■CHINA
Mega bridge opened
China formally opened what it says is the world’s longest sea-crossing structure yesterday, a 36km bridge spanning a bay just south of Shanghai. The Hangzhou Bay Bridge links Shanghai to the industrial city of Ningbo across Hangzhou Bay, cutting the driving distance between them by 120km. The bridge is a cable-stayed structure built at a cost of 11.8 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion). Construction started in November 2003. The 32.5km Donghai Bridge had been the previous longest sea-crossing structure, linking Shanghai to the port of Yangshan.
■HONG KONG
Poisoner sent to hospital
A mentally ill woman was on Wednesday sent to a psychiatric hospital for seven years for poisoning churchgoers by giving them cakes laced with psychotropic drugs. Jannifer Chan Mei-fung, 37, left the cakes as a gift for members of the Church of Christian and Missionary Alliance in August last year, the city’s district court was told. Three teenagers ended up in hospital, two in intensive care, after the cakes were served up at a youth group meeting later the same day. Tests found a psychotropic drug inside the cakes, and police said they found the same drug when they later raided the defendant’s home. Chan was found guilty of administering a poison with the intention of endangering life and was committed to a psychiatric hospital for the maximum possible term of seven years. Judge Joseph Yau (邱智立) described Chan as “a dangerous character” who not only suffered from paranoia but was also manipulative and cunning.
■NORTH KOREA
Group says people starving
North Korea’s food crisis has already seen some people starve to death amid fears of another famine, according to an aid group which works in the nation. People in remote rural towns in the province of South Pyongan are dying of starvation, South Korea’s Good Friends organization said in a newsletter late on Wednesday. It said local government officials fear hunger may cause massive deaths by starvation in the province and elsewhere unless the government takes urgent action and resumes suspended food rations.
■AUSTRALIA
Apple stays pale
Scientists have come up with an apple that does not go brown when cut. Unlike most apples, which go brown almost immediately, the fruit stays a pale pink color for several hours after it is exposed to air. It will be sold under the name Enchanted, and state minister Kim Chance said on Wednesday he hoped its unique qualities would make it popular worldwide. “The resistance of Enchanted apples to oxidation makes it much more useful and attractive for industry,” said Chance, Western Australia’s state agriculture minister. He said the fact that the apple was produced without genetic modification meant it can be marketed around the world.
■PAKISTAN
Attack leaves 20 injured
An apparent suicide attack at the office of a religious organization wounded about 20 people yesterday, an official said. The blast occurred in Bara, a town about 15km from the city of Peshawar. Government official Purdil Khan said it appeared that a suicide attacker blew himself up at a gate leading to the office of an organization called Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Sher Khan Afridi, a resident of Bara, said the group was led by Maulana Namdar, a cleric associated with a local militant leader involved in recent heavy fighting with rivals.
■SWEDEN
Road signs show women
The gender-conscious country plans to make room for women on its crosswalk signs. The government has ordered the National Road Administration to design a female alternative to the walking-man signs found at the Scandinavian country’s pedestrian crossings, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The new sign will show a woman instead of a man crossing the street, giving more gender balance to road signs, enterprise ministry spokesman Kenneth Hultgren said. The government was inspired by a campaign in the city of Mariestad, 300km southwest of Stockholm, to put up a walking woman sign created by a local artist.
■SPAIN
Mayor charged with ETA link
A mayor in the Basque region has been arrested on suspicion of supporting the militant Basque separatist group ETA, authorities said on Wednesday. Inocencia Galparsoro, mayor of the small city of Mondragon near San Sebastian, was taken into custody on Wednesday under orders from judge Baltasar Garzon, citing evidence she had supported the group. In Mondragon, a local socialist politician was gunned down by ETA just two days before parliamentary elections. Galparsoro repeatedly declined to condemn the assassination. Hours after the arrests, three bombs exploded in the region. Initial reports said no one was wounded.
■CANADA
Dead ducks not a good sign
Alberta’s environment minister said the provincial government’s efforts to allay environmental concerns about its booming oil sands industry will be hurt by the deaths of hundreds of ducks that landed on a pond filled with toxic waste. Environment Minister Rob Renner concedes the deaths have put a dent in Alberta’s efforts to counter the message being spread by environmental groups that the oil sands projects are taking a toll on the environment. The government is investigating the incident, in which about 500 birds landed and died in the pond. The pond full of toxic sludge sits along a major flight path for migrating waterfowl. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said he was concerned that Syncrude had not reported the incident. The government was alerted by a tipster.
■FRANCE
Le Pen sells car on eBay
Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen said on Wednesday he had put his armored car up for sale on the online auction site eBay to face up to the financial crisis gripping his party. “The National Front is not bankrupt because its assets are greater than its debt. But that means we have to cash in the crown jewels, as it were. They are being sold,” the veteran far-right leader told France Inter radio. “I am even selling my armored car, to tell you the truth. It’s on the Internet, it’s all very public” said Le Pen, 79, whose party is negotiating the sale of its Paris headquarters.
■CANADA
Lion escapes near Ottawa
A two-year-old pet lion was on the loose near the nation’s capital on Wednesday, sparking a hunt by police, officials said. The 70kg male African lion escaped overnight on Tuesday from an Indian reservation and was last seen near the tiny village of Maniwaki, north of Ottawa, Melanie Larouche of the Quebec police said. Schools in the region were alerted and asked to keep children indoors, she said. The lion named Boomer belongs to a resident of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg reserve and is said by its owner to be harmless. Authorities hope to tranquilize it.
■UNITED STATES
Blaine breaks world record
Magician David Blaine set a new world record on Wednesday for breath-holding: 17 minutes and 4 seconds. The feat was broadcast live during The Oprah Winfrey Show and the studio audience in Chicago cheered as divers pulled Blaine from a water-filled sphere. He looked relaxed afterward and said the record was “a lifelong dream.” The previous record was 16 minutes and 32 seconds, set on Feb. 10 by Switzerland’s Peter Colat, according to Guinness World Records. Before he entered the sphere, Blaine inhaled pure oxygen through a mask to saturate his blood with oxygen and flush out carbon dioxide. Next, Blaine said he plans to try to break the world record for staying awake. The current record is 11.5 days, he said. However, Guinness said it no longer acknowledges such attempts because of health concerns.
■CHILE
Seniors get free Viagra
A working class suburb of Santiago began handing out free Viagra to senior citizens on Wednesday. Lo Prado Mayor Gonzalo Navarrete said he launched the program because “an active sexuality improves the overall quality of life.” About 1,500 residents of the working-class area are eligible to receive as many as four pills of the erectile dysfunction drug each month, the mayor said. They have to be at least 60 and be registered with the municipality’s health service. “A doctor will have to certify that they suffer from erectile dysfunction and that their condition would not put them in danger of suffering cardio-respiratory side effects,” Navarrete said. He said he has assured about US$10,000 in financing for the program through the end of the year.
■UNITED STATES
Jurassic dung auctioned off
A pile of dinosaur dung 130 million years old sold at a New York auction for nearly US$1,000. The prehistoric deposit fetched US$960 at Wednesday’s auction, a spokeswoman for Bonhams New York said. The fossilized dung is from the Jurassic era, the auction house said. It looks like a rock on the outside and a colorful mineral inside. The buyer was Steve Tsengas of Fairport Harbor, Ohio. The 71-year-old owns OurPets, a company that sells products to treat dog and cat waste. Tsengas bought the dung in hopes of motivating his employees and using it as a marketing tool by displaying it at the company’s booth at trade shows, he said. “Poop,” he said, “is a big business in the pet industry.”
■ECUADOR
Right to sexual bliss mulled
A new inalienable right could be enshrined soon in Ecuador’s Constitution: the pursuit of sexual happiness for women. The proposal by a member of the ruling party has created a stir in this socially conservative Andean nation, where a constitutional assembly is at work. Assembly member Maria Soledad Vela, who belongs to President Rafael Correa’s party and sits on a committee defining fundamental constitutional rights, said women have traditionally been seen as sexual objects or in a solely reproductive role in Ecuador. On Monday, Vela said the right to sexual enjoyment means ensuring women can make free, responsible and informed decisions about their sex lives. Opposition Assembly member Leonardo Viteri accused Vela of trying to decree orgasm by law, saying it “isn’t possible.” “I never asked for the right to orgasm, only the right to enjoyment,” Vela responded.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
CORRUPTION PROBE: ‘I apologize for causing concern to the people, even though I am someone insignificant,’ Kim Keon-hee said ahead of questioning by prosecutors The wife of South Korea’s ousted former president Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday was questioned by a special prosecutor as investigators expanded a probe into suspicions of stock manipulation, bribery and interference in political party nominations. The investigation into Kim Keon-hee is one of three separate special prosecutor probes launched by the government targeting the presidency of Yoon, who was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 last year. The incident came during a seemingly routine standoff with the opposition, who he described as “anti-state” forces abusing their legislative majority to obstruct
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