■INDONESIA
Search on for survivors
Rescuers yesterday continued to search as hopes faded for dozens of people missing after a major 7.0-magnitude earthquake, an official said. The quake, which struck off the south coast of Java on Wednesday, triggered a landslide that buried dozens of people in the village Cikangkareng. “The quake has killed at least 65 people. The search for dozens of victims continues although their chance of survival is slim,” disaster management agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said. “Sometimes the heavy machinery is not enough to help as rescue workers have to carefully lift the bodies,” he said.
■HONG KONG
Huge exotic fish found
The territory has launched a search of ponds in public parks after at least 16 fish of an exotic species that can grow up to 3m-long were discovered, apparently dumped by their owners when they grew too big. A 1m-long alligator gar was caught on Friday in a park pond after reports that visitors feared for their safety, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. The fierce-looking creatures get their name from their long snout, which resembles that of an alligator. Another 15 of the fish had been found in ponds and lakes at other parks across Hong Kong, the Post said. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department warned that people who dumped unwanted pet fish in public parks risked a US$260 fine and two weeks in jail.
■CHINA
Girl praised for ‘corruption’
A six-year-old girl has become a media darling on her first day of school by expressing her aspiration to become a “corrupt official” when she grows up, state media said on Friday. The girl stated her aspirations in a TV interview that was posted on a Chinese Web site, leading bloggers to describe her comments as “a reflection of social reality,” the Southern Metropolis Daily reported. “When I grow up I want to be an official ... A corrupt official because corrupt officials have a lot of things,” said the girl, whose face was blurred to protect her identity. Many chatroom users praised the child for her “realistic” outlook on life, while others expressed cynicism over rampant corruption in China. “The ugliness of life has already tainted the children — how are we ever going to educate the next generation?” one posting said.
■THAILAND
Camp closed over crocs
Officials have closed a popular campsite at a national park in eastern Thailand after repeated sightings of a pair of 2m-long crocodiles, media reports said yesterday. Khao Yai National Park officials have posted “beware of crocodiles” signs and temporarily closed a campsite near Lam Takhong creek in Khao Yai, 250km northeast of Bangkok, to facilitate a search for the reptiles, the Bangkok Post said. The cautionary step was taken after local newspapers ran front-page photos of the crocodile couple taken by campers.
■HONG KONG
Congee attacker jailed
A blind woman who poured boiling congee on her husband’s groin because she believed he had cheated on her began a two-year jail sentence yesterday. Taxi driver Leung Yiu-yuen, 56, suffered severe burns to his genitals after his wife attacked him with the congee, while he was asleep. Before the congee attack, Miu Tsui-fun, 58, laced her husband’s drinks with female hormones to try to make him impotent after she became convinced he was having an affair. Miu pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and was jailed at a hearing on Friday.
■FRANCE
Fashion envoy named
The government named a special envoy on Friday to help shore up the haute couture and ready-to-wear industries, as fashion retail struggles through particularly tough times. Author and film critic Elisabeth Quin will help “protect” French fashion knowledge and creations and act as a “permanent link” between the government and fashion executives, according to a statement from Industry Minister Christian Estrosi’s office.
■GERMANY
Merkel ally apologizes
A conservative ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel apologized on Friday for insulting Romanian workers and Chinese investors in a recent campaign speech. North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Juergen Ruettgers said he did not intend to slur anyone in a speech in Duisburg late last month before elections in the nation’s most populous state. “I did not want to insult anyone and if I did I’m sorry,” said Ruettgers, a leader in Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats, in a statement. Merkel is running for a second term as chancellor in a federal election on Sept. 27. Ruettgers complained about a decision by a manufacturer to shut down a factory in Bochum and move to Romania. “Unlike the laborers here in the Ruhr region, the Romanian workers don’t come in to work at 7 in the morning and stay until the end of the working day,” Ruettgers said. “Instead they just come and go when they want — and they simply don’t know what they’re doing.” About Chinese investors, Ruettgers said: “And if all else fails we’ll meet up in city hall with some Chinese people about some project. And if at the end of the day they still don’t want to invest in Duisburg, we’ll have to squeeze their throats until they see Duisburg is beautiful.”
■POLAND
German-Korean link studied
Japanese researchers on Friday announced the launch of a study into the status of ethnic Germans in Poland to try to help improve the condition of people of Korean origin in their homeland. “The same problem between Poland and Germany exists in Japan ... There are significant and severe problems which are not solved yet up to now, because of the war,” said Koji Kobayashi, a professor at Japan’s Tokai University. The study will track the lives and condition of 500 Germans living in Poland and 50 of the community’s organizations. The researchers are taking note of relations between the communities that were strained by World War II and the Nazi occupation of the country, similar to the Japanese occupation of Korea.
■SUDAN
Group decries pants case
Amnesty International on Friday called on the government to withdraw charges against a woman who risks 40 lashes for wearing pants. Amnesty International said the law used to justify the flogging of women for wearing clothes deemed to be “indecent” should be repealed. “The law is crafted in a way that makes it impossible to know what is decent or indecent,” said Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Africa Program. Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, a widow in her 30s, was charged with public indecency under Islamic law after she was arrested in July along with 12 other women who were wearing pants at a Khartoum restaurant. Her trial has been adjourned to Sept. 7 to determine whether the journalist, who works for a Sudanese newspaper as well as the UN press office in Khartoum, has legal immunity. Hussein has said she wants to be tried to challenge the law, and told a hearing that she wished to waive her UN immunity.
■UNITED STATES
Ladybug colonies bred
A year after they launched a nationwide search for dwindling native ladybugs, New York researchers are breeding colonies of them from insects found by citizen scientists in Oregon and Colorado. Cornell University entomologist John Losey launched the Lost Ladybug Project to figure out why common native ladybug species had all but disappeared. This summer, the researchers collected native nine-spotted and transversa ladybugs found by participants and started breeding them in the lab. They hope to shed light on why they have become so scarce. The leading theory is that the decline was related to the release of non-native species for crop pest control decades ago.
■UNITED STATES
Grandma threatens school
Officials accuse a 51-year-old San Antonio, California, grandmother of phoning a bomb threat to an elementary school that wouldn’t let her visit her grandchildren. The state jail Web site said Velma Gladys Brewster was free on bond on Friday after being charged with making a terrorist threat to Windcrest Elementary School. More than 700 students and faculty members evacuated the campus on Thursday after school officials received a threatening voicemail. No explosives were found. A phone message left at Brewster’s home Friday was not returned, the San Antonio Express-News reported. Police said Brewster didn’t have permission from her daughter to visit her grandchildren at the school.
■SPACE
ISS launches food court
When it comes to grabbing a bite to eat, the International Space Station (ISS) is living up to its first name. It’s a veritable food court of international cuisine, says new resident Nicole Stott. The astronaut will stay aboard the space station until November. Stott said she found that for different meals she could sample foods from various parts of the world: The US, Canada, Japan, Europe and Russia. “I think you can find something for anyone,” Stott said in a Friday night news conference by the 13 members of the joint crews of the space shuttle Discovery and space station.
■UNITED STATES
Train kills homeless man
A homeless man who survived being struck by a train two years ago has died after being hit by another train as he sat on the tracks. Phillip Holman was hit by a train in Huntsville, Alabama, in 2007 while intoxicated on brandy. His right arm was ripped off and his left leg was badly broken. Doctors at Huntsville Hospital reattached his arm and straightened his leg. He recuperated at the Downtown Rescue Mission in Huntsville. In an interview while recovering, he said he wanted to stop drinking and repair his relationship with his family in nearby Madison, “who I have let down more times than I can count.”
■UNITED STATES
Candidate wears GPS
Voters in Philadelphia will have an easy time telling where one candidate for district attorney stands — with the help of a GPS ankle bracelet. Republican district attorney candidate Michael Untermeyer is wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet for the next month. Visitors to Untermeyer’s Web site can track the his movements minute-by-minute for the next 30 days. Untermeyer said on Thursday the city could save millions of dollars by moving nonviolent defendants out of the prison system and keeping tabs on them electronically instead. Untermeyer says it costs US$98 a day to keep someone locked up but just US$8 a day to monitor them electronically.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
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