■ Australia
Stolen tram taken on joyride
A teenager who was obsessed with trams took unwitting passengers on a joyride through Melbourne after stealing one of the vehicles, police said yesterday. The 15-year-old picked up several passengers after stealing the tram on Sunday night and driving across the city's tracks, according to news reports. Police finally stopped the tram after it traveled about 30km by cutting electricity to the overhead wires that power it. A policeman said the youth drove the vehicle out of a tram depot after stealing keys for it from another depot three weeks ago. "He's a nice lad, he's a good lad -- I think his obsession [with trams] just got the better of him," the officer said. The teen was charged with nine offenses, including two counts each of theft of trams and conduct endangering life.
■ Australia
Suit filed for horse collision
A woman and her daughter sued one of Australia's highest-profile horse trainers for negligence yesterday after a runaway thoroughbred crashed into their car outside a Sydney racecourse. Lawyers for Ruzica and Natalie Petrovic said the two suffered severe trauma in addition to physical injuries when the gelding Honour and Strength crashed into their car outside Randwick Racecourse in January 2001. The lawsuit claims the trainer of the horse, Gai Waterhouse, and the Australian Jockey Club, which runs the racecourse, were negligent over the incident. Semmler said Honour and Strength fled its handler after being frightened by a car inside the racecourse and caused a stampede that involved five other horses, four of which ran into a nearby street.
■ Afghanistan
Kids killed by stray bomb
Two children were killed and two others wounded by a bomb which was carried by floodwaters into a residential neighborhood in southeast Afghanistan, an official said yesterday. The youngsters were playing with the device when it detonated on Sunday in Itesarq Mena, a district west of Gardez city, said local security chief Ghulam Nadi Salim. One of the two injured children was in a critical condition and evacuated by US soldiers to a nearby base for treatment, he added.
■ South Korea
Tenacity pays off for driver
The motto for one would-be South Korean driver would be, "If at first you don't succeed, then try, try again 271 times." Seo Sang-moon passed the academic part of his driver's license examination on his 272nd attempt earlier this week. The repairman, who will soon turn 70, said he was illiterate and used the test process to teach himself the rules of the road because he could not read them in a manual. Since the oral exam was launched, Seo took the test as often as he could, paying about US$1,000 in fees along the way. Each failure taught him a little more, and after 271 attempts, he was able to get the minimum score needed to pass the academic test. Test officials were thrilled to see Seo pass.
■ Indonesia
Nuclear power on the way
The government has approved the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to be built starting in 2010 on the densely populated and earthquake-prone island of Java, news reports said yesterday. Soedyartomo Soentono, chief of the Indonesian National Atomic Agency, said the plant will be built on the Muria peninsula in Central Java. Soentono said he expected the plant would be operational by 2016.
■ United States
T-Rex tissue may have DNA
A well-preserved fossil skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex specimen found in Montana in 2003 has unexpectedly yielded soft tissue, leading scientists to speculate they could even find usable DNA. Writing in the journal Science, the head of a team of researchers from North Carolina State University, Mary Schweitzer, said: "It was totally shocking. I didn't believe it until we'd done it 17 times." The team has not ruled out the possibility of obtaining DNA from the specimen, which is 70 million years old, and thus of creating a live modern-day T-Rex to inhabit a real Jurassic Park. On examining a thigh bone, the team found unexpected material in the marrow cavity, which when dissolved in acid, left a flexible, stretchy material threaded with what appeared to be transparent and hollow blood vessels.
■ United Kingdom
Tapestries damaged on QE2
Thousands of pounds-worth of damage has allegedly been caused to tapestries on the Queen Elizabeth 2, when an alcohol-fuelled staff party got out of hand, it emerged Sunday. Several tapestries were damaged and one -- depicting members of the royal family -- is missing, believed to have been thrown overboard from the cruise liner in mid-Atlantic. Three crew members were sacked and arrested by police on suspicion of criminal damage when the QE2 docked at Southampton on Saturday following a three-month world cruise. They were questioned at the city's central police station about damage to three tapestries depicting royal scenes. A portrait of the Queen was also badly damaged during the alleged incident following what was meant to be an end-of-cruise staff party.
■ N Ireland
McCartneys hold pub vigil
Several hundred mourners and protesters on Sunday packed the narrow Belfast alleyway where Robert McCartney was murdered, and held a vigil despite threats to his sisters and rumors of a counter-demonstration by republicans. Paula McCartney said the turnout in torrential rain beside Magennis's bar, where Mr. McCartney was stabbed and beaten by IRA members after an argument, exceeded expectations. "After the difficult week we have had, it has restored my faith in human nature," she said.
■ Israel
Gaza pullout delay urged
The head of the Disengagement Authority has proposed postponing a Gaza pullout from late July to mid-August, citing Jewish religious considerations, his spokesman said yesterday. Israel Radio said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was considering the proposal, fearing that violating Jewish tradition would only boost opposition to the evacuation among settlers, many of whom are religious. Sharon's spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
■ United Nations
More girls going to school
More girls in countries around the world are going to school, though the gender gap in many regions remains wide, according to a new report by the UNICEF published yesterday. The latest Progress for Children report says the world has made impressive gains in getting the same number of girls as boys into school. Out of the 180 countries for which information is available, 125 are expected to have gender parity this year. According to UNICEF's estimates, about 96 girls for every 100 boys attend primary school.
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Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in