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World News Quick Take

■ China
Jailed dissident freed
Uighur dissident Rebiya Kadeer was released from jail yesterday on medical parole. "Rebiya Kadeer has been released and she is presently on a plane for the United States," said John Kamm, head of the rights group Duihua Foundation. Kadeer was among the most prominent members of the Uighur ethnic group in the largely Muslim Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. She was charged in 1999 with "providing secret information to foreigners" and ordered jailed for eight years after a secret trial. Her release coincided with the US announcing it would not propose a motion criticizing China at this year's session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
■ China
Bus explodes, kills 30
An explosion on a passenger bus killed about 30 people and injured at least seven early yesterday in eastern Jiangxi Province. The double-decker bus was travelling overnight from Shenzhen to Zhejiang when the explosion happened at 4am on an expressway near Shangrao city. The force of the blast was so strong that it damaged nearby houses and injured several people outside the bus, the agency said. Police were still unsure of the exact death toll because of the devastation caused by the explosion, or the cause of the blast.

■ China
Joint exercises planned
Russia's army chief Yury Baluyevsky arrived in China yesterday to plan the first joint military exercises between the two countries. The chief of general staff was expected to hold talks with his counterpart Liang Guanglie in Beijing, then go to Sanya, a seaside military base. His trip is aimed at bringing the neighbors closer militarily, boosting cooperation between them, and "better coordinate the fight against terrorism." The two sides are due to hold their first-ever joint military exercise in August or September. They will include the army, navy, air force units and submarines.

■ Japan
Mob attacks wrong man
Two gangsters apologized to the man they had repeatedly stabbed at his apartment after realizing he was not the one they were looking for. Ken Nakasuji, 28, and Masahiko Ohtsuka, 21, were arrested for allegedly trying to kill a 27-year-old businessman. The assailants, who were after a man who had money troubles with the gang, stormed the apartment after the man opened the door at 7am. During the ordeal, the victim said they had the wrong man and gave his name and place of work. The assailants soon realized he was right. "Sorry. It was a mistake. You almost died," one of the assailants told the victim. "If you tell this to the police, we will kill you." The victim apparently looked like the man the gangsters were looking for and lived in the same apartment building.

■ Philippines
Bad pasta ruins graduation
Eighty-four children and parents were hospitalized yesterday for food poisoning after they ate contaminated spaghetti. The victims, aged one to 44 years, ate the spaghetti after graduation rites at a daycare center. The victims suffered abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhea one hour after eating the food. Preliminary laboratory results showed the poisoning was caused by staphylococcus, a bacteria that grows when food is not properly prepared and stored. A team of epidemiologists has been dispatched to the area to further investigate the incident, the second mass poisoning in the Philippines this month.

■ Germany
Sex toy mistaken for bomb
A parcel which vibrated and made strange noises caused panic in a post office before it was revealed that it was an inflatable erotic doll. "The post office worker thought it could have been a dangerous object, even a bomb," Chemnitz police said. The police were called and noticed that the sender's address was on the package. When they confronted the red-faced sender of the parcel, he explained it was a life-size doll which he had folded up to send back to the manufacturers because it had failed to have the desired effect.

■ Italy
La Scala staff revolt
Milan's fabled opera house, La Scala, is in turmoil after its musicians and other employees voted overwhelmingly for the resignation of its musical director, Riccardo Muti, and the entire governing board. The former general manager, Carlo Fontana, whose repeated clashes with Muti are at the root of the continuing emergency, was exultant. "The people of La Scala have rejected absolute monarchy," he said. Fontana was dismissed by the board and replaced with Muti's choice, the former artistic director Mauro Meli.

■ United Kingdom
Chester gets toasted
A group of people with 400 loaves of bread in Chester, England broke a world record by creating the largest mosaic of toast ever. The team assembled 7,000 slices of stale bread -- toasted to varying degrees from slightly golden to black -- into three logos that covered an area of 65m2. "We wanted to choose a record that was linked with food," said Nerys Atkins, a spokeswoman for the project, part of the annual Chester Food and Drinks Festival. Each piece of toast was stuck to the ground with jam. The toast mosaic was to be scooped up and taken to the city zoo to be used as animal feed.

■ Iran
Murderer hanged publicly
People cheered Wednesday as a man convicted of murdering at least 20 people, most of them children, was publicly executed in a town square. As relatives of the victims looked on, court officials took turns to administer 100 lashes to Muhammad Bijeh's bare back, leaving it raw and bloodied, before hanging him from a rope attached to a crane. Spectators chanted "Marg bar Bijeh!" (Death to Bijeh) as the 24-year-old former brick worker was hoisted high above the run-down town of Pakdasht. Bijeh's hanging was the final act in a case which had transfixed the country. Nicknamed the Tehran desert vampire by Iran's media, Bijeh was convicted of killing 17 children and three adults after confessing to the authorities.

■ United Kingdom
Man jailed for infecting
An African asylum-seeker jailed for recklessly infecting three women in Britain with HIV when he knew he had the virus lost an appeal against his conviction and 10-year sentence yesterday. Malawian-born Feston Konzani, 28, had been found guilty last year of inflicting grievous bodily harm. His lawyer argued that the women knew the risk when they had unprotected sex with him. During his trial in May, Konzani was branded a "sexual predator." He had infected a 15-year-old virgin, whom he held against her will at his home, a 26-year-old voluntary worker and a 27-year-old African student, who gave birth to his child. Konzani, who was not present in court, is due to be deported to Malawi once he has served his sentence.

■ United Kingdom
Equal taxes granted to gays
Lesbian and gay couples took another step towards full equality in Britain with provision in the UK budget announced Wednesday to grant same-sex "civil partnerships" the same tax advantages enjoyed by married couples. Crucially the planned changes to the tax rules will allow people to bequeath their assets to a same-sex partner without incurring inheritance tax. Transferring assets between same-sex partners will also fall outside the rules governing capital gains tax. The changes to the tax regime follow the passing last November of the Civil Partnership Act in the UK, which encountered some resistance in the House of Lords but will come into force on Dec. 5 this year.

■ Spain
Last Franco statue removed
Madrid workers yesterday removed the only statue of 1939-75 dictator Francisco Franco remaining in the Spanish capital amid applause and protests under the watchful eye of police. A public works ministry representative said the government had ordered to take the statue away to facilitate the construction of an underground tunnel and because "most Madrid residents did not appreciate it." Anti-Franco campaigners have for years called on Spain to remove statues, street names and other tributes to the general. The 7m statue on Madrid's San Juan de la Cruz square in the centrally located Nuevos Ministerios area showed Franco riding forward with a scepter in hand.

■ United States
Army captain convicted
An Army captain accused of terrorizing an Iraqi town under his supervision was convicted of assaulting Iraqis, but acquitted of charges stemming from an alleged assault of one of his own soldiers. Shawn Martin was convicted Wednesday of two assault counts and an aggravated assault count. A jury of seven officers found Martin innocent of other counts of assault, aggravated assault, obstruction of justice and conduct unbecoming of an officer. Martin had faced up to 44 1/2 years in prison and loss of his military pension if convicted of all charges. He could receive six months in prison for each assault conviction, and eight years for the aggravated assault count.

■ Spain
Pedophile suspects nabbed
More than 500 suspected pedophiles who traded material over the Internet have been arrested in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America, Spanish police coordinating the operation said yesterday. Police told reporters 19 arrests were made in Spain, with the remainder in France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Uruguay after thousands of pornographic images and videos featuring children were discovered.

■ Russia
Airplane crash kills 29
An airliner carrying oil workers to Russia's frigid northern coast crashed and caught fire Wednesday, killing 29 of the 53 people on board, and survivors used a satellite phone to call for rescue from the wreck site north of the Arctic Circle, government officials said. At least 10 were gravely injured. The An-24 two-engine turboprop aircraft crashed while trying to reach an airport near the oil port of Varandei in the Nenets autonomous region on Russia's Pechora Sea shoreline, some 1,800km northeast of Moscow.

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