■ Australia
Downer sticks by claim
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer reasserted his claim that North Korea has long-range missiles capable of striking Australia as he departed yesterday on a diplomatic mission to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programs. On Friday, Downer said the reclusive Stalinist state had missiles that could fly the 10,000km from North Korea to Sydney -- although missile experts have rejected this claim as impossible. Yesterday he said North Korea developed a number of Taepo Dong 2 long-range missiles before freezing the program in 1999. "Nobody's suggesting North Korea is about to attack Sydney," Downer told Nine Network television before leaving for Pyongyang. "It's an illustration of the range of the missile systems."
■ Vietnam
Flu victims' relatives safe
Family members and contacts of two of the three people to have died from bird flu in Vietnam have tested negative for the disease, health officials said yesterday in state media. Nguyen Thanh Liem, director of the Paediatric Hospital in Hanoi, said relatives of two children who died in northern Ha Tay province were all safe. Vietnam is fighting to stop the spread of a new bird flu outbreak after the three people became the latest victims of the disease that has claimed 24 lives across the region earlier this year.
■ Australia
Kitty killers fighting back
Three soldiers kicked out of the Australian army for torturing kittens are fighting against their discharges, a defense spokesman said yesterday. The three pleaded guilty in May to animal cruelty charges stemming from the killing of four kittens during a drinking spree at Lavarack Barracks in Queensland state. One of the 3-week-old kittens was dragged behind a motorcycle then crushed under a sport utility vehicle. Another three of the same litter were doused with fuel and set alight. The Australian Defense Force decided the soldiers had behaved below an acceptable standard and discharged them.
■ China
Men arrested in milk scam
China has arrested four businessmen for allegedly manufacturing and selling substandard milk powder that has killed 13 babies and sickened at least 189, state media reported yesterday. Four senior members of staff at the Jinyi milk product company were arrested in Tangshan City in the northern province of Hebei recently. The arrests came just days after four others were jailed in some of the first convictions resulting from the widespread fake formula scandal. The inferior powder formulas caused grotesque swelling of the babies' heads or other medical complications stemming from malnutrition.
■ Indonesia
Twelve drown in boat fire
Twelve people drowned after a boat carrying 45 people caught fire at sea off the coast of northern Indonesia, police said yesterday. The vessel left Bitung port in North Sulawesi province on Friday bound for the coastal village of Posingon some 173km southwest when a blaze broke out mid way, police sergeant Master Muginte said. The accident happened after crew attempted to repair a broken engine while at sea. The fire sparked panic on board and all the passengers and crew jumped into the sea. Twenty-five passengers and eight crewmen were rescued by fishing boats while 12 others drowned. The captain of the boat, called the Farleno 01, and his crew have been detained for questioning.
■ Spain
350 immigrants nabbed
The Spanish coast guard seized 350 Africans trying to enter the country illegally, media reports said yesterday. Most were seized off the coast of the Canary Islands where 254 people have been intercepted since Friday, the El Pais daily reported yesterday, citing authorities. Almost 100 other people were found in at least five boats in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Andalusia. Hopes of finding 32 immigrants, whose boat capsized early Friday morning off the coast of the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, dwindled yesterday. The boat had been found floating bottom-up in the sea without any trace of the missing. Fishermen saw two bodies in the sea.
■ France
Pope says Lourdes mass
Pope John Paul II celebrated an open air mass on Sunday in front of more than 100,000 pilgrims at the Roman Catholic shrine to the Virgin Mary in Lourdes. The 84-year-old pontiff arrived in his popemobile from a nearby residence for sick pilgrims, where he stayed overnight in an apartment, and was greeted with wild whoops of joy as he passed through the waiting crowd. The religious service is the highpoint of the pope's two-day pilgrimage to Lourdes. He appeared in reasonably good form for a man stricken with Parkinson's disease and arthritis after appearing tired on Saturday.
■ Kosovo
New head for UN mission
Danish diplomat Soeren Jessen-Petersen takes up the hot seat in Kosovo on Monday, heading a UN-led administration that is still reeling from an outbreak of savage anti-Serb violence five months ago. Jessen-Petersen is the fifth head of the UN Mission in Kosovo since its inception in 1999, when NATO bombing ended a seven-month war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatists. In the worst violence since the war, 19 people were killed in March when ethnic Albanian mobs rampaged through Serb enclaves for three days, burning Serb villages, churches and monasteries and driving more than 4,000 people from their homes.
■ Namibia
Opposition faces apathy
Just three months ahead of key elections, Namibia's opposition is struggling to mount a challenge to the ruling SWAPO party's stranglehold on power amid rising voter apathy in the southern African state. Voters in Namibia will be choosing a new president to succeed Sam Nujoma, 75, who has led the country since independence from South Africa in 1990 and who has been a dominant figure in Namibian politics for five decades. "We are ready to tackle the SWAPO majority during the forthcoming elections and to even take over government," says Ben Ulenga, leader of the Congress of Democrats (CoD) party, Namibia's largest opposition party.
■ France
Allies recall Riviera assault
An impressive naval display off the French Riviera yesterday is the climax of two days of ceremonies recalling a World War II allied invasion of those beaches 60 years ago. President Jacques Chirac watched as a joint fleet of French, Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian and US vessels steamed along the coast. US and British roles were to be comparatively low-key, despite those countries having played the leading roles in the invasion.
■ United States
Bush to redeploy troops
President George W. Bush has decided to bring home tens of thousands of US troops from posts around the world -- most of them in Europe and Asia -- plus 100,000 of their family members and support personnel, US officials said. The changes will have no effect on forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. Bush is scheduled to announce the move today in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, two senior admini-stration officials said on Saturday. Bush will shift about 70,000 uniformed military person-nel, most of them currently in Europe, the senior offi-cials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A significant proportion will come home, though it was not clear when.
■ Israel
Prisoners start hunger strike
Thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails began a hunger strike for better conditions yesterday, but Israel's security minister said he didn't care if they starved to death. The pri-soners want wardens to
stop strip searches, allow more frequent visits from their families, improve sanitary conditions and install public telephones, supporters said. More than 7,500 Palestinians, including 4,000 jailed over violence against Israelis, refused breakfast at four prisons
and declared they would live only on fluids until their demands were met, the Prisons Authority said. Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi, however, said Israel would not bow to the prisoners' demands.
■ United States
Archdiocese wins a round
Seventeen adults who sued the Philadelphia archdiocese for alleged child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy waited too long to file suit, a judge ruled. In dis-missing the lawsuits, Judge Arnold New rejected claims that a cover-up by the arch-diocese helped hide the abuse from the victims' families, preventing them from suing within the two-year time limit. The alleged abuse dates from 1957 to 1983. Until 1984, child sexual assault victims had two years to file suit; a 2002 law extended the deadline to an alleged victim's 30th birth-day. The new law is not retroactive. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they would appeal.
■ United States
Sheriff's motion released
The Santa Barbara, Califor-nia sheriff has asked a judge's permission to release the results of a state probe into allegations that Michael Jackson was "manhandled" by authorities after his arrest for investigation of child molestation. Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville ordered Sheriff Jim Ander-son's request be sealed, according to court docu-ments released on Friday. Yet Anderson's motion was released with significant portions blacked out. It was unclear whether the release was made in error. Ander-
son asked for an investi-gation last year after Jackson claimed he was mistreated while in custody.
■ United States
Woman remembered
Family and friends gathered for a memorial service in Orem, Utah, to remember the woman whom authori-ties believe was slain by her husband while she slept. About 600 people attended the service Saturday for Lori Hacking, including the parents of both the victim and her husband, Mark, who has been charged with her murder. Lori Hacking, 27, has been missing since Mark Hacking, 28, reported his wife missing July 19.
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