■ Philippines
Plane crash kills four
Four people were killed and two others injured on Sunday when a private Cessna plane crashed shortly after taking off from an airstrip in the Philippines. The six-seater plane plunged into a coconut grove near the private airstrip in Tanauan town, Batangas province, 70km south of Manila, said air force Colonel Eduardo Oban. The bodies of the four fatalities were found near the crash site, while the two injured victims were rushed to a nearby hospital. Oban said the identities of the casualties and the survivors were still being determined, but added that all were Filipino and mostly skydivers.
■ Fiji
Tourist found dead in hotel
An Australian has been found dead in his hotel room in the capital Suva and authorities suspect foul play, the Australian foreign ministry said yesterday. The 22-year-old man from Queensland state died early Saturday, possibly as the result of an assault, a ministry spokeswoman said. Fiji police are investigating. Fijian tourist Web site fijilive.com said police were looking for a Fijian male in connection with the case. Police spokeswoman Constable Prashila Narayan said the suspect was seen in the company of the tourist at his hotel. Narayan said the cause of death remained unclear but injuries were found on the body.
■ South Korea
Defense drill to be held
The maritime police plan a defense drill near two disputed islands next week to prevent any "violence of sovereignty" amid lingering tension with Japan, which also claims the isles, Yonhap news agency said yesterday. Relations between the neighboring nations have deteriorated since February when Japanese nationalists began stressing Tokyo's claim to the two rocky South Korean-held islands, known as Tokto in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan. The drill, scheduled for May 17, will be held about 10km northwest of the islands midway between the two countries, Yonhap News quoted a provincial police agency and a coast guard as saying.
■ Pakistan
Man found with explosives
Police in the capital have arrested a soldier who was carrying 1kg of explosives and some detonators, police said yesterday. The man, named by police as Imtiaz Hussain, was arrested on Friday during a routine check of passengers at a bus station on the outskirts of Islamabad, one policeman said. The Daily Times newspaper said the man had been planning an attack but police, intelligence and military officials could not confirm the report. Security agents have made a series of arrests across Pakistan since Monday's capture of senior Islamic militant Abu Faraj Farj al Liby, a Libyan whom President George W. Bush described as one of Osama bin Laden's top generals.
■ Hong Kong
Police raid legal aid office
Police were embroiled in an unprecedented legal row over attempts to raid the Legal Aid Department for sensitive materials linked to a rape case and alleged false evidence, press reports said yesterday. The department criticized the police for violating the "fundamental human right" of attorney-client privilege to protect confidential legal documents. It filed a writ against Police Commissioner Dick Lee asking the court to set aside two search warrants on its office. The court later granted the department an interim junction against the raids, the Sunday Morning Post reported.
■ Canada
Church torn by gay unions
Canadian Anglican leaders, embroiled in a debate over the blessing of same-sex unions, voted to "attend but not participate" in a June meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, which brings together bishops, clergy and others representing the world's 77 million Anglicans. US Episcopal bishops, fighting fallout from their consecration of the church's first openly gay bishop, decided last month to also withdraw from official participation in the council. Anglican leaders asked the church's North American branches to voluntarily withdraw their members from the council, following the consecration of gay US bishop Gene Robinson in 2003 and the blessing of same-sex unions in Canada.
■ Hungary
`Hijackers' forced to land
The air force forced a light plane to land on Saturday after an emergency signal was picked up indicating the aircraft had been hijacked. The signal turned out to be a false alarm and the plane had not been hijacked. Two fighter jets forced the plane to land at an air field in northwest Hungary from where it had taken off.
■ United Kingdom
TV chef to fix hospital food
British doctors are urging a celebrity chef who pressured the government into improving school dinners to help their campaign to boost the state of hospital food. TV chef Jamie Oliver famed for his "Naked Chef" books and TV shows, embarrassed the government into donating ?220 million (US$416 million) before this week's election with a television series in which he tried to feed children on the government's budget. "Just as we now know that good food is important for kids' general well-being, nutrition is also crucial to the healing process," said Oliver's spokesman.
■ United States
St. Mary of the underpass
A stain on the wall of an expressway underpass that some believe resembles the Virgin Mary is again attracting hundreds of visitors after two carwash employees cleaned graffiti and brown paint off the image, using a degreaser to clean the wall on their lunch break. Chicago police had directed transportation workers to paint over the image with brown paint for safety reasons. A man believing visitors were worshipping a graven image scrawled the words ``Big Lie'' in shoe polish over it, and was charged with criminal damage to state property. After it was cleaned, onlookers could again see the Virgin Mary, what was likely the result of salt runoff on the emergency turnoff area under the Kennedy Expressway.
■ United Kingdom
Astrology linked to motoring
Drivers born under the signs of Libra, Cancer, Pisces, Taurus, Capricorn are least likely to keep their cars clean, according to a survey that explores the astrological roots of motoring cleanliness. They simply head to the car wash, or bring out the bucket and hose, when their vehicle is "too dirty to drive," says the survey of more than 1,000 people by a supplier of car care products. When asked which chore they would chose over the traditional Sunday morning car wash, 36 percent said they'd prefer to mow the lawn. Leos, Pisceans and Taureans would all opt to slave over a hot stove, and Librans and Scorpians to wash the dishes. One in three Aquarians would rather sort out the garbage.
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