■ China
Refugees' fate undecided
The fate of 29 refugees who rushed a Japanese school in Beijing hung in the balance yesterday as Japanese consular officials interviewed them to find out who they were and what they wanted, diplomats said. "We are still trying to find out who they are," Japanese embassy spokesman Keiji Ide said. "They claimed they are North Koreans but we should be careful." The 11 men, 15 women and three children were "more relaxed" after sleeping in the Japanese embassy Wednesday night, he said. Ide said that as far he knew the refugees had not been in contact with South Korean or Chinese officials. A senior foreign ministry official in Seoul said the group would be accepted if they wanted to come to South Korea while Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged that they would be treated "in a humanitarian way."
■ Japan
PM views disputed islands
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi boarded a coast guard patrol boat and viewed a group of Russian-held islands claimed by Japan yesterday, brushing off protests by Moscow that the trip could harm relations. Koizumi departed from the northern island of Hokkaido toward the Kuril islands ahead of 59th anniversary today of the Soviet occupation of them in the weeks following Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945. Former Japanese residents of the islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, and other supporters of the trip waved rising sun flags as Koizumi boarded the ship. National broadcaster NHK later showed Koizumi viewing the islands with binoculars.
■ China
New ban on sexy clothes
Female civil servants in eastern China have been banned from wearing sexy clothes such as slinky tops and tight leggings and told to not use "dirty" or "strange" language in the office, state media said yesterday. The Zhejiang provincial archives bureau announced a set of regulations -- the first of their kind in the country -- that also require female workers to refrain from wearing excess jewelry at work, the China News Service said. Women workers must not be "avant-garde and ostentatious," the regulations reportedly say. They should neither be "too thin and tight or showing the under-garments."
■ China
Baby swapped for phones
A couple in China have traded in their newborn baby boy for two new mobile phones, a news report said yesterday. The couple, who live in Beijing, sold their five day-old boy for 13,000 yuan (US$1,569) and used the money to buy new mobile phones. Police arrested the 32-year-old man and his 22-year-old wife after the husband's enraged brother reported them after hearing about the sale. The mother, from China's Henan province, told police she did not know it was illegal to sell her son, according to the South China Morning Post.
■ China
Two arrested in killing spree
Two brothers have been arrested in central China accused of killing 12 people and cutting up their bodies, state media reported yesterday. Shen Changyin, 29, and Shen Changping, 21, were detained over the murder and dismemberment of 11 waitresses and one man across six provinces, the Yanzhao Metropolitan Daily said. The two farmers had fled Nanwu village in Huojia county, Henan province, in 2000 after the elder brother murdered a man, the report said.
■ United Kingdom
Criminal tracking tested
Britain will test a satellite system for tracking criminal offenders, government officials said yesterday. Prisons Minister Paul Goggins said the system could be used to track several thousand offenders. "We estimate there are 5,000 prolific offenders causing major problems and mayhem with their offending behavior, day in, day out. So they would be a clear target," he said in an interview with BBC Radio. Sex offenders released from prison could be requir-ed to wear the tags as a condition of their freedom, he added. In the pilot program, up to 120 offenders will be fitted with tags which have a wireless connection to a mobile phone.
■ France
Prison tunnel investigated
Anti-terrorist police opened a formal inquiry Wednesday into three tunnels discovered under La Sante, Paris' main high-security jail, whose inmates range from million-aire fraudsters and corrupt politicians to Islamic mili-tants and Basque separatists. The prison authorities said the tunnels, which ran beneath two of the prison's watchtowers and its main entrance, seemed to be part of the network of historic catacombs and quarries which underlies large areas of the city. Two of the tunnels, between 4m and 17m below the prison, had been re-sealed, and La Sante's most dangerous inmates transferred to other jails.
■ United States
Man kills dog with sword
A man has been accused of stabbing a dog to death with a sword in retaliation against its owner, a hotel owner who had evicted him. Daniel Painter, 30, was charged Tuesday with aggravated assault and cruelty to ani-mals. Police said Painter attacked a chow-Labrador mix named Kabu with a sword early Sunday. Kabu's owner, Garth Jones, said he was awakened early Sunday to the sound of a thud and a yelp. Jones said he saw his dog being repeatedly stabbed by Painter, whom he had recently evicted from the Kirk Hotel in Tooele, about 40 km southwest of Salt Lake City. Jones said the man then threatened him and chased after him, but Jones was able to run into his office and call police.
■ South Africa
Plant explosion kills six
Five people remained in critical condition Thursday, a day after a blast in a chemi-cal plant run by South Afri-can giant Sasol killed six and injured more than 100, amid a report that the company had flouted safety norms. A total of 44 people were hospitalized following Wed-nesday's explosion at the plant, the world's biggest coal-to-synthetic fuels facility which is spread over 14 km2 in the town of Secunda, Sasol spokesman Johann van Rheede said. "Five people are in intensive care and 15 people are still in hospital," Van Rheede told reporters.
■ United Kingdom
Famous chef `amateurish'
A restaurant founded by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to teach skills to unemployed young people amid a blaze of publicity was panned by a top London guide yesterday. In its 2005 edition, Harden's London restaurants guide described the restaurant, Fifteen, as "amateurish." "Just because it's a charity doesn't give them the right to rip people off," one visitor to the restaurant in the newly trendy Hoxton area in London's East End told the guide. Patrons slammed the quality of the food, the service and the atmosphere of the restaurant, where a meal without wine costs around ?70 pounds (US$125 dollars) a head.
In a market in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, customers flock to Ache Moussa’s stall to have their long plaits smeared with a special paste in an age-old ritual. Each strand of hair, from the root to the end, is slathered in a traditional mixture of cherry seeds, cloves and chebe seeds, the most important ingredient of all. Users say the recipe makes their hair grow longer and more lustrous. Local and natural hair products are gaining popularity across Africa as people turn away from commercial cosmetics. Moussa applies the mixture and shapes the client’s locks into a gourone — a traditional hairstyle consisting of
The US yesterday wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea, a step forward in Washington’s efforts to enhance and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries’ abilities to share missile warnings —
‘ONE FELL SWOOP’: Overturning a landmark ruling that said judges should defer to experts would ‘cause a massive shock to the legal system,’ a dissenting opinion said Prosecutors overstepped in charging Jan. 6, 2021, rioters with obstruction for trying to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election, the US Supreme Court said on Friday, throwing hundreds of cases into doubt, while another controversial ruling struck down 40 years of legal precedent on federal agencies’ ability to regulate critical issues. The matter was brought to the court through an appeal by former police officer Joseph Fischer, a supporter of former US president Donald Trump who entered the Capitol with hundreds of others in 2021. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecutors’ interpretation of the law would “criminalize
‘APOCALYPTIC : An UN official said that Lebanon was ‘the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints,’ and a conflict that involved it would draw in Syria and other nations Israel on Wednesday said that it does not want war in Lebanon, but could send its neighbor “back to the Stone Age.” The border between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants since the attack on Israel by Hezbollah’s ally Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which triggered the war in Gaza. Fears those exchanges could escalate have grown in the past few weeks as cross-border attacks intensified and after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, prompting new threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said