HONG KONG
Infected fowl washes ashore
A dead chicken found on a Lantau Island seashore had the H5N1 virus, and officials are trying to determine how the bird got there. There are no chicken farms within 3km of where the carcass was found on Dec. 18. There also was no evidence of any backyard poultry being kept in nearby villages. The territory banned backyard poultry in 2006 to prevent bird-to-human spread of the virus. Agricultural officials said yesterday lab tests confirmed the bird had H5N1. A woman who visited the mainland was confirmed last month as Hong Kong’s first human case of H5N1 in seven years. Her condition has since been reported as stable.
SWEDEN
Suspect packet a scary hoax
A suspect packet that forced the evacuation of a metro station in central Stockholm, less than two weeks after the country’s first suicide bombing, turned out to be a fake bomb. “It looked like a real bomb. Someone made it to frighten people,” Stockholm police spokesman Henrik Billestam said. Police described the packet as about the size of a milk carton, wrapped with silver adhesive tape with cables connected to a cellphone. On Thursday night, police completely evacuated the Kungstraedsgaarden metro station and sent in deminers after a train driver alerted authorities to the possible threat. The metro station is close to the seat of government in the Swedish capital.
SWITZERLAND
Present sparks evacuation
Part of the EU embassy in Berne was evacuated on Thursday after a scare over a suspect package — but it turned out to be a Christmas present, Swiss police said. The parcel was investigated and was quickly declared safe, police said.
UNITED STATES
Placebos can help: study
Placebos can help patients feel better, even if they are fully aware they are taking a sugar pill, researchers reported on Wednesday on an unusual experiment aimed to better understand the “placebo effect.” Nearly 60 percent of patients with irritable bowel syndrome reported they felt better after knowingly taking placebos twice a day, compared with 35 percent of patients who did not get any new treatment, they report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE. “Not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made from inert substances, but we actually had ‘placebo’ printed on the bottle,” Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement.
AFGHANISTAN
Arms ‘facilitator’ captured
A member of the elite al-Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been captured in the south accused of cross-border weapons smuggling, international forces said yesterday. The man, described as a “key Taliban weapons facilitator,” was captured last Saturday in Zhari district, Kandahar Province. He was targeted “for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz Province,” a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. It is thought he was connected to smuggling small arms between the countries. “The now-detained man was considered a Kandahar-based weapons facilitator with direct ties to other Taliban leaders in the province,” the ISAF spokesman added in a statement.
NIGERIA
Iranian bailed on charges
A court granted bail on Thursday to an alleged member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who along with three Nigerians was charged last month with illegally importing arms into the country. The government reported the seizure of the shipment — including rockets and other explosives hidden in containers of building materials — to the UN Security Council last month for an apparent breach of UN sanctions on Iran. Azim Adhajani, identified on the charge sheet as a Tehran-based businessman and a Revolutionary Guard Corps member, says he’s not guilty. A trial date of Jan. 31 has been set.
UNITED STATES
Tunneling burglar sought
Police are looking for the person who tunneled through a wall into a New York City apartment while the owner was away around Thanksgiving and made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of artwork by Andy Warhol and other artists. They say the thief broke through a hallway wall into the Manhattan apartment and stole limited-edition artwork, watches and other jewelry worth a total of about US$750,000.
UNITED STATES
Contraception fights cancer
Birth control pills have long been known to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, but a new study suggests any type of contraceptive — even a vasectomy — may also be protective. After comparing women with ovarian cancer to those without, researchers found that women who used any type of contraception — birth control pills, tubal ligation, intrauterine devices, barrier method or a partner with a vasectomy — had between a 40 percent and 65 percent lower risk of ever developing ovarian cancer.
CUBA
Two more headed for Spain
Two political prisoners are set to be released and sent to Spain, the Roman Catholic Church said on Thursday. The prisoners are not among 52 jailed dissidents Havana agreed to release earlier this year, the office of Havana Archbishop Jaime Ortega said. I Miguel Vidal and Hector Larroque had agreed to leave for Spain once they are released from jail at a date yet to be announced, the office said. It said Vidal was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2003 on charges of violence and terrorism, while Larroque was serving a 22-year-sentence for weapons possession and trying to leave the country illegally in 2000.
NEW ZEALAND
US officials ‘bullying’
US officials engaged in “bullying” when they tried to stop then-environment minister Marian Hobbs from attending a screening in 2004 of anti-war film Fahrenheit 9/11, former prime minister Helen Clark said yesterday. US diplomats in Wellington complained to Clark over Hobbs’ support for the Michael Moore documentary, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. Clark, now the head of the UN Development Programme, said the US actions were unprofessional.
“This comes down to really outright bullying,” she told the New Zealand Herald. “It’s pretty crazy. I just find it unprofessional.”.
CUBA
Leaks to be translated
State-run media says the government will publish Spanish translations of US diplomatic cables about the nation, released by WikiLeaks. Cubadebate Web site said on Thursday that the “Razones de Cuba” site has already posted literal translations of seven of the cables.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
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