■ China
Putin pays visit
Russian President Vladimir Putin met several top officials in Beijing on Friday, winding up two days of official talks which were rich in symbolism but left unanswered many key questions about energy supplies to China. Putin's largely ceremonial meetings with parliament chief Wu Banguo (吳邦國) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) followed extended talks on Thursday with President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) which were crowned by the signing of 13 documents, including a common, tough position against terrorism. Putin and Hu have praised a border agreement, which finally draws a 4,300k frontier between the two states after 40 years of talks. Putin also outlined an ambitious plan to boost bilateral trade from US$15.7 billion now to $60 billion in 2008.
■ Japan
Bush support denied
Japan's government yesterday denied declaring its support for U.S. President George W. Bush in his coming election, despite the prime minister's comments that he hoped Bush would "do well" in the vote. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has forged a close relationship with Bush and has been a steadfast supporter of the US-led invasion of Iraq. "It's not that the prime minister is saying who should win," Hosoda told reporters. "No matter what the results of the election may be, the ties between the United States and Japan are solid." When answering a question on Thursday about what message he would want to pass to Bush about the Nov. 2 vote, Koizumi suggested he preferred the Republican incumbent to Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry. "I don't want to interfere in another country's election, but I'm close to Bush so I'd like him to do well," Koizumi told reporters.
■ Australia
Backpacker murder verdict
A Supreme Court jury Friday convicted an Australian drug addict of murdering a 19-year-old British backpacker by throwing her off a bridge during a robbery. Caroline Stuttle was killed April 10, 2002, when she was thrown off a 9m-high bridge in the Queensland state farming town of Bundaberg. Previte, 32, had pleaded innocent to her murder and robbery, even though he confessed to police of the killing. A jury of four women and seven men took seven hours to convict him of both charges after a three-week trial. Previte faces a mandatory life sentence for the murder. He will have to serve 15 years before becoming eligible for parole. Prosecutors accused Previte of robbing Stuttle to support his drug habit, before throwing her, screaming, off the bridge. She died of a fractured skull and broken spine. Her body was still clutching the strap of her stolen handbag when it was found.
■ United Nations
Syria pressured over troops
The US and France introduced a draft UN Security Council resolution on Thursday aimed at putting fresh pressure on Syria to pull its estimated 14,000 to 17,000 troops out of Lebanon. The draft would ask Secretary-General Kofi Annan to report every three months on the issue as a follow-up to a Sept. 2 council resolution that demanded all foreign troops leave Lebanon. The action by Washington and Paris follows a report from Annan, who said Syria had not complied with the Sept. 2 resolution and had not given any timetable for doing so.
■ Zimbabwe
Tsvangirai acquitted
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, was acquitted Friday of charges of treason by the Zimbabwean high court. The verdict ends a high profile trial that began more than a year ago. Tsvangirai, who faced the death sentence for plotting to overthrow 80-year-old President Robert Mugabe, has been waiting eight months for a verdict. High court judge Paddington Garwe told a packed courtroom the state's chief witness, Canadian political consultant Ari ben Menashe was "not a credible witness." Shortly before the verdict was announced to jubilation among MDC supporters outside the courthouse, two Zimbabwean fighter jets made three passes over the city center, in what was taken as a move to intimidate potential demonstrators.
■ United Kingdom
Teacher tapes Harry
The art teacher of Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, told a tribunal Thursday that she had secretly taped a conversation with him about cheating on a school exam. Sarah Forsyth, fighting a claim for unfair dismissal from prestigious Eton College, said she had been ordered by a school administrator to help the young royal pass a finishing exam. Forsyth told the employment tribunal in Reading, west of London, that she duped Prince Harry as a last resort after her complaints of harassment against another member of staff went ignored by the school. The tribunal heard the Prince was recorded by his teacher saying of his exam piece, submitted in 2002: " ... tiny, tiny bit ... I did about a sentence of it."
■ United Kingdom
Blair not converting
Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday dismissed speculation that he intends to convert to Roman Catholicism. Blair is an Anglican, but has accompanied his wife Cherie, a Catholic, and their children to Mass regularly, triggering several reports in recent years that he might switch faiths. Several British newspapers on Friday quoted a Catholic priest, who regularly presides over services at Blair's country estate Chequers, as saying he thought Blair might convert.
■ Nigeria
`Warning' strike ends
A four-day "warning" strike that shut down cities across Nigeria ended at midnight Thursday, but union leaders vowed the work stoppage will resume later this month if the government fails to reduce fuel prices. "We have decided, in line with our original decision, to make this strike four days," Adams Oshiomhole, who leads the 29-union Nigeria Labor Congress, told reporters in the capital, Abuja. He said union leaders will meet within two weeks to decide when the next strike will begin. Union officials have said repeatedly it will resume in about two weeks.
■ United States
Jackson case dealt blow
A judge Thursday dealt a blow to Michael Jackson's defense by rejecting the superstar's bid to have the child molestation charges against him tossed out of court. Dismissing Jackson's lawyers' claims of prosecutorial misconduct, Judge Rodney Melville ruled that there was enough evidence to warrant the 10 charges, including one that he conspired to silence his alleged victim. The judge also ordered prosecutors to hand over to the defense key documents and evidence in the case and warned both sides that he would not tolerate a delay to the scheduled start of the singer's trial, set for Jan. 31.
■ United States
Abuse trial hits a snag
Medical evidence could be barred from the court-martial of a Marine major accused of abusing an Iraqi prisoner because military pathologists misplaced body parts, a military judge said Thursday. If the judge, Colonel Robert Chester, decides to bar the evidence, prosecutors would stand a slim chance of convicting Major Clarke Paulus of aggravated assault, the most serious charge he faces. Paulus, 35, is accused of ordering one of his men to drag Nagem Hatab by his neck after the Iraqi prisoner suffered a bout of diarrhea and collapsed in June 2003 at a makeshift detention facility outside Nasiriyah, Iraq, known as Camp Whitehorse. Hatab died soon afterward.
■ United States
Powell doubts policy change
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has stayed largely out of the presidential campaign, said Thursday he doubted claims by Democratic challenger John Kerry that he could attract more US allies on Iraq if he defeats President George W. Bush on Nov. 2. "I don't want to get into the political debate, as you noted, and Senator Kerry can make these statements, but I'm not sure that he can really back them up or that suddenly support that is not there now will magically appear with a change in the presidency," Powell told Fox News. A pillar of Kerry's presidential campaign has been his promise to obtain more international support for the US effort in Iraq.
■ United States
Space crash result of glitch
Faulty switches likely caused the parachute system of NASA's Genesis mission to fail, allowing a capsule with samples of the sun to smash into the Utah desert last month, NASA said in announcing the findings of a mission review board. The gravity-switch devices were supposed to sense the braking caused by the craft's entry into Earth's atmosphere and start a timing sequence that leads to deployment of a drogue parachute and then a parafoil, NASA said Thursday. A specially equipped helicopter was then supposed to snag the parafoil during the Sept. 8 descent and gently lower the capsule to the ground.
■ United States
US ads explain security
US officials began an overseas media campaign on Thursday aimed at dispelling anxieties about a new security program that requires foreign travelers to be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter the US. A full-page newspaper ad taken out in Le Monde in France by the Department of Homeland Security advised travelers: "The flight to America takes about eight hours. Only a few extra seconds will make your trip safer." Similar US advertisements are running in major newspapers in England, Germany, Japan, Belgium and Australia at a cost of almost US$1 million, officials said.
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
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