■ Indonesia
Big quake scares Sumatra
A powerful earthquake measuring up to 6.7 on the Richter scale hit Indonesia's Sumatra island yesterday, causing no damage but spreading panic among people still traumatized by earlier disasters. The offshore quake hit at 8:52 am with an epicenter 190km west of the coastal town of Sibolga in West Sumatra province, the National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.
■ China
Ammonia truck explodes
One hundred people were injured in Shanghai after a truck carrying liquid ammonia exploded, local media reported yesterday. The accident occurred at midday on Monday in the city's Nanhui district when the steel container on the back of a truck exploded -- apparently due to high heat -- spilling fumes into the air, the Beijing Times newspaper reported. A photo in the paper showed dozens of people crowded into a large hospital room, some resting in reclining chairs while others lay on mats on the floor receiving oxygen. Sixty people were hospitalized, including 10 children, the paper said.
■ Malaysia
Cash taken from wreck
A fortune in cash has gone missing from an armored van after it collided with a truck in northern Kedah state, killing two of the four security guards aboard, police said yesterday. The Securiforce van was carrying about 1 million ringgit (US$263,000) collected from a branch of the central Bank Negara when it crashed on the highway on Monday, police said. District police officer Khamis Kamzah said that only about 4,000 ringgit (US$1,050) had been recovered from the scene of the accident, which left the van a mangled wreck.
■ Australia
PM's popularity plummets
Prime Minister John Howard's popularity has slumped to its lowest level in nearly four years in the wake of his government's unpopular moves to reform labor laws, according to two polls published yesterday. An AC Nielsen poll of 1,416 voters published in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper showed approval for Howard plunging 10 percentage points to 49 percent from 59 percent a month ago -- the biggest month-on-month drop since Howard took office nearly 10 years ago. The drops coincided with a string of protests organized by unions in which tens of thousands of people took part against the government's labor law reforms.
■ China
Rice, Barroso to visit
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appears set to visit Beijing this weekend on a trip that includes stops in South Korea and Japan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry's International Press Center Web site said yesterday that Rice was coming, but US officials could not confirm plans had been finalized. Rice's stop in Beijing comes ahead of a meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade on Monday. Meanwhile, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will visit Beijing next week to discuss the possible lifting of the EU arms embargo, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said yesterday. Barroso will meet with Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and other leaders during his July 14-18 visit, a ministry spokesman said.
■ Brazil
Corruption scandal surfaces
A top official of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party resigned his post and pressure mounted on other party leaders to step down as new allegations surfaced regarding a purported bribes-for-votes scandal in Congress. The latest controversy arose this weekend when Veja magazine published an article showing documents that appear to demonstrate a link between top officials of the governing Workers' Party and a scheme to buy votes from legislators in Congress. The documents appear to implicate Workers' Party President Jose Genoino, Secretary-General Silvio Pereira and Treasurer Delubio Soares.
■ United States
Japanese wins contest
Japan's Takeru Kobayashi won the hot dog eating contest at New York's Coney Island beach for the fifth year in a row, sucking down 49 frankfurters in 12 minutes. Although Kobayashi, 27, won, he missed his own world record of 53-and-a-half dogs, set at last year's competition. Kobayashi stands 1.67m and weighs 65kg. The contest has been held every July 4 since 1916.
■ Australia
New dolphin species found
Researchers have identified a new species of dolphin which was once thought to have been the same as an extremely rare mammal predominantly found in Asian coastal waters and rivers. The Australian Snubfin Dolphin has been declared a separate species to the Irrawaddy dolphins of Southeast Asia, one of the rarest sea mammals on the planet, researchers at James Cook University and the Museum of Tropical Queensland said yesterday. The newly identified Australian Snubfin Dolphins, or Orcaella heinsohni, live in shallow waters off northern Australia and possibly in neighboring Papua New Guinea.
■ United States
GM trees soak up pollution
Researchers are using genetically engineered trees to suck mercury from contaminated soil, soak up dangerously high selenium deposits caused by irrigation and retain more carbon to combat global warming. The geneticists conducting these experiments envision a future in which plants can be used as an inexpensive, safer and more effective way of disposing of pollution. "Trees are really made for this ... we just have to trick them to do what we want them to do," said Richard Meagher, whose University of Georgia students went to Danbury, Connecticut, in 2003 as part of the most advanced, open-air experiment in the US involving trees genetically engineered to eat pollution.
■ Mexico
Alleged drug boss arrested
Authorities believe they have arrested the leader of the nation's most-powerful drug gang, but the suspect's family said Monday night that it was a case of mistaken identity. Ruben Aguilar, President Vicente Fox's spokesman, said Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation captured a man going by the name of Joaquin Romero in a Mexico City shopping mall on Saturday. He said the suspect was being fingerprinted and his DNA checked to confirm his real identity -- but that he might be Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, believed to be the leader of the Juarez cartel. However, the Televisa network raised doubt by interviewing family members who said Romero was an architect and loving father who had nothing to do with drug trafficking.
■ United Kingdom
Man found dead after siege
A man suspected of shooting a police officer with a shotgun was found dead yesterday when police stormed a house after an 18-hour siege. Armed police surrounded the house in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, on Monday after police constable David Lomas, 34, was shot in the chest when he went there as part of a routine inquiry. "Firearms officers ... found a deceased male in an upstairs bedroom and a deceased dog also," chief superintendent Jerry Graham said. Police said Lomas had gone to the house with another officer to speak to the occupant about anti-social behavior. Lomas was recovering at the Royal Preston Hospital.
■ Israel
Smooth Gaza exit promised
The decision by the Islamic group Hamas to reject an offer to form a Palestinian national unity government will not affect the smooth takeover of the Gaza Strip after the Israeli withdrawal, a Palestinian official said yesterday. "We hope to exert every possible effort to ensure a smooth evacuation of Gaza with the cooperation of all the groups, including the Palestinian government," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters. Hamas on Monday rejected the offer from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to join his government. They did not give a reason for the rejection.
■ Syria
Soldiers, insurgents clash
Security forces clashed early on Monday in the hills overlooking Damascus with men believed to be militants connected to Iraq's insurgency, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported. Some of the militants were believed to have been former bodyguards for Saddam Hussein, the report said, but it gave no further details and did not say how it was known who they were or where they may have fled. The predawn firefight on scenic Qassioun Mountain left one police officer dead and several others wounded, the report 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