■ China
Campus murder probed
Police arrested a 21-year-old medical student of China's elite Peking University in connection with the stabbing death of a fellow classmate. Police arrested An Ran on Saturday just hours after the body of his classmate Cui Peizhao, 21, was found in a blood-spattered hospital stairwell. Cui was doing an internship at the Beijing Millennium Monument Hospital as part of his degree. The two were believed to have been feuding over a woman. The suspect allegedly surrendered a knife and a pair of gloves used in the killing.
■ China
Two Tibetans die of plague
Two Tibetans have died from the plague after eating rodent meat, but health authorities have said the situation is under control. The two were part of a group of five from Tibet's Zhongba county who fell ill after eating meat from the rodent species marmot earlier this month. After they fell ill, health officials in Tibet sought to determine who they had been in contact with in an effort to prevent an epidemic from breaking out. The health ministry reported the incident to the WHO Saturday morning and later the same day issued a statement saying the situation was under control.
■ Malaysia
Five-day work week to begin
The government will examine the number of public holidays in the country as civil servants prepare for the introduction of a five-day working week. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said the country's 14 holidays, in addition to the five-day week to start on July 1, were excessive and would make workers less competitive. The government announced in May that it would cut down the five-and-a-half-day working week which includes Saturday mornings, saying that the move would increase family-bonding and boost domestic tourism. But Najib said the five-day week would not reduce workers' total hours, as civil servants would have to work longer hours each day.
■ Thailand
UN team to visit
A team of UN experts will gather in Thailand this week to discuss ways the Southeast Asian nation can strengthen its ability to fight terrorism. The team is on the five-day visit to Bangkok starting today, and will include experts from Interpol, the World Customs Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The visit comes after the experts made similar trips to Morocco, Kenya and Albania earlier this year to help the countries develop better anti-terrorism capabilities in compliance with a UN resolution.
■ Pakistan
PM refutes bin Laden rumor
President Pervez Musharraf dismissed as "speculation" claims by senior US officials that they know where al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is hiding. "Any talk about his whereabouts is mere speculation," Musharraf said. "Some are saying that bin Laden is in Pakistan, and what I want to tell them is: Please come and tell us where he is. Anyone can say that he [bin Laden] is anywhere, so why talk about his presence here [in Pakistan]?" US and Afghan officials have previously said they think bin Laden and other al-Qaeda kingpins are hiding out in the mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. On Thursday, US Vice President Dick Cheney said he had "a pretty good idea" of where bin Laden was hiding, echoing comments by Central Intelligence Agency director Porter Goss, who said he had an "excellent idea."
■ Germany
Communist state yacht sold
It was once used by Germany's former communist elite to entertain such honored state guests as Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Now the East German state yacht Ostseeland has been sold for between 700,000 euros (US$847,000) and one million euros (US$1.2 million) to a businessman in Dubai, the weekly Bild am Sonntag reported yesterday. Hamburg boat broker Jan Bueltmann sold the 61m-long yacht -- a converted minesweeper -- to the United Arab Emirates on behalf of its Turkish owner. "A wealthy businessman wants to make changes to it and use it privately", Bueltmann said.
■ Israel
China arms deal cancelled
Israel has bowed to US pressure to cancel an arms deal with China and will impose tighter controls on its weapons exports in general, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday. The dispute with the US centers on Israel's sale of Harpy attack drones and other advanced technology to China which the Pentagon fears could tilt the balance of power and make it difficult to defend Taiwan. Agreeing to US demands, Israel will not return Harpy spare parts that China sent to their Israeli manufacturer for upgrading, Haaretz said.
■ Kenya
Home-made liquor kills 36
Eleven more people died overnight from drinking home-made liquor adulterated with deadly methanol, bringing the death toll to 36, Kenyan health authorities said yesterday. At least 59 people were still being treated in Machakos District Hospital, 60km southwest of Nairobi, and nine others have been transferred to the capital's Kenyatta National Hospital in critical condition, district medical officer Wako Dulacha said by phone. Police said the adulterated liquor, called chang'aa was consumed in massive quantities in a bar at the trading post of Makutano, about 30km south of Nairobi. They were still searching for the owner of the bar, who had gone missing. Methanol is used in industry as a solvent or antifreeze.
■ France
Oprah to boycott Hermes
US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is convinced she was turned away from a Hermes store in Paris because she is black and she plans to tell her millions of viewers about it, a spokeswoman said on Friday. Winfrey, who was recently named the most powerful celebrity in the US by Forbes magazine, has also decided to boycott the store. The luxury goods house issued a public apology on Friday after Winfrey called Robert Chavez, president of Hermes in America, to complain. Hermes said in a statement that Winfrey was denied entry on June 14 because she arrived after standard business hours and while a private PR event was being set up inside.
■ Jordan
`No way' to Saddam's play
Jordanian authorities have refused to license the printing of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's fourth and last play, Get out, you are cursed, which he reportedly wrote shortly before his ouster in April 2003, a local newspaper said yesterday. "Somebody has approached the Printing and Publication Department [PPD] for a licence to allow the printing of the play attributed to Saddam, but the PPD refused the request," the pro-government daily Al-Rai said quoting "well-informed sources."
■ United Kingdom
PM's son eyes Republicans
Prime Minister Tony Blair's son Euan is to take an internship with a leading US Republican Congressman, a newspaper reported yesterday. Euan Blair is to spend three months unpaid with the Republican majority on the House of Representatives Committee on Rules, the Sunday Telegraph revealed. He will reportedly be under the wing of Californian lawmaker David Dreier, the committee's chairman and a member of the lower House of Representatives for the Republican Party. The 21-year-old Euan, Blair's eldest son, is soon to graduate from Bristol University in southwest England with a degree in ancient history.
■ United States
Let us dance, suit demands
Despite living in a city renowned for its vibrant nightlife, a group of New Yorkers have deemed it necessary to embark on a legal battle to win the right to go out dancing. A group of social dancers, dance teachers and a dance club jointly filed a lawsuit Thursday in State Supreme Court that seeks to declare a city ordinance forbidding dancing in clubs without cabaret licenses as unconstitutional. The target of the lawsuit is the city's 1926, prohibition-era "cabaret laws," originally designed to control black speakeasies in Harlem. The laws limited the music that could be played and required ID cards and fingerprinting for everyone who officially worked in a "cabaret."
■ United Kingdom
Holidays for partying: survey
Young Britons on holiday shun local culture for booze, casual sex and fist-fighting, said an official British report revealed yesterday. The Foreign Office report, "Project Holiday," surveyed 1,000 tourists aged between 16 and 30 and laid bare the startling details of young Brits travelling abroad to "party hard and do things to excess." Gone are the days of sun, sea and sangria: bonking, brawls and booze are the new watchwords for young British visitors to foreign shores. Over one third of Britons surveyed reckoned holidays are all about hedonistic behavior. Of those, 75 percent were looking forward to excessive drinking, 28 percent craved a quick one-night-stand, eight percent were drug-crazed and five percent were on the look-out for a good fight.
■ United States
Person dies in shark attack
A young person was killed Saturday in a shark attack near a campground on the Gulf of Mexico, authorities said. "We have had a confirmed shark attack. The scene is still under investigation," said Darlene Drury, spokeswoman for South Walton Fire-Rescue. Area beaches were closed to swimmers immediately afterward. Details of the attack near Camping on the Gulf Holiday Travel Park in Walton County and the victim's name were not immediately released. Coast Guard spokesman Shawn McGivern in Mobile, Alabama, said authorities were trying to find the victim's relatives.
■ Georgia
Man held in grenade incident
A Russian soldier was arrested in connection with a hand grenade found near the podium where US President George W. Bush gave a speech last month, a TV report said. A senior Russian military official dismissed the report Saturday as false. Colonel Vladimir Kuparadze, deputy chief of the Russian military stationed in Georgia, said the Rustavi 2 TV report saying a Russian soldier was arrested while trying to leave Georgia shortly after the May 10 incident was false. "It's an invention," Kuparadze said.
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