Asia Beat: Apr 17 2008

MANILA, Philippines
A man in the Manila suburb of Pasig says he wants to keep his family intact and will not file charges against his wife, who cut off his penis in a fit of jealous rage as the father of four slept. Police said 37-year-old Lenly Bayabado had long suspected her younger husband's infidelity, prompting her to cut off his organ. Neighbours rushed the screaming victim, 32-year-old Joelito, to a nearby hospital were he underwent several hours of surgery to re-attach his penis. Joelito denies cheating on his wife.


BEIJING, China
China has labeled as “vile” remarks by a CNN analyst who called China a “bunch of goons and thugs” and has demanded an official apology from the news station and its commentator, Jack Cafferty. In a clip about unsafe exports, or “junk with lead paint,” Cafferty scolded China for 50 years of bullying tactics. The remarks have sparked an international incident as well as a web petition on sina.com, one of China's biggest Internet portals, which has collected 3.8 million online signatures over the issue.


NEW DELHI, India
Police in the Indian capital detained more than a dozen pro-Tibet demonstrators this week in an area that will be sealed off for the Olympic torch relay. The protesters, shouting "We Want Justice, Stop Killing in Tibet" had gathered on the Raj Path, the avenue linking India's presidential palace and a monument to slain soldiers known as India Gate. After the protesters laid down in the street, police tossed them into vans and carted them away.


TOKYO, Japan
At least six people killed themselves in Japan over the weekend in separate suicides that all used the same method of mixing cleaning liquid and bath salts. Japan, which has one of the developed world's highest suicide rates, has seen a growing number of people killing themselves with the same method,   learned on the Internet, which creates poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas. In past months, dozens more killed themselves by sealing themselves in cars and lighting carbon-monoxide producing stoves. More than 30,000 people kill themselves every year in Japan.


PHNOM PEHN, Cambodia

A doctor running childrens' hospitals in Cambodia has refused a donation raised by selling a picture of France's first lady in the nude, saying in Cambodia “use of nudity is not understood in the way it is in the West.” Dr. Beat Richner turned down an offer of $91,000 raised at a New York auction last week of the 1993 picture of Italian ex-model Carla Bruni, now married to President Nicolas Sarkozy, out of respect for his patients and their mothers. The money will now instead be donated to a Swiss research institute.

 

PANAJI, India
More controversy has erupted over the death of a British teenager in India's Goa state after her organs were found to be missing following a new autopsy in Britain. The autopsy, the third since 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling was raped and murdered in the Indian resort state in February, revealed that her stomach, uterus and both kidneys had been removed, a lawyer representing the teenager's mother said. Indian authorities claim they were taken for forensic purposes.


YOKOHAMA, Japan
A 25-year-old comic book anime illustrator was arrested this week on suspicion of molesting one of his fans. Sho Meguru Ishii of Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama, who also works as a computer programmer, allegedly molested the 15-year-old high school girl at a hotel in Kohoku Ward in the city four times from November through December. When the girl posted an entry on his blog in September, Ishii allegedly said he would meet her at the hotel if she paid him 150,000 yen "to prove she loved him."

 

SEOUL, S. Korea
South Korea has confirmed its latest case of bird flu as belonging to the deadly H5N1 strain, adding to a string of outbreaks in recent weeks which led to the culling of more than half a million poultry. The latest confirmation was in the county of Yeongam in South Jeolla province, 320 km south of Seoul and about 100 km from the area in a neighbouring province where the first outbreak occurred a year ago. About 20 farms lost their entire bird stock in the latest cull.

 

BEIJING, China
 China has defended its use of the death penalty after Amnesty International said it was the world's most prolific state executioner in 2007. The human rights group said it had established that at least 470 people were executed - equivalent to nine a week - and a further 1,860, or 35 a week, were sentenced to death in China in 2007. On a per capita basis, however, the Amnesty figures showed China trailed Saudi Arabia (143 executions), Iran (317) and Pakistan (135) in the number of executions carried out in 2007. In total, at least 1,252 people were executed in 24 countries in 2007 and 3,347 sentenced to death in 51 countries, Amnesty said.

 
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