■ South Korea
More bird flu cases reported
More South Korean farmers reported suspected bird flu among ducks nationwide yesterday as authorities struggled to test and contain the highly contagious disease. The latest cases of avian influenza -- which in rare cases can be deadly to humans -- have been traced to duck-breeding farms in South Cholla province, home to half of South Korea's 8 million ducks. The Agriculture Ministry said about half of the target of 1 million chickens and ducks had been slaughtered and buried. The total includes thousands of chickens who died instantly after contracting the flu. "A total 19 suspected cases are being tested including the newly reported cases," the ministry said in a statement.
■ China
Gas blast kills at least 163
An explosion at a natural gas field in China's southwestern municipality of Chongqing has killed at least 163 people and poisoned scores, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Authorities had evacuated residents within 5km of the disaster site, it said. The blast happened on Tuesday morning at the Chuandongbei gas field in Kaixian county of Chongqing municipality. A well had burst, releasing "a high concentration of natural gas and sulfurated hydrogen," the news agency said. The field belongs to China National Petroleum Corp, parent of oil major PetroChina.
■ North Korea
US to donate more food
The US will give additional food aid to North Korea after UN officials reported fewer obstacles to tracking distribution, the State Department said on Wednesday. The US will donate an additional 60,000 tonnes of agricultural commodities to North Korea through the UN World Food Program, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement. The promise of more aid comes as Chinese and US officials met earlier this week in Beijing to discuss how to move forward on six-way negotiations to curtail North Korea's nuclear arms program.
■ China
Judge jailed for corruption
A high-ranking judge has been jailed for 15 years for pocketing more than 1 million yuan (US$120,800) in bribes, the People's Daily said yesterday. A Beijing court sentenced Mai Chongkai, president of the Supreme People's Court in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong, on Wednesday, the Communist Party newspaper said. He was found guilty of taking bribes totalling 1.06 million yuan (US$128,100) from companies with legal problems in exchange for using his influence to intervene on their behalf, it said. Bribery and other forms of corruption remain rampant in China, despite the Communist Party's high-profile attempts to root it out via regular graft-busting campaigns.
■ Singapore
Maid jailed for cutting penis
An Indonesian maid in Singapore was jailed for cutting a 2-year-old boy's penis with a knife, a news report said yesterday. Suharti Sumito, 22, was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in jail after a district court ruled she had used a knife to inflict a 2cm wound on the boy under her care in September, the Straits Times newspaper said. Suharti was using the knife to cut chicken when she was asked to check on the boy -- who had just finished bathing and was running around. The paper said she cut the boy when she caught hold of him. She denied that she had intentionally cut the toddler.
■ Tanzania
Wife nags man to death
A Tanzanian man killed himself by drinking a chemical used in cattle dips, leaving a suicide note saying it was to escape a nagging wife, police said. The body of the 32-year-old was found in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam with the suicide note and a glass containing traces of the chemical, used for killing insects on livestock, said regional police commissioner Alfred Tibaigana. "I've decided to end my life," Tibaigana quoted the suicide note as saying. "I am fed up with the constant nagging of my first wife." Police did not have any further details about the man's death in the East African country, where polygamy is common.
■ Germany
Tabloid shock: no bad news
Germany's top-selling newspaper published nothing but good news, dropping its normal fare of crime, violence and scandal for stories about tax cuts, falling petrol prices and accelerating economic growth. "There's only good news today," Bild said in large letters on its cover, where headlines are usually devoted to sex scandals, Germany's cannibal trial, killers, adulterers or dishonest politicians. Skipping its usual "loser of the day" entry, Bild picked two "winners of the day," including rock star Ozzy Osbourne who was released from intensive care after an accident in Britain. Even a story in the paper about a Berlin celebrity who broke up with her boyfriend took a positive approach: "Great news, Djamila Rowe is single again."
■ United States
City duped over flu shots
Faced with nationwide flu shot shortages amid an epidemic, Georgia health officials came across an offer they couldn't refuse -- 100,000 extra flu shots for a hefty US$1.65 million. They wired the money. But the flu shots never came. They never even existed, state officials said on Wednesday. Health division director Kathleen Toomey said on Wednesday that she was told by the FBI that other states may have been similarly defrauded. Georgia has managed to recover all but US$70,000 of its money back with FBI help. The rest of the money is expected to be returned within days.
■ Spain
Police intercept bombs
Police foiled a plot to detonate two powerful bombs aboard a train at a bustling Madrid railway station on Christmas Eve, officials said. Two suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA were arrested. One 25kg bomb was found on the train traveling from the Basque city of San Sebastian to Madrid. Police stopped the train in the northern city of Burgos, evacuated it, removed the bomb and defused it, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. A second device of about the same size was seized in possession of one of the two detainees in San Sebastian before it could be planted on the train, and it was this arrest that led police to the bomb on the train, he said.
■ Haiti
Medical staff protest
Medical students and doctors marched Wednesday to protest against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government as the death toll rose during anti-government demonstrations that have plagued this impoverished Caribbean country since September. The rising tensions came as the government prepared for celebrations on Jan. 1 marking Haiti's 200th anniversary of independence from slave-trading France.
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
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
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