■ India
Official in Taj Mahal scandal
A top Indian official in charge of ancient monuments was on Friday booted out of office amid police suspicions that he fudged documents linked to a controversial plan to build a shopping mall near the Taj Mahal. Federal Environment Secretary K. C. Mishra was forced to step down after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) accused him of tampering with papers linked to a probe into the scandal, the Press Trust of India reported. Mishra was ordered out a day after the CBI submitted its report to the Supreme Court, which is determined to get to the bottom of the scandal which the CBI believes also involves politicians.
■ Thailand
Plastic surgery for terrorists?
Cosmetic surgeons in Thailand will be asked to keep alert for possible terrorists seeking to change their appearance, a newspaper said yesterday. Thousands of foreigners flock to Thailand for facelifts and other cosmetic surgery because of the high quality and low prices offered. The Medical Council of Thailand said it will ask surgeons to be on the look-out for suspicious characters, noting that the country keeps no proper records on foreigners entering the country for plastic surgery, The Nation newspaper said.
■ Singapore
Puppy killer gets jail
An Indian national who killed a puppy by repeatedly slamming the dog on the ground was sentenced to three months in a Singapore jail. Chinnaiah Solai, 28, who works in Singapore as a cleaner, got into a scuffle with a man who tried to stop him from mistreating the dog, The Straits Times said. A district court was told Koh Eng Kiat, 40, heard a dog howling at night on September 4 last year. He came out of his office and saw Chinnaiah lifting the black puppy in the air and slamming the animal onto the ground. Chinnaiah said he had "disciplined" the dog because he was concerned it would bite people.
■ China
No drugs for SARS patients
Ninety percent of people struck down by the deadly SARS virus in China recovered naturally and without using drugs, a leading Chinese medic said yesterday. Director of Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Zhong Nanshan was quoted by the Apple Daily newspaper as saying that 90 percent of China's SARS victims had only required "a good rest and good support" to beat the disease, adding that no drug treatment had been needed. This seemed to provide support for those medical experts who criticized the Hong Kong health authorities for using a mixture of the anti-viral drug Ribavirin and steroids to treat SARS patients in the city.
■ China
Geriatric unit stops crime
A team of crime fighters aged 60 to 94 are patrolling a troubled neighborhood in southern China to keep criminals at bay. More than 240 geriatric vigilantes patrol the Fengyuan neighborhood in Liwan, Guangzhou province, according to the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily. Team leader Chen Jieyu said: "We do not try to chase or tackle criminals. But when they know we're watching them, they are more reluctant to start trouble." If necessary, elderly patrol members shout for help and bring in security guards and police to help them. The team had helped decrease the crime rate with their patrols, the report said.
■ United States
Gray may beat recall vote
A new poll published on Friday shows that embattled California Governor Gray Davis now has an even chance of beating the effort to oust him in mid-term. The poll in the Los Angeles Times found likely voters in the Oct. 7 election supporting the ouster of Davis by 50 percent to 47 percent, with just 3 percent undecided. The result, which comes within the poll's 3 percent margin of error is a statistical toss-up, and a vast improvement from polls taken last month which found 65 percent support for ousting the Democratic leader.
■ Spain
N Africans sue Aznar
Sixteen North Africans held in jail for two months are suing the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for slander after he and the US Secretary of State Colin Powell wrongly claimed they were proof of a dangerous alliance between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. The arrest of the Algerian and Moroccan immigrants in north-east Spain in January was hailed by Aznar as the capture of "an important network of terrorists connected to al-Qaeda" armed with "explosive, chemical and electronic material." But bottles and flasks containing what police claimed were "explosives and chemical products" found in their homes turned out to hold cologne, olive oil, honey, household ammonia and washing powder.
■ United States
Penis fails to impress
A comedian failed to win over his audience when he unzipped his pants on stage and exposed his penis -- painted red, white and blue like the US flag. Sam Walters, 29, was one of two stand-up comedians battling for laughs at a comedy club near Harvard University in Cambridge. As part of a Sept. 11-themed contest, each comic was asked to come up with an offensive sentence, describe Islam in 100 words or less and pay a special tribute to America.
Walters' tribute involved decorating his penis with stars and stripes and showing it at the appropriate moment. Audience members laughed, but Walters lost the contest.
■ United Kingdom
Nut pusher reaches No. 10
A British man who has been nudging a humble nut along the streets of London with his nose for 11 days finally reached the seat of power. After 11 gruelling kilometers, Mark McGowan pushed the nut up the steps to Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street residence and told waiting reporters: "I've got a sore nose." Performance artist McGowan -- nose shielded by a grimy sticking plaster -- deftly flicked the nut onto Blair's front step, and was greeted by an official who handed him a mug of tea. The 37-year old has gone through 13 nuts during his gruelling quest to highlight rising student debt.
■ France
Pedal boaters rescued
French firemen rescued dozens of holidaymakers who were trapped in some 50 pedal boats on a lake in southern France after strong Mistral winds prevented them from returning to shore. "The strong winds, blowing at up to 80kph, caught the boat riders by total surprise. They weren't able to pedal hard enough to reach the bank," said a spokesman for police in the town of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, north of Toulon. Some holidaymakers had to wait for three hours inside a gorge the wind had carried them into before local firemen towed them back to shore. Nobody was injured.
■ Zimbabwe
Mugabe bans newspaper
State secret police and armed paramilitary forces shut down the independent Daily News, the country's largest-selling daily newspaper, and arrested its editor and production manager on Friday. The government forces marched into the paper's offices in central Harare and ordered all staff to leave, members of the staff said. The shutdown followed a supreme court decision that the feisty tabloid was illegal. Editor Nqobile Nyathi and production manager Simon Ngena were arrested and were being held at Harare central police station by police of the notorious "law and order" section. About 40 blue-uniformed paramilitary police were on guard outside the building, in the lobby and in the newspaper's offices.
■ The netherlands
War crime deadline set
The UN chief war crimes prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia Friday set a year-end deadline for the handover to the court of the two most wanted Bosnian Serb suspects and a Croat ex-general. Carla Del Ponte told a news conference that Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, his former army commander Ratko Mladic and Croat former general Ante Gotovina, all wanted for war crimes committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, must be delivered to the UN court at The Hague by the end of 2003. If they are not handed over, the court will be unable to complete its work within the timetable set by the international community, she said.
■ United states
Copycat robber charged
A woman has been accused of holding up a bank with a fake explosive attached to her neck. The woman, Evelyn Ranes, 49, was charged with armed bank robbery and could face up to 25 years in prison. Ranes is accused of walking into a Lathrop bank on Thursday, pulling up her blouse to show a teller a device she indicated was an explosive and then making off with an undisclosed amount of cash. Ranes was arrested an hour later, and the device was found to be incapable of detonating. FBI officials say the crime resembled a recent case in which a man died after an explosive around his neck detonated shortly after he robbed a bank.
■ United kingdom
Fetuses can smile
Images published for the first time on Friday seem to suggest that fetuses can smile, blink and cry weeks before they leave the womb. The pictures of fetuses about 26 weeks after conception have been captured by state-of-the-art scanning equipment now being employed at some clinics and teaching hospitals. Experts are debating whether this apparent grin reflects an emotional response or is a simple physical reaction. Obstetrician Stuart Campbell said: "It is remarkable that a newborn baby does not smile for about six weeks after birth. But before birth, most babies smile frequently."
■ Australia
Scabby sheep still at sea
A consignment of 57,000 sheep that left Australia for the Middle East five weeks ago was still at sea Saturday as their Saudi Arabian owner frantically searched for a new buyer. The US$5.7 million cargo has twice been turned away at ports in the Arabian Gulf after deals fell through over the health of the animals. The Cormo Express was refused permission to unload in Saudi Arabia on August 22 after a local vet found 6 per cent of the animals had scabby mouth disease. There has been a second rejection, by an unnamed country, since then. The vessel is now heading to another port.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in