10  theSun | WEDNESDAY JANUARY 21 2009

news without borders

eight-year-old partner Lin Hui

briefs
Ban sees ‘heartbreaking’
– mate since the pair arrived
on loan from China in 2003.
But zoo director Thanapath
China blocks Pongpamorn said tempera-
tures that have fallen as low
244 new websites as 4°C recent days have in
BEIJING: China has blocked fact steamed up the pair. Ban Ki-moon (centre)

244 new pornographic web-
sites over the last week, the
official Xinhua news agency
said, bringing the total
number of sites shut down in
a campaign against “vulgar”
content to over 700.
Many of the targeted
websites were unregistered
and broke laws about distri-
bution of sexual content, the
report said.
China promised last week
that the campaign, which
Xinhua said is scheduled
Thanapath said Lin Hui has
shown signs of being ready
to mate, including following
her partner around. – AFP
Paraglider survives
11 hours hanging
from power cables
BOGOTA: A Colombian pa-
raglider was rescued alive
and well on Monday, after
hanging from high-voltage
cables for 11 hours in the
province of Antioquia.
Gaza damage
addresses the media as
he visits the destroyed UN
compound in Gaza.
There is GAZA: Voicing shock and anger at
the “heartbreaking” devastation,
hidden
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
talent visited the Gaza Strip yesterday to
near you pledge aid for Palestinians after
Israeli attacks killed 1,300 and left
pg 15
thousands homeless.
Israel was set to withdraw its
remaining troops before the inau-

to last a month, will be no
“flash in the pan”. It has been
extended to cover content
in mobile phone games,
online novels and radio pro-
grammes. – Reuters
Bird flu threat in
China rises as third
person dies
BEIJING: A 16-year-old boy yes-
terday became the third person
to die of bird flu in China this
month, authorities said, fuelling
concerns of more deaths as the
nation prepares to celebrate
the Lunar New Year.
The boy, surnamed Wu, died
in the central province of Hunan
yesterday morning, while a two-
year-old girl was suffering from
the virus remained in a critical
condition, a health ministry
spokeswoman said. Wu was
the third person to die from the
H5N1 strain, bringing the total
number to 23. – AFP
Alberto Ocampo jumped
in a mountainous area in the
town of Bello, near Medellin,
but his paraglider was pushed
by the wind and got caught
on a 110,000 volt wire.
The flow of electricity was
cut off on Sunday afternoon,
to allow a rescue operation
that ended successfully in the
early hours of Monday. It took
a team of 30 rescue workers
to get him down. – dpa
Lawyer, journalist
slain in Moscow
MOSCOW: A lawyer who had
protested against the early re-
lease of a convicted murderer
and a journalist were gunned
down after a press conference
in central Moscow on Monday,
Russian prosecutors said.
Attorney Stanislav Markelov
was killed by an assailant armed
with a silencer-fitted firearm at
around 2pm (7pm in Malaysia)
guration of Barack Obama as US
president, seemingly to avoid cloud-
ing the start of a new era in a key al-
liance. Obama’s predecessor George
W. Bush endorsed the three-week
offensive as a legitimate response to
rocket fire by Gaza’s ruling Islam-
ists. Since a ceasefire, though noth-
ing like a peace accord, took hold on
Sunday, Hamas has demonstrated
it remains in charge in the coastal
enclave. It held “victory” rallies to
coincide with Ban’s visit.
“I have seen only a fraction of
the destruction. This is shocking
and alarming,” Ban said, condemn-
ing the “excessive use” of force by
Israel as well as militants’ rocket
salvoes.
“These are heartbreaking scenes
I have seen and I am deeply grieved
by what I have seen today,” he told
a news conference held against a
backdrop of still smouldering food
aid in a UN warehouse set ablaze
by Israeli gunfire last Thursday.
Ban called the attack “outra-
geous” and demanded an inquiry
EPAPIX
and, if need be, the guilty to be held
to account. He criticised Hamas for
firing rockets but said Israel used
“excessive force”.
Ban, on a Middle East tour, was
the most senior diplomatic figure to
visit the territory in years, certainly
since Hamas routed secular Fatah
forces loyal to Western-backed
Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas and seized control of Gaza
in June 2007.
Although aid agencies said
they planned a massive inflow of
supplies to Gaza’s people through
Israeli crossings, help will be com-
plicated by the Western boycott of
Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation
and an Israeli blockade on many
items, including building materials,
that can be used to make weapons.
– Reuters

Thai cold snap

gets pandas hot
BANGKOK: Pornography, di-
ets and sperm donation have
all failed, but Thai authorities
said yesterday that a rare
cold spell has boosted hopes
that the country’s famously
celibate giant pandas could
produce a cub.
The Chiang Mai zoo has
struggled to make its star
residents – nine-year-old
Chuang Chuang and his
on Prechistinkaya street in
downtown Moscow, a law en-
forcement source was quoted
by local media as saying.
“An assailant ran behind
Markelov and a woman escort-
ing him, Anastasia Baburova,
and shot him in the back of the
head from point-blank range.
The woman tried to get hold
of the suspect, but he shot
her too,” the source told Ria-
Novosti. Baburova, a freelance
journalist for the Novaya Gazeta
newspaper, died in the hospital
a few hours later. – dpa
Thai political analyst charged with insulting king
BANGKOK: Police filed formal charges
against Thailand’s leading leftist political
commentator yesterday, accusing him of
insulting the king in a 2007 book criticising
the previous year’s military coup.
Giles Ungpakorn of Bangkok’s Chu-
lalongkorn University denied all charges,
and said the army and Democrat Party-led
government were merely using Thailand’s
draconian lese majeste laws to crush dissent
and political opposition.
“Lese majeste is being used to destroy
free speech,” Ungpakorn told reporters
outside the central Bangkok police station
where he heard the charges.
“The lese majeste laws are there to
protect the military and to protect govern-
ments that come to power through military
action. They’re not really about protecting
the monarchy,” he said.
Insulting the monarchy is taken ex-
tremely seriously in Thailand, where many
people regard King Bhumibol Adulyadej as
semi-divine. It carries up to 15 years in jail
although critics say the law is frequently
abused by politicians since a complaint can
be filed by anybody against anybody else, no
matter how trivial or tangential the alleged
disrespect to the crown.
An Australian author was sentenced to
three years in jail on Monday for defaming
the crown prince in a 2005 novel that only
sold seven copies. Earlier this month, Justice
Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga vowed to
toughen the laws, although Prime Minister
Abhisit Vejjajiva said last week he was trying
to “strike the balance between upholding the
law and allowing freedom of expression”.
– Reuters