■ Vietnam
Three people electrocuted
A man and his two son's were electrocuted while installing a television antenna in southern Vietnam, a local official said yesterday. Nguyen Van Le, 51, and his sons, aged 30 and 18, were killed trying to install the antenna on the roof of their home in Soc Son commune in the Mekong Delta region, said Diep Quoc Phong, an officer with the commune people's committee. "The electrocution occurred when the antenna suddenly fell onto an electric cable running across the roof," Phong said. The three were killed instantly while a third son, 28-year-old Nguyen Van Diep, was seriously injured, Phong said.
■ Singapore
Maids a `murderous team'
Two Indonesian maids formed a "murderous tag team" to suffocate a Singaporean woman, news reports yesterday quoted the prosecution as saying at the start of the defendants' murder trial. Deputy Public Prosecutor Amarjit Singh said Monday that evidence would show the two maids allegedly planned a week ahead to kill Esther Ang Imm Suan, a 47-year-old oil-rig company purchasing officer, steal her cash and valuables and fake a robbery. Ang's maid, Juminem, 19, and her former husband's domestic helper, Siti Aminah, 16, have been accused of strangling the woman and using a wine bottle to hit her abdomen and head several times at her condominium on March 2 last year. They each took turns suffocating Ang with a pillow and jumping on her abdomen, The Straits Times reported.
■ New Zealand
Airplane's wheel falls off
A wheel fell off a Mount Cook Airlines plane with 60 people aboard as it was taxiing down the runway for takeoff at Christchurch Airport, it was reported yesterday. The 66-seater ATR aircraft's nose landing gear axle broke, but it was safely brought to a halt and nobody was hurt in Monday's mishap, Radio New Zealand reported. The airline initiated an inquiry, and general manager Peter O'Regan said the plane was only six years old, was checked regularly and had been reliable to date.
■ China
Greenpeace fights for trees
The environmental group Greenpeace and Singapore-based Asia Pulp and Paper Co (APP) are again clashing over a large Chinese project, this time a paper plant in southern Hainan Province, state media said yesterday. Hainan Jinhai Pulp and Paper Co, a subsidiary of the paper making giant which also has extensive operations in Indonesia, officially started production Monday amid protests from environmental campaigners. the China Daily reported. With a capacity to produce a million tonnes of pulp every year, it is the largest project of its kind in China, according to the newspaper. "APP is promoting a manufacturing method that combines tree planting, pulp and paper-making together in the industry," said Yao Xusheng, chief executive for APP in China.
■ Japan
PM takes advice from Gere
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose tension with political foes often spills over, got some advice yesterday from American actor Richard Gere -- follow the Dalai Lama and listen to your rivals. Gere was in Japan to promote his film Shall We Dance? and Koizumi took him up on the offer, taking his hands for a few steps with the actor in front of the cameras at the prime minister's residence. Gere told reporters later that Koizumi promised to see the film, a remake of the 1996 Japanese original by the same name, "at least 10 times."
■ United States
Ex-envoys oppose Bolton
Fifty-nine former US envoys oppose the nomination of John Bolton to be the US ambassador to the UN, according to a letter that was to be delivered to Senator Richard Lugar, the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. "We urge you to reject that nomination," the former diplomats said in the letter. They took issue with what they said was Bolton's view that the UN is valuable only when it directly serves the interest of the US. They also said Bolton has an exceptional record of opposing efforts to enhance US security through arms control and has worked for Taiwan as a paid researcher and has said Taiwan should be treated as a sovereign state.
■ Czech Republic
Load of manure kills driver
A tractor driver died under 8 tonnes of manure in a bizarre accident that has baffled his employers, local media reported. The 34-year old man suffocated after the load fell on him while he was dumping it in a field near the western city of Karlovy Vary, according to the news Web Site www.novinky.cz on Sunday. "It absolutely beats me how this could happen," said Vladimir Erps, chief of the company employing the victim. "The truck is operated from the tractor cabin, using hydraulics. There was nothing for him to do under the truck, but it's tough to blame him now that he is dead," he said.
■ South Africa
Surfer survives shark bite
A British surfer who was attacked by a great white shark off the coast of Cape Town on Monday escaped with just bites to his legs. Chris Sullivan, 32, paddled 500m to the shore after being bitten and was given first aid by a South African doctor who happened to be on the beach. Sullivan was then flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where he received 200 stitches for deep multiple bite wounds to his lower right leg and foot. A nurse said Sullivan had spoken of his terror as he turned around to see the 4m-long shark heading towards him. "He was shocked but when it took hold of him he managed to kick it with his other leg and then punch it," she said. "Then he hauled his right leg free and got away."
■ Belarus
Protesters jailed for demo
A court on Monday sentenced all 24 people arrested last Friday for demanding President Alexander Lukashenko's resignation to jail terms of up to 15 days for violating regulations on holding demonstrations, a human-rights organization said. One of the leaders of the protest was fined 1.2 million rubles (US$560). Police and special forces police using dogs broke up the protest by 300 people outside the presidential building on Friday. Opposition politicians and human rights activists said those arrested had been beaten and that many needed to be hospitalized.
■ United States
Bible study leads to change
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday threw out the death penalty in a rape-and-murder case because jurors had studied Bible verses during deliberations. On a 3-2 vote, justices ordered Robert Harlan to serve life in prison without parole for kidnapping 25-year-old cocktail waitress Rhonda Maloney in 1994 and raping her at gunpoint for two hours. The jurors in Harlan's 1995 trial sentenced him to die, but defense lawyers discovered five of them had looked up Bible verses, copied them down and talked about them while deliberating a sentence behind closed doors.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not