■ India
Nuclear missile tested
India yesterday tested a
new version of its nuclear-capable Prithvi missile, which has an enhanced range that could easily reach the capital of Pakistan, the Press Trust
of India reported. The new medium-range missile can reach between 150km and 200km. The test was done at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur. India routinely tests its missiles and some two dozen tests have been done so far for the Prithvi since 1988. The Indian Army has already deployed the missile. The new version has been developed for
the Indian Air Force and
was fired from a mobile launcher, the news agency reported.
■ China
No gifts for judges
China has issued a new
set of regulations aimed
at cracking down on its corrupt judicial system, forbidding judges from accepting cash and gifts
in return for favorable verdicts, state press reported yesterday. "A judge is banned from accepting money, gifts and securities from one party of the lawsuit and his [or her] lawyer as well as their invitation for dinner and entertainment and are also not allowed to borrow things, including vehicles, from them," Xinhua news agency said, citing the new regulations. Judges were also "banned from meeting one party of a lawsuit and his [or her] lawyer in private and lawyers are forbidden to meet the judge of his [or her] case in private either," it said.
■ China
Spy PC game banned
China has banned a Norwegian-made computer game involving a spy-for-hire chasing military secrets in China because it allegedly blackens the country's image, the government
said yesterday. The State
Press and Publication Administration said the game, Project IGI2: Covert Strike, violates Chinese regulations prohibiting games that hurt China's national dignity and interests. The game allows players to pretend they
are a freelance mercenary tracking down illegal computer technology.
■ Australia
Dead man had bike cache
The death of a suspected bicycle thief has saddled police with an intriguing problem -- what to do with his houseful of bikes. Police said yesterday the man, who was in his 60s, died last week while trying to steal
a bike in Melbourne. They
did not elaborate on the
cause of death. Officers discovered the cache of about 1,000 bicycles when they went to inform the man's relatives in the nearby town of Geelong of his death. "In every room including his bedroom, bathroom and kitchen there are bikes, bike helmets, parts, chains, seats and tires ... it's something else," said Senior Sergeant Adrian Benny.
■ The Philippines
Huge cake planned
Bakers in a Philippine
town hope to take the
cake, using three tonnes
of strawberries, a tonne of flour and thousands of eggs. They plan to create the world's largest strawberry cake with a base 4.9m by 7.3m and a strawberry-shaped top towering 2.7m. Event organizers hope the cake will eclipse the record held in Florida for the biggest flat strawberry
cake. The giant dessert
will be served to more than
40,000 people expected to
gather today for an annual strawberry festival in La Trinidad, a mountain town in the northern Philippines.
■ Costa Rica
Cow gets cab ride
Police pursuing suspected criminals on Thursday managed to stop the suspects' taxi and were stunned to find that their back-seat passenger was a cow. The two suspects were accused of stealing the cow outside the city of Heredia, just north of San Jose. They somehow managed to force the animal into the back seat of a cab and tried to make their escape, police said. TV images showed the cow placidly staring out of the back window of the taxi at the police officers. The two men were taken into custody and the cow was to be given back to her owner, reports said.
■ Belgium
Child rapist in key drama
Belgian child rapist Marc Dutroux denied on Thursday plans to escape after a mystery handcuff key was found near his jail cell, as his emotionally-charged trial over a spate of killings continued. The revelation, the latest to call into question security surrounding Dutroux, came as the court took behind-closed-doors testimony from doctors who examined the bodies of his schoolgirl victims. Dutroux, who escaped for a few hours in April, 1998, was "surprised" at the discovery of the key in a container of salt stored in a cupboard along the corridor from his cell.
■ United States
Asteroid passes Earth
An asteroid with a diameter of 30m passed close but harmlessly by Earth, astronomers said. The hurtling rock passed about 42,640km above the southern Atlantic Ocean at 10pm on Thursday. It was the closest recorded encounter between Earth and an asteroid, said Steven Chesley, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who works on a program looking for such objects. Such encounters, however, are actually believed to occur at the rate of one every two years and have simply not been detected, he said. Astronomers were continuing to observe the asteroid, 2004 FH.
■ United States
Men con blind woman
Two magazine salesmen were sentenced to jail for defrauding a nearly blind 85-year-old woman who bought 210 years worth of subscriptions. Jonathan Carey, 22, of Tacoma, Washington, and Jeremy Marquez, 21, of Sacramento, went to the woman's home on Dec. 20, telling her they represented United Family Circulation and they wanted donations for college, according to District Attorney Greg Totten. The woman signed two blank checks with the promise that each check be made out for US$130. Instead, Totten said, the defendants wrote out each check for US$3,360 and forwarded them to their employer.
■ United States
Police avert school shooting
A teenager was charged with attempted murder after police found him outside school with 20 homemade bombs, a rifle and a note saying he wanted to injure everyone at his high school except for three friends. Authorities believe they averted what could have been the worst school shooting since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. Josh Magee, 17, was arrested on Tuesday in the parking lot of Malcolm High School in Malcolm, Nebraska after a staff member saw him swigging liquor from a flask and putting on a black overcoat. Police who searched Magee's car found a bolt-action rifle, several rounds of ammunition, small bottles of propane and rigged containers of a petroleum-based propellent.
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