■BRUNEI
Poll wants cheats whipped
Most locals want husbands who cheat on their wives to be whipped, a recent survey in the Muslim-majority country showed. The survey, conducted by Web site brudirect (www.brudirect.com), found 76 percent of 272 respondents said men should be whipped for having affairs, while only 55 percent said unfaithful wives should receive the same punishment. “The result of the survey is an indication of the pent-up feelings that women harbor against irresponsible men,” an unnamed social worker was quoted as saying on the Web site.
■JAPAN
Man sues over bum deal
A man has sued a hospital, arguing it unnecessarily gave him an artificial rectum after misdiagnosing him as suffering rectal cancer, a hospital official said on Wednesday. The man underwent surgery in March at a university hospital in western Miyazaki Prefecture to remove the tumor, the Mainichi daily reported. But his doctor told the man, whose age and name were not reported, that a later examination found no cancer cells in the removed tissue, the report said. The man, who now has an artificial rectum, is demanding ¥35 million (US$385,000) in compensation, the report said, citing the complaint filed with the Miyazaki District Court.
■CHINA
Army looks for new recruits
The army will recruit 130,000 graduates from universities and colleges this winter to raise the quality of the armed forces and help solve the job crisis facing graduates. Sources last month told Reuters of a plan to cut the 2.3 million-strong People’s Liberation Army by 700,000, mainly lower-skilled foot soldiers, while adding better-educated recruits able to serve in a technologically sophisticated force.
■KUWAIT
Women gain passport right
The highest court granted women the right to obtain a passport without their husband’s approval, the case’s lawyer said on Wednesday, in the latest stride for women’s rights in this small oil-rich emirate. Unlike with highly conservative neighbors like Saudi Arabia, women in Kuwait can vote, serve in parliament and drive — and now can obtain their own passports. In many countries in the region, women cannot travel or obtain a passport without the consent of their male guardian. A lawyer for the case said the landmark decision “freed” Kuwaiti women from the 1962 law requiring their husband’s signature to obtain a passport. The court found the article in the decades-old law “unconstitutional” because it goes against the principal of equal rights for men and women.
■GERMANY
Man forgets cash on hood
A pensioner had to scour bushes and trees beside a motorway after 20,000 euros (US$30,000) that he had left on the hood of his car during a break fluttered away, police said on Wednesday. The 64-year-old Bavarian, who has not been named, told police that he had taken the money to Luxembourg to buy a car, but the deal fell through. On the way back he stopped at a service station. Back on the road, the man heard something hit the windshield but thought nothing of it, and it was only when he pulled over into a rest area that he realized that the object must have been the envelope containing the cash. In a panic, he persuaded a police officer that happened to be at the rest area to help him look for the money. Together they managed to gather 18,080 euros in bushes, branches, in the median and on the other side of the road. “The elderly gentleman was pleased to find his money again,” police said in a statement. “What he was less happy about, however, was the fact that a receipt for a Luxembourg bank account being closed down was also found.” The man admitted that in fact, the story about the car was untrue and that he had withdrawn the money from a bank in Luxembourg. The case was then passed on to customs officials.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Pig goes to the dogs
Prudence, a nine-week-old piglet living at an animal rescue center in Britain, believes she is really a puppy and spends her days chasing sticks and balls with her canine friends, it was reported on Wednesday. “Prudence got friendly with a puppy when she arrived, then decided she wanted to spend her days with the dogs,” said Rosie Catford, owner of the Wildlives center near Colchester. “She seems to think that if dogs run free, then why not she.”
■RUSSIA
Bardot photo to pay surgery
Vladimir Komarov always cherished his signed photo of French actress Brigitte Bardot, but cashed it in to pay for an operation, the popular daily Tvoi Den reported on Wednesday. The 50-year-old miner from the Ural region wrote a love letter to the blonde star of And God Created Woman when he was a boy, receiving an autographed picture from Bardot in return. Suffering from a lung disease, Komarov put his prized possession up for sale to pay for the surgery, getting 61,000 rubles (US$2,100) in return. “Without this operation I will die. I would never have wanted to sell this photograph, but I have no other option,” explained the miner, who is pictured in the Russian newspaper holding the famous photo in his hand.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Man set for weight-loss op
A Briton who could possibly be the world’s fattest man is due to go under the knife in an attempt to cut his weight, the Sun newspaper said on Wednesday. The tabloid said that 48-year-old Paul Mason weighs almost 450kg — which it claimed made him the world’s heaviest man. Guinness World Records, however, said it had no immediate confirmation of Mason’s weight. The title of world’s fattest man had been held by Mexican Manuel Uribe, who weighed in at 560kg in January 2006, but Guinness spokeswoman Amarilis Espinoza said Uribe has since lost a lot of weight. The Sun said that Mason lives in the basement of a specially modified bungalow in Ipswich, England. It said he spends most of his time lying down and relies on a team of seven health workers to keep him clean and free of bed sores. It said he was due to be transported to St Richard’s Hospital in southern England, which has a specialist unit that treats the morbidly obese, in the coming weeks.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Fraudster sent to jail
A man who staged car crashes for money, helping fraudsters claim £1.6 million (US$2.7 million) from insurance firms, was jailed on Wednesday for four-and-a-half years. Mohammed Patel, 24, charged people £500 a time to set up crashes enabling them to claim an average of £17,000 each, a court heard. He staged at least 93 accidents with clients’ cars by slamming on his brakes so drivers behind him would plough into his vehicle, the court heard. He would then take details enabling his clients to claim on their insurance. “The wickedness of these staged accidents is that you gave no thought to the victim,” judge Bernard Lever told the court in Manchester, England. “The victim may have been an elderly person, a person with a heart condition, a person of a nervous disposition.”
■UNITED STATES
Robber prays with victim
A repentant robber fell to his knees and prayed with the clerk of the store during a hold-up, but nevertheless proceeded to pinch US$20 from the cash register. The 23-year-old initially entered the check-cashing establishment in Indianapolis, Indiana, seeking a loan, but left, purportedly to get an identification card that was requested. He returned armed with a gun, which he pointed at the employee, telling her that he had a son to feed and “no choice” but to revert to robbery since “times are hard.” When the clerk started to talk to the man about God, however, the gunman appeared to have a change of heart. “I started crying and praying and telling him: ‘Don’t do this,’ he was too young to throw away his life,” store clerk Angela Montez later told a police dispatcher by phone. Officials said Smith took Montez’s mobile phone from her purse and US$20 from the cash drawer. He was arrested on robbery and firearm charges when he turned himself in to authorities a few hours later.
■UNITED STATES
Blue whale washes ashore
A 21m-long female blue whale that officials believe was struck by a ship has washed ashore on the Northern California coast in what scientists are calling a rare occurrence. The whale was first spotted on shore near Fort Bragg in Mendocino County on Monday night, hours after an ocean survey vessel reported hitting a whale a few kilometers away, said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist. The whale had two gashes on its back — at least one of which was deep enough to cut through the blubber down to the vertebral column, but it otherwise appeared to be in good health.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
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