SHANGHAI, China

China's legal experts have suggested employers should also be held responsible for sexual harassment at work places and be punished. The revised Shanghai Municipal Measures for Implementing China's Law on Protection of Women's Rights stipulated that the offence includes verbal abuse, written text, pictures, text messaging and physical contact. The new measure also allows victims the right to lodge complaints with the employer, concerned departments and public security organizations for not taking preventive measures.

SHIMLA, India
In a bizarre incident, parts of a dead body kept for autopsy in a premier hospital in Himachal Pradesh were eaten by rats, officials said. The incident angered the already grieving relatives of Ramesh Kumar, who had committed suicide by hanging himself in his house. When the body was removed from the morgue of the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), the state's most prestigious state-run hospital last week, the right eye of the dead man was completely eaten away by rats, while the lips and cheeks were partly eaten. The superintendent of the hospital said authorities are taking steps to avoid such incidents in the future.

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

A Papua New Guinea woman gave birth prematurely as she struggled to free herself from a hangman's noose after villagers lynched her and her husband believing they were involved in sorcery, local media reported. Nolan Yekum and her husband Paul were lynched in Kilip village in the jungle-clad western highlands two weeks ago after villagers believed they used black magic to kill a neighbour. Black magic is widespread in the South Pacific nation where most of the 5.1 million population live subsistence lives. Women suspected of being witches are often hanged or burnt to death.

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia
Three community college students - all deaf and mute - were charged with raping their classmate in her rented apartment. The accused - Mohd Anwar Iswah, Mohd Saiful Izzuan Ahmad Saidi and Muhammad Aizad Ariffin - all 21, were charged separately with raping the 20-year-old woman, also deaf and mute. The accused wrote their non-guilty plea on a piece of paper, but if found guilty face up to 30 years' jail and whipping. Counsel for the accused said it was unlikely that the sex was non-consensual, adding the accused and the victim continued going to class together and mingled as usual, and that it was only five days after the alleged incident that the young woman lodged a complaint with police.

SEOUL, S.Korea

South Korean soldiers will be kitted out with hi-tech combat gear by 2020 including chameleon-style uniforms which can change camouflage patterns, according to the defence ministry. Under a three-phase plan to modernise outfits and weapons to maximise combat capabilities, the current olive green combat uniform will be replaced with grey fatigues capable of evading enemy infrared night-time search devices, and by 2020 will be made of hi-tech material with digital camouflage patterns that can be changed to blend into surroundings. They will also have electronic devices and sensors for heating and cooling, and anti-biochemical capabilities.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand.
Some New Zealand publishers have banned references to fish and chips in modern children's stories, says Wellington author Don Long. "There's quite an issue at the moment about healthy food in schools," he told Radio New Zealand. "Some publishers have misinterpreted sensitivity around that to put a blanket ban on any mention of things like fish and chips in resources that go out to schools."
Long said that completely misinterpreted what the education ministry wanted, "which is for kids to seriously look at the whole issues of healthy foods and so on.”

KATHMANDU, Nepal
Religious leaders in a town near Nepal's capital are searching for a young girl to worship as a living goddess because the incumbent has just got married to a fruit, officials said. Three medieval towns in the Kathmandu valley worship pre-pubescent girls as the living embodiment of the goddess Taleju. Eleven-year-old Sajani Shakya had served in the post for nine years in the town of Bhaktapur, but is now obliged to retire following her symbolic wedding. The best known of such goddesses is the "Royal Kumari" who blesses Nepal's king once a year and is confined to a crumbling, ornate palace in the historic heart of old Kathmandu.

HONG KONG
A Hong Kong hospital has admitted that it gave radiotherapy to the wrong patient for two months after mixing up two biopsy results. Tung Wah Hospital said the biopsy examinations were confused after two men aged 72 and 69 years-old underwent tests for prostate cancer in January last year. The mix-up lead to the 72-year-old receiving radiology treatment for a non-existent cancer for two months while the 69-year-old, who had the cancer, received no treatment for 10 months. The second man was eventually diagnosed with cancer in October last year after another biopsy. The hospital said it had apologised to the families of the men who are both in stable condition and an investigation was now
underway.

SHANGHAI, China

China and the U.S. Have signed an agreement on setting up a military hotline between the two countries, the Chinese defence ministry said. The agreement was signed at the conclusion of a working meeting between the officials of the two defence departments. The ministry said the two sides also signed an agreement on launching military archives to trace the missing U.S. military personnel in the Korean War. However, it did not disclose the details of the agreements. The hotline is aimed at providing instant contact between the Chinese and the U.S. defence and military leaders on major issues, especially in emergencies, the officials said.

BANGKOK, Thailand

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has approved the appointment of a notorious bar brawler as Thailand's new poster boy for the government's abstinence campaign. After receiving the premier's approval, Wan Yoobamrung, 34, was free to take up his new job as assistant to the Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap in the capacity of Thailand's chief campaigner against drinking and smoking, vices
that the new appointee is reportedly well acquainted with. Wan, the second son of Interior Minster Chalerm Yoobamrung, is best known in Thailand for his past involvement in violent pub brawls, which made front-page news in the country's press several years ago.