■ Australia
No free `Fahrenheit 9/11'
Australia's Defense Department has barred free screenings of US filmmaker Michael Moore's controversial anti-war documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 on military bases, a spokesman said yesterday. But Brigadier Mike Hannan denied a newspaper report that the blockbuster, a scathing critique of US President George W. Bush, has been banned. The film's Australian distributor, Hopscotch, was approached by a soldier for a copy to screen at an unnamed military base, The Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday. The distributor offered the film for free and the screening was approved by the soldier's immediate superiors on base. But the newspaper said that defense headquarters in Canberra last week banned the film from all bases. Hannan said bases were free to screen the documentary as long as troops pay as they do with other films.
■ Afghanistan
Hospital collapse kills two
Two people were found dead amid the rubble of a hospital that collapsed during renovation in the Afghan capital and 20 others were injured, officials said yesterday. A wing of the stripped-down structure of the Jamhuriat Hospital crumbled without warning on Monday afternoon, burying workers carrying out a Chinese-sponsored refit. Three Chinese construction workers were among the injured. By Tuesday morning, rescue teams using earth-movers and cranes had found two Afghans killed in the incident, said Hakim Aziz, a senior health ministry official. Aziz said another 20 were injured, including a man pulled out alive early yesterday. Another health official, Ahmad Shah Shokomand, said none of those injured were in serious condition. The three Chinese workers, who were slightly injured, were discharged from a hospital Monday, he said.
■ Singapore
Rapes, murders on the rise
Singapore's reputation as one of the world's safest cities took a hit from January to June when more people were raped or murdered compared to the same period last year, police data showed yesterday. Cases of rape in the wealthy island-state of four million people state rose 18.6 percent to 70. Victims were known to the rapists in 90 percent of the cases, police said. Murder is also up, though cases remain rare. Twelve people were murdered in Singapore in the first half of 2004, up by one from the same period last year, the police said. But total crime as measured by "seizable offences" -- which include robbery along with murder and rape -- fell to 16,545 cases, one less than the same period last year.
■ Hong Kong
Fraudster pleads guilty
A German tourist pleaded guilty in a plot to cheat upscale Hong Kong hotels out of cash and free lodging by claiming they served him salads containing shards of glass, officials said yesterday. Marcel Beier, 27, was convicted Monday of two charges that he tried to obtain property by deception and one count of blackmail, court officials said. Beier was arrested Jan. 30 after he picked up a check for 30,750 Hong Kong dollars (US$3,942) from the Peninsula, a five-star hotel known as a haunt of the rich and famous. Court documents show Beier also tried to cheat the Ritz-Carlton and the Grand Hyatt.
■ Brazil
Slave laborers liberated
The government has freed 2,300 workers living in slave conditions in a new offensive by state attorneys, the O Globo newspaper reported on Monday. The paper printed a government report which said that state attorneys filed lawsuits against 41 hacienda owners and eight firms which will be tried for violating labor laws and failing to pay social security for workers. According to the report, the latest effort to free workers living and working in slave conditions was the second major offensive against slavery since of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office in January last year. The first operation led to the release of 5,100 slaves and lawsuits against 52 hacienda owners and firms.
■ Nigeria
Polio rises sharply
Almost 400 new cases of polio were reported in the first half of the year in Nigeria, a sharp increase from last year, the UN said on Monday. UNICEF said the 383 new cases occurred in 30 of Nigeria's 36 states. In comparison, 80 cases in 15 states were reported in all of last year. Some 70 percent of children infected this year were below the age of three and 73 percent of those received less than three doses of oral polio vaccines during national immunization days. Immun-ization was ferociously resisted in most states in the north because Muslims alleged that vaccines were laced with anti-fertility agents to keep the popula-tion in Nigeria and other poor countries low.
■ Guatemala
Army policing streets
President Oscar Berger ordered 1,600 soldiers onto the streets of the capital on Monday to try to rein in the "terrible cancer" of violent crime. Almost 2,000 people have been murdered in the country this year, making it one of the most violent in Latin America. "It is urgent to vigorously tackle all types of crime if we don't want to be complicit in the progressive destruction of our country," Berger told police and soldiers gathered in Guatemala City's central square for the launch of the plan. A recent wave of gruesome killings of women and girls has shocked even crime-hardened Guate-malans and put pressure on the government to respond.
■ Italy
Asylum seekers in custody
Coast guards intercepted a wooden barge carrying some 250 Africans on Monday, the latest wave of what the government fears may become a flood of asylum seekers. The barge -- only about 18m long -- was first spotted near the island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily. Coast guard officials said the barge was being towed to the island of Linosa from where it would likely be led to Lampedusa, where a shipload of 79 illegal immigrants were being processed after trying to enter Italy on Sunday.
■ Norway
Porn annoys hotel staff
Claiming some hotel workers are being urged by guests to do more than turn down the bedcovers, a union wants X-rated pay-per-view programming turned off for good. The Norwegian Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, which represents most of the country 10,000 workers in the industry, says many of its female members have complained of being propositioned by amorous guests aroused by what they order on TV in their hotel rooms. The union said many of the hotel workers -- often immigrants from the Middle East -- feared for their safety.
■ France
US detainees returned
US authorities have handed over six French detainees from Guantanamo Bay to French authorities, police officials said yesterday. A chartered flight containing the six men was on way to Paris and expected to arrive in the early afternoon, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The French Foreign Ministry said last month that Washington and Paris were working on plans to allow several French detainees at the US naval base to return to France. The suspects were among seven French men rounded up with hundreds of others by US forces in Afghanistan more than two years ago, the officials said.
■ United States
Bush falls off bike again
US President George W. Bush for the second time in two months took a tumble on his mountain bike while riding on his Texas ranch, a White House spokeswoman said on Monday. "During an 18-mile ride, as bikers often do, the president took a minor spill and scraped his knee," spokeswoman Claire Buchan said. She said the president did not require medical attention after the spill. Bush had a similar mountain bike mishap at his ranch in late May, when he toppled over while riding downhill, and suffered minor cuts and abrasions. Last year, he toppled off a high-tech Segway scooter at the Bush family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine.
■ United States
Jackson motion unsealed
In a motion marked by unusually confrontational language, Michael Jackson's defense team called the investigation of him "breathtaking" and his prosecution on child molestation charges an effort to "take down a major celebrity." The accusations were contained in a motion requesting that the trial be delayed four months, until early next year. The motion was filed July 13 and kept sealed by Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville until Monday, the day before a hearing on it and other matters was to begin. No reason was given for the sealing, and when the document was released sections referring to unindicted co-conspirators and other specifics of the case were blacked out.
■ Portugal
Wildfires rage
Seventeen large wildfires raged late on Monday in 14 of Portugal's 18 districts, and the government has asked the EU for help in fighting the fires, authorities said. About 1,500 firefighters and almost 20 aircraft were battling the fires, which authorities say have destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest and bush and prompted the evacuation of several beaches over the weekend. Environmentalists accused the government of not preparing extensively enough for the fires despite being warned about conditions.
■ Iran
Nuke just `months away'
Iran is just "months away" from being able to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb, Britain's The Times newspaper reported yesterday, quoting Western diplomatic sources. "Iran appears to be further advanced in acquiring the relevant nuclear technology than we had initially thought," a British official told the newspaper. Teheran had bought time through appearing to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and with a diplomatic initiative led by Britain, France and Germany, the report said. But officials now believed the situation was "grave," it added.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was