■ Indonesia
6.3 quake, but no injuries
A strong earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast yesterday, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. The 6.3-magnitude tremor was recorded at 1:34pm, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Indonesian seismologists put the magnitude at 5.8 and said the underwater quake was centered about 50km southeast of Sinabang, the main town of Simeulue island. Simeulue island is located off the west coast of Sumatra island. The quake sparked brief panic in Sinabang, but did not trigger a tsunami. Indonesia has been repeatedly rocked by temblors after a massive tsunami-producing quake hit off its coast on Dec. 26, killing more than 176,000 people in 11 countries, and left about 50,000 missing and hundreds of thousands homeless.
■ Thailand
Thai journalist attacked
A Thai journalist was shot and wounded in an apparent reprisal for his reporting on criminal gangs' illegal land appropriations in tsunami-hit southern Thailand. Matichon daily newspaper reporter Manop Rattanacharungporn was shot in the leg by two unidentified attackers on June 1 while he was driving home in the southern province of Phang Nga, Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday. The newspaper believes the attack was prompted by articles written by Manop, a freelance contributor to the paper, about criminal groups' illegal acquisition of state-owned coastal areas after the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami, published about a month before the attack. The Department of Special Investigations, or DSI, has placed the reporter in a witness protection program, according to Reporters Without Borders.
■ Australia
'People-smuggler' guilty
A jury found an Iraqi man guilty of people smuggling yesterday for organizing an ill-fated boat voyage from Indonesia to Australia in which 353 asylum seekers drowned. Khaleed Shnayf Daoed, an Iraqi goldsmith, had pleaded not guilty. Supreme Court Judge Philip McMurdo adjourned the court for a psychological report to be completed before sentencing. In October 2001 a rickety Indonesian boat, its engine broken down, capsized en route to Australia in the Indian Ocean. A total of 353 mostly Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers, many women and children, drowned. Only 45 people survived the capsizing. Each had paid about US$500 to get to Australia's remote Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, where they hoped to lodge asylum claims.
■ China
Deadly gas leaks in mine
Seven people died and more than 20 were believed to be missing after poisonous gas filled a coal shaft in Hunan Province yesterday. Local safety officials said they were "still unclear" about the number of miners missing underground at the Zijiang coal mine in Hunan's Loudi city, but the officia news agency said at least 20 were believed to be missing. The gas poured into the shaft late yesterday morning, causing at least seven miners to suffocate to death, the agency said. City officials said the former state-run mine was now licensed under a private owner. More than 6,000 workers were killed in accidents in Chinese coal mines last year alone.
■ China
Gamer sentenced to death
An online gamer was sentenced to death in Shanghai over the murder of a fellow player in a dispute over a virtual weapon used in a fantasy game. Qiu Chengwei, 41, was found guilty of stabbing to death Zhu Caoyuan, a fellow player of the game Legend of Mir III. His sentence was suspended for two years and could be reduced to 15 years in prison with good behavior. Qiu confronted Zhu in February after learning that he sold the virtual weapon Qiu had lent him. Zhu promised to hand over the 7,200 yuan (US$870) that he received, but Qiu grew impatient and attacked Zhu at his home.
■ Cambodia
Undie-clad gang strikes again
Robbers who strike while wearing only underwear, their bodies slathered with oil to make them slippery and harder to catch, have resurfaced. Two unidentified, underwear-clad burglars robbed homes in the southern province of Takeo last week. Residents had started a community watch program to prevent such crimes. But "the underwear thieves resurfaced in my region because the villagers stopped," police chief Sok Tum said, adding that the residents were busy with farming. The thieves apparently wear only underwear in an attempt to make themselves harder to identify.
■ Singapore
Gay festival banned
One of Asia's largest gay and lesbian festivals held annually in Singapore has been banned after authorities ruled it was "contrary to public interest." It is the third time in six months Singapore has outlawed a gay event, signalling a marked change in government policy after it had recently shown greater tolerance towards homosexuality. " "Nation.05," a gay dance party which has been staged yearly in Singapore since 2001, will be moved to Phuket, Thailand. Last year's party drew more than 8,000 revellers.
■ Israel
Clot killed Jesus: scientist
A researcher has challenged the popular belief that Jesus died of blood loss on the cross, saying he probably succumbed to a sometimes fatal disorder now associated with long-haul air travel. Benjamin Brenner wrote in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis that Jesus's death, traditionally believed to have occurred three to six hours after crucifixion began, was probably caused by a blood clot that reached his lungs. Such pulmonary embolisms, leading to sudden death, can stem from immobilization, multiple trauma and dehydration, Brenner said.
■ United States
Stowaway found in pieces
The body of an apparent stowaway was ripped in half during flight and his leg crashed into a suburban New York neighborhood, where a homeowner found the severed limb in the middle of her lawn. Pam Hearne heard "a loud crash" Tuesday and later was stunned to see a foot clad in an Adidas sneaker and a sock in her yard. The leg, with hip and spine attached, dented the shingled roof of her garage before bouncing onto the lawn. Police suspect the remains are from a stowaway who may have been crushed as the South African Airways jet lowered its landing gear on its approach to Kennedy Airport.
■ Israel
Burglars go for the gold
Burglars have stripped Israel's only Olympic champion of his gold medal. Gal Fridman, winner of the Mistral Windsurfing event at the Athens Olympics last year, had left his gold medal and a bronze medal he won in the 1996 games at his parents' house in central Israel for safekeeping. Thieves broke in on Tuesday and stole the two medals along with jewelry and his father's gun. "They can't take my sporting achievements away from me," Fridman said, appealing to the thieves to return the medals, told reporters.
■ Germany
Flea market find yields cash
A German woman was astonished to find deutschemark banknotes and account savings books worth 100,000 euros (US$123,000) tucked in the lining of an old washing basket she bought at a flea market. The woman bought the basket for just seven euros but decided to remove the material because it smelled. Inside she found 30,000 deutschemarks (US$18,830) in banknotes and two savings books for accounts containing 170,000 deutschemarks, a police spokesman in the town of Grafenau said on Tuesday. Deutschemarks were abandoned in favor of the euro in January 2002 but can still be exchanged for the new currency.
■ Northern Ireland
Murderer escapes guards
A convicted Belfast murderer attacked two guards and escaped from a suburban courthouse on Tuesday -- the second time he has mounted a courtroom getaway. Police aided by a surveillance airplane searched a nearby railway line for David Taggart, 24, who had been appearing at Lisburn Magistrates Court, southwest of Belfast, to face charges of attempted murder and making a death threat. Officers said they fired live rounds at a figure believed to be Taggart along the rail line but apparently didn't hit him. They warned members of the public not to approach Taggart if they spotted him because of his extremely violent disposition.
■ United States
Taxi boat intercepted
A vintage blue taxicab converted into a seagoing vessel and carrying several Cuban migrants was intercepted Tuesday off Key West by the Coast Guard, according to television reports. Television footage from NBC-6 in Miami showed Coast Guard officers boarding the bright blue vehicle, which had been modified with a boat prow in front and appeared to have at least four migrants aboard. But the Coast Guard declined to comment.
■ United States
Anne Bancroft dead at 73
Anne Bancroft, who won the 1962 best actress Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker but achieved greater fame as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, has died. She was 73. She died of uterine cancer on Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital, John Barlow, a spokesman for her husband, Mel Brooks, said on Tuesday. She won her first Tony opposite Henry Fonda in Two for the Seesaw. Bancroft was awarded a second Tony for creating the role on Broadway of poor-sighted Annie Sullivan, the teacher of the deaf and blind Keller. She repeated her portrayal in the film version. She was nominated for an Oscar four times.
■ Germany
Bach aria found in shoebox
For three centuries it was hidden in an old shoebox, concealed beneath a couple of blank pages. But yesterday music experts across the world were hailing the discovery of a previously unknown work by the German composer and genius of the baroque era, Johann Sebastian Bach. The work, for a soprano and harpsichord, was written in October 1713 as a birthday present for Bach's patron, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar. Bach, then the court organist in Weimar, penned the composition to go with a 12-stanza poem dedicated to the duke, but its existence was swiftly forgotten.
■ United States
Girl killed helping turtle
A 6-year-old girl darted into traffic to save a turtle and was killed when she was hit by a car, officials said. Emily Kent was riding with her mother Sunday when they spotted the turtle trying to cross highway US 41. Geraldine Kent pulled over so they could help, and Emily jumped out as her mother screamed at her to wait, friends said. The first-grader was struck by a car and died of her injuries. No charges had been filed. "I've had a lot of drivers swerve to avoid a raccoon or another animal and wreck their cars," said Sergeant Owen Keen of the Florida Highway Patrol. "I've never had anyone go to help an animal and get run over."
■ United Kingdom
Embassy guns cache found
A guns cache has been discovered at Iraq's embassy in Britain by incoming diplomats of the new Iraqi administration, police said on Wednesday. Scotland Yard said "a number of firearms" had been recovered from the embassy in an upmarket area of southwest London. The Knightsbridge building was abandoned by Iraqi diplomats in early 2003 in the run up to war in Iraq. The discovery of the weapons is likely to renew debate in Britain about guns and diplomatic missions. Under international law, an embassy is regarded as sovereign territory.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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
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