NEW ZEALAND
Boy dies from hot spring
A boy has died in hospital after being scalded head to foot when he fell into a geothermal pool which could have been as hot as 100oC, a hospital spokeswoman said late on Thursday. It was not clear immediately how the eight-year-old was burned while visiting Kuirau Park in the North Island city of Rotorua, which is known for its steaming geothermal geysers and hot mud and water pools. Witness Anna Kare said the boy was screaming in agony as a teenager carried him to his parents after the accident, according to the New Zealand Herald newspaper. “The boy was yelling ‘my hands, my hands,’ and I saw all the skin on his hands peeling off,” Kare said. “I saw the burns were all the way from his head to his feet.” She said there was no mud on the boy so it was likely he had fallen into a hot water pool. The accident, which happened on Sunday, was made public on Wednesday. The boy, whose name was not released, was initially taken to a local hospital, but was later airlifted to Auckland.
THAILAND
‘Yellow Shirts’ jailed for raid
A court on Thursday jailed 84 supporters of the “Yellow Shirt” royalist movement for storming a TV station in 2008 in protest at a government allied with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. They were handed prison sentences of between six months and two-and-a-half years by Bangkok’s Criminal Court, mostly for illegal assembly and trespassing. The August 2008 incident at the National Broadcasting Service of Thailand state TV station was one in series that year involving the Yellow Shirts, formally known as the People’s Alliance for Democracy. The demonstrations peaked with the seizure of two Bangkok airports in late November and early December 2008, leaving more than 300,000 travelers stranded in Thailand for a week or more and causing crippling economic damage.
INDIA
Girl’s murder case closed
Police have closed a probe into the murder of a schoolgirl and her domestic helper in 2008, admitting detectives had failed to solve a crime that transfixed the nation. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Wednesday it did not have “sufficient evidence to nail anyone” for the deaths of 13-year-old Aarushi Talwar and the male servant in Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi. Police standards were again under the spotlight after hundreds of detectives were involved in a 31-month investigation during which the victim’s father, a dentist, was detained for 90 days and then released. Aarushi’s body was found in her bedroom on May 16, 2008. She had been hit over the head and her throat slit. Police initially named a domestic servant as the prime suspect before his body was found on the house’s terrace 24 hours after the killing, also with his throat cut. No murder weapon was ever found.
PHILIPPINES
Fireworks injure 245
Officials say at least 245 people have been injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire ahead of often-bloody New Year’s eve revelry. Health Secretary Enrique Ona made last-minute inspections of government hospitals yesterday to ensure emergency and surgical rooms were well-staffed and stocked with medicine for the expected deluge of people injured by firecrackers and gunfire. Ona says the number of firecracker-related injuries could swell to more than 1,000 if people didn’t stay away from dangerous firecrackers. Many Filipinos, believe that noisy New Year’s celebrations drive away evil and misfortune.
SPAIN
Gender persecuted honored
The city of Barcelona will erect a monument to gays, lesbians and transgender people who have been persecuted and repressed “throughout history,” it was announced on Thursday. The exact site of the pink, triangular stone monument has not yet been decided, but a spokesman for city hall said the square outside the Sacred Heart, or Sagrada Familia, basilica “is one location that has been proposed.” Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the city’s emblematic Antonio Gaudi-designed church last month as hundreds of gays and lesbians staged a mass “kiss-in” to protest the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on homosexuality. A statement from city hall on Thursday said the monument would be unveiled next month. It said the inscription will read: “In memory of the gays, lesbians and transsexual people who have suffered persecution and repression throughout history. Barcelona 2011.”
GERMANY
Snowball battle axed
Organizers of a giant annual New Year’s snowball fight in Berlin have been forced to call it off after about 8,000 people signed up online for the next battle, authorities said on Thursday. An official at the public works office in the southeastern district of Neukoelln said concerns about security and the risk of damage to Hasenheide Park had led authorities to reject the plans. The event called “Kreuzberg versus Neukoelln,” named after a neighboring district, drew about 500 snow-wielding rivals for the inaugural battle on Jan. 10 last year. Organizer Ruwen Warnke advertised today’s follow-up on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace and generated huge interest with a video from last year’s scrum. About 8,000 said they would attend. Due to the size, Warnke sought official approval to use Hasenheide Park, but to no avail. “A crowd of that size would be uncontrollable and that is too much to ask of the police,” said the public works official, who asked not to be named.
GERMANY
Sleepy burglar nabbed
A 26-year-old man broke into a career advice center in the western town of Ahaus on Tuesday night and completed several trips taking electronics, food and sweets back to his apartment, a police spokesman said on Thursday, but the effort was clearly too much for the man. Returning to the scene of the crime for more swag, he fell asleep on an office floor where police found him still snoozing the next morning. “Handcuffs were slapped on and the sleepy burglar was taken to Ahaus police station,” authorities said. He was found to be under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and was later released on bail.
CROATIA
Good news all day
With a huge smiley face is on the front page, and politics and crime banished for the day, the leading daily newspaper in the country promised to publish only good news for a day. Alen Galovic, the executive editor of 24 Sata, says last year brought too much bad news and that Thursday’s edition was intended to “bring a little light and a bit of hope.” The paper published stories about the rescue of a trapped dog, a hairdresser who cuts orphans’ hair for free and businessmen who defied the financial crisis. Galovic says the appointment of new ministers and the seizure of paintings from a former prime minister suspected of corruption were being ignored for the day. Some bad news managed to slip through, however: The horoscope still forecast trouble ahead for people with some star signs.
COLOMBIA
‘Ghostly census’ launched
A Medellin undertaker has taken his craft to the next level by launching a “ghostly census” in the nation’s second-largest city, where his workers have so far compiled 215 spirits, 23 in pictures and videos. “It’s beyond question that many of the city’s buildings and homes have ghosts. For years, we’ve heard stories about them and we thought the time had come to approach, catalogue and classify them through a census,” William Betancur said. The enterprising Betancur Funeral Home owner said he began the list a few weeks ago, sending “a team of four funeral parlor workers — properly attired in uniforms — to buildings” throughout Medellin. “They’ve reported back with 215 ghosts. Our video and still cameras have captured 23,” he said with pride.
UNITED STATES
Staged autopsy sparks ire
The executors of Michael Jackson’s estate are expressing outrage over an “insensitive” TV special “in shockingly bad taste” that plans to re-enact the King of Pop’s autopsy. In a letter to Discovery Communications on Wednesday, John Branca and John McClain deplored in the strongest terms the Discovery Channel’s “blind desire to exploit Michael’s death, while cynically attempting to dupe the public into believing this show will have serious medical value.” The pair were especially angered by a European promotional ad for the program that shows Jackson’s trademark sequined glove emerging from beneath a coroner’s white draping sheet. “Discovery obviously views this as clever advertising and creative ‘branding’ for the program. In fact, the ad is debased, sick and insensitive,” the letter said.
UNITED STATES
Smoking on subs banned
Giving up smoking may be a New Year’s resolution for some, but all sailors will now have to follow suit, as the Navy moved to ban its crews from smoking aboard submarines yesterday. In a country where fights against “big tobacco” are common, troops deprived of fresh air and natural light for months were surprisingly allowed to smoke in submerged submarines. However, no more, after a Pentagon study found the risks of second-hand smoke were severe in the highly confined spaces. Submarine Forces Commander Vice Admiral John Donnelly ordered the ban aboard 73 subs, citing health concerns. About 40 percent of the 13,000 submarine sailors smoke — double the national average. The order comes 16 years after a ban on smoking in military buildings and installations, as well as aboard Navy ships.
UNITED STATES
Porn king offers mom deal
“Octomom” Nadya Suleman and her 14 children could avoid being evicted from their suburban home if the mortgage holder cuts a deal with a porn kingpin. After giving Suleman repeated warnings to pay the US$450,000 that’s due or get out, Amer Haddadin said he is now considering an offer from Vivid Entertainment co-founder Steve Hirsch to foot the bill. Suleman has repeatedly declined Hirsch’s offers — US$1 million at one point — to appear in porn videos. Haddadin says US$500,000 is nothing to Hirsch, whose company is one of the nation’s biggest pornography companies. Haddadin said he is meeting with his lawyer on Monday to talk about the deal and further eviction procedures, while Suleman was not to face eviction yesterday as previously reported. Hirsch said he is not trying to pressure Suleman into porn, but he would use her woes to start a conversation that brings her to work for Vivid.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
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