■ South Korea
Wu to discuss nuclear arms
China's parliamentary leader Wu Bangguo (吳邦國) will visit North Korea this week to discuss the nuclear crisis and other issues, a senior South Korean official said yesterday. Wu's trip to Pyongyang will begin tomorrow, said South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun. No further details were available. China, North Korea's last remaining major ally, hosted six-nation talks last month on North Korea's suspected development of nuclear weapons. The other participants were the US, Russia, South Korea and Japan. China is trying to arrange a new round of negotiations after last month's meeting ended without an agreement on how to ease tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions.
■ South Korea
Life expectancy jumps
Better health care and nutrition have helped boost the average life expectancy of South Korean women to 80 years, an increase of 14 years in three decades. The Korea Times newspaper said yesterday that average life expectancy for Korean men was 72.8 years in 2001, up 13.8 years since 1971 when they lived up to an average age of 59 years. It quoted the National Statistics Office as saying Korean women's life expectancy was 66.1 years in 1979, 75.9 years in 1991 and 80 years in 2001. Statistics officials were not immediately available to confirm the report. The Times said the government attributed the rise in life spans to better medical facilities and nutrition and greater interest in maintaining good health. It did not say why the male life expectancy was lower, but male life spans are generally lower than women's.
■ Nepal
Rebels call general strike
A general strike called by Maoist rebels paralyzed life in this Himalayan kingdom yesterday despite government assurances of heightened security to deter attacks by the rebels. Many residents throughout the country kept their businesses shut and their vehicles off the streets while communities closed schools for fear of attack by the rebels, who are known to be ruthless against those who defy their strike calls. Police said there were no immediate reports of any rebel attacks yesterday, the first of three days in a general strike called by the rebels to show their strength.
■ South Korea
Presidential retreat planned
The government may build a presidential retreat similar to Camp David in the US next to a proposed nuclear dump to allay fears among residents about its safety, an official said yesterday. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy has made the proposal to the president's office to build the retreat on Wido, an islet off the country's west coast, said an official at the Radioactive Waste Management Division. "We are negotiating with the Blue House but nothing is confirmed yet," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
■ Japan
New rocket in the works
Japan is planning to launch within the next decade a new, domestically developed rocket that will cost half as much as its current workhorse model, carry heavier payloads and "surpass the US Space Shuttle in terms of reliability," officials said yesterday. The project is part of a broad overhaul of Japan's struggling space program, which has been plagued by cost overruns and a shortage of customers for its satellite-launching rockets.
■ Sweden
Suspect denies murder
The man arrested by Swedish police in connection with last week's murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh denied on Wednesday carrying out the attack, his defense lawyer said. "I just met my client and during the hearings he said he had nothing to do with the murder of Anna Lindh," Gunnar Falk, the suspect's court-appointed legal counsel, said. Police have not released the man's name but say the 35-year-old is a chief suspect among up to 10 people they are seeking over Lindh's fatal stabbing. Police say the suspect resembles a man caught on security cameras in the department store.
■ United States
Hurricane moves closer
Hurricane Isabel's windy fringes hit the US East Coast early yesterday as the storm, carrying 168kph winds and torrential rains, moved in to smack the mid-Atlantic region. From coastal communities in North Carolina and Virginia, where people scrambled to leave or hunkered down with canned food and flashlights, to Washington, where federal business was set to grind to a halt, authorities and residents braced for flooding, power outages and disruption. "Tropical storm conditions are already spreading across the coastline," the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 11pm EDT.
■ Africa
Lion population plummets
The lion population of Africa has fallen to about 23,000. This is roughly the human headcount of a large village or the number of seats in a town's football stadium. About 20 years ago lions numbered more than 200,000. Populations of all African predators are plummeting, says a report in New Scientist yesterday. Wild dogs once roamed most of Africa south of the Sahara. There may be only 3,000 to 5,000 left now, in a fraction of their former range. Cheetahs, which once prowled from southern Africa to western Asia, are down to perhaps 15,000. All the species are suffering from farming and hunting pressures and generally loss of habitat.
■ Israel
Would-be bombers convicted
A Jerusalem court on Wednesday convicted three Israeli settlers for attempting to blow up an Arab girls' school in Jerusalem last year, to avenge Arab attacks against Jews. Shlomo Dvir, Yarden Morag and Ofer Gamliel, all from the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin, were convicted of attempted murder and illegal weapons possession in connection with the failed attack in the Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of A-Tur in April last year. Sentences will be passed at a later date. The convictions come against the background of mounting concern over the emergence of a new Jewish "underground," reminiscent of settler vigilantes who attacked Palestinians in the mid-1980s.
■ United States
Police racially biased
A Latino man caught with 4.4kg of cocaine in the trunk of his car may go free, after a Massachusetts judge found yesterday that the State Police troopers who arrested him had routinely searched more cars driven by minority motorists than whites. Worcester, Massachusetts Superior Court Judge John McCann threw out the evidence of the cocaine and the man's admission he planned to sell it. Legal observers called it extremely rare for a judge to exclude evidence in a criminal case solely because of a statistical pattern suggesting racial bias.
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