World News Quick Take

■ Malaysia
Tax crackdown stirs uproar
Malaysia's taxmen are going house-to-house in an effort to track down thousands of tax cheats despite an uproar over the "embarrassing" tactic, local media reported yesterday. Tax teams went knocking on the doors of more than a hundred homes in Kuala Lumpur suburbs Sunday, personally delivering demands to surprised householders on the first day of a nationwide sweep. Newspaper photographers were on hand to record the six-hour operation but were told not to take close-up pictures of the alleged tax-evaders. "We are not here to shame them," local Internal Revenue Board director Samsuri Jelani told The Star. But when the operation was first announced last week, the board's chief executive Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid had a different interpretation of the tactic. "We will go door-to-door even on Sundays. This can be an embarrassment to them. Let their neighbors laugh at them," he was quoted as saying.

■ Myanmar
Quake damages temples
A strong earthquake rocked central Myanmar early yesterday, damaging temples and a bridge, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, officials said. The magnitude 6.7 quake struck about 350km north of the capital Yangon about 12:46am, said Tun Lwin, deputy director of the Yangon Kaba Aye Meteorological Center. He said no injuries had been reported. "It is still too early to give the human casualties," another government official said.

■ China
US ships make courtesy call
Two US guided-missile ships docked yesterday in the port of Zhanjiang, home of China's southern fleet, as part of growing Sino-US military exchanges. The visit, by cruiser USS Cowpens and frigate USS Vandegrift, was the first to the southern port by US Navy vessels, a US spokesman said. US ships have made port calls in other Chinese ports this year. "These exchanges are helping to prevent misunderstandings in the future," Lieutenant Commander Mike Brown said.

■ India
Nuclear bunkers to be built
The Indian government has decided to build two nuclear-proof bunkers to protect top leaders including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in case of an atomic strike, a report said yesterday. The first shelter would be built in central New Delhi at South Block, a 1931 complex next to the presidential palace that houses the prime minister's office and the foreign and defense ministries, the Hindustan Times reported. It said the second bunker would be set up within a 400km radius of the capital.

■ China
Blasts kill 7, injure 31
At least seven people were killed and 31 injured after three separate bomb blasts rocked China over the weekend, including one at a Carrefour shopping center in central Wuhan city, state press reported yesterday. Four people were killed and 23 injured in central China's Hubei province when an explosion occurred as firemen and medical workers were trying to fight a blaze at a government institute early Sunday morning, the China Daily said. In a separate blast Sunday evening in the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan, three people were slightly injured when a bomb went off in a Carrefour shopping center in the Hanyang district, the Wuhan Evening News said. Meanwhile, three people were killed and five injured when a bomb went off in Baoji city, Shaanxi province late Sunday, the Chinese Business View reported.

■ Antarctica
Ailing man rescued
An airplane carrying an ailing worker from the US research station in the South Pole landed in Chile on an emergency rescue flight. The twin turboprop Twin Otter landed in Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile at 10:30pm Sunday after stopping at a British base on the coast of Antarctica. The plane took off from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station about 5am for the British Rothera Air Station, some 2,172km away, said Valerie Carroll of Raytheon Polar Services. The Denver-based company manages the polar station for the National Science Foundation. The ill employee was to be flown to the US from Chile on a charter.

■ United States
Reagan letters make print
A new book of personal letters written by Ronald Reagan lays out the former US president's views on topics from sex to communism and includes a discussion with Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner about free speech. Derided during his presidency as an actor playing a part, Reagan defends his training for the highest office and offers a straightforward view of the world in letters written before, during and after his 1981 to 1989 presidency. The 40th president of the US penned more than 5,000 letters, which were edited to produce Reagan: A Life in Letters, which will be released today.

■ Canada
Martin leads Liberals
Former finance minister Paul Martin on Sunday took a giant step toward becoming Canada's next prime minister when he easily won the race which will decide who becomes head of the ruling Liberal party, his aides said. Liberal party members voted this weekend to choose delegates to a convention in Toronto on Nov. 15 which will elect a new leader. Martin aides said that as of 9:45pm he had the support of 3,491 delegates, well over half the 5,800 delegates he needed for victory. Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, the only other candidate, had just 231 delegates.

■ United States
US regrets ban on novelist
US officials admitted that the entry ban on novelist Graham Greene because of his sometime Communist party membership tarnished the country's image, newly released documents show. They conceded that he had been a member of the British Communist party for only four weeks when a 19-year-old student, "as a joke." They admitted his writing clearly showed that he was anti-communist, according to documents obtained by the Guardian under the US Freedom of Information Act. It was revealed last year that the FBI kept close tabs on the novelist, at times opening his mail and recording his conversations.

■ United kingdom
Sunbed warning issued
Local authorities in the UK are being warned to remove sunbeds from every leisure center in the country amid accusations that they are profiting from treatments which endanger health. Members of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health will raise the alarm because they believe sunbeds contribute to the rise in the incidence of skin cancer. Proposals to be unveiled at the institute's annual conference starting today in Belfast would see "shade provision" become a requirement in big planning developments. School playgrounds would be required to provide children and teachers with shaded areas.