BEIJING – AS DEMAND for pet bunnies grows ahead of the Year of the Rabbit, animal rights group Peta on Friday urged consumers to forgo adopting the furry creatures as household companions. Pet shops in China and elsewhere in Asia have seen soaring sales of rabbits in the run-up to the Lunar New Year, which …
UNUSUALLY large numbers of people are falling ill with sore throats, the common cold, fever and diarrhoea – numbers large enough to classify the infections as an epidemic. Last week, polyclinics saw more than 20,000 patients with such problems – an indication that the infections have passed the epidemic threshold and are now spreading rapidly …
Jan 20, 2011 Japanese housewives’ secret savings ‘at 3-year low’ TOKYO – THE ‘secret savings’ of Japanese housewives hit a three-year low in 2010 as they were forced to compensate for slumping family incomes with the hidden reserves, according to a survey released on Thursday. The value of ‘hesokuri’ – the cash and investments that …
PHILADELPHIA – A DOCTOR whose abortion clinic was described as a filthy, foul-smelling ‘house of horrors’ that was overlooked by regulators for years was charged on Wednesday with murder, accused of delivering seven babies alive and then using scissors to kill them. In a nearly 300-page grand jury report filled with ghastly, stomach-turning detail, prosecutors …
THE fertility rate for Singapore Chinese – already the lowest among all races here – slid to 1.02 last year from 1.08 in 2009, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew disclosed on Tuesday night. Singapore thus needs to remain open to new immigrants, and groups like the clan associations have an important role to play in …
A WOMAN suffering from post-natal depression got away with a total fine of $6,000 on Tuesday for abusing her Filipino maid. Cargo control officer Ng Kai Ling, 28, admitted on Monday to spitting at the face of Ms Araceli Puzon Mejares, 32, on Nov 2, 2009, and punching her on the arm on Dec 7 …
BERLIN – PAUL the octopus, who shot to fame during the football World Cup last year for his flawless record in predicting the outcome of games, will get a shrine to mark three months since he died, his aquarium said on Monday. The tentacled tipster will on Thursday be honoured with a ‘Paul Corner’ at …
THE average number of children that a Singapore woman would bear in her lifetime dropped to yet another nadir last year. Preliminary estimates of the Total Fertility Rate put it at 1.16, down from 1.22 – already a record low – the previous year, announced Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Wong Kan Seng on Monday. Meanwhile, …
DALIAN – A MAN has trained 60 cats to guard a grain depot from rats, the Dalian-based Peninsula Morning Post reported on Monday. Yin Chunzhu, an employee at a storage and transportation company in Dalian, north-east China’s Liaoning province has been dubbed ‘Cat commander’ for his army of feline guards. The barn, stocked with organic …
BRISBANE (Australia) – SNAKES clung to floating debris, crocodiles lurked near homes and sharks swam the streets in Australia’s epic floods – but many more animals died in the deluge, experts say. The devastating floods that smashed through the nation’s north-east would have drowned wombats in their burrows, trapped and starved kangaroos in waterlogged paddocks, …