■ China
Mine blast kills 15
A sudden burst of poisonous gas in a coal mine in northeast China killed 15 miners, the government said, days after the death toll in another accident rose to 141. The rush of gas occurred Saturday at the Xilutian Mine in Fushun, a city in Liaoning Province, when 50 miners were working underground, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The miners were about 400m from the entrance of the shaft, Xinhua said, citing Li Sen, an executive with Fushun Coal Industry Corp, which owns the mine. Fifteen workers were instantly killed, while the rest managed to escape, Li said. The cause of the accident was under investigation.
■ India
MPs to relax with sack races
Stressed-out Indian members of parliament (MPs) will relax at weekends with sack races and other games if a ministerial proposal is accepted. According to a plan by parliamentary affairs minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, a plethora of sporting events will be organized for the MPs at weekends during parliamentary sessions, the Indian Express reported. Apart from traditional sports like golf, shooting, swimming and cricket, the events will include sack races, untying a knot (for women MPs only), lemon in a spoon race, three-legged races, hitting the post with a hockey stick, rolling the wheel and the traditional Indian sport of kabbadi.
■ Bangladesh
Landmines to be destroyed
Bangladesh will begin destroying its stockpile of around 200,000 landmines from tomorrow, putting it in the forefront of efforts to eliminate the weapons in one of the world's most heavily-mined regions, a military source said yesterday. "We will start destroying anti-personnel landmines from next Tuesday under a treaty with the United Nations," said a senior military official, who would not be named. The destruction would be completed in mid-2005 in a project funded by the Canadian government through the UN Development Program, he said. The army would retain around 15,000 mines to be used for training soldiers for missions, including UN peacekeeping assignments.
■ Hong Kong
Tycoon donates to olympics
Hong Kong's and Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing donated HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the city's top Communist Party official promptly declared him a patriot, local media reported yesterday. Newspapers ran a photo of Li's son, Victor Li (李澤楷), handing over a blown-up check made out to Beijing's National Swimming Center to Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan (王岐山) in Beijing on Saturday. "What we received is not just money but more importantly the patriotism of Mr. Li and his support for the Olympics," the South China Morning Post quoted Liu Qi, Beijing's top Communist Party official, as saying. Li is known to be close to the Chinese leadership and frequently donates to charitable causes.
■ Malaysia
Minister warns Australia
Malaysia has issued a warning against any possible challenge to its sovereignty after a newspaper report that new Australian warplanes will be able to launch long-range missiles at targets anywhere in Asia. The Australian newspaper reported on Saturday. Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak said he felt Australia would respect Asian nations' sovereignty but stressed Malaysia could look after its own interests, including fighting terrorism.
■ Somalia
Clashes leave 100 dead
About 100 people were reported killed on Saturday in fighting between Puntland and the rival Somali territory of Somaliland, which accused Puntland's leader, now Somalia's new president, of waging war on it. Abdullahi Yusuf, elected president on Oct. 10, has pledged to work peacefully with breakaway Somaliland as he tries to restore order to Somalia, which descended into anarchy in 1991 following the ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. But his election alarmed Somaliland, hostile to a man long seen as its arch foe in the neighboring autonomous territory of Puntland.
■ Ukraine
Presidential election begins
Polls to elect a new president opened early yesterday without incident. The election pitted incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, a supporter of closer relations with Russia and policies that protect the interests of industrial tycoons, against challenger Viktor Yuschenko, a former National Bank head who supports closer ties with Europe and market reforms. A total 37.2 million Ukrain-ians are eligible to cast ballots in some 35,000 voting stations. More than 120,000 police have been deployed to provide security. Some 400,000 independent Ukrainian and 3,500 foreign observers are on hand to monitor the vote.
■ United Kingdom
Elton John explains temper
Pop star Elton John says he doesn't mean to throw tantrums -- it just comes with the territory of being creative. The British superstar, famous for his outbursts, grabbed headlines last month when he cursed and shouted at Taiwanese photographers for surprising him as he arrived at Taipei airport, calling them "rude, vile pigs." At a London award ceremony a week later, he launched into a foul-mouthed tirade at pop star Madonna, accusing her of charging fans outrageous prices to see her lip-synch in concert. "Anyone who lip-synchs in public on stage when you pay £75 [US$134] to see them should be shot," he said.
■ Zimbabwe
Regime to appeal acquittal
Zimbabwe's government will appeal against the acquittal of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges by mid-November, a state-owned newspaper reported yesterday. Tsvang-irai's Movement for Demo-cratic Change (MDC) party said the move showed President Robert Mugabe's government was pursuing a political vendetta against the opposition leader. The Zimbabwe High Court acquitted Tsvangirai two weeks ago on charges of plotting to assassinate Mugabe and seize power ahead of a presidential election in 2002, saying the state failed to prove its case.
■ United Kingdom
Terror alert issued
Intelligence services have warned military personnel in Britain to be on heightened guard against possible terrorist attacks, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The paper said a leaked report in September, one section of which was titled "Terrorist Targeting of Military Bases," was distributed to garrisons across the Britain. The report said there was a "real" threat to servicemen and advised them not to wear uniform in public "especially in the vicinity of home or while travelling on public trans-port," the Telegraph said. The only evidence cited for the increased alert was a series of incidents in which men of Middle Eastern origin were seen taking photos of military barracks, the paper said.
■ Brazil
Party may lose Sao Paulo
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's leftist Worker's Party appears set to lose control of South America's biggest city, Sao Paulo, with polls showing voters are likely to replace the mayor with the man who lost the presidential election to Silva two years ago. Sunday's mayoral runoff races in 44 large cities across Brazil are the finale to the first electoral test of the Workers Party since he took the presidency. But the Workers Party is also behind in the polls in another traditional bastion, the southern city of Porto Alegre. The party, known here by its Portuguese acronym PT, wants to build on a largely successful first round on Oct. 3 that saw it nearly double its total of mayoral seats to 389 municipalities.
■ United States
Gay marriage figures in vote
Each side says the fight was forced upon them by the other, and now the climactic showdown is at hand: Voters in 11 states will decide tomorrow whether to impose constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. Rarely in US history have so many voters -- close to one-fifth of the electorate -- had a chance on a single election day to express themselves on such a highly contentious social issue. Most, if not all, of the bans are expected to win approval, though national gay-rights groups are spending heavily in Oregon and a few other states in hopes of avoiding a shutout.
■ United Kingdom
Blair's wife rips Bush
Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has criticized the policies of the US President George W. Bush, attacking his stance on terrorist prisoners and gay rights, according to media reports yesterday. Blair, a lawyer on a lecture tour of the US, was condemned by supporters of the US president after a speech to Harvard law students in Massachusetts which contained a stinging rebuke to Bush, the Scotland on Sunday newspaper reported on its Web site. "She attacked the manner in which the White House has dealt with the human rights of UK citizens detained at the US-run Camp X-Ray prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba," according to the report.
■ United States
Whooping cough is back
Whooping cough is making a comeback 40 years after most industrialized countries started vaccinating children, and the culprit seems to be weakening effects of the shot, researchers said on Saturday. Known also as pertussis, whooping cough can kill infants and can cause a lingering but hard-to-diagnose cough in teens and adults, the experts told an American Society for Microbiology meeting. They recommend that countries start organized programs to provide booster shots to teens and said doctors need to keep an eye out for the infection when patients show up with coughs."
■ Serbia
`Jorga' gunned down
One of the last remaining men accused of organizing the murder of Serbian mafia boss and paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan was gunned down late Saturday in Belgrade, police said. Branko Jeftovic, also known as "Jorga," was killed in the center of Belgrade in a typical mafia-style execution - seen dozens of times in Serbia over the past decade. The gunman immediately fled the scene. Two of the four suspects in Arkan's murder, which took place in early 2000, have been killed, but their assassins have not been identified.
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