■ Guam
Nuclear sub runs aground
A nuclear submarine ran aground about 563km south of Guam, injuring several sailors, one of them critically, the US Navy said. There were no reports of damage to the USS San Francisco's reactor plant, which was operating normally, the Navy said. Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman for the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, said the Friday afternoon incident is under investigation and the 130m submarine was headed back to its home port in Guam. Details on the sailors' injuries were not immediately avail-able. The sub has a crew of 137, officials said. Military and Coast Guard aircraft from Guam were en route to monitor the submarine and assist if needed.
■ Fiji
Top diplomat assaulted
Australia's top diplomat in Fiji was assaulted while jogging in the capital Suva yesterday and was badly injured, a foreign affairs spokeswoman said. "The Australian High Commissioner to Fiji Jennifer Rawson was assaulted in Suva this morning. She is currently in hospital in Suva with serious injuries to her face," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said. A police investigation is underway into the incident which happened when Rawson was out on a regular morning jog. The spokeswoman said no motive was known for the attack, believed to be by one assailant.
■ South Korea
Fire kills disabled workers
A pre-dawn fire swept through a glove producing factory in a South Korean provincial town yesterday, killing four disabled workers and injuring ten, news reports said. The fire started in the ground floor and then quickly spread upstairs in the two-storey building, where the workers, most of them mentally handicapped, were sleeping, the national Yonhap news agency reported. Police were investigating the cause of the factory fire in Chilgok, 280km south of Seoul. A security guard at a nearby factory told police that an explosion occurred before the fire broke out.
■ China
Man jailed over baby milk
A Chinese man has been jailed for seven years for producing poor quality baby milk powder in a scandal in which at least 13 infants died, state media reported yesterday. Sha Changban, co-founder of Shengbao Dairy Products Company, was sentenced by the Yingdong district court in Fuyang City in eastern Anhui Province for producing and selling substandard milk and fined 50,000 yuan (US$6,000), the China Daily reported. The case was part of a major scandal in Fuyang City last year in which at least 13 babies died and 189 were sickened from malnutrition after drinking the fake formula.
■ Afghanistan
Judge tied to bomb attack
Afghan security forces have detained a supreme court judge suspected of being involved in an August car bomb attack that killed 10 people, including three Americans, in the capital Kabul, a court official said yesterday. The attack targeted offices used by the private US security firm DynCorp, which provides protection to President Hamid Karzai and gives anti-narcotics training to Afghan police. A supreme court official said the arrest of Judge Naqibullah followed the interrogation of two al-Qaeda members detained this month for the bombing. "The security forces several days ago arrested Naqibullah as an accused over the bombing incident," Wahid Mozhda, a spokesman for the supreme court, said.
■ Argentina
Ex-admiral unfit for trial
A leader of the military dictatorship may avoid trial on charges he stole babies from murdered victims of the regime due to mental problems, a court source reporters. Former admiral Eduardo Massera, a member of a military junta that ran Argentina from 1976 to 1982, could be declared mentally incompetent to stand trial by a medical board, the source said. Prosecutor Luis Comparatore asked federal Judge Maria Servini de Cubria that the former dictator undergo medical examination every three months to confirm whether he continues to suffer the "psychological disorders that prevent him from testifying." Massera, 79, has been under preventive detention since a heart operation in 2001 and a stroke in 2002.
■ United Kingdom
Controversial show airs
Plans to broadcast a London musical that features a nappy-wearing Jesus who admits he is "a bit gay," have sparked a record 5,500 complaints, a television watchdog said Thursday. The BBC nevertheless vowed to go ahead with its plan to show Jerry Springer The Opera, based on the controversial US talk show and which is still playing to packed houses in the West End of London. The opera contains a total of 3,168 "f" words and 297 "c" words. British media regulator Ofcom said it had received 5,500 complaints about the plan to broadcast the show, which was due to be screened yesterday.
■ Italy
Smoking ban to take effect
The nation's 14 million smokers braced Friday for a new law which comes into force Monday banning them from smoking in public places including bars, restaurants, discotheques and offices. There have been two delays in applying the regulation, but now the die is cast. As of Monday, private homes, the open air or special places reserved for smokers will be the only places to light up. Asian tsunamis apart, no subject has dominated conversation more among the nation's large bar and cafe population. Only five percent of Italy's 240,000 bars and restaurants have special rooms for smokers, says FIP, the trade association.
■ Portugal
Weddings in decline
The number of Portuguese getting married has fallen over the past decade but the amount spent on their wedding by those who do tie the knot skyrocketed during the same period, a study published Friday said. There were 53,735 weddings in Portugal, a nation of just over 10 million people, in 2003, a 21 percent decline from 1993, said the study by Ecorex, a company that stages an annual wedding show in Lisbon. But during this time the average amount of money spent by couples on their wedding, from the reception to clothes, legal fees and the honeymoon, has doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 euros (US$26,350).
■ Switzerland
Two small cars park as one
Owners of two half-size small cars should pay only one parking fee if both of them fit into a parking space, a Swiss court ruled Friday. However, as it delivered a landmark victory for owners of 2.50m long "Smart" cars, the cantonal court in Zurich warned that both of the cars could be fined if they exceeded the allotted parking time. The ruling followed a legal challenge brought by a Swiss couple after they slotted both of their tiny runabouts into a roadside parking space in the northern Swiss city and paid for only a single ticket.
■ United States
Pitt and Aniston separate
The seven-year celebrity relationship of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston has ended, People Magazine reported. Pitt, 41, star of such films as Troy and Ocean's Eleven, and Aniston, 35, star of television comedy Friends, have formally separated as "the result of much thoughtful consideration," they said. The pair met in 1998 and were married in July 2000. There were no immediate details about divorce plans. "We happily remain committed and caring friends with great love and admiration for one another," their statement said.
■ United States
Rose Kennedy dies
Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest sister of President John F. Kennedy and the inspiration for the Special Olympics, died Friday, surrounded by family. She was 86. Kennedy was born mentally retarded and underwent a lobotomy when she was 23. She lived most of her life in a Jefferson, Wisconsin, institution. In her own diaries before the lobotomy, she chronicled a life of tea dances, dress fittings, trips to Europe and a visit to the Roosevelt White House. But as she got older, her father worried his daughter's mild condition would lead her into situations that could damage the family's reputation.
■ United States
Lotto held up by divorce
Florida was kept in suspense for six weeks over who won its US$60 million lottery prize, but Robert Swofford Jr. had a good reason for waiting: He had to finalize his divorce first. The postal worker and his wife, Ann Swofford, had been separated for three years when Robert Swofford hit the winning numbers. A couple of weeks later, his wife filed divorce papers in which she sought to claim some of the jackpot. It took weeks more for the couple and their attorneys to hammer out an agreement. Of Robert Swofford's US$34.7-million-dollar after-tax payment, his soon-to-be ex-wife will get US$5.25 million dollars. Another 1 million dollars will go to support the couple's son, 11.
■ Iraq
Top militant arrested
The US military confirmed the arrest of a militant linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda-linked group in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. US Brigadier General Erv Lessel said the top lieutenant for the Zarqawi-linked Abu Talha cell in Mosul, Aziz Sadun Ahmed Hamduni, had been detained on Dec. 22, bringing to three the number of arrests of top leaders from the militant group in Mosul. Iraq's government had announced on Thursday the arrest of Hamduni, also known as Abu Ahmed. It said he served as deputy to Zarqawi's commander in Mosul, known as Abu Talha, and led operations in the flashpoint city when his boss was absent.
■ Argentina
Flag-abusing tourists jailed
A Briton, an Australian and a South African remained in an Argentine jail Friday for trashing a national flag put up outside the bar of an Argentine veteran from the Falklands war. David Fleming, 20, Benjamin Sargent, 28, and Darren Redden, 28, were held for desecrating the national flag and could face a four year prison term if found guilty by a court. The tourists were said by witnesses to have been drunk when they dragged the flag along the ground and threw it in a wastebin, in Ushuaia, the most southerly city in Argentina and the closest city to the islands known as the Falklands to the British and the Malvinas to Argentines, who still claim sovereignty over them. Other tourists called police who arrested the trio.
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
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