NYPD’s first sex change
AN Asian-American who is going through a sex change has become New York’s first trans-sexual police officer.
John Lo, 31, surprised fellow officers at the daily roll-call when the sergeant called out the new name: “June Lo.”
Lo, who has been a transit officer in the borough of Queens for eight years, has begun growing breasts after taking female hormones and wears her hair in a ponytail. She is being given her own locker room so she can change in privacy.
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Guantanamo check barred
Geneva: UN human-rights experts seeking to visit the United States’ base at Guantanamo Bay have said that they have reliable information that detainees have been tortured there.
Four independent experts said that the United States had not responded to their requests to check on the condition of terror suspects. “Many of these allegations have come to light through declassified (US) government documents,” they said. (AP)
Wildfires spread
Morongo Valley: Homes were evacuated as wildfire spread across 2,225 hectares (5,500 acres) of Californian brush, destroying at least six homes. Another fire near Phoenix, Arizona, swept across 12,140 hectares, with ten structures being lost. (AP)
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Burgers are off
Shanghai: A McDonald’s TV advert that showed a Chinese man begging has been taken off air after complaints, official media said. McDonald’s said that the advert was meant to publicise the chain’s offers, but Chinese find the act of begging humiliating. (AP)
Grand prize
Lexington, Kentucky: Norreasha Gill, 28, who won a radio phone-in contest that promised the winner “one hundred grand”, has sued after the station, WTLO-FM, gave her a chocolate bar — a Nestlé 100 Grand — instead of $100,000 (£55,000). (AP)
Crucifixion charge
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Bucharest: A monk and four nuns in Romania have been charged with murdering a 23-year-old nun by crucifixion in an exorcism ritual at Holy Trinity convent, Tanacu. She was bound to a cross, with a towel stuffed in her mouth, and left for three days. (AP)
Deporation for 20
Bishkek: Kyrgyzstan is to deport 29 people accused of organising an insurrection in neighbouring Uzbekistan. The move comes despite concerns voiced by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that they could face torture in their home country. (AFP)
Just under cover
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Athens: Police officers are wearing only swimming costumes to patrol the beaches in the Greek capital. Male and female officers, backed up by colleagues in uniform, are keeping an eye out for criminals such as pickpockets. (AFP