■ Australia
Don't answer nature's call
Doctors criticized an Australian call center that obliged employees to make up for toilet breaks at the end of their shift. RSL COM had e-mailed its staff stating that "personal time" had to be made up after work, the Sun-Herald reported yesterday. "Making people log on and off when they go to the toilet so you can keep tabs on them is not a good public-health approach to the problem," Sydney urologist David Golovsky said. A spokesman for RSL COM said a "clarification of the policy will be made."
■ China
Moderate quake kills two
Two people were killed and at least 56 injured in a moderate earthquake that hit northern China, the government said yesterday. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck at 6:58pm Saturday in eastern Inner Mongolia between the towns of Bairin Zuoqi and Ar Horqin qi, northeast of Beijing, where several people also reported feeling minor tremors. More than 60 aftershocks have been felt since, the strongest with a magnitude of 4.4, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was the most serious quake to hit Chifeng in 700 years, Xinhua said.
■ Pakistan
India seen as enemy
Most Pakistanis view India as an enemy and 47 percent feel that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's recent peace initiative is a gimmick, according to an opinion poll. The poll published in the Indian newsweekly Outlook, which hit the stands yesterday, showed 79 percent of people in Pakistan felt the Kashmir issue needed to resolved for better ties between the two nuclear-capable neighbors. The survey was conducted by Gallup-Business Research Bureau, a Pakistan affiliate of Gallup International and polled 1,338 people on August 3 and 4 in all four provinces of Pakistan. The poll showed 54 percent saw India as an enemy.
■ China
Mafia man gets reprieve
A former legislator was given a reprieve on a death sentence for a mafia case that toppled the government of China's fifth-largest city, while his right-hand man was executed, state press said yesterday. The high court in Liaoning province on Saturday gave former legislator Liu Rong a two-year reprieve on the death sentence handed down to him in April last year for involvement in the affair in Shenyang city, Xinhua news agency said. In China a death sentence with a two-year reprieve is generally commuted to life imprisonment. Liu's top assistant in running mafiaoso rackets, Song Jianfei, was meanwhile executed Saturday immediately after the high court issued an execution order, the report said.
■ India
Moon mission planned
A day after India's prime minister announced plans to send a spacecraft to the moon before 2008, the nation's space agency said Saturday that the lunar trip was just the "forerunner of more ambitious planetary missions." "This mission [to the moon] will provide a unique opportunity for frontier scientific research," Indian Space Research Organization spokesman C.S. Ramachandran said in a statement. It is "expected to be the forerunner of more ambitious planetary missions in the years to come, including landing robots on the moon and visits by Indian spacecraft to other planets in the solar system." He did not elaborate.
■ Jordan
Iraqi Chalaby faces charges
A parliamentary campaign for the extradition of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalaby, on charges of embezzlement dating back to 1990, gathered momentum in Jordan yesterday, a leading MP told local newspapers. Chalaby, chairman of the US appointed Iraq Governing Council, was sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court in 1992 to 22 years in jail for his role in the collapse of the Petra Bank two years earlier. The extradition move is led by a prominent MP, Mahmoud Kharabshe, who told local media that he had so far collected the signatures of 21 deputies of the Lower House's 110 lawmakers urging the government "to seek Chalaby's extradition through Interpol and with the help of the US administration and Congress."
■ United States
Erika peters out
Tropical Storm Erika petered out as it made landfall short of hurricane strength, shaving palm trees and shattering a few car windows but doing little significant damage. The storm struck Saturday about 48km south of Brownsville, on the edge of the Mexican border city of Matamoros. Downed trees and roof damage were reported in Mexico, but after bringing high winds and heavy rain in the pre-dawn hours Saturday, Erika was expected to break up over the Mexico's high inland terrain by yesterday morning.
■ France
Party animals check emotions
France's most popular techno music festival, the Teknival, remained only half true to its reputation as thousands of young party-goers lived it up without going wild. Since Thursday some 35,000 young people have been raving virtually round the clock on a motorway site on the Larzac plateau in southern central France. The freewheeling consumption of alcohol and assorted drugs that is a defining feature of the event seemed to have abated this year as no violent behavior was reported, local medical sources said. Between Thursday night and Saturday morning, 200 to 300 ravers required light medical assistance, 20 spent a few hours in hospital and 10 stayed there, mostly for drug-related problems.
■ Mexico
Drug `backbone' broken
The Mexican authorities announced on Saturday that they had arrested eight drug traffickers considered to be "the backbone" of a violent cartel responsible for smuggling some 30 percent of the cocaine, heroin and marijuana sold in the US. Armando Valencia Cornelio, who has also eluded the US authorities since 1999, was arrested along with seven other men at a bar in Tlajomulco de Zuniga in Jalisco State in a joint operation by prosecutors and the military, the authorities said. The men were arrested in what officers described as a "surgical" strike in which no shots were fired.
■ United States
Bush, Mandela repair ties
US President George W. Bush and revered South African statesman Nelson Mandela on Saturday took a step towards mending fences by speaking for the first time since the Iraq war, the White House said. Bush, enjoying a month-long vacation at his ranch near this flyspeck Texas town, "welcomed a call from president Mandela," spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in a conference call. The leaders broke sharply over Iraq's invasion.
■ Germany
Police detain 71 neo-Nazis
German police detained 71 neo-Nazis Saturday during a march in memory of Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess in the Bavarian town where he was buried after his 1987 suicide. Police said they deployed some 1,000 officers to prevent trouble at the march, which drew 2,600 neo-Nazis to Wunsiedel. Demonstrators were detained for displaying outlawed Nazi symbols like the swastika, or for carrying weapons such as knives, tear gas spray and a baseball bat, police spokesman Klaus Bernhardt said. All 71 were released without charges by Saturday evening, by which time the marchers had dispersed without incident, he said. Police said they also confiscated neo-Nazi music CDs from some marchers.
■ United Kingdom
Critics attack screening plan
Plans for every baby in the UK to be genetically screened at birth came under fierce attack yesterday from the British Government's advisory watchdog on the new science. Ministers unveiled a genetics strategy earlier this summer, including proposals for the DNA of every newborn to be stored on a database. It could form a vast reservoir of knowledge about their future health, enabling doctors to tailor treatment to each individual. But Baroness Kennedy, chair of the Human Genetics Commission -- set up to advise Government on complex ethical issues -- warned there was a risk of the information being used to discriminate against those found to carry certain genes.
■ South Africa
Rich tribe crowns 36th king
South Africa's richest tribe crowned its 36th king on Saturday in a colorful ceremony watched by thousands of cheering onlookers in the country's mineral-rich Northwest Province. Under the gaze of Africa's elder statesman Nelson Mandela and the wife of South African President Thabo Mbeki, the new king, Leruo Molotlegi, wearing a dark suit, was wrapped in a leopard skin and presented with a traditional wooden scepter and a shield made of cow hide. In his coronation speech Molotlegi, a trained architect, vowed to improve the living standards of the Bafokeng and urged the government of Africa's most powerful economy to view tradition as an ally of Western-style development.
■ United Kingdom
Traffic improves in London
Six months after its launch, London mayor Ken Livingstone's "congestion charge," an ambitious plan to cut the British capital's notorious traffic jams, has been hailed as a success by its supporters. "It's still early days, but so far it has reduced congestion by 32 percent, so we're pleased it's achieving what it ought to do and even a bit more," said Ruth Excell, a spokeswoman for Transport for London, the body responsible for transport in the capital. Under the charging scheme, launched exactly half a year ago yesterday, it costs motorists 5 to drive into central London.
■ United Kingdom
Two prisoners plead guilty
Two Britons held by the US at Guantanamo Bay will admit to supporting al-Qaeda in a plea bargain deal to secure short sentences, according to Britain's Independent on Sunday newspaper. Feroz Abbasi, 23, and Moazzam Begg, 35, were named by US President George W. Bush last month on a list of the first six prisoners to face military trial. The fate of Britons held at the US naval base in Cuba has become a tense political issue, and this week Britain's attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, sought assurances from the US that the pair would receive fair trials.
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
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