■ New Zealand
Maori heads head home
New Zealand yesterday welcomed a decision by a Scottish museum to return three tattooed heads of 19th century Maoris. New Zealand has been campaigning for years for the return of Maori remains taken overseas as macabre trophies by British military officers, colonial settlers and traders in previous centuries. Glasgow Council voted unanimously on Thursday to repatriate the preserved heads and the leg bone of an 18th-century Maori warrior chief. A Museum of New Zealand director, James Te Puni, said the decision may reflect a change in attitudes by museums worldwide in keeping human remains.
■ The Philippines
Spike scatterer detained
Philippine troops yesterday arrested a lawyer who scattered iron spikes on major roads in the country to protest his disqualification from last month's presidential election. A military spokes-man said Elly Pamatong and seven companions were arrested at an army checkpoint in Laguna Province, just south of Manila. He said two M-16 rifles, a grenade launcher and three pistols were recovered from Pamatong's group. Pamatong tried to run for president in the May 10 elections, which incumbent President Gloria Arroyo won. Election officials, however, barred him from the race and ruled he was a "nuisance candidate."
■ Thailand
License plate a start
A wealthy hostel owner in Chiang Mai paid 1.8 million baht (US$45,000) for the "lucky" license plate number 9999, despite the fact that she doesn't have a car, a news report said yesterday. The woman who bought number 9999 -- which in Thai connotes moving forward -- said she was planning to buy a car soon. The 9999 license attracted the highest bid at a Department of Land Transport auction on Thursday, followed by 8888, which was snapped up for 1.5 million baht and 1111 for 1.2 million baht. The Thai News Agency said those two plates were bought by Bangkok's famed Oriental Hotel.
■ Vietnam
Farmer dies in own trap
A Vietnamese farmer was electrocuted by the wires he laid in traps aimed at killing rats in his rice fields, an official said yesterday. Le Hoang Nghien, 22, was killed instantly on Monday in the southern Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, some 150km southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, deputy village chief Mai Hoang Khiem said. Khiem said Nghien had slipped and fallen on the electric wires while trying to check his rat traps. The village had just gotten electricity about six months ago, he said.
■ United States
US asks immunity in Iraq
The Bush administration is negotiating with Iraqi leaders to continue shielding Amer-icans from criminal prosecu-tion by Iraqi courts, but with-out the the government's formal approval, the US said on Thursday. Iraqi officials have said that the credibility of the new government could be highly damaged if it were to grant immunity to US military personnel and contractors from local prosecution. "This is done with the approval and consent of the new Iraqi government," a senior Bush administration official said. But asked whether Prime Minister Iyad Allawi would accept such an arrangement, the official said: "I'm not sure he will." US officials have said that civilians working for private contractors would leave Iraq if they were not protected from prosecution.
■ Italy
Mafia women aid police
A women's revolt has torn apart one of Italy's most notorious mafia clans. Almost 90 alleged members of a gang on the Adriatic are in custody after raids by paramilitary police that also led to the arrest of two of their colleagues and a police officer. As the search continued for a further 33 people, prosecutor Domeni-co Seccia said "Due gratitude goes to the women who have collaborated in this investi-gation." Seccia said the biggest contribution had been made by the 25-year-old partner of an alleged boss who turned up at his office because she could no longer live in com-plicity with the violence she had witnessed. "She was an eyewitness to many bloody crimes and saw a lot of people die," he said.
■ Russia
Go and see the gulag
Former dictator Josef Stalin's gulag prison camps are to form the gory centerpiece of a drive to turn Siberia into a holiday destination. A local travel company is refur-bishing one of its vessels to carry tourists up the Yenisei river to remote former prisons. Tour guide Vladimir Demidov said he will be charging at least US$730 for a 12-day tour to the camps. "Practically nothing has been done [to these sites] but it's so cold they are perfectly preserved," he said. Visits -- only possible in June and July because of extreme weather conditions -- are to be co-ordinated from Krasy-noyarsk in eastern Siberia.
■ Saudi Arabia
Foreigners can pack heat
The government took a much-requested step toward calming jittery expatriates here by announcing that foreigners would be allowed to carry personal weapons. The unexpected decision comes after two months of attacks by extremists that have killed about 50 people. Some embassies and a number of security com-panies had broached the topic of having guards patrol the streets of compounds where Westerners live. The broad perimeters of such compounds are protected in most cases by the National Guard, but many residents wanted greater protection within their walls.
■ Russia
Ex-Chechnya official killed
A businessman who was a former member of the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration was gunned down in a Moscow street yesterday. Yan Sergunin served as deputy prime minister and chief of staff for the late Chechen leader, Akhmad Kadyrov from 2001 until last year. He died after an assailant on a motorcycle fired a handgun as the former Chechen official and his wife left a restaurant. Sergunin's wife was gravely injured in the attack. a police spokesman saidusiness activities.
■ United Kingdom
British captives reach Kuwait
Eight British servicemen arrived in Kuwait yesterday after being released by Tehran following their arrest when they strayed into Iranian waters, a British forces spokesman said. "They arrived on an Emirates flight from Dubai ... and they are going to Basra," he said. The six Royal Marines and two navy personnel were greeted at the airport by British military officials. The servicemen were immediately taken to a military plane at the Abdullah al-Mubarak airbase adjacent to the airport. Journalists were not allowed to speak to them or photograph them. However, the spokesman said they were "well," adding that they had not yet been "debriefed."
■ United States
Iraq war is expensive
The US has spent more than US$126 billion on the war in Iraq, which will ultimately cost every US family an estimated US$3,400, according to a new report by two think tanks. The report, published Thursday by the left-wing Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus, also counts the human costs. As of June 16, before yesterday's nationwide attacks, up to 11,317 Iraqi civilians and 6,370 Iraqi soldiers or insurgents had been killed, according to the report, which is titled Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War. The death toll among coalition troops was 952 by the same date, of whom 853 were American.
■ United States
Scientists squelched
The US government is making it harder for scientists to speak to their global colleagues and is restricting who can attend an upcoming AIDS conference, a US congressman charged on Thursday. Representative Henry Waxman said he has a letter showing that the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) has imposed new limits on who may speak to the WHO. Under the new policy, the WHO must ask HHS for permission to speak to scientists and must allow HHS to choose who will respond. "This policy is unprecedented. For the first time political appointees will routinely be able to keep the top experts in their field from responding to WHO requests for guidance on international health issues," Waxman wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson.
■ United States
Dogs playing poker. Really
Some gamblers just don't know how to play their cards. Tiny Chip, for example. His three blackjack cards totaled 19, but he took a card anyway. It was a three of hearts, so he busted. Then there was Lucky Louise. The dealer hadn't even gotten to her yet when she got up out of her seat, walked across the green felt table and stepped in the chip float, her bushy tail wagging. The scene was playing out as Sands Casino Hotel workers used five live dogs to re-create artist C.M. Coolidge's famously lowbrow painting of dogs playing poker.
■ Germany
Superboy just a normal kid
A genetic mutation made a Berlin boy extra strong, but the German doctor who has been studying the child since just after he was born nearly five years ago says he's just a regular kid. The boy doesn't stand out among his peers on the playground, but when he puts his mind to it, he can perform feats of strength, Markus Schuelke said. Schuelke started studying the super-strong boy after he was brought to Berlin's Charite hospital. Schuelke began conducting tests, and found over the course of five years that the boy had a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth.
‘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
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