■ China
`NY Times' staffer arrested
PHOTO AP
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
of the paper scraps and use computer power to match them up into the correct patterns and sequence. The papers contain explosive information about spies and informers.
■ France
Accidents linked to divorce
A new French study suggests that people in
the throes of a divorce are
more likely to have a traffic accident. Respondents
were asked about health problems and stressful life events endured during the preceding 12 months. "We weren't specifically studying divorce," said Emmanuel Lagarde, who led the study at the National Health and Medical Research Institute. His team compiled a list of roughly 30 stressful events -- including hospitalization, the death of a loved one, departure of children -- and found that only separation and divorce increased the risk. This stress, Lagarde claims, changes the driver's behavior, possibly by decreasing attentiveness.
■ Romania
Offer made to king
Romania's government intends to offer the Balkan nation's former king 30 million euros (US$37.85 million) to settle a claim
for historic property seized
by the ousted communist regime. If approved by parliament, the decision is expected to end a dispute between the government and King Michael, who has been seeking to recover one of Romania's most popular tourist attractions since a 2001 law settling the issue
of assets seized by the communists was passed. The 82-year-old former monarch has laid claim to the Peles domain, including the Peles Castle built by his great uncle King Carol I.
■ Georgia
Illegal arms cache seized
A group illegally using and trading decommissioned weapons was seized in Georgia, Georgian Defense Minister Giya Baramidze said late on Thursday. A store of partly demolished weapons, including air-defense guns, grenade launchers and massive amounts of ammunition worth some US$185 million was found near a former military base of Tsnori in eastern Georgia, Baramidze said. Three employees in a local military training center were arrested on suspicion of having decommissioned, taken apart and sold weapons that the defense ministry judged still fit for use, he added.
■ United States
747 drops engine in flight
A cargo plane from Chicago landed safely at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after dropping an engine some-where over Michigan. The Kalitta Air jet took off from O'Hare International Airport late Wednesday and was bound for New York's Kennedy International Airport when it reported mechanical problems with one of its engines, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokeswoman said. The Boeing 747 was able to fly but was diverted as a safety precaution to Detroit, where it landed without incident, officials said. No one was injured. After the landing, airline personnel discovered the engine was completely gone. Authorities searched on Thursday for the engine, which may have fallen into Lake Michigan.
■ United Kingdom
Insider exposes Labour rift
British Prime Minister Tony Blair offered Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown a deal in which he would step down before the next general election if Brown backed Britain's euro entry, according to a former minister cited yesterday in The Independent newspaper. Clare Short, the former international development secretary, says in her upcoming book An Honourable Deception that Brown refused the deal, according to The Indepen-dent. Excerpts of her book published yesterday quote Short's own diary entries detailing the degrading relations between Labour's most powerful pair.
■ United Kingdom
UK gun crimes climb
Crime in Britain, which is set to be one of the main battle-grounds of the next general election, has fallen but the number of gun-related and violent offences has increased, official figures showed on Thursday. The Home Office said overall recorded crime had fallen by 5 percent in the three months to June compared to the same quarter last year, with significant falls in vehicle thefts, burglaries and robberies. But gun crime rose 3 percent over the full year to June with a 35 percent rise in the use of replica weapons. There was also an 11 percent increase in recorded incidents of violence.
■ Cuba
Castro undergoes surgery
President Fidel Castro announced late Thursday in an open letter that he underwent surgery after he fell late Wednesday and fractured his left knee and his right arm. Castro's operation took three hours, after which he was put in a plaster cast. He said he refused to undergo general anesthesia because he did not want to abandon his government responsibilities due to a temporary mishap. Castro, 78, tripped and fell as he walked down some steps from a stage after giving an hour-long speech. Castro's 1,183 word letter describes the moment he fell, his ambulance trip to the hospital and details of the operation.
■ Norway
Ghostly threat ignored
A Norwegian's threat to haunt anyone who tampered with his will didn't hold up in -- or send a chill through -- a court. The man, who wasn't identified, died last year and left a will dividing his possessions among a long list of friends because he had no direct heirs, state radio network NRK reported on Thursday. To be sure that no one challenged the document, he threated to haunt any who tampered with it. The judge declared the will void since the two witnesses who signed it testified they didn't know what the document was.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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
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