■ China
Unrest rocks campus
Thousands of students rioted at a southern college last month to protest fees and other campus issues, Hong Kong's Oriental Daily News reported yesterday. More than 4,000 students overturned cars and threw bottles out of windows at the Jiujiang Institute in Jiangxi Province, the paper said. The riots took place on June 25 as a protest against fees charged by the college, the paper said. The students were complaining about a variety of fees leveled by the school for books, utilities and TVs in dorms, it said. The cost of the damage approached 1 million yuan (US$120,000), the paper said. Jiujiang's mayor mediated the dispute and the school agreed to several of the students' demands, including refunding some fees.
■ Hong Kong
Arroyo stay just temporary
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's husband denied that he has gone into self exile, but said he plans to go abroad after returning to Manila from the territory soon, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Jose Miguel ``Mike'' Arroyo arrived in the territory on Thursday. He has been accused of taking kickbacks from operators of a popular illegal numbers game. He told the paper that news reports saying that he has gone into self-exile were "confused." But he then said he would stay in Hong Kong "for a few days," return to Manila and "go abroad again."
■ India
Trapped passengers rescued
Rescuers saved 354 train passengers trapped for two days in neck-deep water on flooded rail tracks in Gujarat state, where heavy rains have forced the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people from their homes, police said yesterday. The train and its passengers were submerged Thursday morning by flood waters raging through parts of India. The state's police chief said all passengers had been rescued by late Friday. Nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated from their flooded homes to higher ground elsewhere in the state, a local official said.
■ India
Parent care to be legislated
The government hopes to pass a law that will force children to take care of their elderly parents, the Times of India reported yesterday. The Old Persons Bill will ``compel the progeny to perform the responsibilities which they have toward their parents in their old age,'' the newspaper said, quoting from the bill's provisions. If both parliament passes the legislation, it will pave the way for tribunals and set a six-month deadline for judges to try such cases, the paper said.
■ Australia
Drowned couple found
The bodies of a couple were pulled from a swollen river yesterday after their truck was swept away by raging currents earlier this week in one of the worst floods to hit Queensland in a decade, police said. Divers pulled the body of Justin Reid, 25, from the submerged pickup truck about 20m downstream from a river crossing where he and his girlfriend, Kellie Jensen, 21, became stranded in rising floodwaters on Wednesday. Jensen's body was later recovered further downstream, police said.
■ Indonesia
Polio case found on Sumatra
A new case of polio has been found in Lampung Province, Sumatra, bringing the country's total known number of people suffering from the disease to 66 and indicating that it has spread from Java.
■ West Bank
Hamas gets spot in Cabinet
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has invited Hamas militants to join his Cabinet to help ensure a peaceful handover of the Gaza Strip after Israel withdraws this summer, Abbas' office confirmed yesterday. A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had first reported the offer on Friday. Yesterday, Hamas' West Bank leader, Hassan Yousef, confirmed the group was considering the offer. Abbas extended the offer Wednesday after Hamas demanded a special committee be formed to oversee the transfer of powers in Gaza. Abbas invited them to join his Cabinet instead. Israel is worried that Abbas' government isn't strong enough to prevent chaos in Gaza after Israel completes the pullout in September.
■ Russia
Putin tightens grip on media
The Kremlin strengthened its grip on the media, analysts said on Friday as a steel baron and top European broadcaster RTL took over one of Russia's last private television stations. Russia's electricity monopoly Unified Energy System (UES) said Friday it agreed to sell 70 percent of REN TV for US$100 million to steel and automotive group Severstal, which is controlled by steel baron Alexei Mordashov. REN TV has been the last large station openly critical of President Vladimir Putin and analysts said the change of ownership could make coverage more compliant ahead of the 2008 presidential elections.
■ United States
Mother gets forehead tattoo
A mother had the name of a casino permanently tattooed on her forehead after auctioning off advertising space on her head to pay for her son's school fees, she said Thursday. Karolyne Smith, 30, turned her head into a permanent billboard after a large online casino offered her US$10,000 to indelibly emblazon its name on her face. "I really want to do this," said Smith. "To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, US$10,000 is like a million dollars," she said in a statement issued by the casino company GoldenPalace.com.
■ Cyprus
Teen subdues bank robber
A teenage delivery boy caught a fleeing bank robber on Friday, using a broomstick to subdue him and pin him to the ground, witnesses and police said. Using a fake pistol, the robber had stolen 2,000 Cyprus pounds (US$4,215) from a Bank of Cyprus branch in a residential area of of Nicosia. He was running out of the bank when he was spotted by the 19-year-old, who worked for a courier firm. "The courier intercepted the thief with his car. There was a bit of a struggle and the teenager attacked the robber and pinned him down with a broomstick," a police source told reporters. Police said the robber was a Russian in his 30s and the pistol he used in the robbery turned out to be a fake.
■ Russia
Old theater to get makeover
Its facade crumbling and its foundations sinking, the Bolshoi Theater finally closed its doors yesterday for a ?400 million revamp that will take three years to complete. After more than a decade of false starts the legendary theater is to undergo a transformation intended to put it on a par with the Metropolitan Opera in New York and Covent Garden in London. Completed in 1825, the imposing colonnaded building has disintegrated in recent years.
■ United States
Newspaper not held liable
The Arizona state Supreme Court ruled a Tucson newspaper could not be held liable for publishing a letter that urged people to kill Muslims to retaliate for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. In a 5-0 ruling, Arizona's highest court found unanimously the Tucson Citizen was protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution and could not be sued for printing the letter. The three-paragraph letter in the Citizen had said, "Whenever there is an assassination or another atrocity, we should proceed to the closest mosque and execute five of the first Muslims we encounter. After all, this is a `Holy War.'"
■ Austria
Survivors begin vacation
Nearly 100 young survivors of last September's bloody hostage crisis in Russia began a two-week vacation in Austria yesterday as guests of Joerg Haider. Ninety-six survivors of the massacre at a school in Beslan in Russia arrived in the province of Carinthia where Haider is governor. Haider welcomed the youths, aged 10 to 18, and told themhe hoped they would "find some distance from this terrible tragedy and recover in this peaceful region." The former right-wing leader offered to provide an all-expenses-paid vacation to young survivors within days of the Sept. 1-3 standoff.
■ Israel
Color choice causes row
An Arab party has asked an Israeli court to stop right-wing Jews using orange in protests against withdrawing from Gaza settlements, saying the color was already theirs. "If we appear now in a march in the streets with orange, people will think we are settlers," said parliament member Azmi Bishara of the Arab Balad party, which is fundamentally opposed to settlements on Israeli-occupied land. Orange, displayed on ribbons, flags and shirts, has emerged as a powerful pro-settler symbol in the run-up to the pullout. Bishara said his party has used an orange flag and logo since 1999, and launched the lawsuit after being flooded with calls from constituents.
■ Mexico
Postage stamp causes stir
Hundreds lined up at the Mexico City's main post office to buy postage stamps which US critics call racist, but which Mexicans snapped up at such a rate that all 750,000 sold out on Friday, two days after they hit the market. "They're the racists. They're worse than we are, but they just want to belittle us, like always," said businessman Cesar Alonso Alvarado, 53, as he waited in line to buy stamps featuring the Memin Pinguin character. Alvarado said that he started reading the comic at age 10, and denies it is racist. By midday Friday, bidding on eBay had risen to more than US$127.50 for a strip of five stamps, about 45 times their face value.
■ Kenya
Report issued on sex abuse
A Care International report that was based on a survey of abuse cases in and around Nairobi found that girls under the age of four bear the brunt of sexual abuse that is often perpetrated by their fathers or other male relatives. Rape, incest and indecent assault have increased fourfold in the past four years. The report said fathers were accused of abuse in four out of 10 reported cases. High levels of poverty and unemployment were linked to the prevalence of abuse, with 80 percent of the cases taking place in the slums. "Whole families share tiny single rooms, where both children and parents have little or no privacy at all. Children witness the sexual activities of their parents, while fathers watch their girls grow up," the report said.
‘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
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