■ CHINA
Confucius' family grows
More than 2 million people have registered as descendants of Confucius, tripling the size of the celebrated philosopher's family tree, state media reported on Monday. The new list, which was last updated in 1930, has rocketed by more than 1.3 million, the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee said, according to a China Daily report. The new list, which includes overseas and female relatives for the first time, will be published next year to coincide with the 2,560th anniversary of his birth.
■ CHINA
Teacher sentenced to death
A court has sentenced a primary school teacher to death for raping 23 school girls, the Beijing News reported yesterday. Zhou Chengchun (周成春), 52, a teacher in Chongqing municipality, was accused of targeting the 23 girls between 2001 and 2004 under the pretense of helping them with their studies, the newspaper said, citing local media. "Zhou told the girls to cooperate, saying it would make them more brilliant and make their studies much better," the report said.
■ CHINA
Dozens killed in secret mine
An explosion at an illegal iron mine disguised as a wild boar farm killed 24 people, an official said yesterday. The explosion in Wuan city in Hebei Province happened on Sunday, said Du, an official with the provincial news department. More than 30 people were initially trapped by the explosion, Xinhua news agency said. A rescue operation lasted until early yesterday. Five of the survivors were injured and were in stable condition at a hospital. The explosion happened at a tunnel whose entrance is located in a pigpen, the agency said.
■ TAJIKISTAN
UN appeals for aid
The UN appealed for urgent humanitarian aid for Tajikistan on Monday, saying that 260,000 people needed food aid after extreme cold knocked out electricity supplies. The country needs US$25.1 million "to respond to urgent humanitarian needs ... and to prevent a crisis situation expected in the spring and summer," the UN said in a statement. The UN said electricity supplies would be at just 40 percent of capacity until the spring and that up to 2 million people would need food aid this winter because of knock-on effects on food supplies.
■ HONG KONG
Lydia Sum dies at 61
Veteran Hong Kong actress Lydia Sum (沈殿霞), known for her iconic black-rimmed glasses and heavy build, died early yesterday, news reports said. She was reportedly 61. The cause of death wasn't immediately clear. Radio RTHK reported on its Web site she suffered from liver cancer. Born in Shanghai in 1947, Sum made her movie debut at age 13, the Commercial Radio said. She acted in more than 100 movies in Hong Kong and hosted more than 5,000 episodes of variety shows. Her credits also include a starring role in the Singaporean English-language sitcom Living with Lydia. Sum is survived by ex-husband, actor Adam Cheng (鄭少秋), and their daughter Joyce Cheng.
■ AFGHANISTAN
Car bomb kills one
A car bomb exploded near a police compound yesterday in Kandahar, killing at least one civilian and wounding four, a police official said. The car bomb was apparently triggered remotely, said Jan Mohammad, a police officer at the site. The bomb blast was the third attack in Kandahar Province in three days. More than 100 people were killed by a suicide bomber on Sunday just outside Kandahar City, while 38 died on Monday at a market near the border with Pakistan when a suicide car bomb explosion targeted a Canadian military convoy.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Man cooks landlady's dog
A jobless man who was flat broke and hungry has been detained for cooking his landlady's pet dog, police said yesterday. The man was held for questioning on Monday after his neighbors spotted smoke rising from his tiny one-room residence in the Jongno district of central Seoul and called firefighters. The man, who was under the influence of alcohol at that time, took the chihuahua to his room while his landlady was in the bathroom and killed it, Yonhap news agency said. As he was searing the pet, he set fire to his clothes. Firefighters caught him at the scene and reported the case to police.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Divorce deadlock continues
Paul McCartney and Heather Mills' weeklong divorce hearing ended on Monday without a deal, and a judge will now impose a settlement on the warring couple. As legal teams left court, McCartney's lawyer Nicholas Mostyn told reporters that judge Hugh Bennett had reserved his ruling. The judge will now spend several weeks working out a settlement. Mills and McCartney separated in 2006 after four years of marriage. The went to court to decide on Mills' share of the former Beatle's fortune, estimated at as much as ?825 million (US$1.6 billion). Mills, 40, smiled as she left London's Royal Courts of Justice with her entourage. McCartney, 65, did not attend, although he was in court to face his estranged wife every day last week. Media reports have suggested McCartney offered his wife around ?25 million.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Man raped corpse
A chef accused of murdering young British model Sally Anne Bowman did not know his victim was dead until after he stopped having sex with her corpse despite finding her in a pool of blood, a court heard on Monday. Mark Dixie, 37, was branded "disgusting" by his own defense barrister. Dixie denies killing Bowman but says he took "advantage of the situation" after finding the 18-year-old's dead body in the street in Croydon, south of London. Bowman was stabbed at about 4am in Blenheim Crescent, Croydon in September 2005, shortly after being dropped off close to her home by her boyfriend, prosecutors said. Dixie says he stumbled on the blonde's naked body by chance as he staggered home drunk after celebrating his birthday that same night.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Driver may have raped 35
Up to 35 women may have been drugged and raped by a London taxi driver, police said on Monday. Thirty women have come forward after a man was arrested last Friday in southeast London on suspicion of rape. Police were initially investigating five attacks in which victims were picked up in a black cab near Oxford Street, King's Road or London Bridge. The suspect is accused of attacking his passengers after offering them spiked glasses of champagne which he said were to help him celebrate a lottery win.
■ ITALY
Police capture top mob boss
Police in Calabria on Monday captured the top boss of the powerful 'ndrangheta organized-crime syndicate whose clan feuds have bloodied the southern region for years, authorities said. Pasquale Condello, 57, a fugitive for 20 years, was arrested in an apartment in the center of regional capital Reggio Calabria, police said. There was a pistol in the residence, but he offered no resistance. "It is the latest, extraordinary operation against organized crime," Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said in a statement.
■ MADAGASCAR
Powerful cyclone hits island
A powerful cyclone ripped through the country, destroying homes and flooding large areas before heading toward Mozambique where it was expected to hit today. Cyclone Ivan -- the second big cyclone of the season -- lashed the southern tip of the island on Sunday with winds of up to 200kph, disaster response officials said. At least nine people were reported to be trapped in a collapsed hotel. It was unclear if they were alive. At least two people were confirmed dead in the town of Fenenerive East.
■ BOLIVIA
Iran to open TV station
Iran plans to open a television station "for all of Latin America" to be based in the coca-growing Andean foothills, President Evo Morales said in La Paz on Monday. Morales made the announcement at a gathering of coca farmers from the Chapare who re-elected him on Monday as president of the country's largest coca growers' union. He did not give any details on the channel's possible programming. The station would be "for all of Bolivia, for all of Latin America, recognizing the great struggle of this peasant movement," Morales said in Cochabamba. Presidential spokesman Alex Contreras later confirmed that Morales and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussed the idea during the Iranian leader's visit last September.
■ TRINIDAD
Judge upholds extradition
A judge in Port-of-Spain on Monday upheld the extradition of three men charged with plotting to attack New York's John F. Kennedy airport, denying their latest effort to resist being sent to the US to face trial. High Court Justice Nolan Bereaux said there was nothing in the Caribbean nation's legal code to prevent the extradition of the two Guyanese and one Trinidadian on charges that could result in sentences of life in prison. Lawyers for the three men, who deny involvement in the alleged plot, said they would appeal. The judge also rejected the argument that native suspect Kareem Ibrahim was medically unfit to be sent to the US for trial because he suffers from diabetes and claustrophobia.
■ UNITED STATES
Air Force wants more money
Air Force officials are warning that unless their budget is increased dramatically, and soon, the military's high-flying branch won't dominate the skies as it has for decades. After more than six years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Air Force's aging jet fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and gunships are at the breaking point, they say, and expensive, ultramodern replacements are needed fast. An extra US$20 billion each year over the next five would solve that problem, according to Major General Paul Selva, the Air Force's director of strategic planning.
■ UNITED STATES
Church issues sex challenge
A church in Ybor City, Florida, issued a challenge for its married members: Have sex every day for a month. Relevant Church head pastor Paul Wirth issued the 30-day sex challenge to take on high divorce rates. "And that's no different for people who attend church," Wirth said on Sunday. "Sometimes life gets in the way. Our jobs get in the way." The challenge does not extend to unwed congregants, however.
■ UNITED STATES
Satellite to be shot tomorrow
The US will take its first shot at an out-of-control spy satellite tomorrow, trying to knock it into the sea before it crashes to Earth, possibly causing damage, CNN news reported on Monday. A second attempt would be possible if the first misses, the channel said, citing military sources. Without intervention, the crippled satellite is due to break into the Earth's atmosphere on March 6 and crash down at an unpredictable spot, risking rupturing its tanks of toxic fuel, authorities warned last week. A warship will fire a surface-to-air missile at the satellite at a specific point in its orbit that ensures any Earth-bound debris will splash into the ocean.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
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