■ China
N Koreans still in embassy
More than 40 North Koreans were holed up inside the Canadian embassy in Beijing for a third day Friday after Canada refused China's demand to hand them over. The men, women and children who scaled an embassy fence using ladders on Wednesday could face a lengthy wait for an end to the stand-off as China goes into a week-long holiday, a mission spokesman said. Canada had earlier rejected China's request to hand over the group, who "will remain in the compound for the time being", according to foreign ministry spokeswoman Kimberly Phillips in Montreal. Forty-four men, women and children scaled a 3m fence surrounding the Canadian embassy on Wednesday in an apparent attempt to secure political asylum.
■ Hong Kong
Drug gang kingpin arrested
Customs officials have arrested the alleged kingpin of an international drug syndicate suspected of operating one of the world's biggest drug-manufacturing laboratories, officials and newspapers said yesterday. The 29-year-old man -- believed to be involved in a drug ring recently smashed in Cebu, the Philippines -- was arrested Wednesday night as he tried to flee Hong Kong to neighboring Macau, customs officials said in a statement. The arrest came after Philippines authorities raided the drug lab in Cebu and seized HK$180 million (US$23.10 million) worth of the party drug "ice" and drug-making chemicals, officials said.
■ Nauru
Nauru parliament dismissed
Nauru's President Ludwig Scotty has dismissed the parliament and declared a state of emergency, sparking a constitutional crisis in the tiny South Pacific island nation, its parliamentary speaker said yesterday. Speaker Russell Kun told reporters by telephone from Nauru that he had been ordered by Scotty to vacate his office immediately. Scotty addressed the nation Thursday night, saying he had no choice but to declare a state of emergency and dissolve parliament because the country's budget had lapsed.
■ Hong Kong
Yeoh denies being engaged
Former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh has denied she's engaged to Ferrari racing team boss Jean Todt, a newspaper said on Thursday, following another report that quoted him to the contrary. Yeoh was surprised when asked whether she had agreed to marry Todt, but said they have a happy, stable relationship, according to the Chinese-language Oriental Daily News. "No!" Yeoh said in response to a query about the reported engagement. "I have major responsibilities now and a lot of work to do. With such a good project on hand, I think I have to finish my work first." Yeoh is going to work on the Hollywood film Memoirs of a Geisha.
■ United States
US queries detention
US Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed China on Thursday over its detention of a New York Times researcher despite Beijing's warning to Washington not to interfere in the case. Media rights workers applauded Powell and said such high-level attention during a meeting in Washington with Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing could help pressure China to release a journalist known for exposing official corruption. Zhao Yan, a former reporter for the magazine China Reform, was detained this month on suspicion of helping break the sensitive news that leader Jiang Zemin would retire.
■ France
Cocaine found on beach
Up to five tonnes of cocaine seems to have been washed up along the Atlantic beaches of France and Spain, apparently a single shipment dumped overboard by Mexican smugglers. "It's a serious problem. The street price has fallen by over a third, and there's been a big rash of related hospitalizations," said Jean-Michel Delile of the Bordeaux drug research center. The 1kg bricks are shrink-wrapped and have appeared on the French coast between Arcachon and Biarritz, and Spanish beaches as far west as Bilbao. The beach-cocaine was a temptation, a police spokesman said: "People discovered a previously unsuspected passion for strolling along the beach at midnight."
■ United Kingdom
Pubs try spider decals
More than 100 realistic-looking transfers of spiders will be stuck to urinals in 25 pubs in the north of England, where conventional appeals for care have failed to improve male customers' habits. The idea was brought back to the UK by the Yesteryear chain's managing director, Tony Callaghan, from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. "We initially thought about using flies, which have various lavatorial connotations, but decided that spiders promoted a cleaner message... Staff will now spend less time addressing lavatorial spillage during a busy evening."
■ Switzerland
Gardener to return rock
A Swiss gardening enthusiast who took a two-and-half tonne stone from a forest to decorate his garden has pledged to put it back after local authorities warned that he had stolen a listed prehistoric relic. Authorities were mystified when the weighty megalith vanished from a wood near the village of Montagny-pres-Yverdon, in early September, mayor Linus Auer said. The rocklifter explained that he "wanted something pretty in his garden without realizing that it was a prehistoric stone," the mayor said.
■ Venezuela
Recall organizers arrested
The Attorney General's Office on Thursday requested the arrest of two leaders of a civil association who took part in organizing an unsuccessful recall vote last month of President Hugo Chavez. Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz sent the requests to a court that must decide whether to issue arrest warrants for Maria Corina Machado and Alejandro Plaz of the Sumate organization. The two were accused of conspiring against democracy. Chavez has accused Machado and Plaz of plotting against his government because they received funds from a US agency. Both activists denied the charges.
■ Lebanon
Bomb wounds ex-minister
A car bomb in Beirut wounded former Lebanese Cabinet minister Marwan Hamadeh and killed his driver early yesterday, security officials said. The explosion occurred in the Lebanese capital's corniche area where the American Community School and the International College, both US organizations, are located, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The officials said the bomb exploded as Hamadeh's car was driving past it, striking the ex-minister's vehicle, injuring him and killing his driver.
■ Italy
Million protest fertility law
More than a million people signed a petition for a referendum on an assisted reproduction law which makes it harder to obtain treatment. "It's a historic triumph," said Daniele Capezzone, Radical party secretary. The law allows only "stable" couples to seek in vitro fertilization, and only with their own eggs or sperm. Embryos can no longer be frozen for research and couples are allowed to create only three embryos at a time, all of which must be implanted together, without being screened in advance for abnormalities. Hospitals say that in the five months after the law was passed the success rate for IVF treatment dropped from one in four to one in nine.
■ Britain
Scientists explain hum
Seismologists believe they have pinpointed the source of a mysterious low-frequency "hum" that emanates from the Earth, the British science journal Nature reports in Thursday's issue. University of California at Berkeley experts Junkee Rhie and Barbara Romanowicz note that the hum -- at between two and seven milliHertz, way below the threshold of human hearing -- originates mainly in the northern Pacific Ocean during the northern hemisphere winter, and in the Southern Ocean during the southern hemisphere. Storm energy in the winter is converted to deep ocean waves which then interact with the seabed, creating vibrations that cause the hum, they theorize.
■ Nigeria
Obasanjo to halt militancy
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday warned that his government will not tolerate any act of "undue militancy" in oil-rich Niger Delta or any action that would mortgage or compromise majority interest, but he recognized having talks with rebels. "Government is taking appropriate steps to stem the tide of undue militancy and we are confident that reason and the law will prevail," he said in a broadcast to mark the 44th anniversary of Nigeria's independence from Britain.
■ Lebanon
CIA official replaced
Less than a week after taking up his job, CIA Director Porter Goss has replaced the spy agency's third-ranking official, a wealthy former investment banker and martial arts expert. Government officials said Goss had told Executive Director A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, 67, who joined the CIA in February 1998 under former CIA Director George Tenet, that he was being replaced. Krongard, a gun collector who once punched the head of a great white shark, took a more than US$4 million pay cut to join the Central Intelligence Agency and had held the third-highest post there since March 2001. Krongard joined the CIA after a 29-year career in the financial sector. The former Marine had two photographs on the wall of his CIA office of the great white shark that he punched in the head. He has one of its teeth on a chain.
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