■ Afghanistan
Land mine blast kills four
Taliban rebels claimed responsibility for Saturday's explosion that killed the security chief of Afghanistan's southwestern Uruzgan province and three others. Spokesman for the hard-line militia, Mufti Latifullah Hakimi, said that his fighters blew up Mohammed Wazira's vehicle by detonating a land mine by remote control in Charcheno district. Wazir's father, brother and bodyguard also lost their lives in the blast. "We did that [blast] and each government official will be our target," Hakimi threatened. The Taliban have made frequent violent attacks on government and US forces.
■ Hong Kong
March for democracy held
About 2,000 people marched in downtown Hong Kong yesterday to demand full democracy and social justice in the Chinese territory, police and organizers said. Opposition leaders led the protesters, who chanted: "Direct elections in 2007 and 2008" -- the years in which Hong Kong is due to get a new leader and legislature. Many residents who want full democracy say Beijing exerts too much control. Leader Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) was picked by an 800-member committee loyal to China. Beijing last year rejected quick democratic reform for Hong Kong. "Democracy and freedom are rights the whole world should have. You can't wait for them to be bestowed upon you. You need to fight for them yourself," said ambulance worker Tang Chiu-kim, 52.
■ Hong Kong
Pro-Beijing professor dies
Xiao Weiyun (蕭蔚雲), a Chinese law professor who helped draft Hong Kong's post-colonial mini-constitution and an outspoken critic of the city's struggle for democracy has died, Chinese state media reported. Pekjing University professor Xiao succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 81 while in the southern Chinese former Portuguese enclave Macau. He was one of four so-called guardians of the Basic Law, which proscribes Hong Kong and Macau's existence within China. The documents, which came into force at the end of the colonial period for Hong Kong in 1997 and Macau in 1999, put into practice former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's (鄧小平) "one country, two systems" doctrine that allows the freewheeling capitalist cities to exist within authoritarian China's command economy.
■ India
Five passengers crushed
Five passengers including a woman were crushed under the wheels of another train when they were forced out of the train they were travelling on by military men in Shikohabad in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Reports said the five passengers were travelling in an unreserved, general compartment when four soldiers forced them out of the train and onto the railway line while the train was stationary in a station.
A train coming from the opposite direction and crushed the five passengers in the darkness. The four accused soldiers were detained by the local police.
■ Malaysia
Measles kills 14
Thirteen children and an adult from a remote tribe have died in a measles outbreak in a Malaysian state on Borneo island. The outbreak started about three weeks ago, with the last death recorded a few days ago. The Sarawak state Deputy Chief Minister George Chan said, "We are trying to find out whether this is a new strain of the virus and why the outbreak is so serious." The dead were from the Penan tribe in Belaga, who'd never been exposed to measles.
■ Saudi Arabia
Scores injured in stampede
Some 20 to 25 pilgrims sustained injuries as a result of a minor stampede during the last day of the Moslem pilgrimage, or hajj, to the Saudi holy city of Mecca, a newspaper reported yesterday. Arab News said the incident, due to a torrential downpour that swept over Mina and Mecca before the hajj drew to a close Saturday, was brought immediately under control by alert security personnel. Many pilgrims were also reported missing in an otherwise trouble-free and peaceful hajj, which according to old-timers was the best organized ever.
■ Iran
Tehran downplays US threat
The government said yesterday it was not taking talk of a US attack seriously, but nevertheless cautioned Washington that any military action against the Islamic republic would be a "major strategic blunder." "It's nothing new. Once in a while America starts a psychological war," spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in response to a hardening of the tone by US officials against Iran. The perception that the US is embarking on a course of confrontation with Iran has grown since The New Yorker magazine reported that US agents have been operating inside Iran since mid-2004, secretly scouting targets for possible air strikes.
■ Spain
Minister jostled at rally
Defense Minister Jose Bono hastily left a political rally in downtown Madrid on Saturday after an angry crowd jeered and jostled him. The march was organized by the Association of Victims of Terrorism, mostly referring to people killed or wounded by the Basque separatist group ETA, but also to those killed or wounded in the March 11 train bombing by alleged Islamic militants. The theme was "remembrance, dignity and justice." Bono accompanied Rosa Diez, European Parliament deputy for the Basque Socialist Party. He left after some of the estimated 35,000 people in attendance shouted at him, apparently for the recently elected Socialist's uncertain policy on the ETA.
■ Monrovia
Arms dealer flees jail
A Czech businessman accused of illegally exporting arms to several countries including Iraq has been allowed to skip prison in Monrovia, where he was detained last month, a UN official said Saturday. Dalibor Kopp, 42, who had fled the Czech Republic after being charged in April, walked out of jail on Friday, with the help of an unnamed Liberian official, UN special envoy Abu Musa told AFP. "A representative of the state signed a temporary release certificate authorizing Mr Kopp to rejoin his family from Friday evening till Saturday," Musa said, suggesting that the official had been bribed.
■ United Kingdom
Killer `no longer dangerous'
Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper" who is serving a life sentence for the murders of 13 women, has told British officials he should be freed from prison because he is no longer dangerous, a newspaper reported yesterday. Sutcliffe allegedly wrote to the Home Office saying he deserves to be released because he has not committed a crime for 25 years, the People newspaper reported. "I am no longer an insane or dangerous person and I am not receiving treatment for any form of mental illness and I have not committed any criminal offense in over 25 years," according to the statement published by the People.
■ United States
Trump marries again
The flamboyant US real estate mogul and TV personality Donald Trump tied the knot for the third time on Saturday, marrying a blue-eyed Slovenian fashion model at a seaside church in the south of Florida. The 58-year-old Trump, whose two previous marriages, also to models, ended in divorce, married his companion of six years, 34-year-old Melania Knauss, in a half-hour ceremony that crowned three days of celebrations. Hundreds of people lined the road near the Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church Saturday, hoping to catch a glimpse of celebrity guests or "The Donald," who stars in his own television reality show The Apprentice.
■ Austria
Arnold's decision questioned
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger should be stripped of citizenship in his native Austria for approving the execution of a convicted killer, a leading Austrian politician said. Peter Pilz, a top official with the Green Party, said the Austria-born Schwarzenegger no longer is worthy of citizenship in his homeland because he broke the law by clearing Donald Beardslee's execution on Wednesday. Capital punishment is illegal in Austria, and Schwarzenegger -- who holds dual US-Austrian nationality -- should be stripped of his Austrian passport for "heavily damaging the reputation of the republic," Pilz said Saturday.
■ Iraq
US soldier sentenced
A US military court found a 1st Cavalry Division soldier guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi translator and sentenced him to three years in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge. Specialist Charley Hooser also was convicted on Saturday of making a false statement to investigators following the Nov. 24 shooting of the female translator, which occurred at an Army forward base in Baghdad, US command said.
■ United States
Hubble's future at risk
The future of the Hubble Space Telescope hangs in the balance, after the White House declined to approve the necessary funding to repair and upgrade the apparatus, US media reported. The White House, in consultation with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, eliminated the funding for the project -- estimated at over US$1 billion -- from NASA's proposed budget for fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1, The Washington Post said on Saturday, citing anonymous administration sources. According to Space.com, an online news service, NASA's budget would include funding for a robotic vehicle that would steer the telescope into the ocean when its batteries or gyroscopes stop functioning.
■ France
Man survives cave ordeal
A Frenchman lost in a labyrinth of disused mushroom caves said he had survived 35 days by eating rotten wood and clay, after being rescued only thanks to a teachers' strike. Jean-Luc Josuat-Verges, 48, told French newspapers he had gone to the deserted caves at Madiran in the Pyrenees in December seeking isolation during a spell of depression which had left him considering suicide. While wandering through the cave network the father-of-two's torch stopped working, and he was unable to find his way out. His abandoned car was found 35 days later by three children who were not at school because their teachers were on strike. The children alerted police who rescued Josuat-Verges from the caves.
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
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