■ 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.
STEPPING UP: Diminished US polar science presence mean opportunities for the UK and other countries, although China or Russia might also fill that gap, a researcher said The UK’s flagship polar research vessel is to head to Antarctica next week to help advance dozens of climate change-linked science projects, as Western nations spearhead studies there while the US withdraws. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, a state-of-the-art ship named after the renowned British naturalist, would aid research on everything from “hunting underwater tsunamis” to tracking glacier melt and whale populations. Operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the country’s polar research institute, the 15,000-tonne icebreaker — boasting a helipad, and various laboratories and gadgetry — is pivotal to the UK’s efforts to assess climate change’s impact there. “The saying goes
Floods on Sunday trapped people in vehicles and homes in Spain as torrential rain drenched the northeastern Catalonia region, a day after downpours unleashed travel chaos on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Local media shared videos of roaring torrents of brown water tearing through streets and submerging vehicles. National weather agency AEMET decreed the highest red alert in the province of Tarragona, warning of 180mm of rain in 12 hours in the Ebro River delta. Catalan fire service spokesman Oriol Corbella told reporters people had been caught by surprise, with people trapped “inside vehicles, in buildings, on ground floors.” Santa Barbara Mayor Josep Lluis
Police in China detained dozens of pastors of one of its largest underground churches over the weekend, a church spokesperson and relatives said, in the biggest crackdown on Christians since 2018. The detentions, which come amid renewed China-US tensions after Beijing dramatically expanded rare earth export controls last week, drew condemnation from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Sunday called for the immediate release of the pastors. Pastor Jin Mingri (金明日), founder of Zion Church, an unofficial “house church” not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was detained at his home in the southern city of Beihai on Friday evening, said
TICKING CLOCK: A path to a budget agreement was still possible, the president’s office said, as a debate on reversing an increase of the pension age carries on French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday was racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis. The presidency late on Wednesday said that Macron would name a new prime minister within 48 hours, indicating that the appointment would come by this evening at the latest. Lecornu told French television in an interview that he expected a new prime minister to be named — rather than early legislative elections or Macron’s resignation — to resolve the crisis. The developments were the latest twists in three tumultuous
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