■ Thailand
Officials apply to leave
About 5,000 officials have applied to be transferred out of Thailand's Muslim-majority south to escape ongoing attacks by suspected separatists, media reported yesterday. "About half of those officials seeking to move out of the three provinces are teachers who live in fear of the spiralling violence," Southern Teachers Federation chairman Pairat Wihakarat was quoted as saying in the Bangkok Post. Pairat told the daily that the transfer requests had been lodged in March, about two months after an attack on a southern army weapons depot sparked the unrest which has since claimed some 200 lives.
■ Pakistan
US `stripping' denounced
Pakistan has protested what it termed the "virtual stripping" of its nationals by immigration authorities at US airports as a "violation of human rights," news reports said yesterday. In a recent memo, the US Department of Home Security asked officials at major airports to be extra vigilant against travellers of Pakistani origin. Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri told the Senate on Friday that Pakistan has asked its war-on-terror ally to review body search procedures as it was sending very wrong signals among its people.
■ Malaysia
Police prevent self-burial
Malaysian police prevented a Hindu priest from burying himself in a 3m-deep hole in an obscure religious ritual, news reports said Saturday. K. Maniam, 44, had planned to bury himself in the hole for three days, but police intervened on Friday, just minutes before he was about to begin the task near a Hindu temple in Malaysia's northern Perak state. Maniam claimed the effort was meant to "increase his devotional and healing power as well as strengthen his prayer for world peace," the national news agency, Bernama, reported. Police insisted they had no choice but to block the act because it was too dangerous.
■ Philippines
Jay Leno gets no laughs
The president's spokesman wasn't laughing at US talk show host Jay Leno's quip that Philippine peacekeepers established a world speed record in their withdrawal from Iraq. "Our courage has been demonstrated in [the World War II battlegrounds] Bataan and Corregidor and every other field where we have fought," Ignacio Bunye told RMN radio yesterday. "All we can say is that what is first and foremost is the national interest of the Philippines." The previous night, Leno poked fun at the size of the contingent, saying rap artist Sean "P. Diddy" Combs had a bigger crew. At 51, the Philippines had the smallest contingent in the US-led coalition in Iraq.
■ New Zealand
Flight leaves man unhinged
A scenic flight over New Zealand's highest mountain, Mount Cook, left a Japanese tourist open mouthed, the Dominion Post newspaper reported yesterday. Unfortunately, the tourist was not agape at the scenic beauty of the mountain. He had become air-sick, and while using the paper bag provided for such emergencies had dislocated his jaw. His tour guide, also Japanese, took him to Shirley Slatter, a conservation department ranger in Mount Cook village near the airfield. She was unable to help and the man was forced to make an uncomfortable 67km road journey to a doctor in the town of Twizel.
■ Iran
Furor over spy trial
The trial in Iran of an intelligence agent accused of the killing in custody of an Iranian-Canadian photographer resumed here yesterday, bringing with it more scrutiny of the Islamic republic's human rights record. Despite concerns the trial of the alleged killer of Zahra Kazemi would be held behind closed doors, several journalists and foreign diplo-mats were allowed into court. Canada had during the week recalled its ambas-sador from Tehran in protest at being barred from obser-ving the proceedings, and says it is considering sanctions against the hardening clerical regime.
■ Netherlands
Milosevic trial postponed
Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's defense case against war crimes charges was postponed until Aug. 31 due to his ill health, the UN tribunal said. The trial had been scheduled to resume tomorrow after four previous delays, but a new medical report indicated Milosevic's blood pressure was still too high, court spokesman Jim Landale said. "On the basis of the blood pressure values of the accused, [the doctor] advises he should not attend the hearing scheduled for Monday," Landale said Friday.
■ Ireland
UN reports on poverty
From millionaire-row mansions to heroin-hit welfare projects, Ireland is now one of the most prosperous but unequal societies on earth, the UN suggested this week. The annual UN Human Development Report for the first time placed Ireland among the top 10 developed nations in an annual list based on each country's average incomes, educational levels and life expectancy. But a parallel finding, measuring the level of poverty in the world's 17 most highly developed nations, placed Ireland second from the bottom -- just above its primary economic role model, the US. "Ireland has a long way to go before it's a place where everybody is respected and has enough to live life with dignity," said the Reverend Sean Healy.
■ Great Britain
Baby rules may get lax
Britain's fertility watchdog is considering relaxing regulations governing so-called designer babies, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is considering letting parents screen IVF embryos for desired physical characteristics and not just for serious genetic diseases, the newspaper said. The newspaper said leading fertility doctor Mohammed Taranissi, of the Assisted Reproduction and Gynae-cology Centre in London, had been "told informally" that the watchdog was likely to change its mind.
■ France
Blame the Edge
Rock superstars U2 were counting the cost of a carelessly misplaced CD after a disc containing songs from their forthcoming album disappeared during a photo shoot in Nice. French police have launched a major investigation amid fears it may have been stolen to order by bootleggers to make pirate copies, potentially costing the band and their record company millions of dollars in lost revenue. So far detectives have interviewed more than 20 people, including hairdressers and photo-graphers, who were at the photo shoot in the Victorine studios on Tuesday after-noon. The missing CD belonged to the group's guitarist, the Edge.
■ United States
Intelligence plan floated
The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will recommend creating a Cabinet-level post charged with overseeing all US intelligence agencies, the New York Times reported yesterday. It said the commission will propose that the new intelligence director take power from the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and other intelligence agencies, which it has sharply criticized. The Times said the new intelligence post was the most important recommendation contained in the commission's final report, due out next week. It said the commission would propose that the CIA director lose the responsibility of oversight over other intelligence agencies and report to the White House through the new intelligence director.
■ United States
FBI talks to Muslims, Arabs
FBI agents have begun interviewing Muslims and Arab Americans in the Washington area and across the country, hoping to gather information that may help prevent a terrorist attack during the election year, the Washington Post reported yesterday. Dozens of voluntary interviews of community leaders, students, businesspeople and others have been conducted so far, the paper said, citing attorneys and Muslim activists. Authorities do not know how many people will be contacted, but the effort is expected to expand "significantly" in the next week or so, the Post said.
■ United States
Cuba `welcomes' sex tours
US President George W. Bush said in a speech in Tampa, Florida, that Cuba and President Fidel Castro were receptive to child molesters. "The regime in Havana, already one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, is adding to its crimes," Bush said. "The dictator welcomes sex tourism." Cuba had "replaced Southeast Asia as a destination for pedophiles and sex tourists," he said, citing a study by Project Protection, a human-rights institute at Johns Hopkins University. ABC News reported that the institute cited "general news reports," but had not independently concluded that.
■ United States
Gambler skips court
A man who missed his sentencing because he was playing poker in Las Vegas to raise money to pay back victims of an investment scam drew a 15-year term. Brian Strahl, 27, of Staten Island, New York, pleaded guilty to money laundering in connection with a scam that bilked investors out of US$1.8 million. Strahl was a no-show for his May 15 sentencing because he missed a plane from Las Vegas, where he was competing in the World Series of Poker -- hoping to win some of the US$750,000 in restitution he agreed to pay.
■ United States
Classified disk located
A classified floppy disk reported missing from a government nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico was found, but officials were tight-lipped about details surrounding the incident. The disk was listed as missing during a June 30 inventory at Sandia National Laboratories. The lab said the floppy disk came from a military organization. "The disk was always under the control of individuals authorized to possess it," said Ron Detry, Sandia's vice president of integrated security and chief security officer, on Friday. The incident followed another security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where two "removable data storage devices" turned up missing during a special inventory.
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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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