Liu Xiaobo's widow back in Beijing

BEIJING • Madam Liu Xia, the widow of jailed Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo who died in detention in July, is back in Beijing but still under house arrest, a Hong Kong group said yesterday.

Mr Lu Siqing, founder of the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, said he spoke to her by phone at her Beijing home on Saturday. He said a tearful Madam Liu, 56, explained in a "very weakened voice" that she was under treatment with anti-depressants.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Red Bull heir: Third charge expires

BANGKOK • A third criminal charge against the fugitive heir to Thailand's Red Bull fortune over a fatal hit-and-run case expired yesterday but prosecutors said it would not affect their heavily criticised attempts to bring him to justice. Billionaire Worayuth Yoovidhya, 32, is wanted for drunkenly ploughing his Ferrari into a policeman riding a motorbike in Bangkok in 2012, dragging the officer to his death.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Philippine bird flu crisis 'over'

MANILA • The Philippines has declared its avian flu crisis, which prompted the culling of over 600,000 birds, to be officially over as it eased restrictions on the shipments of poultry products from towns where outbreaks were detected. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said on Saturday that the ban on poultry shipments was now confined within a 1km radius of the three areas hit by the deadly H5N6 strain in two provinces north of the capital Manila.

REUTERS

Cash for rats, stray dogs in Labuan

KOTA KINABALU • The local authorities in Sabah's Labuan are offering RM30 (S$9.50) for every stray dog and RM5 for every rat caught this month in a bid to rid the territory of pests. According to fliers and posters by the Labuan Corporation and the state health department, such a move is necessary in the light of diseases like rabies, which are transmitted by animals. The move has rankled animal welfare groups.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK