■ China
Iris Chang gets statues
The government has commissioned two statues of Iris Chang, the late Chinese-American author of a book on the massacre of thousands of Chinese civilians by Japanese troops during World War II, a news report said Wednesday. Chang died last November of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 36. In 1997, Chang published the international bestseller The Rape of Nanking, which described the rape, torture and killing of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in the former Chinese capital during the late 1930s.The government plans to place a statue of Chang in its memorial museum to the massacre victims in Nanjing and to give a second to her family, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
■ Thailand
Crtitical Web sites closed
Thailand's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry has shut down two Web sites deemed critical of the government, media reports said yesterday. The Web sites -- thai-insider.com and fm9225.com -- were removed from local internet service providers (ISPs) by an order issued by the ICT on June 18, the Bangkok Post said. An ICT official told the newspaper that the Web sites had been closed because of their "violent content" that could trigger social disorder and doubts about the real ownership behind the sites.
www.thai-insider.com is known to be owned by Ekkayuth Anchanbutr, a controversial businessman who had to flee the country for several years and upon his return launched a crusade against corruption in the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawtara.
■ Japan
15-year-old kills parents
A 15-year-old Japanese boy was arrested Wednesday for allegedly killing his parents by crushing their skulls, slashing their bodies and then bombing their room, police and reports said. The Tokyo boy was found at an inn in the hot spring resort of Kusatsu north of the capital a day after the alleged murders, a police spokesman said. The boy faces charges he killed his 44-year-old father and 42-year-old mother, whose skulls were crushed and whose bodies bore multiple cuts and stab wounds, Jiji Press said. The couple were found dead after an explosion tore apart their room at a Tokyo dormitory for construction workers, where the teenager's father worked as a live-in caretaker.
Investigators found an electric stove in the room could have functioned as a timer to trigger the explosion, news reports said.
■ Japan
Drivers cause scare
Fears of mass sabotage on roads were quelled this week after thousands of blade-like metal shards found attached to roadside guardrails around the country were attributed to nothing more sinister than careless driving. The government launched a nationwide inquiry this month after a boy hurt his leg on a piece of metal protruding from a guardrail in a suburb near Tokyo last month. More than 27,000 similar fragments were found lodged in roadside barriers all over the country. The metal mystery dominated TV news programs earlier this month and speculation was rife that the fragments had been placed deliberately to cause injury, possibly by a team of pranksters. But a Transport Ministry committee set up to look into the matter said this week the metal scraps were most likely pieces torn from vehicles that had brushed against the guardrails.
■ United Kingdom
Religious hatred bill read
Controversial legislation to outlaw incitement to religious hatred in Britain was adopted in principle Tuesday in parliament by a vote of 303-247. The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill was opposed by the opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, who warned that the legislation might curtail freedom of expression and worsen community relations. Their argument was supported by many in the artistic community, including comedian Rowan "Mr Bean" Atkinson, who alleged that Prime Minister Tony Blair's government was using "a sledgehammer to crack a nut." But Home Secretary Charles Clarke, sponsoring the bill, told the House of Commons that artistic freedom to poke fun at religions will not be curbed by the new offence of incitement to religious hatred.
■ United States
IC inventor dies
Nobel laureate Jack Kilby, whose 1958 invention of the integrated circuit ushered in the modern electronics age and made possible the microprocessor, has died after a battle with cancer. Kilby died Monday at age 81 at his Dallas home, said Texas Instruments Inc., where he worked for many years. During his first year at Texas Instruments, using borrowed equipment, Kilby built the first integrated circuit into a single piece of semiconducting material half the size of a paper clip. ``TI was the only company that agreed to let me work on electronic component miniaturization more or less full time, and it turned out to be a great fit,'' Kilby wrote in an autobiography for the Nobel Committee in 2000.
■ United Kingdom
Modest school bans skirts
Concerns that playground cartwheels and energetic drama lessons are making it impossible for girls to "maintain their modesty" has prompted a school to ban them from wearing skirts. From next year all pupils at the Broadstone Middle School in Poole, England, will have to wear long trousers. The school, which takes pupils aged nine to 13, argues that the rule means girls will be able to play a full role in breaktime activities and in lessons such as drama when they wear uniform rather than sports clothes.
■ United States
Duke Uni in surgical snafu
Duke University has told thousands of patients whose surgical instruments were mistakenly washed in hydraulic fluid before being sterilized that there's no risk of getting infections as a result. For two months late last year, surgeons at Duke Health Raleigh Hospital and Durham Regional Hospital unknowingly used instruments that had been washed with hydraulic fluid instead of soap. The error happened after elevator workers drained hydraulic fluid into empty soap containers without changing the labels.
■ United States
Black Dragons sent to jail
Three reputed leaders of the Black Dragon, once one of Southern California's most notorious Chinese-American street gangs, were sentenced to more than two decades in prison for attempting to kill two fellow alleged gang members. Khoanh Lam, 37; Minh Thang Tran, 52; and Cham Hoang, 23, were each convicted on two counts of attempted murder and two counts of conspiracy in Los Angeles on Monday. An informant testified that Lam and Tran had ordered the deaths of the gang members because they believed they were taking extortion money from a brothel.
■ United States
City shames `johns' online
Seizing on public embarrassment as a deterrent, the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday began posting on its Web site the names, addresses and photos of people arrested for soliciting prostitutes. "We're telling everyone who sets foot in Chicago, if you solicit a prostitute, you'll be arrested. And when you are arrested, people will know. Your spouse, your children, your families, your neighbors and your employers," Mayor Richard Daley said. The Web site was already filled on Tuesday afternoon with the pictures of 20 people arrested in the past month. Convicted "johns" also face fines of about US$1,000, plus the impoundment of their cars.
■ United States
Bush rejects investigation
President George W. Bush's administration rejected the idea of creating an independent commission to investigate alleged abuse of detainees by military guards at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday the Defense Department has undertaken 10 major investigations into abuse allegations, and that system is working well. "People are being held to account,'' he said, ``and we think that's the way to go about this." McClellan said the Pentagon also would investigate any new allegations. Already, he said, some of the probes have included outside investigators.
■ Yemen
Polio still spreading: WHO
World health leaders said an outbreak of polio in the Middle Eastern country of Yemen continued to spread as they pledged to continue the fight to eradicate the disease. Yemen, with 243 cases, accounts for nearly half of the 533 cases in the world this year as of Tuesday, according to the World Health Organization. A recent outbreak in Indonesia has brought the number of cases there to 51. "The threat of a polio importation is a real and continuing one," said WHO chief Dr. Lee Jong-wook.
■ United States
Men fired for `being French'
Just when there appeared to have been a thaw in relations between the US and France, hostilities have resumed in earnest. The battleground this time is one of New York's most expensive restaurants, where three former waiters have filed a US$5 million lawsuit claiming they were dismissed for being French. Rene Bordet, 68, Jean-Claude Lesbre, 63 and Yves Thepault, 68, said the management at the 21 Club, a former speakeasy that is now a popular haunt of politicians, businessmen and Hollywood stars, created and fostered a hostile working environment. The civil suit claimed that the management of the restaurant "made fun of Bordet's French accent" and "expressed glee" that "President Bush hated the French."
■ West Bank
Gunmen fire at Qureia
Palestinian militants shot at a building where Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia was speaking yesterday, and an explosive device was detonated as he and his entourage were leaving the Balata refugee camp. Qureia was not injured. The incident began yesterday morning as Qureia spoke to militants inside a sports club near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Gunmen inside the building fired in the air, at a distance of more than 100m from the prime minister, witnesses said. Others, who were outside, fired shots at the building, but the bullets didn't penetrate the wall, they said.
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