BEIJING, China - A 19-year-old man who hacked into a government website just after southwest China's devastating earthquake and warned of another huge tremor has been jailed for four years. The court in Nanning, capital of the southern Guangxi region, convicted Chen Zhifeng of deliberately spreading false and terrifying news. Chen hacked into the website of Guangxi's seismological bureau in May and put up a warning saying 'a huge quake of over magnitude nine will soon hit Guangxi,' the court said in a posting on chinacourt.org, an official legal website. Chen, who worked at a technology company, is the second person to have been jailed for hacking into an official government website and posting a false alert after the Sichuan quake. After months of in-depth consultations Indonesian lawmakers have decided that bikinis are acceptable attire for beaches in the mainly Muslim country. The move will bring a sigh of relief from Indonesia's lucrative tourism industry, which has expressed concern over a new anti-pornography bill being pushed by conservative Muslim parties. Politicians, artists, rights activists and tourism entrepreneurs on the mainly Hindu island of Bali, Indonesia's premier tourist destination, have vowed to launch a campaign of non-compliance if the pornography bill is passed. He Pingping, the world's smallest man, recently met long-legged Svetlana Pankratova in London's Trafalger Square, posing for a photograph showing him standing up comfortably between her legs. Pingping, 20, from Inner Mongolia, is just 74.61 centimetres tall - a result of his being born with a condition known as primordial dwarfism. Pankratova, 36, an estate agent from Volvograd, Russia, is 1.96 metres tall. Her legs alone measure 132 centimetres. The pair met on the steps of Trafalgar Square to pose for the launch of the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records book. NEW DELHI, India - A 34-year-old city based businessman lost his right eye after being hit by a drunk Delhi Police constable over a minor issue Sanjay Kumar Gaur was assaulted by constable Neeraj Kumar and his friend Sunil Kumar near Samaypur Badli railway crossing in northwest Delhi. Gaur was driving in his car with some friends, when he escaped colliding with Neeraj's motorcycle. Neeraj was allegedly in an inebriated state and was talking on the mobile phone while driving. Sunil was riding pillion to Neeraj. The Pakistani Taliban leader has married for a second time a young girl from his tribe, around two weeks after several news channels claimed he had died following a prolonged ailment. According to The News daily, Baitullah Mehsud, the head of a united front of smaller Taliban groups called the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban Movement, openly celebrated his wedding in Dwa Toi village, a tribal district along the Afghan border. Mehsud, in his mid 30s, suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. Earlier this month CNN and Pakistani Geo news channel reported his death. He went for the second marriage because he had only four daughters but no son from his first wife, a close aide to the Taliban commander told the newspaper.
BANGKOK, Thailand
A tour bus taking university students on a field trip overturned into a ditch in Thailand, killing at least 22 passengers and injuring about 30 others, the police said. The driver lost control of the vehicle while navigating a steep curve in Nadi district, Prachinburi province, 140 km northeast of Bangkok, said senior sergeant Thiradej Virakul of Wang Daeng police station.
'We suspect the brakes didn't work,' Thiradej said. The bus, belonging to the Chatulong Tour Company, was taking students from Kaset Techno Khon Kaen University to Chantaburi province.
UTTAR PRADESH, India
A woman chopped the head off a man who allegedly tried to attack her and then paraded the head through a market in northern India, police said. Police arrested the woman late on Thursday after receiving calls from frightened witnesses, said police officer Ram Bharose. The woman, 35, told police she had gone to a nearby forest to cut grass for fodder for her cattle when a man attacked her from behind. ''In a bid to save her dignity she beheaded him with a sickle,'' Bharose said, adding that the woman had bite marks on her neck and cheek.
Five men have been arrested after an outlawed separatist flag was raised in Indonesia's remote Papua province, police said. A group of people unfurled the outlawed Morning Star'' flag in four places including in front of the local assembly and government offices in Nabire town, local police chief Rianto Jatmono said. Anyone convicted of displaying separatist symbols faces a maximum of life in prison in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago with a history of secessionist rebellions.
Thousands of Japanese police guarded automated teller machines nationwide in a crackdown on scams swindling elderly people out of cash. Police say thousands of elderly people have been targeted by scammers pretending to be in need of quick money. The National Police Agency deployed some 56,000 officers to patrol about 81,000 automated teller machines. In the scam -- known locally as ``It's me!'' fraud -- criminals tell elderly people that they are their children or grandchildren and need money because they were caught in traffic accidents or in minor crimes.
SINGAPORE -
Three people who showed up at Singapore's supreme court in T-shirts printed with a kangaroo dressed in a judge's gown will be brought to court for contempt, Singapore's attorney general said. They had ''scandalised the Singapore judiciary by publicly wearing identical white T-shirts, imprinted with a palm-sized picture of a kangaroo dressed in a judge's gown,'' the attorney general said.
The three, who were not identified, had appeared in court in May to watch an opposition leader cross examine two of Singapore's most powerful leaders after he was found to have defamed them.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
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