■ Japan
Secret anti-terror plan set
Japan's army has worked out a secret plan to deal with possible large-scale terror attacks by North Korea, a press report said yesterday. The plan, based on the presumption up to 2,500 North Korean agents could infiltrate Japan, calls for the deployment of ground troops at 135 key facilities, including government buildings and nuclear power plants, Kyodo News said. Reflecting the office's strong concern about North Korea, the plan pointed to possible attacks such as the assassination of leading figures and the use of chemical and biological weapons, the report said.
■ Japan
Half say country's unsafe
More than half of Japanese think their country has become unsafe, and many blame their uneasiness on misbehaving youths and illegal foreign workers, according to a government poll. The Cabinet Office survey, conducted in July, questioned 3,000 Japanese about safety and security, and 2,097, or 70 percent, responded. The survey, released on Saturday, found that 54.7 percent of those who responded felt that Japan isn't safe, while 42.5 said their country is. More than 80 percent said they or people close to them had been a victim of a crime -- primarily burglaries, pickpocketing and purse-snatchings, as violent crimes are relatively rare. In 2003, crimes by foreigners accounted for less than 1.5 percent of crimes in Japan -- the same as the non-Japanese proportion of the population.
■ Thailand
Dead bodies likely tourists
The bodies of two people have been found stripped and dumped at one of Thailand's best-known national parks, police said yesterday. The pair, suspected to be Asian visitors, were found by the side of the road late Friday at Khao Yai National Park, near the capital Bangkok. One of them had been shot in the chest. The discovery came as the search continued for a policeman accused of shooting dead two British tourists at Kanchanaburi in western Thailand 10 days ago. Premier Thaksin Shinawatra ordered a major search for the policeman amid fears that the killing of foreign tourists could hit the kingdom's tourist industry. Police could not identify the sex and nationality of the bodies, but they said colorful tattoos suggested they were tourists from elsewhere in Asia.
■ China
Lab on Everest planned
China will set up a scientific research station on Mount Everest to observe and research atmospheric and environmental changes in the Himalayan region, state press said yesterday. The station would be set up next year near Base Camp at 5,200m on the world's tallest mountain, Xinhua news agency said. The station will study links between the atmosphere on and the plateau and the global atmosphere, the exchange between ground atmosphere and tropospheric atmosphere and global environmental changes, said Ma Yaoming of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
■ Australia
Reptiles seized in raid
Hundreds of snakes and at least three crocodiles were seized in a home, wildlife authorities said yesterday. Neighbors called authorities after an offensive smell began emanating from the house in Sydney's southern suburbs. Humane society officers and police who raided the home on Saturday found 184 live and about 200 dead reptiles. Customs officers said they planned to interview the home's owner, a registered snake handler named in media reports as Bradley McDonald.
■ United States
Blair talks with Allawi
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to meet Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in London Sunday, and hold further talks with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today, media in London reported. Allawi was expected to meet Blair at Downing Street for several hours yesterday, where the sending of additional British troops to Iraq to help safeguard elections in January would be discussed, the Sunday Times said. The meeting comes a day after Blair denied a report that Straw had warned ahead of the invasion last year that insufficient planning had gone into what would happen in Iraq.
■ Zimbabwe
Mock battle wounds 13
Thirteen people were wounded, three of them seriously, during a mock battle staged Saturday by the Zimbabwe National Army at an agricultural show, state radio reported. Army headquarters in Harare confirmed the accident at Marondera, 87km east of the capital, Harare, but released few details. "Some rifles malfunctioned during a mock battle using blank ammunition," the army said in a statement. It did not clarify whether the casualties were soldiers or spectators but said those seriously injured had been transferred from Marondera District Hospital to Parirenyatwa Teaching Hospital in Harare.
■ United Kingdom
Queen snubs Blair
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is not amused by an impending ban on fox hunting in England and Wales, and she has said so to Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported. She disclosed her concerns during a private conversation in Exeter, southwest England, with John Daw, a former chairman of the Devon branch of the National Farmers' Union, it said. It quoted Daw -- well-known for his passion for the countryside -- as telling the monarch that Blair and his government did not understand rural Britain. According to Daw, the newspaper said, Queen Elizabeth -- who holds regular private meetings with the prime minister -- replied: "I know. I tell him that every week when I see him."
■ Italy
`Sleepless night' for Rome
For the second year in a row Rome held a Notte Bianca, or "Sleepless Night", where the city stayed open around the clock. This year's wakeful state was dedicated to the victims of the Beslan massacre in Russia and to the hostages being held in Iraq. Notte Bianca began at 4:30pm Saturday at Rome's Campidoglio or town hall and finished at 8am yesterday. Hundreds of thousands of visitors traveled to the Italian capital for a night in which numerous artists, musicians and comedians participated in events staged the city.
■ IsraelL
Madonna makes pilgrimage
Pop diva Madonna made a midnight pilgrimage to a Jerusalem cemetery early Sunday, holding a mystical candlelit ceremony at the grave of a Jewish sage. The singer is in Israel on a five-day spiritual quest along with 2,000 other students of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Following her graveside visit, Madonna went to the Western Wall, a part of Judaism's holiest site where the biblical temples once stood. The arrival of Israel's biggest celebrity visitor in years has created a frenzy among her fans and the media, but others have been critical of the star's interest in the esoteric Jewish mysticism.
■ Canada
`Dead' man calls off funeral
Gathered to pay their last respects, the mourning relatives were surprised when the dearly departed called the funeral home to say that he was alive and well. The family of Dane Squares, 48, who lived on the streets, was convinced he had been killed by a commuter train in the Toronto suburbs on Sept. 10. His sister, Diana Branton, even identified the body at the morgue. But on the day of the funeral, Branton was sick and stayed home. There was a knock at the door, and when she opened the door to see her brother, she said was unnerved and thought she was seeing a ghost. Dane wanted to go to the funeral home, Branton told the Globe and Mail, but she persuaded him that a phone call would be better.
■ Cuba
Relatives protest detentions
The wives and mothers of some of the men arrested in a government crackdown on dissidents 18 months ago gathered Saturday for a vigil calling for the release of their loved ones. Dolia Leal, wife of imprisoned dissident Nelson Aguiar, was among more than 20 women who gathered at a Havana home for the 12-hour vigil, which included a fast from 7am to 7pm. "We demand the liberation of all political prisoners in Cuba, especially those who were among the 75," said Leal. Rounded up in March 2003, the dissidents were accused by Fidel Castro's government of working with the US government to undermine the island's socialist system.
■ Venezuela
Six troops killed in ambush
An armed group killed six Venezuelan Army troops and an engineer in an ambush along the Colombian border, Defense Minister Jorge Garcia Carneiro said Saturday. The ambush took place Friday between the towns of La Victoria and La Charca in Apure state, the minister said in a statement. Garcia Carneiro did not say who was suspected in the ambush, referring only to "irregular groups." In the past, there have been clashes in the area with Colombian leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers. The troops killed were protecting a team of engineers with the Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA.
■ Peru
Mining proposal accepted
Residents who had been protesting South America's largest gold mine have stopped their roadblocks, allowing traffic to flow freely to the US-owned Yanacocha mine on Saturday. Comm-unity leaders late Friday accepted a proposal from Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines to end two weeks of demonstrations against gold prospecting on Cerro Quilish, near the city of Cajamarca, 560km north of Lima. Residents concerned about the effects of new mining operations on water supplies began their blockade of the mine's access road Sept. 2 after the company began exploratory drilling on the Quilish gold deposit, which sits in the same watershed as several nearby villages and the city below.
■ United States
Storm approaching coast
Tropical Storm Javier weakened steadily as it closed in on the northwest Pacific coast of Mexico on Saturday. The storm was centered about 130km southwest of Cabo San Lazaro in Baja California Sur state and moving toward the north at 17kph, according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami. Carrying maximum sustained winds of 65kph, Javier was expected to reach the Baja Peninsula late Saturday or early yesterday. Tropical storm force winds extended outward up to 140km from Javier's center.
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RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in