■ Korea
Impeachment protests
Thousands turned out in the capital at dueling rallies yesterday -- some protesting the unprecedented impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun, others supporting the leader's ouster. At a midday demonstration, some 500 protesters gathered in a Seoul park to condemn parliament's March 12 impeachment vote and chanted "Disband the National Assembly!" Hours later, about 2,000 supporters of impeachment converged on a main downtown boulevard and staged a sit in. The protesters waved South Korean flags, sang the national anthem and chanted "Roh Moo-hyun step down!" Both rallies were dwarfed by Saturday night's anti-impeachment activities. More than 100,000 people staged a sit-in in central Seoul, holding candles and chanting "Impeachment Invalid!" Police also reported much smaller rallies in 80 provincial cities.
■ China
Doctor starts 49-day fast
A 50-year-old Chinese doctor is attempting to fast for 49 days, five days longer than the record set by U.S. illusionist David Blaine last year, state media said yesterday. Chen Jianmin began his fast in a glass box on a mountain in southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency said. Chen, a doctor in Chinese herbal medicine, claims he once fasted for 81 days, drinking only water while "going to work regularly," the agency said. But at least one local physiologist called Chen's claim of 81 days without food "impossible," it said.
■ Australia
Sydney says no to elephants
Australian animal lovers mustered at Sydney's world famous Taronga Zoo yesterday in protest of a plan to bring in nine Thai elephants for a captive breeding programme. Protesters dressed in prison stripes and wearing elephant masks chained themselves together at the gates of a facility they say is too small for its current pair of elephants let alone another male and eight females.
■ New Zealand
Army apologizes
The New Zealand Army apologised yesterday after a 30-minute exercise with machine guns and grenades terrified people living in the sparsely populated Otaki Gorge, 64km north of Wellington. The mock battle, which saw volunteer part-time soldiers having a shoot-out around one farmers cow shed, panicked farm animals and terrified children who thought it was a terrorist attack, Radio New Zealand reported.
■ New Zealand
Tough job description
New Zealand's Christchurch City Council recently issued a interesting eight-page application for a job vacancy, stating they were seeking someone with "drive and energy... creative thinking... and a commitment to meet customer needs," a newspaper reported on yesterday. The job opening: cleaning men's toilets in the main city squares. According to the council, the job required someone with "continuous learning... and empathy to judge impact on others" while being capable of managing "key output areas," the Sunday Star-Times reported. The applicant needed to have "the ability to handle pressure when faced with the demands of variable workloads or tight deadlines" and must be "conversant with local body legislation and biculturalism," the paper said.
■ United States
Lesbian pastor acquitted
A lesbian Methodist pastor was acquitted in a church trial over her sexual orientation, and will be allowed to continue her ministry. After about 10 hours of deliberations, a jury of 13 pastors on Saturday ruled in favor of the Reverend Karen Dammann, 47, who disclosed three years ago that she was in a homosexual relationship. Eleven pastors found her not guilty and two were undecided. Dammann said she was happy and relieved. "It's been heart-stopping at times, too exciting at times," she said.
■ United Kingdom
Nation unprepared for attack
Britain is hopelessly unprepared for a major terrorist attack of the sort which devastated Madrid earlier this month, the country's leading emergency planner was quoted as warning yesterday. Resources to deal with such an emergency had actually been reduced since the Sept. 11 attacks on the US, the chairman of the Emergency Planning Society, Patrick Cunningham, said, calling the situation "absolutely unbelievable."
■ Israel
Five Palestinians killed
Five Palestinians, including a woman, were killed early Sunday during a large-scale Israeli army raid in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses and medical sources said. Israeli military sources confirmed at least three people were killed during the arrest operation after Israeli troops had entered the town of Abasan, east of Khan Yunis, at around 3am with tanks, jeeps and helicopters. Hospital sources in Khan Yunis said that seven people had also been wounded during armed clashes which witnesses said had broken out during the arrest operation. Two houses were also demolished during the raid, they added. An Israeli military source said that troops had entered into a compound in a bid to arrest a local commander of the Islamic radical movement Hamas and target a workshop used to manufacture mortar shells and rockets.
■ Yemen
Al-Qaeda suspects captured
Yemeni security forces on Saturday captured two militants suspected of being members of the al-Qaeda terror group and who were wanted in connection with the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden port, an interior ministry official said. Samir al-Blackie and another unnamed suspect were arrested east of Aden without putting up any resistance, the official said in a statement that appeared on Saturday on the ruling party's Web site. He said the pair were in the company of Jamal al-Badawi and Fahd al-Qasaa, two prime suspects in the Cole bombing arrested on Friday, but that they had managed to escape during a shootout with security forces. Badawi and Qasaa were among 10 Yemeni suspects who escaped from jail last April.
■ Iraq
Rocket attack kills 2
A rocket attack near the flashpoint Iraqi town of Falluja, west of Baghdad, killed two US soldiers and wounded seven, the US military said yesterday. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US Army in Iraq, said three rockets hit a forward operating base and two impacted outside at about 8pm on Saturday. The wounded comprised six from the army and one from the navy, he said.
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
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the