■Malaysia
Fire consumes family
A pregnant woman and her four children have been killed in a fire that gutted their wooden home in a Malaysian squatter settlement, news reports said. The victims were trapped when the blaze broke out at the two-storey house early Saturday. Firefighters who tried to save them were held back by thick smoke and raging flames, the New Sunday Times newspaper reported. At least three other people living in the house managed to escape, and the firefighters kept the blaze from spreading across the squatter settlement in Miri town on Borneo island.
■ India
NASA wants answer
An Indian man who claims to have survived only on liquids and sunlight for eight years has been invited by the US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to show them how he does it, according to a news report Sunday. Hira Ratan Manek -- also known as Hirachand -- a 64-year-old mechanical engineer who lives in the southern state of Kerala, apparently started disliking food in 1992, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported. His wife Vimla said, "Every evening he looks at the sun for one hour without batting an eyelid. It is his main food. Occasionally he takes coffee, tea or some other liquid." Last June, NASA scientists verified that Manek spent 130 days suriving only on water, the report said. The US space agency hopes to use the technique to solve food storage and preservation problems on its expeditions, the report said.
■ New Zealand
South Africa berates editors
South African diplomats in New Zealand have sharply criticized two New Zealand television channels for what they characterized as racist reporting in putting the death of Cameroon soccer player Marc-Vivien Foe in the sports news instead of their main newscasts. An unsigned statement issued by the South African Consulate in Wellington yesterday noted that the TV1 channel "even had raunchy pictures" of English soccer captain David Beckham and his ex-Spice Girl wife in the main section of the news. "One could not but wonder about the similarities with the old-style systemic racist reporting in South Africa where the death of an African hero was mere sporting news, if even news at all," the statement said
■ China
Images earn copyright
A photographer whose pictures of China's paragon of Communist sacrifice are plastered across the country's textbooks and schoolrooms has won the right to profit from his work after 40 years, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Zhang Jun, who chronicled the works of his fellow solider Lei Feng in the early 1960s, was granted copyright of the black and white photos by the Liaoning provincial government, the official news agency said. Born in 1940, Lei Feng joined the People's Liberation Army at age 20 but was killed two years later when a truck knocked over a pole and crushed his head. Mao Zedong turned him into a household name.
■ India
Poor showing at gay rally
Gay men, many wearing earrings and bright lipstick, marched in Calcutta early yesterday in a rare rally to promote rights for sexual minorities in conservative India. Around 35 men braved curious stares from puzzled onlookers to walk through the heart of the crowded city in a rally they called "Walk on the Rainbow." Some held up a large rainbow-colored flag, a symbol used by international homosexual movements, while others threw flower petals at bemused bystanders.
■United States
Man commits terror attack
A man opened fire in the lobby of a residential hotel in San Francisco, killing three people and critically wounding another, police said. The suspect, who lived at the hotel in the city's Tenderloin District, was later found dead in his room, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The shooting Saturday at the Dalt Hotel apparently followed an argument there earlier in the day, police Sergeant Neville Gittens told KCBS radio. Details remained unclear. Two victims were pronounced dead at the scene and a third died at a hospital, Gittens said. A fourth victim was in critical condition. Teams of officers searched the hotel, and about an hour later found Bravard's body in his room.
■ United Kingdom
Royal security breached
Security was breached at Windsor Castle, the royal residence west of London, just five days after a stand-up comic managed to enter its grounds, gate-crashing Prince William's 21st birthday party, the Sunday Mirror reported. The tabloid newspaper said a reporter and a photographer were on Thursday allowed into the area around the royal residence, but not right inside, without security checks being made. London's Scotland Yard police department denied it amounted to a second security breach at the castle, adding that no members of the royal family had been inside during the incident.
■ Greece
EU presidency `successful'
Greece gets discharged from the EU's presidency today, with observers praising Athens for running a tight ship during its six-month term at the helm of the EU and successfully steering the bloc through the rough waters of the Iraq war. "We practically achieved all our objectives. In no case did the Iraq crisis set us back," said Tassos Yiannitsis, Greek Minister for European Affairs and mastermind behind the Greek presidency. "It was a hugely successful presidency. The Greeks wrapped up more issues than anybody had expected," added George Markopouliotis, head of the Athens office of the European Commission -- the EU's executive.
■ United Kingdom
GHB made an illicit drug
The British government said yesterday it will ban the so-called date-rape drug GHB. From midnight today, gammahydroxybutrate will be classified as a class C drug and dealers will face up to five years in jail, while possession will carry a two-year sentence. "GHB has been used in numerous drug-assisted rapes and sexual assaults," said Drugs Minister Caroline Flint. "By introducing jail terms for its possession and increasing them for supply we hope to help prevent the most despicable of crimes."
■ France
France disinvited from meet
France will not protest a decision by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to disinvite its repre-sentative from a conference of allied Air Force commanders, French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte said in an interview broadcast late Saturday. "It is his decision. We'll respect it," the ambassador curtly told CNN television. The conference is scheduled for September, but a Defense Department spokeswoman could not immediately provide any specifics about Rumsfeld's move to block France from taking part in the gathering.
■Peru
Woman is the new leader
Beatriz Merino has been sworn in as the first woman prime minister in Peru's history, ending a governmental crisis that had continued for days. Merino, a lawyer by profession, took the oath of office on Saturday, following the resignation of Peru's previous cabinet. The new 15-member cabinet, including five new members, was sworn in with Merino. She was chosen for her new office after the renowned writer Marios Vargas Llosa, former interim president Valentin Paniagua, former presidential candidate Lourdes Flores and the ageing Christian Socialist politician Luis Bedoya had been ruled out.
■ Mexico
Argentine officer extradited
Mexico on Saturday extradited a former Argentine military officer accused in the abductions and murders of dissidents for trial in Spain. After a three-year legal tug-of-war, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo was taken to Mexico City's airport, where a Spanish air force plane waited for him. The former frigate captain is wanted in Spain for crimes against humanity committed during Argentina's military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. Amnesty laws protected him from prosecution in his homeland. Cavallo's case is significant because it marks the first time a henchman in a Latin American dictatorship is to be tried in another country.
■ Venezuela
Soldiers fire on police
Venezuelan soldiers opened fire on a police station early Saturday, in a failed bid to capture a metropolitan police captain, but no one was injured. Police chief Lazaro Forero said that 10 soldiers fired on the station in north-central Caracas, trying to capture Captain Carlos Lara "with shots and by force." The incident came on the heels of one in which police arrested an army sergeant who had interfered with police proceedings against street vendors in the station's neighborhood. The shooting comes amid accusations from President Hugo Chavez that police have killed his supporters during violent clashes.
■ Iran
High amount of addicts
Two million people in Iran use drugs, the head of the state welfare organization told the official news agency IRNA on Saturday. Out of the two million, 1.2 million are seriously addicted but the rest have not yet reached the serious phase, Mohammad-Reza Rahchamani said. Iran has a total population of 67 million. He said opium was the most frequently used drug with heroin coming second. The high number of drugs consumers comes in spite of harsh local measures against smugglers and users. Anyone in possession of five kilos of opium or 30 grams of heroin can face the death penalty.
■ United States
Porch crashes, 11 killed
A third-floor porch on an apartment building collapsed during a party early yesterday, killing at least 11 people and injuring others. The porch crashed all the way to the ground, sandwiching the second-floor deck underneath it, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. The supervising investigator for the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, who asked that his name not be used, confirmed at least 11 people were killed in the accident in the Wrigleyville neighborhood on the city's North Side. The collapse occurred about 12:30am. Further details were not immediately available.
Agencies
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number