■Japan
Tokyo shook by rare quake
An earthquake, measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, shook Tokyo and surrounding areas early yesterday, the Meteorological Agency said. Three people in Tokyo, directly and indirectly, were slightly injured as a result of the quake, which happened at 0:57am. Neither the Meteorological Agency nor the Tokyo Fire Department could say immediately when was the last time that people in the capital sustained earthquake-related injuries, but they are extremely rare.
■ China
Cleaner rags required
A restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, has been ordered to shut down after being caught using old underpants as dish cloths, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Health inspectors swooped on the restaurant after getting a tip-off about the old underpants being used in the kitchens. The inspectors ordered the restaurant to shut down temporarily while an investigation into its hygiene standards is conducted.
■ Solomon Islands
Banks close doors
Banks in the Solomon Islands were closed yesterday after staff evacuated the country following death threats from the operators of a pyramid moneymaking scheme, one bank said. "Clearly we can't operate where there are threats to blow up the branch or kill our management there," said Paul Edwards, a spokesman for Australia's ANZ Bank. The ANZ closure would last "at least two weeks because ... we have evacuated our senior management," after the threats from the "Family Charity Fund." The state-owned Solomon Islands radio reported that the fund has taken 250 Solomon Island dollars (US$35) from an unknown number of investors on the promise of a payback of more than SI$1 million (US$135,700) within a month. Nobody has been paid by the scheme, which has been operating for more than a year.
■ India
Military test-fires missile
For the third time in four days, India yesterday test-fired a new air-to-air missile with a range of up to 40km, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. "These are development trials," and part of Indian scientists' research in perfecting the weapons, spokesman P.K. Bandhopadhyaya said. The Astra missile was fired from a test range at Chandipur in the eastern coast state of Orissa, 1,200km southeast of New Delhi. The tests come at a time when India and nuclear rival Pakistan are moving toward resumption of dialogue after a two-year standoff over their Kashmir dispute.
■ Thailand
Luxury car traps minister
Thai Finance Minister Suchart Jaovisidha was trapped inside his luxury car for about 10 minutes yesterday because of a computer malfunction and had to signal someone to smash a window for him to crawl out. Suchart was on his way to give a speech to central bank officials from 17 countries when his ministry-assigned BMW car stalled on a road not far from his house. The engine stopped, the air condi-tioning shut down, the doors locked and the windows wouldn't roll down, he said. Suchart and his driver waved at passers-by to draw attention to their plight, but it took a while to make them understand that they needed help. Finally, a guard of a nearby building came to their rescue with a sledgehammer and broke a window.
■Lithuania
Voters say Yes to EU
More than 90 percent of voters in the Baltic state of Lithuania said Yes to joining the EU in a weekend referendum, opting to join the Western bloc just 13 years after breaking away from the Soviet Union. Official results issued early yesterday after votes at 97.35 percent of all the 2,040 voting stations were counted showed that 90.97 percent of voters said Yes and 9.03 percent No to EU membership. President Rolandas Paksas said, "Hello Europeans!" as he emerged from his office to host a concert in anticipation of victory. "I want to thank you all for passing a maturity exam," he said.
■ Serbia-Montenegro
Former PM wins election
Filip Vujanovic, a former prime minister who favors independence from Serbia, won a landslide victory in Montenegro's presidential election Sunday, according to unofficial results. Vujanovic, who is parliament speaker, won about 63 percent of the vote, according to the Podgorica-based Center for Election Monitoring, a non-governmental organization whose previous election results proved reliable. Miodrag Zivkovic from the radically pro-independence Liberal Alliance, won 31 percent, and Dragan Hajdukovic, who like Vujanovic favors separation from Serbia, was third with 4 percent.
■ Poland
Bishop faces DUI charge
A Polish bishop faces two years in prison for drunk driving, police said Sunday in Elblag, northern Poland. Monsignor Andrzej Sliwinski caused an accident while driving in a drunken state, with 0.8g of alcohol in his blood, and now "risks two years in prison," police spokeswoman said, adding that the bishop was due to be questioned yesterday. His car bumped into two others when leaving the town. No one was injured in the accident. Poland's alcohol limit for drivers in 0.2g.
■ United kingdom
Minister Short resigns
A senior minister who called Prime Minister Tony Blair's policy on Iraq "reckless," but clung to office through the war, resigned from the Cabinet on yesterday. Clare Short resigned as secretary for International Development, Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said. She accused Blair of breaching assurances he had given on the role of the UN in post-conflict Iraq. And she accused the Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of "secretly" negotiating a UN Security Council resolution which contradicted assurances she had given to lawmakers. Her decision followed a controversy over her missing a critical House of Commons vote last week a hospital policy. Short outraged some and puzzled many when she didn't follow through on a threat to resign if Blair committed Britain to war.
■ Russia
Bomb kills at least 30
A truck bomb ripped through a government compound in northern Chechnya yesterday, killing at least 30 people, the regional administration chief said. Sultan Ahmetkhanov, the head of the Nadterechny region where the blast occurred, said a truck filled with explosives had damaged part of an administration building and the headquarters of the Federal Security Service in the town of Znamenskoye, as well as about eight residential houses. At least 30 people were killed and two to three times that number were injured, Akhmetkhanov said.
Agencies
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
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