January 3 in the news....
- U.S. forces had no role in Saddam Hussein's hanging, but would have handled it differently, a U.S. general said on Wednesday, after a video of Iraqi officials taunting him on the gallows sparked outrage among Sunni Arabs. For instance, US soldiers would have used South Park Saddam taunts and messed around with Jackass style stunts on the gallows rather than serious insults.
- Cheese is to be treated as junk food under new advertising rules for children's television in Britain. This may further damage relations with France.
- Toyota Motor Corp. is developing a fail-safe system for cars that detects drunken drivers and automatically shuts the vehicle down if sensors pick up signs of excessive alcohol consumption, a news report said Wednesday. There is still debate about how to protect the car from domestic violence after this happens.
- The Seven Network has apologised to viewers after receiving complaints about a major technical glitch which interrupted a prime-time transmission tonight. For more than six divine minutes, a mysterious ghostly voice repeatedly told Seven Network viewers: "Jesus Christ one of the Navarines" during a documentary on a train disaster. When reached for comment, a Seven spokesman apologised to 'all our viewers whose sins past, present and future have not been washed away with the blood of Christ and are offended about doing so.'
- A two-year-old calf that escaped slaughter at an abattoir in Mumbai for a Muslim festival has been named George after the US president, a report said today. George bolted and ran into a scrapyard where he kept butchers at bay for 20 hours, the Times of India reported. The calf broke away from the rest of the herd on Monday while the animals were being unloaded at Deonar slaughter house in India's financial capital. "He instinctively knew that attack is the best form of defence, like the real Bush,'' Khanna said. Muslims blamed the escape and media attention about the name on American-Israeli agents.
- North Korea has no serious trouble feeding its people despite heavy floods and sanctions by "enemy states" Japan and the United States, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said today. "It is not a satisfactory production level relative to our goal, but the problem of feeding the people is in no way at a serious level,'' Kim Kyong-il of the North's Agricultural Ministry told the Choson Sinbo newspaper. North Korea also denied that the average delivery time for a pizza was 12 weeks.
