■ China
12 rescued from tunnel
Rescuers guided 12 weak and blindfolded workers out of a collapsed tunnel in Yunnan Province yesterday after they spent nearly one week in darkness, surviving on oxygen and milk transported to them through a narrow ventilation pipe, state media reported. One worker was carried out on a stretcher but the others managed to walk with support from rescuers, China Central TV reported. Large black blindfolds covered their eyes as they emerged to the bright lights of news cameras and photographers, the report said. All the men were in "good condition" but had been sent to a hospital, the report said. The collapse occurred last Tuesday night on the railroad that connects Guiyang and Kunming.
■ Australia
Spare the stabber: judge
A woman who stabbed her elderly mother 48 times with a kitchen knife because she complained her lamb chops were undercooked should be spared jail, the judge hearing the case said yesterday. Julie Smith, 49, pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury to her 71-year-old mother Barbara Smith last January in the Melbourne suburban home the two women shared. The court heard how Smith smashed a tray over the head of her mother, a bed-ridden invalid, and stabbed her 48 times with a bread knife after the elderly woman complained the lamb chops her daughter had prepared for her were not cooked enough.
■ Thailand
Copycat case opens
A Thai woman has been charged with murdering her husband, Briton Toby Charnaud, who penned a prize-winning short story about a man killed by his Thai wife months before his own death, media reports said yesterday. Charnaud's father, Jeremy, 61, has pressed charges against his son's wife and five accomplices for allegedly clubbing Toby, 41, to death and burying his remains in a national park in Phetchaburi Province, the Nation newspaper reported. According to Charnaud's family, Panada ran up gambling debts of 800,000 baht (US$20,000) which he had paid off as part of a divorce settlement. Ironically, Charnaud had written a short story titled Rainfall, that closely mirrored his own life and alleged murder.
■ China
Eating habits bring jail time
A man has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for digging up a woman's corpse and eating her ears, nose and breasts, the government said yesterday. Gui Jiachun was convicted of defiling a corpse by a court in Shitai County, Anhui Province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The court ruled that Gui should be imprisoned instead of hospitalized for mental illness because he was capable of controlling his actions, Xinhua said. Gui took an ax and a razor to the cemetery the same day that a fellow villager surnamed Lieu was buried. He exhumed her body and took home the body parts to cook and eat.
■ Philippines
Estrada launches Web site
Detained former president Joseph Estrada yesterday launched a Web site to tell his side of the story and defend himself against any bias and propaganda. The Web site (www.erap.ph) contains updates on Estrada's corruption trial, his various press statements, videos and a page for visitors to ask questions. Estrada was ousted by a military-backed mass uprising in 2001 due to allegations of massive corruption, including kickbacks from illegal gambling operations.
■ Chile
Five more dead troops found
Search teams have found the frozen bodies of five more soldiers who were among 41 men who went missing last week in a snowstorm in the Andes, said General Juan Emilio Cheyre, commander of the Chilean Army on Sunday. The number of deaths has now climbed to 26 of mostly young recruits caught in the Andes Wednesday during strong winds, heavy snowfall and temperatures under 20 degrees below zero. Nineteen soldiers are still missing, with little chance of finding them alive in the cold temperatures. Warning of bad weather was not heeded when a total of 433 soldiers set out Wednesday on a 25km march in mountainous terrain near the Antuco volcano, 500km south of Santiago.
■ Serbia
Man just can't kill himself
A psychiatric patient from the eastern Serbian town of Bor survived three consecutive suicide attempts Sunday, Belgrade Beta news agency reported. Jovan Ilic, 63, who was released from a local psychiatric hospital for the weekend, tried to jump under a van, but the driver stopped in time to prevent injury to Ilic, the report said. The pensioned miner than tried to end his life by leaping in front of a passing car, but again failed. In the end, Ilic attempted to jump under a train, but was rescued by swift-reacting police.
■ United Kingdom
BBC workers stage walkout
Journalists and technical workers at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) staged a 24-hour strike yesterday over plans to cut 3,780 jobs, seriously disrupting programming at the world's biggest public broadcaster. Striking staff had formed picket lines outside entrances to BBC buildings in London and union representatives using hand-held video cameras filmed the trickle of workers who ignored signs urging them not to cross the line. The walkout, which started on Sunday at midnight, was the first of four strikes set to hit the corporation, causing serious disruption across its radio and television output.
■ Ireland
Tax man cracks down
Thousands of people faced a deadline to inform the nation's tax collection agency they have been hiding funds in insurance policies. The Revenue Commissioners said those who admitted hiding funds in this manner would face reduced penalties, wouldn't have their names published in newspapers and would face no criminal charges. The agency said it expected its crackdown to yield about 1 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) from 10,000 tax dodgers. About 2,500 people already have made admissions and face a July 22 deadline to pay overdue tax, penalties and interest.
■ United Kingdom
Vast inequities in pay: study
Britain's top wage earners on average take home 16 times as much pay as workers on the lowest salaries, according to an annual study released yesterday by the GMB labor union. It said the average pay of company directors, at ?162,000 (US$296,000) was twice as high as the second highest-paid category, including finance directors and comptrollers. The lowest paid in a list of 342 jobs included theme park employees, supermarket shelf-stackers and cashiers, and some hotel staff. Paul Kenny, interim general secretary of the union, said that since the salaries of the lowest paid were closely controlled "the only way to tackle the resulting inequality is via the tax system."
■ United States
`Newsweek' tightens rules
Newsweek said that it would tightly limit the use of unnamed sources in the wake of a retracted report about a Koran being flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The magazine's two top editors, or other senior editors they designate, must approve articles with unidentified sources, Richard Smith, Newsweek's editor in chief, wrote in a letter to readers. "The cryptic phrase `sources said' will never again be the sole attribution for a story in Newsweek," Smith wrote, and single sources may be used only "when information provided by a source wishing to remain anonymous is essential to a sensitive story."
■ Colombia
Arms sought from China
The government plans to buy arms from China for its internal fight against leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups and drug trafficking, President Alvaro Uribe said Sunday. "Colombia, due to terrorist threats, has to be constantly buying weapons in the international market. Now we are asking the Chinese government to sell arms to the Colombian army," he said. The arms purchase plan follows a dispute between Colombia and Venezuela that began a couple of months ago when Venezuela, led by President Hugo Chavez, said it planned to buy 100,000 assault rifles from Russia and other military hardware from Spain.
■ United States
Missing girl found in trash
An 8-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted and buried under rocks in a trash bin was found alive by an officer searching a landfill in Lake Worth, Florida. The girl had minor injuries, was able to talk to authorities and was taken to a hospital. Milagro Cunningham, 17, who had been staying at the house of the girl's godmother, was charged with attempted murder, sexual battery on a child, false imprisonment, and charged as an adult. Police Sergeant Mike Hall was scouring the landfill for the girl when he looked inside the trashbin and saw a yellow recycling container with a lid on it. When he opened the lid, he saw a bunch of rocks, a foot and a hand.
■ United States
Hecklers target Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was heckled during a speech to Jewish leaders in New York, and as many as 1,500 demonstrators staged a noisy street protest outside against the disengagement plan he was defending. As Sharon spoke on Sunday, several protesters scattered throughout the crowd at Baruch College stood up, with one shouting, "Jews don't expel Jews." Sharon continued to speak, but the interruption grew louder, and the prime minister had to pause as protesters were escorted out of the Manhattan auditorium. He then received a warm ovation from the crowd of more than a thousand, which overwhelmingly favored his plan. "Usually I handle these things myself," he quipped before continuing.
■ Russia
Khodorkovsky trial goes on
The verdict hearing in the controversial trial of Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, entered its second week at a Moscow court yesterday. Defense lawyers say the tone of the proceedings so far clearly indicates a guilty verdict for Khodorkovsky and his business associate Platon Lebedev, who are both accused of fraud and tax evasion. However, the three-justice panel is reading from a judgement hundreds of pages long and lawyers believe it could be days before a final decision is announced.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was