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World News Quick Take

■ Japan
Students killed in collision
Three teenagers were killed and 22 injured yesterday morning when a driver ran a red light and sent his vehicle and another car plowing into a group of high school students in northern Japan, police said. Police in Tagajo city arrested Hikaru Sato, a 26-year-old company employee, on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Breathalyzer tests showed he had been drinking, a Miyagi prefectural police official said on condition of anonymity. Sato, who was driving a sport utility vehicle, ran the light and crashed into another car that was waiting to make a turn. Both vehicles slammed into the students, who were crossing the street at the time.

■ South Korea
North's ships in historic stop
North Korean cargo ships were scheduled to dock in South Korea yesterday for the first time in 21 years to pick up fertilizer for the impoverished country, officials said. The visit comes after South Korea last week agreed to give 180,000 tonnes of fertilizer to the North -- a deal that coincided with an agreement by the rivals to hold Cabinet-level talks next month. Three ships were set to arrive yesterday at separate ports in South Korea, officials said on condition of anonymity. North Korean cargo ships last came to South Korea in 1984, to deliver aid to the South after massive flooding from a typhoon.

■ India
Bird census to be conducted
The government will launch a census of its vultures, a group of ornithologists said yesterday, as the birds are vanishing rapidly due to a mystery virus and shrinking nesting sites. The population of vultures, nature's scavenger and rodent controller, has fallen from tens of thousands just a decade ago to a few thousands also because of a veterinary drug found in cattle carcasses that the birds feed on, experts say. "The vulture population in India has declined over 80 percent over the last few years. We have decided to conduct a census in select sanctuaries and reserve forests in view of that," said V.S. Vijayan, director of the Madras-based Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History.

■ Australia
Deported woman to return
A woman wrongly deported to the Philippines is likely to return to Australia this week for the first time in four years, her lawyer said yesterday. Philippines-born Vivian Alvarez was deported in 2001 by government officials who mistakenly classified her as an illegal immigrant. Following recent media coverage of her case, it emerged she had been living since 2001 in a convent hospice in Olongapo city north of Manila. The Australian government has offered to assist the woman, who also used the surnames Solon and Young, return home. Her lawyer yesterday said discussions during his recent visit to Manila had focused on her return to Australia, where her two children live.

■ Bangladesh
Tornado injures 50 people
A fierce tornado tore through eastern part of the country yesterday, leaving at least 50 villagers injured, destroying more than 600 homes and uprooting electric poles, an official said. The tornado struck at least 10 villages at Kosba in Brahmanbaria district, 80km east of the capital, Dhaka, the area's chief administrator Habibur Rahman told reporters. About 1,500 people were left homeless after the tornado struck early yesterday, Rahman said.

■ France
`Non' edges ahead in polls
Both sides in France's debate on the EU constitution stepped up campaigning on Saturday as the sixth successive poll in a week showed a slim majority for the "No" camp ahead of a May 29 referendum. With the vote expected to be a cliffhanger, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin urged French voters not to be timid or to turn their backs on Europe. "Have confidence in France's strength. Let's not let ourselves be wrapped up in selfishness and individualism," he told a pro-constitution rally just outside Paris. Opponents of the treaty, led by prominent left-wingers, staged another large rally in the center of the capital.

■ United States
Kid gets stuck in machine
James Manges II managed to climb up the chute and inside a crane vending machine Thursday, swinging around for an hour amid the plush toys he coveted before firefighters freed him. James' mother, Danielle Manges, said that after she denied him money to play the vending-machine game, he threw a juice box and climbed into the machine while his mother picked it up. "Within two seconds he had climbed through the hole, into the chute and pushed the door shut so we couldn't get him out," she said. At first, Manges thought it was funny: "He was playing with all the toys and hanging from the bar like a monkey." But his mother soon became upset when Wal-Mart employees said they did not have a key to let James out. Firefighters removed the back of the machine to free James.

■ Ethiopia
Floods kill 27
Flash floods killed 27 people, many as they slept, in the eastern Ethiopian town of Dire Dawa, which lies on one of the country's key railway lines, the Ethiopian News Agency reported on Saturday. The flood, caused by heavy rains in Ethiopia's highlands, destroyed many houses in the town 400km east of the capital Addis Ababa, which lies on the landlocked country's railway link to neighbouring Djibouti's Red Sea coast. "The Dechatu River, which follows across the eastern town, burst its banks and washed away houses built along its banks, killing 27 people, including six children in their sleep," the agency said.

■ France
Release of Catholics urged
The Archbishop of Marseille called Saturday for the liberation of 40 Pakistanis arrested recently in Saudi Arabia for celebrating a Catholic mass in a private house. "Often it's manual laborers who don't have the right to practise their religion in Saudi Arabia," said Cardinal Bernard Panafieu during a press conference, adding that religious freedom is one of the human rights recognized by the Charter of the UN.

■ United States
Coney Island crash kills 4
A small plane on a sightseeing tour over Coney Island went into a tailspin and slammed into the famous beach, killing all four people aboard but injuring none of the stunned sunbathers who witnessed the crash. The victims died at the scene of the Saturday afternoon crash of the Cessna 172S, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said. There were relatively few people on the beach at the time, and no one on the ground was hurt. Eyewitnesses said the plane was circling above the Brooklyn beach when its engine suddenly stalled, and the aircraft quickly plunged into the beach. The pilot tried desperately to right the four-year-old plane after it went into a tailspin, said Herbert Lecler, 51, who was fishing on the beach.

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