■Australia
Representative resigns post
The embattled representative in Australia of the British Queen resigned yesterday after a sex scandal from his clergyman past stripped him of public and political support, Australian media reported. Governor-General Peter Hollingworth resigned because it was clear the controversy and allegations made against him had the potential to undermine the office of governor-general, media reports said, quoting Hollingworth. Hollingworth, a 68-year-old former archbishop, stepped aside earlier this month after news emerged that he had been accused of rape. But he refused to bow to calls for his resignation after an Anglican church inquiry found he had protected pedophile priests in the 1990s as archbishop of Brisbane. A court dismissed the untested rape claim on Friday but the child sex scandal continued to dog Hollingworth.
■ India
Airport siege ends
An Indian policeman, who authorities said shot dead his commanding officer and took six constables captive at Bombay airport, surrendered to police early yesterday, ending a nearly seven-hour hostage drama. The policeman, who apparently had a row with his superior over leave, was holed up along with the hostages in a guard room just inside the departure lounge of financial hub Bombay's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Police had held three rounds of talks and deployed about 20 heavily armed commandos in an effort to try to persuade the suspect, identified as 22-year-old R. Namdeo, to give up peacefully.
■ Japan
Pyongyang gives nod to talks
North Korea said yesterday it would agree to US demands to hold multilateral talks over its nuclear program that included South Korea and Japan but only if Pyongyang and Washington held bilateral talks first. Quoting a North Korean Foreign Ministry statement, Japan's Kyodo news agency said the North criticized the US for keeping silent about a "new and bold proposal" made by Pyongyang in three-way talks with China last month on the North Korean nuclear standoff. "The US has not yet said any word about the DPRK's proposal for the settlement of the nuclear issue but is talking about the format of talks, calling for the `five-party talks,'" said the statement issued by North Korea.
■ Nepal
Team cleans Mount Everest
A Japanese-led climbing team has cleared 2.4 tonnes of rubbish from Mount Everest, removing most of the decades-old trash days before the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. Japan's Ken Noguchi, who launched the clean-up drive this month, said his 30-member team of Japanese, Korean and Nepali climbers collected 51 oxygen cylinders, food cans, tents, gas tanks, plastic and ropes from various camps en route to the peak.
■ The Philippines
Arroyo returns from US
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo returned home yesterday from a high-profile US visit, highlighted by a state dinner at the White House for her strong support for the Iraq conflict and the global war on terror. Arroyo cut short her US visit to check on an ongoing military offensive she ordered just before leaving last week against "embedded terrorists" she blames for bombings and attacks that have killed 210 people in the Philippines' troubled south this year.
■Argentina
New president sworn in
Nestor Kirchner was set to be sworn in yesterday as Argentina's new president, inheriting challenges that include guiding the country out of an economic depression and overhauling the military. Thirteen regional leaders are expected to attend the inauguration including Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Cuba's Fidel Castro was among those who arrived here late Saturday. Kirchner, 53, will also have to try to ease Argentina back into the good graces of international financial institutions and the international community.
■ Switzerland
Geneva braced for protests
The Swiss are bracing themselves to host world leaders on their doorstep, with any prestige overshadowed by the headache of security concerns over the likely arrival of tens of thousands of protesters. Police in this normally tranquil alpine country are worried of being overwhelmed by rampaging anti-G8 demonstrators; Geneva shops and banks are anxiously barricading their businesses. "We can't for one moment imagine that nothing will happen in Geneva (even if) France has undertaken to organize the counter-summit on its territory", Micheline Spoerri, president of Geneva's department of justice, police and security, has said.
■ Italy
Sick boy lives on boat
How far would you go for fresh air? Would you leave home, job, and even dry land? An Italian couple whose son suffers from an acute type of asthma have adopted a radical solution: to live at sea, where the clean air improves the boy's condition. They sailed away, down the River Po, from the northern Italian city of Cremona on Saturday in a 26-metre boat they built themselves. When they reach the sea they will make for the waters near Sicily, where they plan to stay. The boy will attend school using a Webcam that will allow him to see a classroom in an elementary school in Lipari, a small island near Sicily. Niky's parents plan to make a living by taking tourists out on the homemade boat for short trips.
■ United Kingdom
Cheese-chase cancelled
This year, ankles will go unbroken and heads will go ungashed, because the perilous cheeses of Gloucestershire will, alas, go unrolled. For centuries, residents of the English county of Gloucestershire have practised the timeless and surprisingly dangerous springtime ritual of chasing large, speeding, round cheeses down steep hills. The winner gets to keep the cheese. But this year's event was cancelled because emergency crews who volunteered to help clear the tumbling casualties from the hillside were summoned to Algeria to rescue earthquake victims.
■ United States
Ghost town gets sold
The US Department of Homeland Security has bought for about US$5 million the small New Mexico ghost town of Playas, and plans to transform it into a terrorist response training center, officials said. The center at the 745 hectare town about 64km north of the Mexican border could provide training for US Marines in urban warfare and a first-responders program that includes testing responses to various terrorist bombing possibilities, they said. It could also be used to look at ways in which biological and chemical warfare may affect a small town, an official said.
Agencies
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in