■ Australia
Suspected killer arrested
A man was arrested for the 2001 murder of a British tourist in the Australian outback yesterday, minutes after he was acquitted of unrelated sex offences. Police were waiting outside the South Australian District Court as Bradley Murdoch, 45, was acquitted of a series of sex crimes he was alleged to have committed after the 2001 murder of Peter Falconio. Murdoch was linked to Falconio's murder by DNA samples taken after his arrest in for the alleged sex offences. Police in the Northern Territory issued a warrant for Murdoch's arrest for Falconio's murder last year but under Australia's legal system he could not be formally charged until he was acquitted of the South Australian charges or had served time if convicted of them. Falconio's body has never been found.
■ Philippines
Afghan bikini queen praised
Miss Afghanistan, Vida Samadzai, condemned in her homeland for parading in a bikini at the Miss Earth contest in Manila, won the pageant's first "beauty for a cause" award on Sunday. The 23-year-old Samadzai, the first Afghan in three decades to take part in a beauty contest, failed to make it to the contest's semifinals. But she was cited for "symbolizing the newfound confidence, courage and spirit of today's women" and for "representing the victory of women's rights and various social, personal and religious struggles." Samadzai could face prosecution if she returns to her native country because of her attire at the pageant.
■ China
Clinton warns about AIDS
Former US president Bill Clinton warned China yesterday that a ballooning AIDS epidemic threatened its economic miracle. "China is moving in a positive direction... the headlines are hopeful and the future looks bright," Clinton told a conference on AIDS and SARS in Beijing. "But the weight of 15 or 30 million people living with HIV and AIDS could blunt a lot of your progress, especially if the burden falls most heavily on young people. AIDS is no respecter of geography or ethnicity. Beyond the human cost it is an economic and security threat as well," he said.
■ Afghanistan
Taliban regrouping in south
The Taliban control at least four districts in southeast Afghanistan's Zabul province, Zabul's deputy governor told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) yesterday. The former hardline rulers are now trying take control of the Zabul capital Qalat, where a powerful bomb went off at the headquarters of the province's governor on Saturday, Mawlawi Mohammed Omar told the Pakistan-based agency. Zabul, which neighbors Pakistan, is on the frontline of increasing attacks by Taliban fighters regrouping in southern Afghanistan and in Pakistani border regions.
■ Hong Kong
Workers feel stressed out
More than half of Hong Kong's working population say they are under more stress than ever before, according to a survey yesterday. The survey by the University of Hong Kong found that SARS and the economic slump has taken its toll on people's health. More than half of the 600 people interviewed said that stress was causing them health problems and affecting their work efficiency. Hong Kong's economy has been buffeted by successive economic downturns that have seen the jobless rate climb to nearly 8 percent and house prices fall by 65 percent from their 1997 peak.
■ United States
Gore slams Patriot Act
Former vice president Al Gore accused President George W. Bush on Sunday of failing to make America safer after the September 11 attacks and using the war against terrorism as a pretext to consolidate power. "They have taken us much farther down the road toward an intrusive, `big brother'-style government -- toward the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his book 1984 -- than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America," Gore charged in a speech. Gore said terrorism-fighting tools granted after the attacks amounted to a partisan power grab that have led to the erosion of the civil liberties of all Americans.
■ United States
Lee Malvo trial starts
The murder trial of Lee Malvo, the 18-year-old sniper suspect linked to 10 killings in the Washington area, was to begin yesterday in Chesapeake, Virginia, as the prosecution of alleged accomplice John Muhammad moved toward a close in a neighboring courthouse. Malvo is charged with two counts of murder and a weapons violation in the death of Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst who was shot to death in a parking lot in Falls Church, Virginia, on Oct. 14 last year. Both suspects are charged with two counts of murder for a single death, and both trials offer a test of Virginia's new anti-terrorism law, enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Defense attorneys in Malvo's case plan an insanity defense.
■ Iran
Pledge to stop enrichment
Tehran said it will suspend uranium enrichment soon, an expected step as the country faces international pressure to prove it is not trying to make nuclear weapons. In return, the government expects the International Atomic Energy Agency to honor its commitment to provide Iran with technology for peaceful nuclear uses, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. Tehran says it has enriched uranium only to non-weapons levels, as part of peaceful nuclear programs meant to produce power as its oil stocks decline.
■ Mauritania
Opposition leader arrested
Armed security forces arrested the nation's top opposition leader on Sunday on claims of involvement in an alleged coup plot, just two days after he lost a presidential vote to President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Taya. State security agents snatched Mohamed Ould Khouna Haidalla immediately after he finished morning prayers at his headquarters in the capital, said a senior official of his Forces for Change party. The attorney general told reporters that officials are investigating reports -- circulated by Taya campaign officials -- that Haidalla had been planning a coup if he lost Friday's vote.
■ Guatemala
Ex-dictator loses election
Former dictator Efrain Rios Montt lost his bid for the presidency in an election on Sunday that was marked by high turnout and a lack of feared political violence, exit polls suggested. As Guatemalans awaited official results yesterday, El Periodico daily published an exit poll placing opposition candidates Oscar Berger and Alvaro Colom in first and second place with 42 percent and 27 percent of the vote respectively.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese