■ India
Crime reporter nabbed
A crime reporter has been arrested over a spate of dozens of car thefts and burglaries, accused of using his contacts to move stolen goods, newspapers reported yesterday. Police picked up 42-year-old Sanjay Kumar Singh and three friends in New Delhi after being tipped off they were meeting to plot more car thefts in the capital, The Pioneer reported. Singh covers the crime beat for daily newspapers in Bihar state, which has one of the nation's highest crime rates. Police say he used his contacts to dispose of the cars in Bihar and was involved in at least 56 car thefts and 20 burglaries. No further details were available.
■ Vietnam
Four face firing squad
Four people in Vietnam will face the firing squad, after being convicted of trafficking 132kg of heroin, a court official said yesterday. Husband and wife Nguyen Quang Huy and Nguyen Thi Hong Thuy, and two other men were given the death sentence after a two-day trial that ended Tuesday, said Nguyen Van Nam, an official from Hoa Binh provincial people's court. Huy and Thuy were arrested in Hoa Binh in January and were found to be carrying 15 kilograms of heroin, said Nam. They had been transporting heroin from the province of Son La, which shares a long porous border with neighboring Laos, to their home city of Hai Phong, a gritty port city known to have a raging heroin problem. "The heroin was later sold to dealers in Hai Phong and its neighboring provinces," said Nam. The five defendants who did not receive a death sentence were given jail terms of between four and 20 years, the court official said from the province.
■ China
HK dealers executed
Five drug dealers were executed in Shenzhen for their alleged involvement in a gang that made 31 tonnes of the narcotic ice. The syndicate made its drugs in China and shipped them by boat to the Philippines, Europe and the US. Police confiscated about HK$10 billion (US$1.28 billion) worth of ice, a crystallized form of methamphetamine. Those executed on Wednesday included the gang's ringleader, Chong Cho-shing, nicknamed "Hong Kong Ice King."
■ China
Fishing boats capsize
Six people were killed and 10 others were missing after two overloaded fishing boats capsized and sank in a river in northeastern China that forms the border with Russia. The accident happened Wednesday in Heihe city when the two fishing boats were headed to a small island in the Heilongjiang river to carry out farming work. The boats were built to carry 10 people at most, but were weighed down with 33 people, causing them to overturn on the river. Seventeen people were rescued. China has notified the Russian authorities of the accident and asked them to help search for the missing.
■ Japan
Plant security breached
Officials scrambled yesterday to contain the public relations fallout from reports that confidential information about Japan's nuclear plants had leaked onto the Internet through a virus on a personal computer. Japan's top government spokesman pledged to take steps to protect information after data on several nuclear plants appeared online, including photographs of their interiors, details of regular inspections and repair work and names of workers. Mitsubishi Electric Corp said the information was leaked through a personal computer used by an employee of a Mitsubishi subsidiary that was in charge of inspecting the plants.
■ Philippines
Marines kill militant
Marines killed at least one member of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group yesterday in a clash on the southern island of Jolo, the military said. Troops attacked an Abu Sayyaf hideout in Patikul town, resulting in at least one member of the group being killed. Other Abu Sayyaf members were also believed killed or wounded in the clash but their bodies were taken by their fleeing comrades, the military said. The Abu Sayyaf is a feared kidnapping group that has been linked by both Washington and Manila to the al-Qaeda network of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. The group is believed responsible for the worst terror attacks in the Philippines and is known for kidnapping foreigners and Christians in the south.
■ Australia
Tot saves family
A five-year-old boy looks set to be the youngest ever recipient of a bravery award after saving his family in a blaze that razed a Sydney house. Harry Haywood awoke in the early hours yesterday morning to a smoke-filled bedroom. He immediately roused mother Nicole Haywood, her partner Damon Cox and older sisters Brittany, 9, and Brie, 7. They managed to get out before the roof came down and the house went up in flames. "I just woke up to Harry screaming like I'd never heard before," Haywood said. "The smoke in the lounge room was just so thick I couldn't breathe." She crawled on her hands and knees to the front door where Harry had mustered the rest of the family. "His first instinct was to wake everyone up," Haywood said. "We all owe our lives to Harry."
■ Romania
Fugitive Mafia boss caught
Romanian police on Wednesday arrested a fugitive Italian Mafia boss who has been sentenced to 50 years in jail and is suspected of running one of Europe's biggest drug rings, a spokesman said. Francesco Perspicace, 45, was arrested in Craiova in southern Romania and will be extradited to Italy "on a date to be agreed with the Italian authorities," a police spokesman said. He said Perspicace has been wanted for years and was believed to head an operation that smuggled drugs into Europe through Barcelona, Nice and Milan.
■ Gaza Strip
Israel fires two missiles
An Israeli reconnaissance drone fired two missiles at a group of militants trying to fire homemade rockets at northern Gaza Strip settlements, witnesses said. They said the militants were on their way to launch the rockets when an Israeli drone suddenly appeared and fired but missed the militants who fled the area. Residents said they heard two huge explosions. Israel had earlier threatened that it would resume its policy of targeted killing of Palestinian militants if they continued to launch homemade rockets at Israel and Israeli settlements. An Islamic Jihad spokesman had earlier threatened the movement would carry out "actions that would exceed a reaction," if Israel resumed its policy of assassinating Palestinian militants and political leaders.
■ United States
Doctors surprised by bullet
Surprised doctors in Florida found a bullet lodged in the tongue of a man who had checked himself into the hospital complaining of a bad headache, authorities said on Wednesday. Wendell Coleman, 47, of Jacksonville said he woke up on Monday with a terrible head pain. A doctor noted that Coleman had difficulty speaking and that his lips appeared to be badly swollen and marked with powder burns. The doctor then discovered the bullet. Coleman told police he had no idea he had been shot. He said he had been talking to a couple in a parked car on Sunday when a man pulled out a handgun, pressed it against his mouth. Coleman said he heard the gun fire, but that he went home and went to bed.
■ United Kingdom
BBC to use time delay
The BBC will introduce a time delay on its live coverage of sensitive news events such as Sept. 11 and the school massacre in Beslan, Russia, the company said yesterday. The time delay will last several seconds and will allow editors to cut any scenes they believe are too shocking for viewers. The decision was made following the unease felt in some quarters over the BBC's coverage of the Beslan disaster in September. Undercover investigations using secret recording equipment must be kept "under constant review," the BBC said.The company's investigations into crime and serious anti-social behavior "must be clearly editorially justified."
■ United States
Visa-free travel at risk
France and Italy are the only two "visa waiver" countries that still do not include digital photographs in new passports, which could put visa-free US travel at risk. Under US regulations, which have already been watered down to minimize economic damage and consular nightmares, the 27 states participating in the visa-free travel scheme must include a digital photograph in all new passports issued on or after Oct. 26.
■ Mexico
Shark bites surfer's foot
Mexican naval authorities were patrolling the beaches along Baja California's southern tip after a shark bit a 34-year-old Colorado man, officials said on Wednesday. The man was surfing on Tuesday at San Luis beach, 20km north of San Jose del Cabo on the Gulf of California, when he felt something bite his left foot, emergency official Francisco Cota said. The man shouted to his friends, who helped him out of the water. Cota said sharks have been seen in the region since April.
■ United States
Vietnam to get military aid
US military specialists will return to Vietnam to help train Vietnamese soldiers under a new agreement with the Pentagon, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan told the Washington Times yesterday. He said the agreement came at the end of a meeting between Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. A Pentagon official said Rumsfeld met briefly with Khai on Tuesday evening. "At the initial stage, we will receive support in training our military in terms of English and some of the medical staff and technical staff," Khoan said.
■ Mexico
Motorcyclist shoots man
A gunman on a motorcycle shot and killed a 30-year-old businessman as he was dropping his son off at a kindergarten in Guadalajara on Wednesday. Jesus Adrian de la Rocha was shot three times while steering his car out of a line of vehicles of parents leaving their children. Witnesses said a motorcyclist raced up beside de la Rocha, pulled a weapon fitted with a silencer from a black briefcase and fired at least four times. The gunman then sped off, blocked part of the way by apparent accomplices in a Jeep.
■ United States
Family says cop shot rapper
A Los Angeles jury has heard claims that a local police officer murdered legendary rapper Notorious B.I.G. The claims were made at the start of a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the rapper's family against the city of Los Angeles. The case began with opening statements Tuesday, and on Wednesday, former Los Angeles Police Department chief Bernard Parks started giving testimony. The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed on March 9, 1997 when shots were fired at his vehicle. The killing was seen as revenge for the murder six months earlier of the rapper's great rival Tupac Shakur. Wallace's family claims that off-duty police officers who moonlighted as security guards for Shakur's label were behind the killing.
■ Iraq
Insurgents using new bombs
Insurgents in Iraq have reached a new level of military sophistication by developing a bomb which penetrates heavily armoured vehicles, US commanders have admitted. Recent roadside bombs have used a "shaped" charge which concentrates the blast, devastating some of the most heavily protected Humvees. Insurgents have also developed a way to detonate bombs with infrared lasers rather than mobile phones, which can be jammed. The refinements have fueled a surge in US casualties, with roadside bombs alone responsible for at least 68 deaths since May, the highest toll over a two-month period since the guerrilla war began two years ago. A shaped charge was believed responsible for last week's attack in Ramadi, which was so powerful it melted a Humvee and showered the remains of five Marines onto rooftops.
‘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