■ Hong Kong
Worms found in public pools
A spate of worm sightings
in public swimming pools
has forced several closures
and police said Thursday
they have been called to investigate the case that's
left Hong Kong feeling a
bit squeamish. The worms, actually mosquito larvae, don't pose a health threat
but they have generated
intense local media coverage including TV footage showing them wiggling in the water. Worms have been found in three pools that have now been closed for cleaning, and police are trying to determine whether a crime has been committed. The worm sightings emerged as pool lifeguards continue a wage dispute with the government, but the lifeguards denied involvement.
■ China
SARS hero denied travel
A former military doctor who blew the whistle on China's SARS coverup has been prevented from traveling
to the Philippines to receive Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, officials said yesterday. Chinese authorities refused
to grant 72-year-old Jiang Yanyong (蔣彥永) travel papers and he will be represented at the ceremony on Tuesday by his brother, a spokeswoman for the Ramon Magsaysay international award foundation said. The award, considered Asia's most prestigious prize, was named after the Philippines' most popular president, who died in a plane crash in 1957.
■ China
Workers given back pay
The government is making
a push to pay millions of workers from the countryside billions of dollars in unpaid wages for construction work, plugging a hole that has fueled discontent and social unrest. The total default sum owed to migrant workers
in construction was more
than 48 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion) at the end of last year, more than one-third of which was for last year alone, Vice Minister of Construction Huang Wei (黃衛) told a news conference. Almost all the money owed to farm workers last year was paid off by June 30 and more than 87 percent of the 32.3 billion yuan owed for work before last year had been paid, Huang said.
■ Cambodia
Shoppers lynch robber
Hundreds of infuriated shoppers outside a popular mall in the capital Phnom Penh beat an armed robber
to death after he tried to steal
a motorcycle, police said yesterday. Two teenagers were about to leave the parking lot outside the
center on Wednesday when
a gunman shot one of them
and tried to grab their bike, district police chief Phorn Pheng said. "It was a people's court. The people saw these young men being robbed
and came to help, beating the robber to death. There were hundreds of people," he said, adding that police would not pursue the leaders of the mob attack. The shot man was recovering, he said.
■ New Zealand
School bans pajamas
A high school has decided to limit the range of apparel its pupils can wear under their uniform kilts -- and pajama bottoms are out, local media reported yesterday. Principal of the South Island Waitaki Girls High School, Linda Cowan, decided the new
fad of girls wearing pajama bottoms rolled up and tucked into their knee-high stockings had become a nuisance and should be forbidden, the Otago Daily Times said. "I have no idea why they were doing it. It wasn't because they were too lazy to get dressed properly. Some
girls were talking about their sleeping pajamas and their school pajamas." She thought it could be "some sort of bizarre trend" going back to old-fashioned long bloomers.
■ United States
Judge denies rally permit
A judge on Wednesday declined to order city officials to give an anti-war group permission to rally in New York City's Central Park on the eve of the Republican convention, leaving uncertain where thousands of protesters will go after a march past the venue. The United for Peace and Justice coalition has permission to march under the banner "The World Says No To The Bush Agenda" past Madison Square Garden on Sunday but the city denied a permit for the protest to continue with a rally in Central Park of an estimated 250,000 people.
■ Morocco
King asks for firefighting aid
Fires which ravaged forests in northern Morocco were brought under control Wednesday, the national forestry authority said. "The fire has been brought under control but we must remain vigilant," said High Commissioner of water and forests Abdeladim Lhafi. There were no casualties of the blaze, according to the national civil protection agency. King Mohammed VI on Tuesday issued an appeal for help in fighting the fire.
■ Poland
War reparations sought
The Polish parliament Wednesday debated a draft resolution seeking to make Germany pay compensation for the losses Poland suffered during World War II. "The parliament calls on the government to demand from Germany war reparations for losses and damages following the planned destruction by the Germans during World War II, and to open talks on this issue with Germany," the draft resolution said. It was drawn up by Jerzy Czerwinski, a member of parliament for the nationalist Catholic RKN party, and has already been approved by the lower house's foreign affairs committee.
■ Uganda
Clash leaves 14 rebels dead
Ugandan troops killed 14 rebels from the cult-like Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in a clash in neighbouring southern Sudan, the army said on Thursday. Army spokesman Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda said the clash took place on Tuesday at Parajok, near the Acheti River just a few kilometers from the Ugandan border. Ugandan troops are allowed to attack the LRA in southern Sudan under a 2002 accord between Kampala and Khartoum. The LRA, led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony, has waged an 18-year-old insurgency against the government in northern Uganda.
■ Canada
Police sniper kills gunman
A police marksman shot and killed a man who had taken a woman hostage and put a gun to her head during a dramatic rush-hour standoff Wednesday in the heart of Toronto. The crack of a single gunshot echoed off the glass-walled skyscrapers of the city's swank financial district, ending the early morning showdown, which had brought much of Canada's largest city to a standstill. "The outcome, of course, is tragic but it appears from my point of view to be very necessary," Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino said. The female hostage, grabbed off a sidewalk outside the city's central Union Station as the gunman fled a pursuing police officer, escaped unharmed. The drama erupted an hour earlier in a nearby food court when the gunman approached a woman later identified by police as his 45-year-old estranged wife, when the man fired shots in her direction. He then assaulted her, leaving her with cuts, but did not shoot her.
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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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