■ Japan
Five die in group suicide
Five youths -- three women and two men -- were found dead in a car in central Mie Prefecture yesterday, in what police said was possibly another case of the growing trend of group suicides. The authorities said a police officer on a patrol found a car parked at a parking lot in the city of Yokkaichi Thursday morning. It was a rented car and the five were believed to have breathed in carbon monoxide from charcoal stoves. Some ashes were found from the charcoal stoves in the car the authorities said, adding that the five were believed to have died a few days ago. An increasing number of people, mainly youths, have been committing group suicide in Japan.
■ Australia
Police in crocodile blunder
Australian authorities trapped and killed a 1.8-meter saltwater crocodile that was taken from a woman's home and mistakenly released into a popular swimming hole, an official said oyesterday. Police in the northwestern town of Kununurra removed the crocodile from the woman's home in March, after she found the animal in her laundry room. The crocodile had been left there by a friend of the woman's son. The friend, a licensed crocodile catcher, had apparently planned to take it to a crocodile sanctuary the following day. Mistaking the man-eating saltwater crocodile for the less-dangerous freshwater species, police released it into the nearby Lily Creek Lagoon, a popular swimming and bird-watching area with a motor-home park and other accommodations on its shores. After realizing the officers' blunder, wildlife officers set traps around the lagoon and warned residents to stay away.
■ China
`Murderer' wants settlement
A Chinese man jailed for 11 years for murdering his wife who later turned up alive is claiming more than US$500,000 for his troubles. She Xianglin, a former security guard in central Hubei province, asked for 4.3 million yuan (US$519,600) in compensation for torture, confinement and economic loss. She, who said he was tortured into confessing to the murder, was jailed in 1994 and only freed after his wife reappeared in March this year. The case made headlines across China and sparked outrage over the country's arbitrary legal system and police brutality.
■ Australia
Ministry messes up e-mail
The foreign ministry apologized yesterday for a travel advisory which warned that Australia's western city of Perth is dangerous at this time of year. Subscribers to the foreign affairs department's e-mail travel advice received an overnight advisory reading: "This is a message to let you know that Perth is dangerous at this time of year." The department, which sometimes irritates neighboring nations with its warnings of overseas terrorism threats, said the message was mistakenly sent by an outside contractor while testing a new mail system, and has taken action to ensure that test messages will not be sent out again.
■ China
Huge Ferris wheel planned
Shanghai plans to build the world's tallest Ferris wheel with a diameter of 170m by 2008, which would best the current recordholder, Britain's London Eye. The Shanghai wheel would be built atop an entertainment complex housing a theater and other attractions. A revolving restaurant will be 130m up. Shanghai is busily upgrading its attractions in preparation for the World Expo, which it will host in 2010. The wheel, to be called the Shanghai Star, will overlook the city's Hongkou factory district. Each rotation will take 30 minutes, allowing it to carry up to 26,000 riders per day, each one paying 100 yuan (US$12). It will cost about 2.6 billion yuan (US$314 million).
■ Myanmar
Breastfed tiger cubs die
Two Bengal tiger cubs breast fed for weeks by a housewife have died of heat and dehydration. The black-striped, orange-brown cubs drew worldwide attention when Hla Htay, a mother of a baby boy, answered a plea for help from Yangon's zoo and fed the cats three times a day after they were rejected by their tigress mother. The male died on May 3, six days after his sister perished. "The main causes of death were scorching weather and lack of milk from the natural mother," Khin Maung Win of the Yangon Zoological Garden said. "We did all we could to save them. They were kept in an air-conditioned room, but their livers could not accept human milk," he said. Three cubs were born, but their mother killed one and refused to nurse the others.
■ China
Vatican missing a bishop
A Chinese Roman Catholic bishop has not been seen or heard of for four years, Vatican radio said. Shi Enxiang, aged 83, bishop of Yixian in the northern province of Hebei, is said to have disappeared in Beijing on April 13, 2001. Two cars with Hebei number plates were seen outside his nephew's house, where he was staying. Police and authorities have denied having played any part in his disappearance, and there are fears that he may have died in prison, like other bishops, the radio said, citing Fan Xueyan.
■ United Kingdom
Relief without pit stops
A couple on Tuesday explained how they drove from the north of Scotland to the south of Italy without leaving their vehicle for calls of nature, thanks to their portable toilet. Biochemist James Shippen and his colleague Barbara May took almost a week to complete the trip, using what appears to be the first lavatory ever installed in a car. Called the "Indipod," it was launched last year and costs US$555. It can be fitted into the trunks of minivans and four-wheel drive vehicles. The couple wanted to draw attention to the victims of rare illnesses such as Crohn's disease and colitis, which require frequent pit stops.
■ United Kingdom
Doctors back total ban
Doctors on Thursday called for a ban on smoking in all enclosed public places, saying government proposals for a partial ban could be unworkable. The British Medical Association, which represents three-quarters of the country's doctors, said plans to outlaw smoking in workplaces, restaurants and in pubs serving food do not go far enough. It wants Prime Minister Tony Blair's re-elected government to follow the example of Ireland, Norway and other countries that have banned smoking in all restaurants and pubs.
■ Iraq
Suicide bomber kills 15
At least 15 people were killed and 84 wounded in a car bomb explosion yesterday on a busy main street in the Jadida district of Baghdad, hospital officials said. Medics at Kindi hospital said they had received the bodies of 12 dead, three of them women, along with 76 wounded, including 10 women. Another three dead and eight wounded, three of them women, were taken to Ibn-Anafees hospital. An interior ministry official earlier put the initial toll at 12 dead and 55 wounded. The blast, in a busy mixed neighborhood, was caused by a suicide bomber, he said.
■ United States
Human smuggler busted
A Canadian citizen faces up to 10 years in prison and US$250,000 in fines after pleading guilty to attempting to smuggle 13 South Korean women and one man across the Canadian border into northern Idaho. Authorities say Sang Yoon "Steven" Kim, 29, a resident of Surrey, British Columbia of Korean descent, was part of a prostitution smuggling ring. He was arrested shortly after midnight on April 3 when US Border Patrol agents, acting on a tip, stopped a recreational vehicle he was driving and discovered the illegal immigrants lying on the floor and beds of the motorhome.
■ Russia
Chechen rebels killed
Russian forces killed 40 suspected rebels and detained another 10 in Chechnya over the past five days, a spokesman said yesterday, according to the Interfax news agency. Major General Ilya Shabalkin, the spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus region, said some of the militants had been killed by artillery fire in high mountain regions. Eight militants were killed on Monday in what Russian forces said was a foiled attempt to raid the hometown of the region's prime minister and his deputy. Shabalkin said Russian forces had also discovered three arms caches containing radio equipment, guns and ammunition, and components for explosives.
■ United States
Rice backs gun rights
Recalling how her father took up arms to defend fellow blacks from southern racists during segregation, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the constitutional right to own guns is as important as the right to free speech and religion. In an interview on Wednesday on CNN's Larry King Live, Rice said she came to that view from personal experience. She said her father, a black minister, and his friends armed themselves to defend the black community in Birmingham, Alabama, against the White Knight Riders in 1962 and 1963. She said if local authorities had had lists of registered weapons, she did not think her father and other blacks would have been able to defend themselves.
■ United States
Jesus used as a dieting tool
What would Jesus eat? is the title of one of a growing number of Christian diet plans crowding the lifestyle shelves of bookshops. Other bestsellers include The Maker's Diet, The Hallelujah Diet and Body by God. For the persistently overweight, they hold the promise of spiritual and bodily redemption. Don Colbert, a Florida doctor and author of What Would Jesus Eat? portrays his book as a way of putting some backbone into weak-willed believers. "They're letting the flesh rule them and they're eating anything they want," Colbert said. "We're making them accountable. Many people will not eat the right kinds of food unless they're held accountable and before they put something in their mouths ask: `Would Jesus eat this?'" Colbert said Jesus ate "whole grains, fresh fruits, seeds and nuts, rather than processed food." His book has recipes for Middle Eastern dishes such as hummus, made from ground chickpeas.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
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