■ New Zealand
Landslides follow quake
One of New Zealand's top tourist attractions, the World Heritage-listed Fiordland National Park, has been hit by more than 200 landslides following last week's 7.1 magnitude earthquake, geologists said yesterday. Spread over a 75-kilometer radius, many of the land and rock slides stripped bush and soil cover from the park's mountainous slopes, leaving bare rock faces, said scientists from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences. Geologists recorded at least seven major summit-to-valley floor slides covering vertical distances of up to 1,500m. The park, on New Zealand's South Island, has World Heritage Park status based on its pristine temperate rainforest. Hundreds of thousands of tourists flock there each year to walk trails, climb peaks and cruise its lakes and ocean fiords.
■ Nepal
Maoists attack policemen
Seven policemen, three Maoists and one civilian were killed, while at least 10 policemen are missing, in renewed Maoist attacks over a period of 12 hours, media reports said yesterday. The independent Kantipur FM radio reported yesterday morning that Maoists stormed a police post at a village in Siraha district, about 180km southeast of the capital Kathmandu, late Tuesday night. The Maoists killed at least three of the 10 police manning the post, while the whereabouts of the remaining seven is unknown, the radio report said.
■ Thailand
Women on offensive
Thai women's groups have reacted angrily to a court ruling in which a self-confessed wife-killer received a suspended two-year jail sentence for his crime. The Court of Appeals upheld on Tuesday a ruling from the Criminal Court that Pipat Lueprasitkul, 45, a former university lecturer, had unintentionally killed his wife, Wanee, in a jealous rage. He was convicted of kicking, punching and hitting his wife with a golf club at their Bangkok home on July 17, 2001. She died the next day in hospital. The court upheld the lower court's ruling that Pipat had committed manslaughter because he believed his wife had been unfaithful.
■ Hong Kong
Flu patients isolated
Twenty-four patients isolated
A public hospital quarantined 24 patients after seven of its health workers developed flu-like symptoms, although none have tested positive for SARS, officials said yesterday. Five nurses and two health-care assistants working in Ward E3 at the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital in suburban Tai Po developed symptoms such as coughs, sore throats and fevers on Friday. Five of the health workers have returned to work while two were on sick leave. None of them required hospital treatment. The 24 patients have been barred from leaving since Monday and are being monitored for SARS after some developed mild fevers and coughs.
■ Malaysia
Star orangutans killed
Malaysian police have arrested three men in connection with the harpooning to death of three captive orangutans at a luxury hotel on Borneo island, a newspaper reported yesterday. The Star quoted the police chief of Malaysia's Sabah state, Ramli Yusuff, as saying officers had arrested three men whom he said had been unhappy with management at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Hotel, where the apes were kept as a tourist attraction.
■ Canada
Don't smile for the camera
Canada has banned the public from smiling or frowning for passport photos, the foreign affairs ministry announced Tuesday. Canadians must send a photo with "a neutral expression" -- that means no laughing, smiles, frowning and the mouth must be closed. The new measure came into force on Aug. 15, but a ministry spokeswoman said the public announcement could not be made because of a huge power cut which hit Ontario and the northeastern US at that time. The ministry admitted that the photo order had caused some controversy but said it had become necessary because of a recommendation by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and to make it easier to recognize passport holders.
■ United Kingdom
Naked rambler walks on
A naked rambler has vowed to continue the final leg of his naturist trail across the UK after being released from jail in Inverness, Scotland, on Tuesday. Steve Gough said he would finish his walk from Land's End in the far south-west of England to John O'Groats on the extreme north-east tip of Scotland, despite a bail condition requiring him not to commit any more offences. "I am going to continue with my naked walk and the campaign for naturists and human rights," he said. "I am not breaking the law, in my eyes, and I am innocent until proven guilty. I don't think I am committing any crimes."
■ Spain
Officials admit spill error
Nine months after the Prestige oil tanker split apart and sank off north-west Spain, the Spanish government has admitted it got its figures wrong and that more than 80 percent of the cargo of fuel oil has leaked into the Atlantic. The announcement that the underwater wreck of the Prestige now holds only 14,000 of the 77,000 tonnes it was carrying has been made at the end of the tourism season on Spain's north coast. The government's previous estimate of the amount of oil spilt was just 50 percent of the total cargo.
■ Israel
Policeman guilty in killing
An Israeli military court convicted a Palestinian police officer Tuesday in the brutal killing of two Israeli soldiers in a West Bank police station that drew international outrage and fueled Israeli-Palestinian hostility, the army said. Military prosecutors had charged Raed Sheikh, 29, with willfully causing the death of Vadim Norjitz and Yossi Avrahami, two Israeli reservists beaten and stabbed to death in Ramallah on Oct. 12, 2000, just as the current cycle of Mideast violence gathered steam. An army spokesman said Sheikh had been convicted Tuesday and that he would be sentenced later.
■ Brazil
Lula wins voters' backing
Voters strongly endorsed Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's economic reform drive in a poll on Tuesday as Congress jostled over proposals to overhaul public pension and tax systems. The poll also showed Lula's popularity remained sky high in August, despite high-profile protests by civil servants against plans to cut their pensions. As voters showed their support for Lula, opposition deputies failed to appear in congress to vote on cuts in the public pension system because of anger over the government's unwillingness to grant concessions on its tax bill.
■ Ireland
Ministers mull fat tax
Ireland is to consider a "fat tax" on foods thought to be contributing to rising levels of obesity. Officials confirmed on Tuesday that Health Minister Michael Martin intended to look at the idea, while trying to cool any impression that even a tentative decision was in prospect. The Irish government has already caused controversy by cracking down on pub happy hours and announcing its intention to prohibit smoking in public places from January.
■ Switzerland
Wasp fighter burns down flat
A man who tried to fight bothersome wasps with insect spray and a cigarette lighter burned down his apartment and two neighboring flats, Swiss police said. A police spokesman said the man used a whole can of insect spray on a wasp nest underneath an overhanging roof outside his apartment. When he tried to fend off the angry wasps with his lighter, the fumes ignited and set the flats ablaze. No one in the apartment block was hurt, but the blaze caused 500,000 Swiss francs (US$351,400) in damage.
■ United Kingdom
ID cards set for trial run
British Home Secretary David Blunkett is to stage a pilot scheme this autumn to test the introduction of a national identity card despite the lack of strong cabinet backing for the idea. The Home Office confirmed last night that a six-month trial, testing the use of new generation fingerprint and eye-scanning technology, would be completed by April to "assess customer perceptions and reactions" and estimate costs. It is believed that the trial will be carried out in an as yet unnamed small market town with a population of about 10,000. The Home Office insisted the trial was a test for the new "credit card"-style passport which is to be introduced by 2006, but it is thought that ministers have been advised they cannot openly test the national identity card without legislation.
■ Canada
Woman's death questioned
Canada pressed Tehran on Tuesday for information on the arrests of two Iranian security agents charged in the death of an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, an official said. Photographer Zahra Kazemi, 54, was arrested on June 23 outside Tehran's Evin prison for taking unauthorized photographs. An official report said she had died from a brain hemorrhage on July 10 following a blow to the head while in custody. Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Monday that two security agents had been charged in connection with the "quasi-intentional murder" of Kazemi.
■ Venezuela
President resists referendum
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, dismissing growing international pressure for a referendum on his rule, said on Tuesday a vote was a possibility but not an obligation. The referendum theme dominated a one-day visit to Caracas by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country heads a six-nation group that has recommended elections to solve a long-running political crisis in oil-rich Venezuela. Chavez repeated an allegation that more than 3 million pro-referendum signatures collected six months ago and presented last week in a huge opposition march were not valid. Venezuela's constitution requires the signatures of at least 20 percent of registered voters to trigger a referendum.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number