IN BRIEF (Page 11)

South Africa

President may get 5th wife

South African President Jacob Zuma has hinted he may be ready to take a fifth wife to accompany him through old age, The Star newspaper said on Wednesday. During a visit to a Durban township on Tuesday in KwaZulu-Natal, the 72-year-old Zuma said in Zulu, "Angakayakhi indlu yokugugela ... laba ngisabathathile nje (I do have wives but I'm yet to marry my last one)." Zuma, who has about 20 children, has married six times and currently has four wives on the state's budget despite criticism from some taxpayers.

Malaysia

Floods strand 100 tourists

More than 100 local and foreign tourists have been stranded at Mutiara Taman Negara Resort as a river surpassed its danger level, the country's state news agency, Bernama, reported on Wednesday. Bernama said that the park witnessed its highest rainfall on Tuesday since 1971, and the local tourist jetty was closed due to swift currents. The report said the stranded foreign tourists are from Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

United States

GPS to track immigrants

The US Homeland Security Department is using GPS-enabled ankle bracelets to keep track of some immigrants caught crossing the border illegally. The pilot program comes months after officials found that 70 percent of immigrant families disappeared after they were released into the US with instructions to report back to immigration authorities later. The pilot program involves about 250 parents caught crossing the Mexican border illegally with their children in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

Country's oldest man dies at 110

A northern Illinois resident recognized as the oldest man in the US has died at age 110. The Rockford Register Star reported that C. Conrad Johnson died on Tuesday. The Swedish-born Johnson worked as a carpenter and lived in Rockford most of his life. On his 109th birthday, he told the Register Star, "I feel good and I haven't been sick for a long, long time". But he suffered a stroke a few months later.

South Korea

Govt indicts taxi service company

South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday indicted Uber, a US-based taxi service company, for illegal operation, local media reported. Travis Kalanick, the founder and CEO of Uber, and the head of MK Korea, a local rental-car service operator, were prosecuted without physical detention on charges of violating the country's passenger-transport law. The law bans rental-car service operators from the passenger-transport business. Uber signed a contract last August with the local rental-car service operator to connect rental-car drivers with passengers.

AP - AFP - Xinhua

(China Daily 12/25/2014 page11)