■ Afghanistan
Taliban attack soldiers
Suspected Taliban rebels fired rockets and machine guns at a checkpoint manned by Afghan soldiers in a remote southwestern region, killing eight troops in a nighttime attack, the area's governor said yesterday. The attackers were riding in three station wagons when they were stopped at the checkpoint. They initially pretended to be normal travelers, but jumped out of the cars and opened fire when troops approached them, Abdul Karim Baravi, governor of Nimroz province, said. The attack late Friday occurred about 750km southwest of the capital, Kabul. One soldier was injured but survived. ``This is a terrible attack because they killed innocent soldiers who were only serving the people,'' Baravi said.
■ Japan
Princess: Single is `natural'
Japan's Princess Sayako used her 35th birthday yesterday to explain to a public curious about her single status that she believed it was "natural" for modern women to marry late and have few children. "The current growing trend of women marrying late and having less children has brought up various questions," Sayako, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, noted in a statement issued to mark her birthday. "But I think it is a natural trend in a sense, given women's way of life is diversifying," she said.
■ Japan
Meat crooks nabbed
Japanese police have arrested 11 people for a beef labelling scam, including a businessman dubbed "Don of meat" for his influence in the meat wholesale industry, a police spokesman said yesterday. Police in western Japan's Osaka arrested Mitsuru Asada, 65-year-old former chairman of major meat distributor Hannan Corp., late Saturday along with 10 other men They were arrested on fraud charges "suspected of defrauding the state of more than 600 million yen (US$5.6 million dollars)" in December 2001, the Osaka police spokesman said. They allegedly mislabelled 573 tonnes of beef as domestically produced even though it contained 94.5 tonnes of imported beef.
■ New Zealand
Boy has three parents
A two-year-old boy at the center of a tug-of-love custody battle has been given three parents in a landmark court decision -- his biological mother, her lesbian partner and their gay sperm donor, a newspaper reported yesterday. A Family Court judge in Auckland has given joint custody of the child to the lesbian couple but awarded a shared guardian agreement between the lesbian pair and two gay men who were their friends when all lived in Sydney. After the birth the couples fell out and the women moved back to Auckland and refused the men access to the child, the paper said. Before one of the Sydney men donated sperm for artificial insemination of the woman, he insisted on a written agreement that the child would be baptized in a gay-affirming Protestant church in Sydney.
■ Hong Kong
Manhole covers go flying
An underground explosion sent 19 manhole covers flying from the pavement in a Hong Kong suburb, but no one was injured, police and media said yesterday. Police spokeswoman Cherry Yau confirmed the Saturday morning incident. The Ming Pao Daily News reported yesterday that the explosion was suspected to have been caused by a gas leak. The report said one of the manhole covers -- which protect access to sewers and weigh about 20kg each -- shot up 10m.
■ United States
Fallen US falcon mourned
Birders worldwide are mourning the death of Mae, a peregrine falcon who became a star through a Web cam. Mae was killed this spring by another falcon in Oak Park Heights, 30km east of St. Paul, Minnesota. In her 15 years in the nest Mae raised 37 falcons in a small wood box overlooking the St. Croix River. In 1989, the power plant became the world's first to put up a nest box for then-endangered peregrine falcons. Power plants are good nesting sites because they are near rivers and offer protection from predators.
■ Brazil
Prospectors slain by locals
Police said on Saturday the bodies of 26 diamond prospectors had been found at a remote Indian reservation. Police chief Firmino Aparecido of Espigao d'Oeste said the prospectors were shot by Cinta Larga Indians. Reports last week said dozens of prospectors on the Roosevelt reservation were slain. Aparecido said dozens more bodies were being sought, and that about 100 tribal members living in the city left, fearing reprisals. The Missionary Indigenist Council's Egon Heck said: "Unfortunately, authorities do nothing to avoid fighting among the poor, which is a tradition since colonial times.''
■ Spain
Migrants die in boat tragedy
Fourteen African migrants drowned trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands on Saturday when the boats they were traveling in crashed into each other and capsized, police said. Two people were missing, including a nine-month-old baby. The rickety boats turned over about 10m from the shore of Fuerteventura, the island nearest to Africa, a spokesman for the Civil Guard police in the Canaries said. Forty-six people reached land, where they were detained. Police arrested a skipper of one of the boats and were looking for the second, the spokes-man said. A statement from the Spanish Interior Ministry gave a different version of events, saying the two boats had run aground in a rocky cliff area when the pass-engers were trying to disembark.
■ United States
Dog escapes avalanche
A Bernese mountain dog escaped an avalanche that killed her owner, a tourist from India, and then survived six days in freezing temperatures before being found alive and well. Jigmet Dawa, 25, and the dog, Tiga, were swept up in an April 9 avalanche near Mount Huron in Colorado. Tiga was found on Thursday by volunteers, said avalanche forecaster Brad Sawtell. The dog, one of a breed raised to guard Buddhist temples, seemed healthy except for a slight limp, Sawtell said.
■ United States
Canine cover bites owners
Careful New Yorkers probably have insurance to cover the chance fender-bender, house fire or surprise attack of the chicken pox. Now, if a Bronx lawmaker has his way, they will have to take out yet another policy -- one for their dogs. State Assemblyman Peter Rivera, a Democrat whose district is in the Bronx, proposed a new bill last month that, if passed, would require all dog owners in New York State to have liability insurance for their pets. The bill, which Rivera said would probably be ready for debate on the assembly floor in a month, is called Elijah's Law after a 3-year-old boy who was seriously injured in an attack by a Rottweiler in the Bronx last fall.
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
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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