■ Japan
Compensation offer mulled
Tokyo is considering paying as much as US$400 million to China for the injuries and deaths caused by chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese army after World War II, according to media reports yesterday. Tokyo's offer to set up a fund for the victims appears aimed at defusing diplomatic tensions before Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi meets Chinese President Hu Jintao (楊建利) at the APEC summit in Bangkok. Beijing has been pressing for compensation since one person died and dozens were sickened by Japanese drums of mustard gas dug up at a construction site in Qiqihar in August. The Yomiuri newspaper said Tokyo would pay up to US$400 million, but would refrain from any reference to "compensation"to avoid reopening the question of war-related reparations.
■ United States
Appeal for dissident made
Members of Congress have urged President George W. Bush to ask Chinese Presi-dent Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to release a Boston-area activist imprisoned in China on spying charges. In a letter to Bush sent on Thursday, 36 US House members said Yang Jianli's (楊建利) impri-sonment will continue if Bush does not intercede. Yang a Chinese citizen with permanent US residency, has been held since April last year. He was tried Aug. 4 on charges he spied for Taiwan. He pleaded innocent during the three-hour trial. The verdict has been delayed because the prosecutor asked for additional time.
■ Indonesia
Al-Ghozi given hero's burial
Hundreds of militant Mus-lims shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) attended the burial yesterday of bomb-maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi in his home town in East Java, a family lawyer said. Activists from the Big Family of Mujahideen and the Indo-nesian Council of Mujahi-deen ran chanting behind the ambulance carrying the coffin to the cemetery, said attorney Wirawan Adnan. Al-Ghozi was killed Sunday by troops in the Philippines three months after he broke out of a Manila jail. The results of an autopsy in Indonesia "indicates that he was not killed during a shootout but in a secret execution" by Philippine soldiers, the lawyer said. Al-Ghozi's body was buried without being bathed and shrouded, as is usual at Islamic burials, because his family believes he had died as a martyr, Adnan said.
■ China
Beijing taking to the sky
China's lofty talk of space tourism may take a while to materialize but, come 2007, Beijingers could be in orbit aboard the world's tallest Ferris wheel. A 210m, US$100 million wheel will soar over the capital's often-hazy skyline by the time of the Olympic Games there in 2008, the English-language China Daily said yesterday. It said the ride was set for completion prior to 2007 in a large park in Beijing. It would overtake both the London Eye, currently the world's tallest at 135m, and one Shanghai plans to build ahead of the World Expo in 2010.
■ India
Mine cave-in kills 10
Ten miners were killed and two injured when the roof of a coal mine collapsed in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh yesterday, a mine company official said. The Singareni Collieries official said the accident occurred in Godavarikhani village about 170km from of the state capital, Hyderabad. This is the second accident for the company in the past four months.
■ United States
General becomes abusive
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined on Thursday to criticize a senior Pentagon intelligence official who has told Christian gatherings that Muslims worship an "idol" and not "a real God," and instead praised the general's "outstanding" military record. Army Lieutenant General William Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and war-fighting support, has used speeches at churches and prayer breakfasts to portray the US battle with Islamic radicals as a fight with "Satan," saying they sought to destroy America "because we're a Christian nation."
■ Canada
Conservatives unite
After more than a decade of often bitter relations, Canada's two conservative parties reached an agreement on Thursday to unite into a single party in an effort to give the governing Liberal Party a competitive race in national elections next year. The Canadian Alliance, a populist party strong in the west, and the Progressive Conservative Party, which is strong in the eastern Maritime Provinces, remain far behind the Liberals in the polls. But the leader of the Progressive Conservatives, Peter MacKay, predicted that the unifying of the right will spark "a groundswell of support" and completely change the political dynamics of the country.
■ Tanzania
Used underwear banned
Tanzania has banned imports of secondhand underwear, fearing the used garments might spread skin diseases, an official said on Thursday. Underpants, bras, stockings and underskirts are all covered by the new rule, which will be enforced by inspectors examining consignments of used clothes entering the east African country. "This is a measure to safeguard human health," said Liandry Kinabo, head of process technology standards at the Tanzania Bureau of Standards. Imports of secondhand clothes from rich nations form a significant part of the economy in Tanzania and various other African countries, where many people cannot afford new clothes.
■ United Kingdom
Grandmother forced to fake
An English grandmother has successfully resorted to the desperate measure of faking copious blood loss to have the surgery she needed to cure a painful hiatus hernia, The Times reported on Thursday. Trizka Litton, 62, from the English Midlands, had waited seven months for her operation, suffering increasing pain before she mixed cranberry juice with crumbled biscuits to simulate her own blood and dialled 999 for an ambulance. "I think it is dreadfully sad when decent, law-abiding people like me are driven to such desperate measures to get treatment. Had I not been underhand, I might be dead," she said.
■ United Kingdom
Two GM varieties banned
Two genetically modified (GM) varieties, oil-seed rape and sugar beet, face a Europe-wide ban after long-awaited field trials showed that the crops damaged wildlife, and would have a serious long-term effect on bee, butterfly and bird populations. Three years of trials growing GM crops alongside conventional crops in the UK, has provided a legal basis for banning the two crops under EU rules. In the case of conventional oil-seed rape, five times as many weed seeds survived, providing food for birds like skylarks, than in the GM field.
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