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World News Quick Take

■ Australia
Serial killers get life
Two men were convicted yesterday for their roles in one of Australia's most grisly serial killing sprees and sentenced to life imprisonment. A South Australian Supreme Court jury found John Justin Bunting, 37, guilty of 11 murders in the "bodies-in-barrels" case. Following a trial that lasted nearly a year, the jury also convicted Robert Joe Wagner, 31, in seven of the murders. They were arrested after police found eight hacked-up bodies stuffed in barrels and hidden in an defunct bank vault in Snowtown, a small village near Adelaide. Two more bodies were found buried in a suburban Adelaide backyard, and two were found in other places that have not been disclosed. Bunting and Wagner allegedly targeted people they believed were pedophiles.

■ Nepal
Boy killed in explosion
A 10-year-old boy was killed and seven injured yesterday in at least four explosions in the Nepalese capital that police blamed on Maoist rebels. The suspected rebels targeted two government land revenue offices, a department of vehicles office and a police post in Katmandu during the morning rush hour. The 10-year-old boy was passing by the police post when the device exploded. He was rushed to the hospital but died there, police officials said speaking on the customary condition of anonymity.

■ Afghanistan
Government troops attacked
Suspected Taliban insurgents ambushed government troops traveling through a mountain gorge in southern Afghanistan, killing five soldiers and injuring five others, an Afghan military commander said yesterday. The troops, riding in a pickup truck, were on a security patrol in Kighai Gorge when attackers opened fire on them late Sunday, said Haji Granai, a military commander in Kandahar, capital of the southern Kandahar province. Granai blamed fighters from the Taliban insurgents for the attack. No group claimed responsibility.

■ Indonesia
Marriott reopens in Jakarta
Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel reopened yesterday, one month after a suspected suicide bomber blew up a car in the lobby, killing 12 people and injuring almost 150. The Aug. 5 attack badly damaged the ground-floor restaurant and lobby of the US-owned hotel, but the building remained structurally intact, allowing for repairs to be carried out relatively quickly. Several guests checked in yesterday and the hotel's restaurants, cafes and other facilities were fully operational, said Mellani Solagratia, public relations manager. "I'm very happy that we're finally back to business," she said.

■ South Korea
Boy arrested for prank
Police in South Korea have arrested a high school student accused of tumbling a classmate in a washing machine, a newspaper reported yesterday, highlighting the problem of bullying that's often linked to teenage suicides. The 17-year-old suspect was arrested Sunday in the southwestern province of North Jeolla for the alleged prank he played in June in his home, the Joong Ang Daily said. It did not say if any charges have been leveled or what punishment he faces if tried. The newspaper cited the police as saying that the young man shoved his victim into the washing machine, apparently large enough to hold a boy, and turned it on for two minutes before freeing him.

■ United Kingdom
New Labour ahead in poll
The popularity of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his ruling Labour Party have risen despite the problems in Iraq and an ongoing enquiry into the apparent suicide of government weapons expert David Kelly, according to an opinion poll published in yesterday's Times newspaper. Thirty nine percent of those questioned said they would vote for Labour in a general election, putting them five points ahead of the opposition Conservatives (34 percent) with the Liberal Democrats winning 19 percent support, according to the poll conducted by the Populus agency.

■ United States
The Seattle Coffee Party
Coffee shop owners in Seattle staged their own environmentally friendly version of the Boston Tea Party of 1773 on Sunday, to protest a proposed US$0.1 tax per cup on the city's beloved espresso drinks. About 100 people who own or work in small coffee shops took a horse-drawn carriage from Zoka Coffee Roaster and Tea Company in Seattle to Green Lake, where they dumped bags of coffee beans into the water -- a protest reminiscent of early American colonists' protests at British taxes. But these protesters filled the bags with balloons, so they could retrieve the bags afterwards and thereby not spoil the lake.

■ South Africa
Woman hits the jackpot
A young Zambian woman on Sunday won the African version of the reality TV show Big Brother, the program that proved far more popular with the public than with outraged politicians and church leaders. Cherise Makubale, 24, burst into tears after a phone-in vote from across Africa confirmed her as the winner of the contest, making her US$100,000 dollars richer. The spritely Makubale, a procurement officer from the northern Zambian town of Kitwe, was the last person to walk out of the "Big Brother House" in Johannesburg, where 12 contestants have been living for the last 106 days.

■ United States
Male menopause dispelled
Men who complain of the male menopause are more likely to be the victims of an unhealthy lifestyle, an scientist says. Professor John McKinlay, a leading authority on men's health, argues that the male menopause is a myth. He claims drug companies were cashing in on the false notions of men who think they need hormone replacement to boost their flagging sex drives.

■ Canada
Fires ravage western region
High winds fanned forest fires raging in western Canada, forcing Sunday's evacuation of more than 1,700 people, local authorities announced. Nearly 1,000 people were forced out of their homes in the middle of the night around Kelowna, bringing to more than 4,000 the residents evacuated since last week, emergency services spokesman Ron Matiussi said. Kelowna, a town of 100,000 residents in the Okanagan valley, one of Canada's two largest wine-growing regions, has been fighting the forest fires for the past three weeks. Sparked by lightning amid bone-dry conditions, the blaze has already destroyed 250 homes around the town. Around 30,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

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