■ China
Want two kids? Get divorced
Authorities in Shanghai announced yesterday that divorced couples who remarry will be allowed to have a second child, easing China's controversial one-child per couple rule. The city is acting under a policy that lets local governments decide how to apply the one-child rule. The easing is meant to reflect social changes in cities such as prosperous, crowded Shanghai, including a divorce rate that has climbed along with incomes after two decades of economic reform. Since the 1970s, the government has enforced the one-child policy to slow the growth of China's population of 1.3 billion people. Couples who violate the rule can be fined, and activists allege some officials force women to have abortions or to undergo surgery to be sterilized.
■ Indonesia
Voters pick dead politician
A candidate in last week's legislative elections in Indonesia won nearly 800 votes despite having died three months ago, poll officials said yesterday. "It's a bit ridiculous," said Andi Mappinawang, an election committee member in south Sulawesi province where the mix-up occurred. "Maybe the voters didn't know that he had died," he said. Mirdin Kasim passed away in February, shortly after the deadline for printing ballot papers had passed, he said. It was impossible to inform all the people in the region of his death, Mappinawang said. Kasim has no chance of winning the seat, he said.
■ Indonesia
No `Cops' show in Jakarta
Indonesian police have been told to stop cooperating with TV reporters making "reality" crime programs because they focus too much on police brutality, a report said yesterday. National police on March 30 told regional commands to stop taking TV journalists on anti-crime operations, the Jakarta Post said. It said police objected to the violence being highlighted and to the way their officers were shown as acting arrogantly. Jakarta police spokesman Prasetyo denied TV reporters would be banned from operations. "We have received many complaints from the public about the shows that focus more on police brutality," the Jakarta Post quoted him as saying.
■ North Korea
Khan says he saw nukes
The Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of his country's nuclear program, told interrogators he saw three nuclear devices during a trip to North Korea five years ago, the New York Times said yesterday. During the trip to North Korea, Khan said he was taken to a secret underground nuclear plant and saw what he described as nuclear devices, the Times said, citing Asian and American officials who have been briefed by the Pakistanis. If what Khan said is true, it would be first time any foreigner has reported seeing a North Korean nuclear weapon, the newspaper said. Khan inspected the weapons briefly, the Times said.
■ China
Chow sues over face
Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat (周潤發), star of the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is suing China's No. 2 TV maker over the use of his image on an airport billboard, a company executive said yesterday. The star is demanding HK$6 million (US$769,700) from Konka Group Co for plastering his famous face on an ad for a mobile phone at a Chinese airport after his advertising contract expired in 2000, state media has said. An executive at Konka said the lawsuit, lodged this year, had yet to be resolved.
■ Israel
AIDS bombing foiled
Israeli authorities foiled a plan to detonate a bomb-belt containing AIDS-infected blood bags which would infect those wounded in the explosion, national media reported yesterday. The foiled attack was to have been carried out in a central Israeli city and was planned by a northern West Bank cell of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the semi-official armed wing of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's ruling Fatah party. It was one of a series of attempted terrorist attacks planned for the week-long Jewish Passover holiday, which ended on Sunday night. The Israeli Shin Bet internal security organization published information overnight saying it had arrested 10 would-be attackers in the past weeks.
■ Russia
Five die in bomb attack
A bomb exploded on the roof of a car in Moscow on Monday, killing five people including the assailant in what police said was a criminal attack. Police said a motorcyclist left the bomb, hidden in a briefcase, on the roof of the armor-plated Volvo car as it stopped at a crossing in the southwest of the Russian capital. The bomb exploded as the motorcyclist was fleeing, killing the attacker and four people in the car. The blast also injured two passersby and broke windows in nearby buildings. One of those killed was the head of a Moscow advertising agency, NFK, Boris Goldman. He escaped unharmed from another attack in October when a bomb was placed under his jeep.
■ United States
Pole defies mugger
A Polish student studying in the US was so reluctant to give up his cellular phone to a mugger that he took two bullets to keep it, the New York Post reported on Monday. Marcin Muchalski, 26, a photography student from Wroklaw, Poland, was biking across a New York City bridge on Sunday when the mugger confronted him. Despite being shot once in the leg, Muchalski kept his grip on the phone and continued to argue with the gunman. After being shot a second time in the arm, Muchalski ran, dialing emergency services while being chased by the suspect, who was on Muchalski's bicycle. But the gunman soon gave up the chase and left the scene.
■ Canada
Premier to meet Dalai Lama
Paul Martin will become the first Canadian prime minister to meet with the Dalai Lama, despite protests from China, one of Canada's leading trade partners. The prime minister's office emphasized on Monday that the meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader will deal with "spiritual" rather than political issues. The Dalai Lama is scheduled to arrive in Canada on April 19 and has scheduled visits to Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto.
■ United States
Student faces lesser charge
Prosecutors have reduced the charges against a college student accused of hiding box cutters on four airliners last year to expose weaknesses in airport security. Nathaniel Heatwole, 20, was originally charged with taking a dangerous weapon aboard an aircraft, a felony that carries up to 10 years in prison. But prosecutors reduced the charge last month to a misdemeanor count of bringing banned items into a passenger-screening area, according to court records. The offense carries a sentence of up to a year in prison and a US$100,000 fine.
■ Russia
Chechens kill soldiers
Five Russian soldiers were killed and nine injured in separatist Chechnya after rebels attacked a federal convoy, ITAR-TASS reported yesterday. The Russian soldiers were attacked on Monday with grenade launchers as three Russian trucks were passing through the region of Shali, a rebel stronghold in the mountains of southern Chechnya, the news agency quoted local interior ministry officials as saying. The Interfax news agency separately reported that three Russian policemen had been killed by Chechen rebels in the eastern region of Nozhai-Yurt.
■ United States
Gay marriage list on sale
San Francisco, which ignited a passionate national debate by allowing thousands of gays to marry earlier this year, is selling its list of the newlyweds. "They're public documents already and I think they're selling for cost," Mayor Gavin Newsom said on Monday at the opening home game of the San Francisco Giants. "What we had in the first few weeks is people going down by hand and writing them out. We said we'll put them together for you." The list will sell for US$65, and could interest those who market products to gay couples, although it could also bring some gays unwanted attention.
■ Saudi Arabia
Shootout kills two
One militant and one policeman were killed on Monday and four police were wounded in a shootout on a Riyadh highway, the Interior Ministry and security officials said. One official said police were chasing three other militants who fled the scene of the clash in a Chevrolet sedan. The shootout began mid-afternoon on a highway connecting several affluent suburbs in eastern Riyadh, officials said. An Interior Ministry official said that the clash started after a security patrol saw a suspect car with two wanted militants in eastern Riyadh's Fayh'a suburb. During the clash, one suspect fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the police, security officials said.
■ Sudan
US threatens sanctions
The US on Monday warned the Sudanese government and southern rebels that they could face US sanctions if they did not conclude a long-anticipated but much-delayed peace deal in nine days' time. The State Department said the two sides had until next Wednesday to ink an agreement or leave themselves open to penalties under US law. US Secretary of State Colin Powell reminded Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army leader John Garang of the upcoming date during weekend phone calls, a spokesman said.
■ Science
Plants `sense' predators
The debate over whether plants have feelings is about to be reopened by scientists in Italy and Germany. Their findings suggest that plants under threat can marshal a positively devilish measure of cunning. Not only do they communicate the danger to plants nearby, they also call in help from other creatures. Biologists at the University of Turin and the Max Planck Institute in Jena were yesterday reported to have found that plants sensed -- and reacted to -- the presence of leaf-chomping grubs. Their response was to emit an odor similar to that of lavender. This alerted other plants to the presence of a predator. But it also served to draw wasps, natural enemies of grubs, to the plant where they either devoured the grub or injected it with eggs that later killed it.
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