■ China
`NY Times' staffer arrested
The Chinese authorities have formally arrested a researcher in the Beijing bureau of The New York Times on charges of disclosing state secrets to foreigners. The researcher, Zhao Yan, who was detained Sept. 17 on suspicion of that crime, has not been allowed to see his lawyer or relatives. Charges under the stringent state security law were filed on Wednesday, according to a notice received by Zhao's family, but no details of his alleged misdeeds have been disclosed. Formal arrest on security charges, in the Chinese criminal system, is a major step toward a secret trial and virtually certain conviction, with a long prison sentence possible. Zhao has been employed by the Times since May of this year to assist with research and translations.
■ Australia
Drug-traffickers arrested
Three Chinese nationals were charged with trafficking drugs after customs officers found A$100 million (US$74 million) worth of "ice", or crystal methylamphetamine, inside hollowed-out candles in a ship from China, police said yesterday. The 125kg haul was seized in a joint operation involving federal police and customs which is believed to have dismantled the Australian base of an international narcotic smuggling syndicate. Police say it was the second largest seizure of the drug to be made in Australia after the 233kg shipment found hidden among cartons of rice sticks in a shipping container from China in May, 2003.
■ China
Hope fades for miners
The death toll from a devastating coal mine disaster in China rose to 64 Friday as hopes of finding any survivors amongst a further 84 missing workers faded. Two more bodies were pulled out of the collapsed Daping mine in China's Henan province Friday, raising the death toll to 64, the Xinhua news agency said. Another 84 miners remained trapped inside. "At present, the chance of survival is slim," said Song Guangtai, deputy director of the Henan bureau of coal mine safety supervision, speaking to reporters from the blast site. Although the gas density had been reduced and a passageway into the mine had been repaired overnight to speed up the flow of rescuers and rescue vehicles, gas levels in some areas remain dangerously high, raising fears of another explosion, officials at the scene said.
■ Portugal
Lottery tip nets big win
A Portuguese car mechanic who was given a lottery ticket as a tip, after earlier refusing to buy it, has scooped a 50,000 euro jackpot, a local newspaper reported Wednesday. Lottery salesman Jose Macedo
tried to sell the five euro (US$6.25) winning ticket
to Artur Luis but ended up giving it to the mechanic to show his appreciation for the small amount charged to fix his car, daily newspaper Correio da Manha said. When the numbers on
the national lottery ticket
were drawn Monday, the mechanic won the 50,000 euro (US$62,620) first prize.
■ Germany
No cash for file recovery
An ambitious plan to solve the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle -- re-assembling 16,000 sacks of torn-up communist secret police
files -- has made no progress almost a year after it was announced in Germany.
A report on Thursday said funding had again been denied for even a pilot version of the scheme. The Tagesspiegel of Berlin was to report in yesterday's edition that no funds could be spared next year. Scientists announced last November that they had devised a way to create 1.2 billion images
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