■ AUSTRALIA
Ramadan lounge on offer
Queensland is hoping to attract Middle Eastern tourists with a new venue designed for Muslims observing Ramadan. Tourism Queensland regional director Paul Buggy said while some hotels, malls and theme parks already offered Muslim prayer rooms, officials wanted to go “one step further.” The result is the Ramadan Lounge at the Courtyard Marriott hotel in the town of Surfers Paradise, where people can come three evenings a week during Ramadan to break their daily fast with dates, snacks and coffee. “It’s a function room that we’ve converted into a comfortable lounge where we are inviting Muslims to come and break their fast,” Buggy said. The lounge, which is designed to accommodate about 50 people, is free and will be open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from sunset to about 9pm until early next month.
■ SRI LANKA
Veterinarians strike
Wildlife veterinarians have gone on strike to protest the alleged mishandling of elephant conservation, Vijitha Perera, the secretary of the vets’ union, said yesterday. “There is no proper management of wild elephants who are being pushed into narrow habitats as the government allows people to encroach into traditional elephant homelands,” Perera said. The five-day strike that began on Monday was aimed at highlighting the escalating conflict between humans and elephants, which left at least 50 people and 228 elephants dead last year, he said. Over the weekend, a 75-year-old man riding a bicycle was attacked and killed while another 67-year-old man was crushed to death at his home. “At least four elephants die each week due to this conflict. There is shortage of food and water for elephants living in the wild in narrow corridors between villages,” Perera said.
■ CHINA
Shan family changes name
About 200 members of a family have changed their surname because computers do not recognize the rare character used to write it, the China News Service said on Monday. The character for a variant of the surname Shan is used by one family in Shandong Province and, because of its rarity, has never been assigned a code in the country’s computer system, the report said. When members of the Shan family apply for a drivers’ license or a bank deposit book, the machine cannot print the character for their surname, the report said. To get around this problem, Shan family members have decided to change their surname to two variants of Xian, which are pronounced the same way, but written using different characters, the report said. For older members of the family, the loss of their ancestral name has been painful. “Our generation will remember what our original surname was, but the children will not,” one villager was quoted as saying.
■AUSTRALIA
Surfer dies in shark attack
A surfer died yesterday after being attacked by a shark on a western beach close to the tourist town of Margaret River, police said. “We have just had confirmation that a male has died. It looks like he was a surfer,” a Western Australia police spokesman said. “He has died as a result of his injuries.” Police gave no details on the man’s age or the attack at Gracetown, about 270km south of Perth.
■ HONG KONG
‘Spiderwoman’ sentenced
A jilted “spiderwoman” who shimmied down a drainpipe, broke into her ex-boyfriend’s apartment and held a knife to his throat has been sentenced to 15 months’ jail, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Berry Chan, 25, received the jail term on Monday after she was convicted earlier of aggravated burglary for the break-in on Dec. 23, the report said. Chan climbed down from the nine-story building’s roof along a drainpipe before dismantling a window grille at her ex-lover’s apartment, the Post said. She then held a knife to his neck, demanding a reunion, but he eventually subdued her, the paper said.
■ CHINA
IBMT regulates behavior
A Chinese-influenced meditation technique appears to help the brain regulate behavior after as little as 11 hours of practice, according to a study released on Monday. Researchers at the University of Oregon and Dalian University of Technology charted the effects of integrative body-mind training (IBMT), a technique adapted in the 1990s from traditional Chinese medicine and practiced by thousands in China. The research to be published in the upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences involved 45 test subjects, about half of whom received IBMT, while a control group received relaxation training. Imaging tests showed a greater number of connections in the anterior cingulate — the part of the brain that regulates emotion and behavior — among those who practiced meditation compared to subjects in the control group. “The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation,” said the University of Oregon’s Michael Posner, a lead author on the study. Researchers said the experimental group also showed lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue than students in the control group. IBMT emphasizes body-mind awareness using breathing techniques and mental imagery to achieve a state of “restful alertness.”
■ HUNGARY
Holy wheels a hit
A Roman Catholic priest has become a YouTube hit with his distinctive method of spreading the word on wheels. The Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45, who lives and preaches in Redics, a small village on the border with Slovenia, believes skateboarding can open the way to God for young people. The video of him in action, Funny Priest Skateboarding, has so far attracted close to 170,000 hits and now also has a music version. Lendvai says he follows the ways of Saint John Bosco, an Italian priest and educator in the 19th century who dedicated his life to improving the lot of poor youngsters and used games as part of their education.
■ FRANCE
Shark sighting ends dips
Officials banned swimming on Monday off some of the Riviera’s best known resorts after several beachgoers reported seeing a shark. Rescuers patrolling aboard an inflatable motorboat spotted a 2m long shark with a “stiff dorsal fin, gills and a white underbelly,” said Michel Gagnaire, head of public safety for the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer near the city of Nice. Swimming was to be banned for at least two days off Cagnes and the neighboring communities of Villeneuve Loubet and Saint Laurent du Var, even though shark sightings are rare off France, and attacks even more so. According to the Florida Natural History Museum’s respected “International Shark Attack File,” there has been only one fatal attack by a shark in French waters since their records began in 1847.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Lennon speaks again
A folk singer who expressed fears that success and wealth could ruin his songwriting revealed on Monday how John Lennon sent him a letter of reassurance — but it did not reach him for 34 years. Steve Tilston was just 21 in 1971 when the megastar read an interview he had done with a magazine called ZigZag. Lennon penned a handwritten letter to the aspiring singer just months after the Beatles split up in 1970, telling him not to worry about becoming wealthy because it would not change what he felt inside. He sent the letter to Tilston and the reporter who interviewed him at the magazine’s offices, but it never reached the musician. The first time he saw it was in 2005 when a US collector contacted him to verify whether the letter was genuine. “It was so frustrating because Lennon even included his home phone number on the top of the letter,” said the 60-year-old. Despite not receiving Lennon’s reassuring words, Tilston still went on to record more than 20 albums.
■GERMANY
Singer admits risky behavior
A singer facing accusations that she infected a man with the virus that causes AIDS has acknowledged in court on Monday that she had unprotected sex despite knowing she was HIV-positive. Nadja Benaissa, 28, a member of German girl band No Angels, is charged with grievous bodily harm for allegedly infecting a partner with the virus in 2004 and also faces charges of attempted bodily harm for having unprotected sex with two other men. “I am sorry from my heart,” she said in a statement read by her lawyer to the Darmstadt administrative court. The man who claims Benaissa infected him says they had a three-month relationship at the beginning of 2004, and that he got tested after Benaissa’s aunt asked him in 2007 whether he was aware that the singer was HIV-positive.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
I’m no good: party leader
The leader of a political party says he’s quitting his post because he’s not proved to be very good at his job. In a rare statement yesterday, Malcolm Pearson, head of the UK Independence Party, which advocates withdrawing Britain from the EU, said he had stepped down. The party has two members in the House of Lords, and 12 representatives at the European Parliament, but failed to win any seats in the House of Commons at a national election in May. Pearson says he’s learned he is not good at party politics and that he doesn’t enjoy it. Pearson, a member of the Lords, says he had decided to step down because he had failed to significantly increase the party’s share of the vote in the May election.
■ UNITED STATES
Senator hit by apple pie
A woman identified as an anti-war protester hit Senator Carl Levin in the face with an apple pie during the Armed Services Committee chairman’s meeting with constituents in northern Michigan, authorities said on Monday. The senator took a question near the end of a meeting in Big Rapids from a man who said he was a student, Levin’s office said in a news release. The man read a long statement, then a woman came up and hit Levin with a pie. Big Rapids police arrested Ahlam Mohsen, 22, of Coldwater, on assault and disorderly conduct charges. Mohsen told the Big Rapids Pioneer she hoped “to send a message that liberals and Democrats are just as implicated in the violence [of war] as the Republicans.”
■ UNITED STATES
Study finds romance/net link
Dim the lights, turn on the schmoozy music and log on ... Adults who have Internet access at home are more likely to be in romantic relationships than adults who don’t, a study presented on Monday found. Just over 82 percent of adults who have Internet access at home also had a spouse or romantic partner, compared to just under 63 percent of adults who did not have access to the Web, the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association says. “Our research suggests that Internet access has an important role to play in helping Americans find mates,” said Michael Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University and the lead author of the study. In addition to finding that people are more likely to be in romantic relationships if they have Internet access in their homes, the researchers found that the Internet is gaining importance as a place where couples meet, and especially same-sex couples. “Couples who meet online are much more likely to be same-sex couples, and somewhat more likely to be from different religious backgrounds,” Rosenfeld said. “The Internet is not simply a new and more efficient way to keep in touch with our existing networks; rather the Internet is a new kind of social intermediary that may reshape the kinds of partners and relationships we have,” he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Man lives roller coaster life
A 78-year-old man rode a Pittsburgh-area roller coaster 90 times in one day — bringing his lifetime total to 4,000 rides. Vic Kleman spent about five hours on the Jack Rabbit roller coaster at Kennywood Park in West Mifflin. The wooden coaster is no spring chicken, either. It’s celebrating its 90th anniversary — the number that prompted Kleman’s marathon riding session on Sunday. The Jack Rabbit has an 26m, double-dip drop. Kleman says he’s been going on it since 1959, and usually rides it about 20 times a visit. Kleman is a member of the American Coaster Enthusiasts.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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