■ Thailand
Cop denies killing Britons
A policeman appeared in court yesterday and denied murdering two British tourists following a row outside a restaurant in Kanchanaburi province. Somchai Visetsing, 39, is accused of shooting dead Vanessa Arscott, 24, and Adam Lloyd, 25, on Sept. 9. He denied two counts of murder and illegal posses-sion of weapons and his
trial will start on Dec. 20, Kanchanaburi's chief prosecutor said. Police said Somchai had confessed to the shootings but claims he was provoked by Lloyd during a row.
■ China
Beijing to launch lunar probe
China will launch its lunar orbiter Chang'e 1 to explore the moon's environment and study the thickness of its soil by the end of 2007, a senior space official said yesterday. Sun Huixian, deputy chief engineer at the Center for Space Science and Applied Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said Beijing plans to send two more unmanned missions by 2010. "Chang'e 1 is slated to be launched toward the end of 2007 and the dates are not decided," Huixian said on the sidelines of an international conference in India. "So far no manned missions to the moon are planned," he said.
■ China
Crash victims had fake IDs
Three passengers were carrying fake ID cards when they boarded the regional jet that crashed in Inner Mongolia on Sunday, a report citing investigators said yesterday. "It's a mystery why the three would use fake IDs to board the plane, what their purposes or real identities were, or whether this is linked to the crash," the Hong Kong Economic Times said. A CRJ200 jet operated by China Eastern Airlines plunged into a lake after take-off from the city of Baotou, killing 53 people on board and two people on the ground. Chinese papers also reported that there had been problems with the identities of three passengers, though they did not go as far as claiming that fake IDs had been involved. The Beijing Times quoted the president of China Eastern as saying the issues included passen-gers giving incomplete information when buying their tickets or making mistakes when providing their ID numbers.
■ Japan
Man kills parents, sister
An unemployed 28-year-old killed his parents and sister with a hammer and a knife, the second time a troubled young man was arrested for murdering his family in as many days, police said yes-terday. "I was not getting along with my parents," Masaru Iijima was quoted as telling police after surren-dering at his home in Tsu-chiura. He called police yesterday morning and told them he had killed his family, whose bodies were found in the house. Iijima told police he killed his mother first, then his sister and then waited for his father to come home from work and bludgeoned him.
■ Japan
Language stumps students
Japanese seems to be baf-fling native speakers. Nearly a fifth of the students at private universities have
the reading ability expected of 13- to 15-year-olds, according to the National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME), which surveyed 13,000 in their
first year at 33 universities and colleges. The students were presented with a multiple choice test and asked to define nouns, adjectives and adverbs. Two-thirds of the respondents thought that a word meaning "to grieve" actually meant "to be happy."
■ Russia
Men kill two, take hostages
Two soldiers armed with Kalashnikov rifles have killed two policemen and taken a number of hostages after deserting from a military base in suburban Moscow, Russian news reports said yesterday. The brothers killed the officers after being discovered in a cafe. They then intercepted a cab and took two women hostage before fleeing to a different Moscow suburb, where they were blocked off by police and eventually forced to flee into a house with two elderly people inside, the Interfax news agency quoted police sources as saying. The report said two of the hostages had managed to flee.
■ United Kingdom
Charity keeps mistake gift
A British charity for the elderly is hanging on to cash its owner said he left by mistake in the pocket of a jacket he donated to the organization. The jacket was in a pile of clothing that Michael Parks, 49, handed in to Age Concern's branch in Macclesfield, northwest England, to be sold to raise funds. Realizing soon afterwards that he had forgotten a wad of ?1,200 in the pocket, he asked the shop for its return, but the staff refused. "I think it's absolutely disgusting and dishonest. It's a terrible way to treat people," Parks said Wednesday. "I certainly did not expect it from a charity."
■ United Kingdom
Solana met with terrorists
The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in an interview broadcast yesterday that he met recently with Islamic militant group Hamas, which the EU has blacklisted as a terrorist organization. Solana told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he held meetings with Hamas figures some months ago, but didn't say where or whom he met with. "I have had contacts with Hamas but not in the last few days," he said in the interview, broadcast on BBC radio Thursday morning. "These meetings were not long." Solana said he agreed to the meetings with Hamas because "they were at a time of hesitation, we thought there was a moment to push."
■ Jordan
Kurds granted asylum
More than 200 Iranian Kurds who have been stranded on the Iraqi-Jordanian border for the last 19 months left Wednesday night for Sweden after authorities there agreed to grant them asylum, UN officials said yesterday. The first batch of Iranian Kurd refugees comprising 202 men, women and children left aboard a chartered flight, according to officials at the Amman office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). A second group of 183 Iranian Kurds are scheduled to fly to Sweden on Dec. 9, they said.
■ France
Pigeons may have compass
Scientists believe they have confirmed theories that homing pigeons are able to carry out their long-range navigational feat thanks to tiny magnetic particles in their upper beaks. Pigeon-watchers had squabbled as to whether the birds return to their lofts by using this material as a microscopic compass, or by using different odors in the atmosphere as signposts. Researcher Cordula Mora placed homing pigeons in a specially-built tunnel which had a feeder platform at each end and magnetic coils attached to its top and bottom. The birds were trained to go to one particular feeding tray if the Earth's natural magnetic field was left unperturbed, and to the other tray if the coils were switched on. The birds lost this navigational ability when magnets were attached to their beaks or if their beaks were anaesthetized.
■ United States
`Passion of the toast' on tour
GoldenPalace.com, an online casino which paid US$28,000 to the owner of a 10-year-old, partially eaten cheese sandwich thought to bear the image of the Virgin Mary, is sending the "religious icon" on a world tour. "By taking her all over, other people will have some of the pleasure that I did," said the former owner, Diana Duyser. "I'll miss her greatly because she was a comfort to me in times when it wasn't so easy," Duyser, a 52-year-old Baptist, said at a ceremonial exchange in Hollywood, Florida, on Wednesday. She was wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Passion of the Toast."
■ Canada
Iraq election role possible
Canada is considering a major role in preparing and monitoring Iraq's crucial elections early next year, despite its vigorous opposition to the US-led invasion in 2003, a report said Wednesday. Officials were discussing the proposal with Washington and the UN, days before US President George W. Bush visits Ottawa hoping to ease relations between the two neighbors, the Globe and Mail newspaper said. An announcement of a Canadian role in the Jan. 30 elections could come during Bush's two-day visit to Canada, due to start Tuesday, the paper said. The Canadian foreign ministry said no decision had yet been made -- but did not directly contradict the report.
■ United States
Student in knife rampage
A knife-wielding student injured eight classmates after going on the rampage early Wednesday at a high school in northwestern Indiana, authorities said. The injured students were taken to hospital where several of them were treated for lacerations, and one was treated for a hip injury. Three were treated and released, and the rest were expected to be discharged later Tuesday, said Jeni Bell, a spokeswoman for the Porter Health System in Valparaiso. The alleged attacker was taken into custody shortly after the 8am incident which triggered a lockdown at Valparaiso High School, 66km southeast of Chicago, according to police.
■ Haiti
US rescues 82 refugees
The US Coast Guard on Wednesday repatriated 82 Haitians who were picked up from a sinking vessel in the Bahamas as they apparently tried to make their way to the US. The 71 men and 11 women had been taken aboard a US Coast Guard vessel on Friday night, as their vessel took on water and started sinking, the Coast Guard said in a statement. The migrants were taken to Port-au-Prince Wednesday, the statement said. So far this year, the Coast Guard repatriated about 3,400 Haitians who tried to reach US shores, often on overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels.
■ Canada
Pot-smokers increasing
The number of Canadians who admit to having used marijuana recently has nearly doubled since the mid-1990s, according a government health study released on Wednesday. Fourteen percent of Canadians interviewed acknowledged having used cannabis in the past year, up from 7.4 percent in a similar survey in 1994, and 44.5 percent admit having used it at least once in their lifetime. The drug and alcohol addiction survey, funded by Health Canada, found pot use was highest in British Columbia, where marijuana growing is a major illegal business, and lowest in the small Atlantic province of Prince Edward Island.
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
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