■ 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.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
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