■ AUSTRALIA
Man bludgeoned to death
Members of a motorcycle gang bludgeoned a rival to death in Sydney airport yesterday as horrified passengers looked on, police said. Witnesses said the bikers beat the man with metal crowd control bollards as he lay on the ground in the check-in area. “All of a sudden, a whole rush of guys came through the crowd, picked up the poles and just started smacking this guy in the head,” witness Phil Crew told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Crew said some of the attackers then fled in taxis. The 28-year-old victim suffered severe head injuries and died in hospital. “They beat him across the head a couple of times at the back, they all laid into him, there was a lot of blood and everything. Then they got away,” another witness told Channel 10 television. The channel reported that the fight was between members of the Hell’s Angels and Comancheros biker gangs.
■ THAILAND
No bugs for asthma sufferers
The Health Ministry has warned people suffering from asthma and allergies to avoid eating fried insects, a popular street-stall snack in Bangkok and other cities, media reports said yesterday. A recent study conducted by the ministry found that the fried silk worms, grasshoppers and other six-legged delicacies often contain excessively high levels of histamine that can trigger allergic reactions or asthma attacks, the Nation newspaper reported. Ministry data showed that some 118 people were hospitalized between Dec. 24 and Jan. 7 with allergic reactions and food-poisoning symptoms after eating fried bugs from street vendors in seven provincial cities.
■ HONG KONG
Biker collides with monkey
A motorcyclist was injured on Saturday in a collision with a monkey on a road in rural Tai Po district in which the monkey was killed, police said. The motorcyclist, who told officers the monkey ran out into the road in front of him, was treated for minor injuries in hospital, a police spokesman said. Hong Kong is home to a booming population of more than 2,000 grey macaque monkeys that live mostly in countryside areas near the former British colony’s border with China. Countryside wardens have recently stepped up efforts to stop people feeding the monkeys after a series of incidents in which the animals have attacked hikers for food.
■ MALAYSIA
Groups pan tiger park plan
A coalition of wildlife groups have criticized plans by Penang to set up a 40 hectare tiger park, saying it could hurt the state’s tourist industry. The park would also go against the central government’s commitment to protect and increase tiger populations in the wild, the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers said in a letter over the weekend to the state’s chief minister. The department of wildlife and national parks aims to double the country’s remaining 500-strong wild tiger population. “Building zoos and wildlife parks always sound simple and exciting, but in reality this is far from the truth and has far more negative implications,” the group said.
■ MALAYSIA
Girls file abuse complaint
Four girls have filed a police complaint against their stepfather, an unemployed Indonesian, alleging that he raped and sodomized them for four years, the New Straits Times reported yesterday. The sisters, aged between 12 and 19, were afraid to tell anyone about the abuse. They finally confided to a female relative on Thursday at a wedding, who then took the girls to the police.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Wild sex boosts fertility
Forget books, special diets and particular times of the month. Couples who want a baby should put their energy into having the wild, uninhibited sex of their early days together. The better their quality of love-making, the greater their chances of conception, scientists say. What one fertility expert calls “gourmet sex” — where both partners take time to ensure the other has a satisfying experience — gives a couple the best chance of producing a baby. “Couples who are trying to have a baby often mention that the sex becomes a bit of a chore, a bit mechanical and routine. That’s the wrong thing to be doing,” said Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University, England. “The sex should be as wild and thrilling as it was when they first met, when they weren’t thinking about babies, to give them the maximum possible chance of having a baby,” said Pacey, who is also secretary of the British Fertility Society.
■ ANGOLA
Two die to see pope
Two people died on Saturday while trying to enter a stadium in the capital Luanda to see Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said. “We don’t have any details about the circumstances of the drama or the identity of the victims,” he said. “The Holy Father will speak about this tragedy during a Mass he is due to hold on Sunday,” in Luanda, Lombardi added. Portugal’s LUSA news agency quoted senior police official Paulo de Almeida as saying that a young man and woman died and 18 others were injured when the gates of the stadium opened. The two died at the scene. Eight others were taken to the Josina Machel hospital with injuries. More than 30,000 people had gathered at the stadium to hear the pope in the former Portuguese colony.
■ MACEDONIA
Polls open for voting
Elections were held yesterday for a new president and local officials in what is seen as an important test of the country’s ability to hold a fair and violence-free ballot. Last year’s parliamentary elections in June were marred by fraud and gunfights between supporters of rival ethnic-Albanian parties that left one person dead and several injured. How the vote is conducted will be critical to the former Yugoslav republic’s ambitions to join the EU and NATO.
■ ITALY
Mob-victim families protest
Widows, children and grandchildren of many of those slain by various mafias are rallying in Naples to protest organized crime. The annual march on the first day of spring drew thousands of participants on Saturday along Naples’ waterfront. An Italian priest who runs a group called Libera or “free” organizes the march and helps citizens fight organized crime.
■ YEMEN
Passenger rush sinks boat
At least eight Africans drowned, and several others were injured, as a migrant-laden boat capsized at the southern Yemeni port of Aden after a French navy ship pulled the drifted boat to the port, Yemeni coast guard sources said. The boat capsized when the passengers rushed to one side of the boat, loaded with around 100 migrants, as it was docking at the port, sources said. A French Navy ship rescued the boat about 100km from Aden, after it drifted due to an engine failure.
■ UNITED STATES
Italian statue turns up
A 350-year-old statue of a saint and former pope taken from an Italian church nearly two decades ago has been found in the home of a North Carolina couple who had no idea it was stolen, authorities said. The intricately carved bust of St. Innocent will be returned to the church in Naples, Immigration and Customs and Enforcement agents said. The statue was one of 17 busts and two oil paintings taken in November 1990. Authorities told the Charlotte Observer the trail went cold until two years ago, when Rome learned that an Italian citizen sold a similar statue.
■ UNITED STATES
Jailed bride files complaint
A woman who says she was humiliated on her wedding night because she had to spend it in jail in her wedding gown has filed a complaint with Texas authorities. Jade Puckett, 26, filed the complaint over a picture taken while she was in a courtroom in her wedding dress. “It had turned the best day of my life into my greatest nightmare,” she said in the complaint. She and Billy Puckett, also 26, were arrested following their March 14 reception as part of a Harris County sweep targeting drunken drivers. Billy Puckett was charged with drunk driving. His wife was charged with public intoxication after she became belligerent. She said she was kept in a cell overnight with 15 or 20 other women. She said male deputies at least three times opened the cell door to point her out to other jailers.
■ BRAZIL
Fake video sparks anger
A video made with the help of US missionaries depicting Amazon Indians burying children alive is fake and incites racial hatred, a group campaigning for tribal rights said on Thursday. The video has been watched more than 350,000 times on YouTube. The film depicts Indians digging graves and burying live children in them. The film’s makers admitted it is fake. The Hakani campaign behind the video also has a Web site and a group on Facebook with more than 13,000 members. London-based Survival International said “the film’s claim that infanticide among Brazilian Indians is widespread is false.” The video was made by the son of the founder of a US missionary organization called Youth with a Mission. Enock Freire, one of the makers of the film, conceded the video wasn’t real.
■ UNITED STATES
Strip club draws applicants
Scores of people have applied to work at a Rhode Island strip club — but the vast majority don’t need to show any leg to get the job. Providence’s Foxy Lady held a job fair on Saturday, seeking to fill about 35 positions for dancers, masseuses, bartenders and bouncers, the Province Town Journal reported. But the paper said the vast majority of the more than 150 job seekers were men looking to work at the door and most of the women said they wanted work that didn’t involve taking their clothes off.
■ BRAZIL
Dinosaur fails to sell
A 150-million-year-old complete and mounted skeleton of a Dryosaurus failed to sell at a New York auction on Saturday. There are only two of its kind in the world, the IM Chait Gallery said in a statement before the auction. The 150-million-year-old, 2.7m long skeleton was discovered in Wyoming in 1993 and was expected to sell for up to US$500,000. Two US museums interested in the skeleton could not afford the minimum bid, CNN reported.
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
The Philippines deferred the awarding of a project that is part of a plan to build one of the world’s longest marine bridges after local opposition over the potential involvement of a Chinese company due to national security fears. The proposals are “undergoing thorough review” by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which acts as a lender and an overseer of the project to ensure it meets international environmental and governance standards, the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways said in a statement on Monday in response to queries from Bloomberg. The agency said it would announce the winning bidder once ADB
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