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PHOTO: APF

■ China
Beijing protests to Tokyo
China voiced its dissatisfac-tion with Japan yesterday
for allowing the Dalai Lama to visit despite Beijing's opposition, saying the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader
was a long-time separatist. "We express our strong dissatisfaction to Japan for insisting on allowing the Dalai to visit in spite of China's many solemn repre-sentations and resolute opposition," Foreign Minis-try spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue (章啟月) said on the ministry's Web site. The Tibetan leader arrived in Tokyo yesterday for a 12-day visit at the invitation of Japanese lawmakers.

■ China
Huge quarantine unneeded
China unnecessarily quaran-tined thousands of its resi-dents earlier this year in an effort to contain an outbreak of the SARS virus, according to a study released on Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only about one-third of the esti-mated 30,000 people quaran-tined in Beijing needed to
be isolated, according to the study by the Chinese equi-valent of the CDC. "Focusing only on persons who had contact with an actively ill SARS patient would have reduced the number of persons quarantined by approximately 64 percent without compromising its effectiveness," the authors said. The current US approach to containing SARS recommends quaran-tining only those who develop symptoms of the illness after direct contact with an infected person.

■ Japan
Gas-attack case nears end
Doomsday guru Shoko Asahara sat silently as his team of 12 lawyers made their final arguments in his defense yesterday, wrapping up a seven-and-a-half-year trial in which Asahara faces a possible death sentence for allegedly masterminding the deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways. Ashara's lawyers argued that he had lost control over his Aum Shin-rikyo disciples and
that they had acted on their own in carrying out the 1995 gassing. Asahara is also accused of ordering more than a dozen other killings, resulting in the deaths of
27 people.

■ China
Eight guilty of subversion
A former Chinese court official has been sentenced to 16 years in prison on subversion charges after setting up an independent labor union, a human rights group says. Li Jianfeng and seven co-defendants say police framed them and tortured them in detention, New York-based Human Rights in China said Thurs-day, citing court documents. The eight were sentenced by a court in Ningde, Fujian Province. The president of the human rights group said several others who were convicted received prison terms of two or three years.

■ Hong Kong
260 more prostitutes netted
Police said yesterday that they had arrested 260 more prostitutes from China, bringing to 480 the number of Chinese prostitutes rounded up this week. The 260 women, aged 16 to 52, were rounded up in raids on 80 locations in the red light districts of Kowloon which ended Thursday night, a police spokesman said. One in every 1,000 Chinese visitors to Hong Kong is now arrested for prostitution.

■ Italy
Court clears former PM
Italy's highest court cleared Giulio Andreotti, the former prime minister, of a murder charge on Thursday, overturning a previous conviction. Andreotti, 84, had been accused of conspiring with the Mafia in the 1979 killing of a journalist who was supposedly investigating him. In 1999, a court in Perugia acquitted him, but prosecutors appealed that verdict. Last November, an appeals court in Perugia convicted Andreotti, who had served as prime minister seven times. Andreotti has always maintained that the charge against him was false and that he was the victim of political enemies and crime figures who were seeking retribution.

■ Italy
Berlusconi releases CD
Three lucky Italian couples will soon have the opportunity to be married to the strain of love songs written by their prime minister. A CD of pieces largely written by Silvio Berlusconi hits the shops yesterday with a special offer: buyers counting the days to their wedding can enter a draw. The winning couples, one each from the south, center and north of Italy, will be serenaded during the ceremony by his "artistic collaborator" Mariano Apicella, singing songs from the CD. Meglio 'ne Canzone (Better a Song) carries 14 tracks with lyrics by the Italian leader, five of them written in collaboration with a professional librettist.

■ United States
No mo' Rumsfeld mojo
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he does not know whether or not he has lost his mojo, as a leading news magazine suggested, because he doesn't really know what mojo is. "Is Rumsfeld Losing His Mojo?" was the headline in Time magazine above a story about Rumsfeld's recent difficulties concerning Iraq policy and differences with US lawmakers. The Webster's New World Dictionary defines mojo as "a charm or amulet thought to have magic powers," or "power, luck, etc., as of magical or supernatural origin."

■ United States
Phone in toilet causes chaos
Edwin Gallart, 41, of the Edenwald section of the Bronx, was aboard car 8371 of the 6:19pm Harlem Line local train out of Grand Central Terminal when his cell phone fell into the toilet, officials said. When he reached into the bowl to retrieve it, his arm became trapped from hand to elbow. Train operators arranged for rescue crews to meet the train a few stops later, where firefighters used no less than three sets of power tools, including the hydraulic jaws of life, to cut through the toilet, which was ripped from the lavatory before being sliced open. The phone was not found.

■ Greece
Hundreds sick on cruise ship
Hundreds of British tourists on the British-flagged cruise ship Aurora have been hit by a stomach bug and would not be allowed off when it reached Greece's port of Piraeus, Greek officials said on Thursday. "Four hundred and thirty people on board the Aurora are having severe stomach problems," a Merchant Marine Ministry spokeswoman said. The Aurora's owners, P&O Cruises, said the bug was very mild and there had been no need to call in further medical assistance. Greek officials said the ship was carrying 1,900 tourists and 837 crew, and a P&O spokeswoman said: "As far as I am aware all the passengers are British."

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