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World News Quick Take

■ Afghanistan
Children killed in explosion
At least seven children were killed and several injured in an explosion near a school in the southern Afghan province of Paktia, the Afghan Islamic Press agency said on Sunday. While the cause of Saturday's blast is still unknown, Taliban insurgents are fighting US-led troops and the Afghan National Army in Paktia and its neighboring provinces along the border with Pakistan. Lieutenant Colonel Sue Meisner, of the US military's press center in Kabul, said there were conflicting reports on the number of casualties. An initial report issued by the US military said 30 children and two adults were wounded, but Meisner said it now appeared some people were killed.

■ Japan
Ex-LDP leader arrested
A former treasurer of the Japanese ruling party's largest faction was arrested Sunday, media reports said, in a widening political donations scandal that forced ex-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to quit as the faction's head last month. Japanese media have reported that Hashimoto personally received a 100 million yen (US$909,000) check shortly before parliamentary elections in July 2001 from the then-head of the national dental association, but did not declare it as a political donation. On Sunday, prosecutors took into custody Toshiyuki Takigawa, 55, for his alleged involvement in the scandal, public broadcaster NHK reported.

■ Australia
Actor brawls with bodyguard
Gladiator star Russell Crowe on Sunday took the blame for his latest battle -- a fight with his own bodyguard -- saying it was sparked by a misunderstanding at a party for the cast and crew of a movie he was shooting. The Oscar-winning actor made headlines in Australia recently by scuffling with Mark "Spud" Carroll, a former rugby league star who now is his bodyguard, in Toronto where Crowe is shooting his latest movie, The Cinderella Man. Reports said New Zealand-born Crowe, who engaged in highly publicized brawls before he got married last year, even chomped on Carroll's ear during the fight.

■ Japan
Typhoon strikes islands
A powerful typhoon struck Japan yesterday, unleashing torrential rain, strong wind and high tides that pum-meled the southern islands of the archipelago. Chaba, one of this year's strongest, had sustained winds of 162kph, and was churning over the tiny southern islands of Amami Oshima and Tanegashima in Kagoshima prefecture, the Meteorological Agency said. The typhoon -- traveling slowly northwest at 15kph -- was expected to reach the southern-most main island of Kyushu later yesterday. The agency predicted it would churn along the length of Japan over the next three days.

■ Macau
Pro-Beijing chief re-elected
Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah vowed on Sunday to raise the quality of life in the enclave after being elected for a second five-year term. Ho obtained 296 of the 299 votes cast in a secret ballot. One of the electors was absent while three others returned blank ballots. Macau's pro-democracy movement, which holds two of the local legislature's 27 seats, chose not to participate in the election, arguing that the process was "too conserva-tive and oligarchic."

■ France
Leaders meet on kidnapping
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called a meeting with three top ministers yesterday to discuss the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq. After the ministerial parley, Raffarin was to attend a meeting of the French Committee of the Muslim Faith. The government was anxious to obtain the release of the journalists taken hostage by Islamic militants demanding the rescinding of a ban on the Islamic headscarf in French schools. The kidnappers from the Islamic Army in Iraq, the same group which killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni after taking him hostage, gave Paris a 48-hour ultimatum on Saturday to meet its demands, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television said.

■ France
Freeway pileup kills 8
At least eight people were killed and and 46 injured, nine seriously, in a multi-vehicle crash in southwest France early yesterday morning. A Spanish tour bus, three cars and a truck are believed to have been involved in the crash 40km south of Bordeaux. According to initial reports by witnesses, part of the truck's load had fallen off its roof causing the accident. The bus then swerved and fell on its side. Firefighters were trying to cut other occupants out of the wreck with cutting torches. Initial reports said that 130 fire service personnel and two dozen ambulances were at the site of the accident.

■ Greece
Teargas vies with firebombs
Greek police hurled teargas at scores of anarchists harassing tourists in Athens and the youths answered with fire bombs, damaging shops early yesterday, the last day of the Olympics. Police said they detained more than 20 youths for questioning but no one was injured in the clashes in the Monastiraki tourist district, where thousands of Greek and foreign visitors have been celebrating every night during the Games. "Police received complaints the youths were harassing tourists and damaging property," a police spokesman said, "When asked to disperse, the anarchists attacked the police with fire bombs and teargas was used." He said several shops and banks had been seriously damaged.

■ United Kingdom
`Bruiser Blair' belts Italian
It's hardly the way to treat your host, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair plays to win. So he tackled his Italian counterpart so hard in a soccer game on their recent holiday that Silvio Berlusconi needed hospital treatment for an injured knee, media reported yesterday. Berlusconi is still limping from the clash with Blair at a game at the Italian's mansion in Sardinia earlier this month, they said. "It was the left knee," he reportedly told other patients at hospital. "I've always had problems with the left!" "It was a private holiday, we don't discuss it," one official said.

■ Saudi Arabia
Wife shares the load
A Saudi woman from the eastern city of Madinah recently offered her husband a gift of another wife to add to his existing three, Dubai's Arab News reported yesterday. The woman, who is his first wife, came up with the idea and sought his support when the other wives turned against her, the report said. It was not clear whether the man would accept. According to Islamic law, Moslem men are allowed to have four wives simultaneously if they can support them all and treat them fairly.

■ United States
Israel denies using spy
Israel flatly denied yesterday deeply embarrassing allegations that one of its agents had spied on the US by passing on top-secret Pentagon intelligence. "We have no involvement in these allegations," a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office told reporters. "It is an internal issue in the United States which is running out of steam anyway. Israel has not used an agent to spy on the United States, the country which is its best ally." US authorities have confirmed that they are investigating an aide to a senior Pentagon official who allegedly passed secrets to Israel with the help of employees of a powerful pro-Israel lobby.

■ Canada
Septic tank kills 3
Three people died and one person was in critical condition after falling into a septic tank at a campground about 30km east of Montreal early Saturday, Quebec police said. Around midnight, the 56-year-old owner of the Lac du Repos campground entered a hole in the ground with his son-in-law, 27, in order to clear a blocked drain, police said. However, the owner and his son-in-law were overcome by fumes and fell 4.5m into the septic tank below. A 38-year-old camper tried to save them but was also overpowered by the fumes and died. A fourth man was injured trying to save them and is in critical condition.

■ United States
Cop `threatens' Bush
A police officer who mouthed off while picking up his uniform at the cleaners has been indicted on a charge of threatening US President George W. Bush. Joseph Mazagwu, 35, surrendered Friday on charges of threatening the president and lying to investigators. On July 15, Mazagwu was picking up his dry cleaning when the owner asked if he would be part of the president's security detail. The 11-year US Army veteran and Nigerian native answered that he would not work it under any circumstances and criticized the war in Iraq and US policies in Africa. Assistant US Attorney Robert O'Neill alleged that Mazagwu said words to the effect: "The president needs to be shot. His father needs to be shot. If someone gave me bullets, I would do that."

■ Colombia
Police find poison bullets
Colombian police discovered 5,000 cyanide-laden bullets Saturday in Santander province northeast of Bogota, a police spokesman said. The bullets were seized when police stopped an all-terrain vehicle at an intersection, the spokesman said. "AK-47 bullets impregnated with cyanide were hidden in the vehicle," the source said, adding that police were questioning the driver.

■ United States
Prisoners refuse hearing
Two prisoners accused of links to al-Qaeda refused to attend US military review hearings Saturday, raising to 14 the number of detainees who have stayed away from the proceedings, a military official said. The review tribunals are evaluating whether each of the 585 detainees at the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are properly held as an "enemy combatant" or should be freed. They are separate from a military commission that held pretrial hearings for four men this week. The first prisoner who declined to appear Saturday was a 24-year-old who allegedly had been studying in the US before traveling to his undisclosed home country and then to Afghanistan in June 2001, said Navy Commander Beci Brenton, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

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