■ China
Musharraf talks with Hu
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf holds his first summit with China's new leaders yesterday, hoping to ink a deal whereby Beijing will assist Islamabad in constructing a nuclear power plant. The nuclear neighbors already have close defense and economic cooperation and Musharraf's talks with President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) are expected to build on the foundations. They are also expected to discuss issues affecting both Pakistan and China, including Afghanistan, Kashmir and India -- all which border China's western-most region of Xinjiang.
■ China
Thousands riot in Shandong
Thousands of people in east China's Shandong Province rioted last week, storming a government building and smashing equipment after an official vehicle ran over and killed a vendor, a human rights group and residents said yesterday. The riot -- one of the largest in recent years -- occurred on Oct. 28, a day after a confrontation between officials and a man selling fresh pancakes from a roving stove-wagon in Zhoucheng City. On Oct. 27, the vendor, surnamed Shao, was selling the popular egg and onion pancakes when some employees from the "city management" department confiscated his wagon and loaded it onto their vehicle, sources said. Shao blocked the vehicle's path and was then run over as a crowd watched, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
■ Hong Kong
Smog obscures Yang's view
China's first astronaut enjoyed spectacular views from space, but back on Earth he's finding it hard to see Hong Kong through a thick layer of smog. Yang Liwei, on a five-day tour of Hong Kong, diplomatically told reporters Sunday that Hong Kong was "beautiful" even though the suspension bridge he went to see was barely visible. Yang orbited the Earth 14 times last month in China's first manned space flight, returning home an instant national hero who told countrymen: "I saw our planet. It's so beautiful." However, Yang said, contrary to popular belief, he could not see the Great Wall of China from space.
■ China
Cities running out of water
China's underground water resources are drying up, with over-exploitation driving down water tables and contaminating supplies, a government report said yesterday. The report, issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources, said only 63 percent of China's urban areas enjoy underground water that is potable without treatment. As the nation continues to pump underground water the aquifers are becoming contaminated by land subsidence or by the invasion of sea water in heavily populated coastal areas along China's eastern seaboard, it said. Some 400 of China's largest 668 cities are facing water shortages.
■ Indonesia
Floods destroy tourist resort
Flash floods swept through a popular tourist resort on Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing 24 people, five of them foreigners, and leaving 72 others missing, a rescue official said yesterday. The floods, which were triggered by days of heavy rain, took place late Sunday in Bohorok, close to the provincial capital of Medan in north Sumatra Province. A large river that flows down from nearby mountains overflowed its banks and washed away dozens of makeshift guesthouses that host tourists who come to the area to see its famous orangutan reserve.
■ United States
Residents return home
With the Southern California wildfires nearly contained, a wave of residents returned to the San Bernardino Mountains to see if their homes survived one of the most destructive infernos. In the community of Cedar Glen, owners of about 350 homes found only devastation on Sunday. The blaze, known as the Old Fire, was among a barrage of wildfires that have killed 20 people, destroyed more than 3,400 homes and burned nearly 300,000 hectares across Southern California. The fire was 72 percent contained after burning more than 36,400 hectares and destroying 851 homes.
■ France
Paris may get skyscrapers
Desperately short of space for new housing and offices, the city that boasts one of the world's most unspoiled skylines is considering lifting a 30-year-old ban on skyscrapers. Paris, which outlawed buildings of more than about eight storeys in the city center in 1974, is strikingly uncluttered with high-rise towers. But its restricted surface area of 40 square miles -- combined with an optimistic election pledge by the Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, to provide 50,000 new homes -- means that the mayor may be forced to build up, rather than out, to meet the city's needs.
■ United Kingdom
MI5 planned to bug embassy
The British secret service MI5 planned to bug the London embassy of one of Britain's allies in the so-called "war on terror," it was disclosed on Sunday. The agency was approached by a man in charge of restoring the embassy in a project which began in 2001, according to a report in the London-based Sunday Times newspaper. Eventually, MI5 recruited the man, gave him the codename Notation, and allegedly asked him to bug the embassy and take confidential documents. However, unknown to MI5, the agent had once been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He has told the embassy concerned, and the American embassy in London, about the operation.
■ Colombia
Tonne of cocaine seized
A joint operation by Colombian, US, British and Dutch naval forces led to the seizure of more than a tonne of cocaine off Colombia's Caribbean coast, the navy said on Sunday. Reconnaissance planes spotted a suspicious vessel about 290km north of the coastal province of Guarija on Saturday. An international force gave chase but was unable to intercept the suspected drug boat before it raced back to the nearest Colombian shore, where the crew abandoned their vessel and fled. A British ship, however, recovered more than one tonne of cocaine -- worth an estimated US$30 million -- that the crew tossed overboard during the chase.
■ United States
Shark takes surfer's arm
A teenage surfing star faced a second operation yesterday after a shark bit off her left arm just below the shoulder. Bethany Hamilton, 13, had been lying on her board in clear waters off Kauai's North Shore in Hawaii when the shark struck. Its bite also took a huge chunk of her board, but it struck only once, ignoring her companions and disappearing back into the ocean. "My arm was hanging in the water, and it just came and bit me," she told a Honolulu television station. Doctors at the Wilcox Memorial hospital said yesterday that being an athlete had helped her to survive the attack last Friday.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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