■ Pakistan
Afghan troops fire artillery
Afghan soldiers fired artillery at a Pakistani checkpoint in the remote northwest tribal region where cross-border shooting has strained relations between the neighboring countries, a Pakistan official said yesterday. At least four shells slammed into an empty field Wednesday near the Pakistani security post in Mohmand area, some 100km northwest of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, Abdul Rahman, a local government official, said yesterday. Pakistan did not return fire, he said. There were no injuries. It was not immediately clear what prompted the incident.
■ China
China, WHO tackle SARS
China will join hands with the World Health Organization (WHO) to step up infectious-disease control and prevent future SARS outbreaks through better training and education, state media said yesterday. The WHO and the Ministry of Health will jointly launch a program next month to train medical workers to prevent infectious diseases from spreading in hospitals, Beijing-based WHO representative Alan Schnur was quoted as saying in the China Daily newspaper. The program will begin in Beijing and involve about 100 medical workers, Schnur said.
■ China
Tibetan exiles denied entry
A group of prominent exiled Tibetans have been denied permission to visit China, which has accused some of the members of engaging in "splittist" activities, Radio Free Asia reported yesterday. The visit was first proposed a year ago by Gyalo Dhondup, the brother of Tibet's spiritual leader in exile, the Dalai Lama. The trip was aimed at promoting understanding and making contact with Tibetans living under Chinese rule, RFA said, adding that China had been widely expected to approve the visit. Sources in China told RFA's Tibetan service that Beijing had rejected the idea on grounds that some members of the proposed delegation had engaged in "splittist" or separatist activities.
■ Thailand
Sleeping man dies laughing
An ice-cream truck driver in Thailand died while laughing in his sleep, a newspaper reported yesterday. Damnoen Saen-um, 52, laughed for about two minutes on Wednesday and then stopped breathing, The Nation said, quoting officials. The newspaper said Damnoen's wife tried to wake him up but he kept laughing. An autopsy suggested that he might have had a heart attack, The Nation quoted a doctor as saying. "I have never seen a case like this. But it is possible that a person could have heart seizure while laughing or crying too hard in their sleep," said Dr. Somchai Chakrabhand, deputy director-general of the Mental Health Department, according to The Nation.
■ Solomon Islands
Australia claims success
International peacekeepers have largely restored law and order to the troubled Solomon Islands in less than a month, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday. In July, the Solomon Islands' government pleaded with its neighbors to send troops and police to end widespread violence and extortion by rebel warlords and their heavily armed militias. The violence has driven the South Pacific nation to the brink of collapse. Neighboring nations responded by sending an Australian-led force of 2,300 police and troops that immediately imposed a weapons amnesty to allow fighters to turn in their guns without fear of prosecution.<
■ Brazil
That really hurts
A man who went to a clinic to have an aching ear checked ended up having a vasectomy after mistakenly believing that the doctor had called his name. A manager at the clinic in the town of Montes Claros said Wednesday that Valdemar Lopes de Moraes, 39, entered the vasectomy room last week when Aldemar Aparecido Rodrigues' name was called. "The strangest thing is that he asked no questions when the doctor started preparations in the area which had so little to do with his ear," the manager said. De Moraes, a farmer who has two children, did not want to reverse the operation and showed up for an ear exam on Wednesday at the same clinic.
■ France
Star tries to clear name
French rock legend Johnny Hallyday was battling to clear his name on Wednesday after an investigation into rape allegations against him collapsed amid concern that police were too star-struck to conduct an impartial inquiry. Hallyday, who counts Jacques Chirac among his many influential friends, has denied the accusations lodged earlier this year by Marie-Christine V, a former hostess on his luxury yacht. His lawyer, Gilles-Jean Portejoie, said the singer wanted to put an end to the damaging speculation that has surrounded him since March and had decided to issue a defamation lawsuit against his former employee.
■ Norway
Elvis record broken
A Norwegian Elvis impersonator has set a record by singing the "King's" hits non-stop for a voice-wrecking 26 hours, four minutes and 40 seconds. "This is just fantastic, I can't find words for it," a hoarse Kjell Henning Bjoernestad, 35, said after his marathon. Dubbed "Kjell Elvis," Bjoernestad had aimed to sing 100 of Elvis' songs, ranging from Hound Dog to Jailhouse Rock over and over again for 30 hours to win a place in the Guinness Book of Records. But the performer, who once won an award as the Nordic region's best Elvis lookalike, gave up shortly after beating the previous record of 25 hours, 33 minutes and 30 seconds, set by Briton Gary Jay.
■ United states
60s radical paroled
Kathy Boudin, a 1960s radical who has served 22 years in prison for a 1981 armored car heist in which three men were killed, was granted parole Wednesday. Boudin, 60, a one-time member of the Weather Underground described as a model inmate in prison, had been denied parole just three months ago, as well as two years ago. Boudin, daughter of civil rights attorney Leonard Boudin, became a radical activist in the 1960s. She was recruited for the robbery by members of the Black Liberation Army who apparently wanted to have white people driving the getaway vehicle to throw off pursuers.
■ United states
Vets sue chemical firms
Sick American war veterans from the 1991 Gulf War are suing international corporations who supplied former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with chemicals during the 1980s, Veterans of the first Gulf War filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking compensation for illnesses affecting more than 100,000 soldiers. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for soldiers who it alleges suffered severe injuries and economic losses after they were exposed to chemicals, when coalition forces blew up Iraqi ammunition dumps.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
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