■ Australia
Two in Cuba to see lawyers
The two Australians being held by US authorities at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba would serve any sentence imposed on them in Australia, officials in Canberra said yesterday. They would also be allowed to meet their families and to see an Australian lawyer before their trial, the attorney general's office revealed. Adelaide-born David Hicks and fellow alleged al-Qaeda member Mamdouh Habib of Sydney have been held in Guantanamo for two years. Hicks, a Moslem convert who was captured in Afghanistan, and Habib, who was picked up in Pakistan on suspicion of links to terrorist organizations, are expected to face military tribunals.
■ Thailand
US praises drug crackdown
A senior US official yesterday described as "successful" Thailand's war on drugs, in which more than 2,000 people were killed, provoking an international outcry about alleged police excesses. William Snipes, the regional director of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said the war on drugs has been effective. He was speaking to reporters at the Bang Pa-In industrial estate where government officials torched drugs worth nearly 2.9 billion baht (US$72 million), including 19 million methamphetamines pills, marijuana, heroin, ketamine liquid and Ecstasy pills. The drug burning is Thailand's 30th since 1977 and the third this year.
■ Australia
Jail for `resilient' fraudster
A judge paid tribute yesterday to an 82-year-old fraudster's resilience, then jailed him for 30 months. Raymond Lewis Oughton was convicted of defrauding the government to the tune of A$270,000 (US$194,400) by claiming benefits for an elderly couple he invented back in the 1970s. "One cannot help but admire your resilience," Victoria state County Court judge Michael Strong told Oughton, who has been handed a total of 22 prison sentences since doing time for the first time in 1939. "But I have to say you are one of the most dishonest and disreputable individuals I have been called upon to sentence," Strong added.
■ China
Crying dog saves master
A doctor's pet dog saved the life of his collapsed master in China by turning up on a neighbor's doorstep with tears in his eyes. Village doctor Liu Jian-yao collapsed with a burst artery as he returned from a house call in the early hours of the morning, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported yesterday. His dog, which always follows the doctor on his house calls, ran to a neighbor's house and pawed at the door and barked until someone came to the door. The neighbor said the dog had tears in his eyes when he opened the door. It then led him to where his master was lying.
■ Japan
Spy satellites set for launch
After several delays, all systems are go for this weekend's launch of Japan's second set of spy satellites, part of a multibillion dollar surveillance program aimed primarily at North Korea, officials said yesterday. The satellites are to be launched on Saturday atop an orange and black H-2A rocket, the workhorse of Japan's space program, said Hiroaki Sato, a spokesman for Japan's space agency, JAXA. The launch was originally scheduled for Sept. 10 but had to be postponed three times due to technical problems.<
■ Argentina
Jobless go on the march
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on Tuesday to disperse hundreds of jobless demonstrators marching in southwestern Argentina to demand greater government subsidies for the country's unemployed. At least 19 people were injured, police said. Helmeted police carrying riot shields clashed for hours with rock-throwing protesters in the streets of a poor district in the city of Neuquen, some 1,000km southwest of Buenos Aires.
■ United States
Agents arrest airport staff
Federal agents on Tuesday arrested 20 airport baggage and cargo handlers and charged them with running a decade-long drug smuggling operation that brought hundreds of pounds of cocaine and marijuana a year through Kennedy International Airport under the noses of customs officials. The arrests unveiled a criminal conspiracy of stunning duration, prosecutors said, in which the baggage handlers moved drug shipments worth tens of millions of US dollars through the airport with virtual impunity.
■ United states
Bullet hits Klan member
A Ku Klux Klan member has been critically injured after being struck by a bullet fired into the air during a Klan initiation ceremony. While the white-supremacist organization is more a subject of ridicule than fear these days, it still has members and still holds initiation ceremonies. The latest took place in Johnson City, Tennessee, the state where the Klan was formed in 1866 by veterans from the Confederate forces. About 10 people were present at the ceremony, in which a new member was blindfolded and tied to a tree. One member, Gregory Freeman, 45, fired a loaded pistol straight up into the air. The bullet, having gone straight up in the air came straight down and straight through the head of Jeffrey Murr, 24. It went through his skull, leaving him in critical condition.
■ Italy
Former PM on cocaine
Former prime minister Emilio Colombo, 83, has stunned prosecutors in Rome by telling them he is a regular cocaine user. Colombo, a former president of the European parliament said he used the drug for "therapeutic purposes." Italy's news agency, Ansa, quoted Colombo as saying: "I have not been a user for long -- not more than a year, year and a half." His disclosure last Thursday was made voluntarily to prosecutors investigating a ring alleged to have supplied drugs and prostitutes to high society figures. The investigation has already seen allegations levelled at a junior minister in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government, a former porn star and the owner of one of Rome's most fashionable restaurants.
■ Yemen
Al-Qaeda suspect detained
Yemen's security forces on Tuesday detained a top al-Qaeda suspect who had evaded arrest despite heading the Arab state's wanted list for nearly two years. The official Yemeni news agency, Saba, said Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, also known as Abu Asem al-Macci, surrendered to police after they surrounded a house in the capital, Sanaa, where the Islamic militant had been hiding. In Washington, a US counterterrorism official said Ahdal had been among the top 20 to 25 al-Qaeda leaders still at large and called his capture a significant development.
‘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