■ China
Naval exercise set for today
China and France will hold rare joint naval exercises off Qingdao today. "It's the biggest in scale and the most substantial in content of an exercise between the Chinese navy and a foreign navy," Xinhua said on yesterday, quoting Ju Xinchun, captain of the missile destroyer Harbin. French President Jacques Chirac, keen to strengthen ties with China and win French business a firm footing in its rapidly growing market, sided with Beijing in January in opposing plan's for Taiwan to hold a referendum.
■ China
13 years late -- it's a boy
A couple raised their only child for 13 years in the belief it was a girl, until a hospital visit alerted them to the fact that he was really a boy, state media said yester-day. The couple, from the central city of Zhengzhou, were fooled by their child's underdeveloped sexual organs, the Zhengzhou Evening News reported. They did not realize anything was wrong until they were baffled by a "reaction in the lower half of his body" whenever he watched pretty women on TV, the paper said. The parents took their child to the hospital, where an exam corrected their mistake about the child's sex. Doctors concluded that the boy was suffering from a disease causing sexual organs to be somewhat hidden from view, and he was subsequently treated in a three-hour-long operation.
■ Cambodia
Coalition talks scheduled
The leaders of the outgoing coalition government were scheduled to hold talks late yesterday aimed at breaking an eight-month political deadlock, royalist leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh said. He said his meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen would be the first since November talks that saw the three parties which won seats in July elections agree to form a coalition admin-istration. The meeting may indicate an imminent resolution to the bickering between Hun Sen's Cam-bodian People's Party (CPP), the royalist FUNCINPEC and opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP). FUNCINPEC and the SRP formed a surprise alliance in the wake of the July polls, in which the CPP won the most seats but failed to secure the majority it needs to govern alone, forcing it to seek out a coalition partner.
■ Singapore
Cernan saw wall in space
The Great Wall of China is visible from space, the last man to walk on the moon told the Straits Times, contradicting China's first spaceman, who said he couldn't spot the giant fortification. Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan -- who walked on the moon in December 1972 -- told the paper he viewed the wall from space. He said it's a matter of having good eyes and knowing where to look. For decades, the Chinese have said the wall was visible from space, but the myth was shattered when Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei (楊利偉) returned from space last year and said could not see the wall while in orbit.
■ Singapore
Man stripped by thieves
Thieves left an elderly man with almost nothing but the shirt on his back after taking away his trousers along with more than US$5,500 in cash and valuables, police said yesterday. The 72-year-old was walking down a dark alley on Saturday when he was accosted by two men who pulled down his trousers and ran off with two Rolex watches, eight rings, cash and several documents.
■ Greece
Bomb found outside bank
Greek police discovered and exploded a bomb outside a Citibank branch in Athens, site of this summer's Olympics, after an anonymous tip came in to a newspaper, police said. "There was a controlled explosion of a bag placed near the Citibank after we were told it would go off in 35 minutes," a police official said. There was no claim of responsibility. A police source said the bomb was not sophisticated but was powerful enough to cause "death and damage". Police found two sticks of dynamite, a clock and a detonator in the remains of the bag placed five metres from the bank's entrance.
■ United States
New hope for bald people
A US research team has discovered stem cells that can regenerate hair growth, raising the hope that new treatments for baldness could be as little as five years away. When the cells are transplanted into skin they spontaneously grow into hair follicles which produce hair. The research was conducted in mice, but the scientists say it takes us one step closer to finding cures for hair loss in people. "We could isolate the cells from hairs remaining on the back of your scalp, grow them in culture and then reconstitute new hair follicles," said George Cotsarelis, a dermatologist at the University of Pennsylvania school of medicine who led the research.
■ United States
Bizarre killings tax coroners
Six coroners, triple the typical weekend staff, worked in shifts Sunday to identify the nine victims of a mass killing, believed to all be family members of a man who lived a bizarre life of polygamy and incest. Marcus Wesson, who may have fathered two of the victims with his own daughters, was charged on Saturday with nine counts of murder. Bail was set at US$9 million. Identifying the victims and tracking down next of kin to be notified was a difficult process. Wesson, 57, covered with blood but described by police as "very calm," was arrested on Friday at his home.
■ United Kingdom
Muslims against Iraq war
Just under half of British Muslims questioned in a poll released on Sunday said they might consider becoming suicide bombers if they lived in the Palestinian territories, and more than one in 10 said further terror attacks on the US would be justified. The survey, by the ICM polling firm for the Guardian newspaper, found 80 percent of British Muslims said Britain and the US should not have launched their war on Iraq. Ten percent said the decision to attack was correct. Seventy-three percent said further terrorist strikes on the US by al-Qaeda or similar groups would be unjustified, while 13 percent said they would be justified.
■ Poland
Drunk nun crashes tractor
A Polish Benedictine nun is facing jail for driving a tractor into a car while drunk outside her convent in southwestern Poland, police said on Friday. The 45-year-old nun will be charged with drunk-driving and causing an accident, which carries a prison sentence of up to two years, Dariusz Waluch, police spokesman in the southwestern Polish town of Dzierzoniow, told local news agency PAP. He said the nun was 17 times over the country's legal alcohol limit for driving.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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