■ Australia
Sheep on ship go home
Fifty thousand Australian sheep stranded at sea will be brought home rather than slaughtered if a buyer can't be found, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. Shooting the sheep on board the ship was impractical, he said. "The current intention of the government, I can tell you, is clearly to bring them home," Howard told radio station 2GB. "I can't see the circumstances in which they could be slaughtered at sea." The MV Cormo Express has been the focus of international attention for weeks as it tours the Persian Gulf seeking a country willing to take its cargo of sheep.
■ Vietnam
Agreement signed with US
Vietnam and the US yesterday initialled an air-services agreement that would allow direct passenger and cargo flights, tapping a surge in trade and travel between the former war foes. Neither side provided a time frame for ratifying the agreement, but it was expected this could take place within a few months. Several US carriers said they thought the first direct flights from America might begin next March. Vietnam Airlines said it was unsure when its jets would land in the US. Prior to the pact, it had planned to do so in 2006. Now, "we hope we can cut short the time," said Pham Ngoc Minh, executive vice president in charge of commercial affairs.
■ China
Belgium rejects rights case
Belgium has thrown out a human rights abuse lawsuit against China's former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) under the country's revamped genocide law, one of the plantiffs in the case said on Wednesday. Six members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, labelled an "evil cult" by the Chinese authorities, took the case to a Belgian court, alleging Jiang had put together a plan aimed at eliminating the group in China. Matthias Slaats, one of the six plantiffs, said he had been informed of the decision by the Belgian federal prosecutor to reject the case a few days ago. He added the group might appeal. "We are still checking the possibility," he said.
■ Myanmar
US critical of ASEAN stance
The US sharply disagreed on Wednesday with an ASEAN statement welcoming "positive developments" in Myanmar and a promise of democracy from its military rulers. "They noted, quote unquote, `positive developments.' We don't see those," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "And we don't see any need for a road map unless it has full participation of the opposition, and that's the way forward to us," the spokesman added. The ASEAN statement, released in Bali on Tuesday, welcomed a "road map" presented by Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt but made no mention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention at her home since May.
■ China
Coal power banned in cities
China has banned coal-fire power plants in Beijing and other major cities -- a long-awaited move expected to reduce chronic air pollution and acid rain. The plants have been banned in Beijing, Shanghai and 21 provincial capitals, the China Daily said. The cities are responsible for some 60 percent of China's sulphur dioxide emissions. In other big and medium-sized cities, thermo-electric projects approved under national energy polices must meet environmental protection standards.
■United States
Priest arrested
A man arrested on charges that he made harassing telephone calls to a Catholic high school in Brooklyn turned out to be a Roman Catholic priest whose Queens apartment contained guns, pornographic magazines, Nazi memorabilia and thousands of dollars he said he stole from a church, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. Reverend John Johnston, 64, of 35th Avenue in Jackson Heights, was charged with aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon. Officials said they found a Nazi dress cap, swastikas and several World War II-era photographs of Nazi officers in the apartment. "It looked like Hitler's tomb," one investigator said.
■ South Africa
Row over `colonial' airport
A plan to rename Johannesburg international airport after a black liberation leader has stirred fresh controversy over whether South Africa should replace colonial-era place names with African ones. The ruling African National Congress pledged this week to push ahead with a proposal to name the airport after the party's former president Oliver Tambo. Critics say changing its name would confuse travelers, waste money and undermine reconciliation. Originally named after Jan Smuts, a white premier, it was renamed Johannesburg airport in 1994.
■ Mexico
Funding probe dropped
A criminal investigation into the origin of donations to the 2000 election campaign of President Vicente Fox has been dismissed, Mexico's Justice Department announced Wednesday night. Federal prosecutors had been looking into opposition party charges that members of "Friends of Fox," a key private group backing Fox's 2000 campaign, engaged in money laundering to hide the origin of donations from foreign contributors. Donations to the "Friends of Fox" group came from legitimate activities, the Justice Department announced in a short written statement.
■ Canada
Art grant stirs controversy
A Canadian art jeweler who gilds her work with mouse droppings, toenail clippings, dead insects and pubic hair has fanned a debate in her prairie city about the nature and funding of art. Winnipeg artist Aliza Amihude found herself at the center of controversy when she received a C$5,000 (US$3,760) grant from a provincial funding agency to help defray costs for her collection of jewelry, made mainly from natural materials. The Manitoba Arts Council grant was panned in letters to the editor of a local newspaper and made waves in the provincial legislature, where one politician called Amihude's "public pubic" work offensive.
■ Colombia
Bomb kills at least six
At least six people, including two police officers, were killed and 12 civilians injured when a car bomb exploded on Wednesday in a grimy commercial district known for selling smuggled goods in Colombia's capital. No group fighting in the country's four-decade guerrilla war immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. Two officers were killed after arriving in the San Andresito district to investigate a telephone call about a suspicious vehicle. About 50kg of explosives packed in an old jeep detonated as they arrived on a motorbike about 8am, also killing four civilians, police said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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