■ China
Typhoon death toll climbs
Typhoon Rananim's death toll in eastern China rose to 164 on yesterday, with another 24 people missing, many in landslides sparked by the most powerful storm to hit the country in 46 years. The missing included 18 people feared stuck beneath mud and rock in the mountainous outskirts of Yueqing city in Zhejiang Province, where 29 people have already been confirmed dead, the government's China Central Television reported. With power and transport links cut, villagers have been digging through rocks and mud with their hands and farm tools. Rananim ground into Zhejiang on Thursday, causing an estimated 16.4 billion yuan (US$2 billion) in economic losses.
■ Bangladesh
Couple forced to marry
Two Bangladeshi lovers found themselves frogmarched down the aisle by police after pretending to be married when they checked into a hotel, a report said yesterday. Acting on a tip-off, officers raided the hotel and arrested engineer Mominur Rahman Chouwdury and his university student girlfriend Shefali Khatun Shelley, the Independent daily said. The pair, who were not engaged, were taken to a police station where the officer in charge called both their parents and told Chowdhury to marry Shelley or face a rape charge. Mixed-sex couples are expected to be married when checking into hotels in Bangladesh.
■ Indonesia
Bombers' sentences cut
Six convicted Indonesian militants linked to the deadly blasts in Bali in 2002 have received a two month reduction of their jail sentences by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, a prison warden said yesterday. The six convicted men are serving jail terms ranging from three to six years after being found guilty of hiding one of the bombers responsible for the blasts that ripped through two Bali nightclubs in October 2002, killing 202 people.
■ Thailand
Olympics aid escape
Two Thai prisoners sneaked out of their jail cell at a Bangkok police station while their guards watched the Olympic Games, media reports said yesterday. One escapee, Ekkapong Thongkham, facing charges of attempting to murder a policeman, was re-arrested on Monday but the second, suspected thief Somchai Techapan, is still at large, reported The Nation. The escape occurred Sunday during the live broadcast from Athens of Thai weightlifter Aree Wiratthawan, who won the country's first gold medal.
■ Australia
Mice, maggots, mouthwash
A remorseful man was shocked to learn he had bitten the tail off a live mouse while drunk to win a pub competition, a court was told yesterday. Apprentice chef Tony McGee, 22, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court to being cruel to an animal and was fined A$750 (US$540). During the pub challenge, McGee also set off a mouse trap with his tongue, ate a cup of maggots, drank a pint of anchovies and another pint of mouthwash, defense lawyer Ben Power told the court. Competition organizers gave McGee an A$100 (US$72) voucher before the competition started, and he downed bourbon and beer for six hours before competing. "He would like to stress that he is very sorry about what has occurred," Power told the court. McGee had no recollection of chewing the mouse, only of having a mouse "in his possession" at some point, Power said.
■ Georgia
Ossetia cease-fire fails
At least one Georgian soldier was killed and three were wounded in overnight clashes in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili told Rustavi 2 television early yesterday. Shooting and shelling between Georgian and South Ossetian forces resumed late Monday, leaving a four-day old cease-fire in tatters, the Russian defense ministry said. A spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry said on Monday two Georgian soldiers had died after coming under mortar and automatic weapons fire from irregular forces from the pro-Russian South Ossetian territory. The spokesman also claimed that 15 Ossetian fighters were killed.
■ West Bank
Sharon approves homes<
Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon unfroze bids
for construction of 1,000
new homes in the West
Bank, which earlier had
been shelved under US
pressure to cool down his government's settlement drive, an official said yesterday. "These bids will be published after the new housing minister has made the necessary inspections on the location of these homes," a Cabinet official said. He said the publication of
the bid for new settlement homes had nothing to do with today's convention of Sharon's Likud party, though the Yediot Aharonot paper asserted otherwise.
■ Germany
Protests target Schroeder
Opponents of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's drive to trim social programs have staged demonstrations across Germany, billed by organizers as the most widespread yet in a
summer of discontent. More
than 60,000 took part in demonstrations on Monday, including 20,000 in the eastern city of Leipzig, twice as many as in the last protest a week earlier, authorities said. Rallies were also held in Berlin, Magdeburg and dozens of other cities.
■ United Kingdom
Beenie Man lyrics probed
One of Jamaica's most popular reggae music
stars could face criminal prosecution in Britain
for lyrics which appear
to incite violence against homosexuals, a report said yesterday. Police, state prosecutors and a leading lawyer were due to meet later in the day to discuss whether charges should be pressed against Beenie Man, the Guardian newspaper said. Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald has taken personal responsibility
for the case, an indication
of how sensitively it was viewed, the report said. The lyrics include an apparent call to hang lesbians and
to kill homosexuals with a bazooka.
■ United Kingdom
Flash flood hits Cornwall
Rescue workers combed
a coastal village in north Cornwall yesterday, searching for any victims after a devastating flash flood sent a wall of
water tearing through the picturesque tourist spot
the day before. Dozens of villagers were plucked to safety from rooftops and stranded cars in Boscastle, southwest England, by seven military rescue helicopters that rushed to the scene after flood waters hit on Monday. Three people had been reported missing as families were left separated in the chaos, but they were later accounted for. No deaths were reported. Police confirmed that 108 people had been evacuated from the flooding.
■ United States
Officer a suspected pedophile
A 16-year veteran of the New York Police Department, who supposedly called himself a "boy hunter" in an online profile, was arrested on Monday after Westchester district attorney Jeanine Pirro said he tried to have a sexual rendezvous with an investigator from her office who had posed on the Internet as a 14-year-old boy. The arrest followed a six-month investigation that began in February, when the defendant, Michael Lapine, 37, a detective, entered a Yahoo chat room geared toward young teenagers and struck up a conversation with the undercover investigator, Pirro said.
■ United States
Changes to airport screening
Domestic security officials said Monday that they planned to begin screening airline passengers against a list of potential terror suspects, taking over a responsibility now carried out by the airlines. Advocates for tougher screening requirements and civil libertarians have criticized the current system, under which airline employees check passenger names against government watch lists. The system has been described as ineffective because the government does not provide the airlines with a comprehensive set of lists, in part because some of that information is classified.
■ United States
Oprah called for jury duty
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has reported to jury duty at Cook County Criminal Court in Chicago on Monday, reported E!Online. Winfrey, 50, who was ushered in through a back door to avoid crowds, was among 300 prospective jurors scheduled to be interviewed for an upcoming murder trial. She told reporters that she didn't expect to be picked because she's too opinionated and busy. "I'm just hoping it doesn't take longer than a week because I've got shows to do," she said.
■ United States
Passengers evacuated
A United Airlines flight en route to Vancouver, Canada, was evacuated after experiencing engine trouble at O'Hare International Airport. Flight 1035 was taxiing to a runway Monday night when a pilot in a plane behind it reported seeing sparks from the engine, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. The Airbus 319's 69 passengers and five crew members evacuated using slides, United spokeswoman Jenna Obluk said. A flight attendant and a passenger were taken to a hospital for minor injuries, she said. Another passenger with minor scrapes and bruises was treated at the scene.
■ United states
Arnie ponders jail weights
California's bodybuilder-turned-governor is thinking about giving weightlifting equipment back to inmates, who have been barred from using weights since 1997. "We talked about that several times," Arnold Schwarzenegger said in Ione, California, on Monday after touring his first prison since becoming governor last fall. One argument was that bulked-up inmates posed too great a danger to guards or citizens if they escaped or were released from prison, Schwarzenegger said. "I don't want to put weight training in here if that's not really what everyone wants and if they think it's counterproductive, only because I believe in weight training ... There's a lot of things that I believed [as a citizen], but now I'm working with the professionals," he said.
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