■ China
Truck cushions boy's fall
A four-year-old boy escaped unscathed after falling from a fifth-floor window in Jiaozuo, Henan Province and landing in a truck full of cushions, a news report said yesterday. The boy crawled out of a window at his home and hit awnings as he plummeted towards the ground, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported. The awnings bounced him away from the side of the building and into the back of a parked truck that was filled with a load of cushions, the paper said. The truck driver found the boy lying spreadeagled on top of the cushions.
■ Indonesia
Papua crash kills 15
Fifteen people were killed and three critically injured yesterday when a plane operated by the police crashed in the sea as it was preparing to land in Papua Province, police said. The Casa 212 cargo aircraft with 18 people on board was approaching an airstrip in Sarmi district and crashed in the sea around 500m short of the runway, a spokesman said. Four crew members, all police officers, were killed in the crash, the spokesman said. The rest of the dead were civilian passengers, including local officials.
■ New Zealand
Welfare reform planned
The government is planning to radically reform the social welfare system to a create a single core benefit for the sick and unemployed -- a move never tried elsewhere in the world, Cabinet Minister Steve Maharey said yesterday. It would be the most significant reform since the ground-breaking Social Security Act in 1938, he said. The new system will combine seven different benefits and 36 separate supplementary payouts to the unemployed, permanent invalids, temporarily sick, widows and single parents, into one core payment which can be topped up to account for individual circumstances.
■ Japan
Wife killer gets death
A man was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for beating his 16-year-old wife to death at a cemetery parking lot and setting her body alight after marrying her for money. Hironobu Suzuki, 23, had married Yuko Ishibashi to adopt her family name so he could acquire new loans and evade creditors, according to documents filed at the Chiba District Court. In October 2003, when the teenager told him she would go to police about their marriage, Suzuki conspired with four other minors to bring his wife to a cemetery where they beat her with a hammer and crushed her under a rock. The group then burned her body with lighter fuel in the parking lot.
■ Sri Lanka
Grenade attack kills three
The death toll from a courtroom blast rose to three yesterday, one day after a suspect awaiting trial hurled a grenade during proceedings. A third victim succumbed to wounds in a hospital, said police spokesman Rienzie Perera. An additional 38 people were wounded. The explosion took place in Embilipitiya.
■ Australia
Sex on the Beech offered
Membership of the Mile High Club usually comes courtesy of a tawdry session in the toilet of a jumbo jet. But entrepreneur Anthony Sturges of Brisbane has fitted a double bed in the cabin of his Beech 18 aircraft and for a fee of A$425 (US$318) will take couples on a 45-minute joyride from Redcliffe airport. The couples get champagne, chocolate, strawberries and condoms.
■ Belgium
Bush jokes about welcome
US President George W. Bush joked on Monday that he would have liked to bask in widespread European admiration as "a friend to humankind" -- but that he knew better. Bush contrasted the welcome he expected to get to the glowing assessment early US diplomat and statesman Benjamin Franklin received 200 years ago as ambassador to France, where he was "beloved and esteemed." Bush quoted a contemporary's description of Franklin's standing in France, where "there was scarcely a peasant or citizen who did not consider him as a friend to humankind." "I've been hoping for a similar reception," the US president quipped, drawing laughter that doubled when he added: "But Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice told me I should be a realist."
■ United States
Hilton's book posted
First, an intimate video of Paris Hilton was sold on the Internet, and now her address book has been posted for all to see, to the dismay of people at the phone numbers in it. "Her information is on the Internet," T-Mobile spokesman Bryan Zidar told CNN. "We don't know if it was hacked or if someone got a hold of her password." The hotel heiress used Sidekick II, which stores information on a server, including some of her phone numbers, Zidar said. "I got 100 calls in two hours," said Victoria Gotti, daughter of late mafioso John "Dapper Don" Gotti, told the Daily News.
■ Russia
Nine killed in Grozny clash
Nine Russian soldiers were killed and three were injured when a building collapsed on a poultry farm on the outskirts of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday. The ITAR-Tass news agency said the soldiers were killed in a clash with Chechen rebels. ITAR-Tass cited military prosecutors as saying that the building collapsed due to a mortar attack, according to one version under investigation, and that 11 soldiers had come under fire. Interfax said the soldiers were killed late Monday, and that one rebel was killed.
■ United States
Rare coin auctioned
A copper penny minted in 1792 and kept in a tobacco tin for decades was auctioned on Monday for US$437,000. The winning bidder was not identified. The penny's owners were descendants of Oliver Wolcott, the governor of Connecticut in the 1790s and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, according to auctioneer Ira Goldberg. "The historical importance of this coin cannot be overstated," said Michael Sherman, vice president of Professional Coin Grading Service, which directed a team of experts who authenticated the coin.
■ United States
Asians best educated
Asian immigrants to the US are on average more educated than immigrants from other countries, according to US Census Bureau data released yesterday. Nearly 50 percent of all Asian immigrants have at least a bachelor's degree, almost twice as high as the proportion of European immigrants with completed university educations and four times the rate among Latin American immigrants. The data also indicate that Asian immigration to the US has been slowing in the first five years of the current decade, compared to the 1990s. Nearly half of immigrants from Asia settle in the western US.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of