■ Japan
Tropical storm kills again
Nearly a dozen people were missing and another was found dead yesterday after a tropical storm pummeled its way through northern Japan. Etau -- rated a typhoon until it was downgraded Friday to a tropical storm -- hit Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido early yesterday. It weakened further and was classified as a "tropical depression" as it moved off into the Pacific Ocean, the Meteorological Agency said.
■ China
Japan taken to task
China has taken Japan to task over the injuries of dozens of people in northeastern Heilongjiang province after they dug up chemical weapons left by the retreating Japanese army nearly 60 years ago, the foreign ministry said yesterday. Beijing urged Japan to seriously deal with the accident that left at least 36 people injured -- three seriously, in Qiqihar city after the weapons were discovered on Monday. According to China's foreign ministry Web site, the director of the ministry's Asia department Fu Ying called in Japan's ambassador to China on Friday and lodged the protest.
■ China
Mass death sentence passed
Twenty-six convicted criminals were collectively sentenced to death in China's southern city of Guangzhou as part of a government effort to clear a back-log of cases awaiting verdict, state press reported yesterday. The 26 criminals were mostly convicted of "drug trafficking and other heinous crimes," and were sentenced to death on Saturday, the China News Service reported. The collective death sentence was delivered under heavy security at the Guangzhou municipal court with some 150 armed police and security guards maintaining order, the report said.
■ Australia
Boy dodges meteorite
A suspected meteorite narrowly missed a 10-year-old boy when it smashed into his driveway in southwest Australia, his mother said yesterday. Jennifer Elliss said her son, Anthony, was playing outside his home in Safety Bay, about 50km south of Perth, on Thursday when he noticed an oddly shaped object in the sky about the size of a bird heading toward him. He ducked behind a car to avoid being hit, then watched as it smashed into their driveway and shattered, she said. "I heard something hit the bitumen and then Anthony came inside and said there were rocks coming out of the sky," Elliss told reporters. "He then handed me a piece and it didn't look like a normal rock -- it was dull on the inside and silver on the outside and looked as if it had melted."
■ Hong Kong
Gorilla thief steals bananas
A man dressed in a gorilla costume snatched a bunch of bananas from an elderly woman's shop in downtown Hong Kong, prompting her to chase the thief, police and Hong Kong media said yesterday. Eighty-year-old Tse Lai slipped and fell while pursuing what she initially thought was a ghost. "I didn't realize that it was a gorilla at first. All I saw was something big and black with a lot of hair," the South China Morning Post quoted her as saying. "I thought I saw a ghost so I tried to drive it away with a broom." Tse was treated for shock and later discharged, the Post said. Police spokeswoman Carrie So said the man in the gorilla suit, who was not identified, was hired by a film company to stage the prank. After the incident, police questioned the company's manager but made no arrests, she said.
■ United States
Bush massages fund-raisers
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