Africa was beaten and his wife stabbed and wounded in a robbery during his farewell dinner in the capital Pretoria late on Friday, police said. Police spokesman Paul Ramaloko said seven people were admitted to hospital after the attack at the home of a friend that left ambassador Emmanuel Mwambulukutu unconscious and his wife with a stab wound to the head. "They were attacked by four heavily armed suspects but we managed to arrest one suspect. We are hoping to make more arrests soon," he said yesterday. South Africa has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world and attacks on high-profile figures have sparked new calls for a crackdown on violent crime.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Explorer breaks record
An explorer has broken the speed record for reaching the north and south poles and the summit of Mount Everest, the Daily Telegraph said yesterday. Adrian Hayes slashed five months off the "Three Poles" record, completing the feat in 19 months. He reached the South Pole on Friday, unassisted and unsupported, 47 days after setting off across Antarctica from Hercules Inlet. The former British Army Gurkha officer, 45, is only the 15th person to achieve the feat. "I'm super-fit and that really helps," he said by satellite phone. His trip raised funds for the Children's Hope Foundation and Friends of Cancer Patients charities.
■ UNITED STATES
As good as it gets for Melina
For nearly seven years Melina Salazar did her best to put on a smile and tend to the every need of her most loyal and cantankerous customer in Brownsville, Texas. She made sure his food was as hot as he wanted, even if it meant he burned his mouth. And she smiled through his demands and curses. The 89-year-old Walter "Buck" Swords obviously appreciated it, leaving the waitress US$50,000 and a 2000 Buick when he died. "I still can't believe it," the Luby's cafeteria employee told Harlingen television station KGBT-TV in an interview during which she described Swords as "kind of mean." Swords, a World War II veteran, died in July, but Salazar learned of the inheritance just a few days before Christmas.
■ UNITED STATES
Village loses devil's prefix
The small village of Reeves in southwest Louisiana is finally getting its wish: to rid itself of a telephone prefix often associated with the devil or the Antichrist. Starting this month, residents and businesses can change the first three digits of their phone numbers from 666 to 749. Mayor Scott Walker said he has made the change on his phone. "It's been a 40-year battle" he said, counting at least four failed attempts. Reeves has three churches and fewer than 450 homes. "This is a very, very religious community," Walker said.
■ UNITED STATES
Activists want Bush on trial
Activists in one town in liberal-leaning Vermont want US President George W. Bush subject to arrest for war crimes. A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put an item on a town meeting agenda that would make Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they visit the town. "This petition is as radical as the Declaration of Independence, and it draws on that tradition in claiming a universal jurisdiction when governments fail to do what they're supposed to do," said Kurt Daims, 54, who is leading the drive. As president, Bush has visited every state except Vermont.
■ UNITED STATES
Contest-winning essay faked
An essay that won a six-year-old girl airfare for four and four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert began with the powerful line: "My daddy died this year in Iraq." While gripping, it was not true -- and now the girl may lose her tickets after her mother acknowledged to contest organizers it was all a lie. "We did the essay and that's what we did to win," Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. "We did whatever we could do to win." She had identified the soldier as Sergeant Jonathon Menjivar, but the Department of Defense has no record of anyone with that name dying in Iraq. "We regret that the original intent of the contest, which was to make a little girl's holiday extra special, has not been realized in the way we anticipated," said Mary Drolet, the CEO of Club Libby Lu, the contest sponsor.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
CYBERCRIME, TRAFFICKING: A ‘pattern of state failures’ allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, it said Human rights group Amnesty International yesterday accused Cambodia’s government of “deliberately ignoring” abuses by cybercrime gangs that have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds. The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centers and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including in the Southeast Asian nation’s capital, Phnom Penh. The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
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