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World News Quick Take

■ Afghanistan
Taliban vows to kill SEAL
Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said he was unable to provide the name or a description of the captured Navy SEAL commando who went missing during a clash with militants on June 28 because of difficulties contacting guerrillas holding him. However, he insisted: "The soldier is with us. He is alive, but we will kill him in the coming couple of days. We are interrogating him and that is why we have kept him alive. The interrogation is about American military tactics and their operations." He repeated that a video of the man would be provided to media organizations, but that the Taliban's Web site -- www.alemarah.com -- had been blocked by the US.

■ China
Minister to go to N Korea
President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) is sending a former foreign minister to North Korea next week, as speculation mounts about a resumption of six-party talks to solve North Korea's nuclear crisis. Tang Jiaxuan (唐家璇), a state councillor, will travel to North Korea on July 12 for two days. The visit comes at a time when momentum appears to be gathering for a new round of multilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear program.

■ Pakistan
`Camel kids' return home
A group of 86 children smuggled to work as jockeys in the notorious sport of camel racing in the United Arab Emirates returned home yesterday. Many children, aged between seven to 15 years, were weeping as they came out of the Lahore international airport amid tight security. The regional government officials would prepare necessary documentation for about 400 children and carry out DNA tests before handing them over to their parents. A large number of innocent children were smuggled to UAE and other Gulf states over the last decade to work as servants but ended up as camel jockeys. Human traffickers use fake documents to show them as their own and smuggle to the Gulf countries, particularly the UAE.

■ Philippines
Bird flu strikes in ducks
The Philippines has suffered its first case of bird flu after ducks were found to be infected in a town north of Manila, prompting the country to immediately halt poultry exports to Japan. Health Secretary Francisco Duque said samples have been sent to Australia to determine whether the strain of avian influenza was the same as the one that has killed dozens of people elsewhere in Asia. "There's no cause for alarm," Duque said in a television interview. "We're still investigating the case." A quarantine zone has been set up around the town of Calumpit in Bulacan Province to halt the trading and sale of poultry for a week, in addition to the immediate slaughter of the affected flocks.

■ United States
Parents organized stripper
A Nashville, Tennessee, couple pleaded guilty on Thursday to hiring a stripper for their son's 16th birthday party and were sentenced to two years' probation. Landon and Anette Pharris, who were charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, were also ordered to take parenting classes. The parents hired the stripper to perform at a September party attended by about a dozen young people. Cassandra Joyce Park, 29, who police say used the stage name "Sassy," danced for a few hours before partygoers took up a collection and paid her US$150 more to fully disrobe, Anette Pharris said. Police were tipped off to the party by a photo developer at a drug store who saw pictures of the occasion.

■ United States
`Ed McBain' dies of cancer
Novelist Salvatore A. Lombino, better known to many readers as Ed McBain, who wrote the 87th Precinct novels, has died of cancer at the age of 78, his agent said on Thursday. Hunter wrote more than 100 novels, short stories, plays and film scripts during a period of 50 years and under different names, selling more than 100 million books worldwide. His better known works include the novel The Blackboard Jungle, about an English teacher and his uncontrollable students, and the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic The Birds. "He had been ill for some time, he died peacefully," his agent said, adding that Hunter had suffered from cancer. He died on Wednesday at his Connecticut home.

■ Germany
Sasser creator in court
Prosecutors on Thursday demanded a two-year suspended sentence for the self-confessed mastermind behind the Sasser Internet worm that disabled millions of computers worldwide last year. A spokeswoman for the court said that the prosecution had also called at the closed-doors hearing for Sven Jaschan, now 19, to perform 200 hours of public service. The defense said that Jaschan, who is being tried as a juvenile, should face a suspended sentence of less than a year. The Sasser worm struck on May 1 and in less than a week hit thousands of companies and 18 million computers worldwide.

■ Canada
Court extradites activist
A court on Thursday ordered the extradition of suspected eco-terrorist Tre Arrow, one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, to face firebombing charges in the US. Arrow, born Michael Scarpitti, is accused of participating in the 2001 firebombing of logging and cement trucks in Oregon. The FBI claims he is associated with the Earth Liberation Front, a group that has claimed responsibility for dozens of acts of destruction over the past few years. The former US Green Party candidate for Congress in 2000 -- who says the trees told him to change his name -- last week told the court that he was innocent of the charges and a target of a US government conspiracy.

■ Spain
Bull run hurts no one
Several people suffered knocks and bruises but no one was gored yesterday as thousands ran alongside six bulls through the cobblestone streets of the medieval city of Pamplona. Both bulls and runners slipped and fell as they charged down the nearly 1km winding route from a corral to the town's bull ring. The run lasted two and a half minutes, an indicator of few complications.

■ United States
Schiavo case finally closed
Florida's state attorney said there was no evidence that Terri Schiavo's collapse 15 years ago involved criminal activity, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush declared an end to the state's inquiry into the case of the brain-damaged woman who was at the center of a right-to-die dispute several months ago. Bush had asked State Attorney Bernie McCabe to investigate Schiavo's case after her autopsy last month. Schiavo's case engulfed the courts, Congress and White House, and divided the country. She died March 31 from dehydration after her feeding tube was disconnected despite efforts by Bush, her parents and some state national lawmakers to keep her alive.

■ United States
Hospital sued for odd death
A California woman is suing a hospital for wrongful death because her husband fainted and suffered a fatal injury after helping delivery room staff give her a painkilling injection. Jeanette Passalaqua, 32, filed the suit against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Southern California Permanente Medical Group in San Bernardino County state court last week. In June last year, Passalaqua's husband, Steven Passalaqua, was asked by Kaiser staff to hold and steady his wife while an employee inserted an epidural needle into her back, court papers said. The sight of the needle caused Steven Passalaqua, 33, to faint and he fell backward, striking his head on an aluminum cap molding at the base of the wall. He suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result and died two days later, the lawsuit said.

■ United States
England judge stands firm
Attorneys for US Army reservist Lynndie England, who became the face of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, tried unsuccessfully on Thursday to remove the judge in the case and said she planned to plead not guilty in her trial next month. The lawyers charged that military Judge Colonel James Pohl could not conduct a fair trial and asked him to recuse himself, but he refused. England pleaded guilty to abuse charges in exchange for a reduced sentence in a deal with prosecutors at a trial in May, but the deal fell through when Pohl declared a mistrial.

■ Vatican City
Document warns faithful
The Vatican singled out divorcees who remarry and Catholic politicians who support abortion in criticizing those who continue to receive Holy Communion while in a state of mortal sin. The lament came on Thursday in a new document on the Eucharist that details abuses of the sacrament and the need for better instruction to ensure it remains sacred. The 85-page text is the working draft of a final document that will be developed during the global synod, or meeting, of bishops from Oct. 2 to Oct. 23 in Rome.

■ Venezuela
Opposition leader faces trial
A judge in Caracas on Thursday ordered that an opposition leader be tried on charges of conspiring to overthrow the Venezuelan government with US assistance. The judge ruled that the leader, Maria Corina Machado, 37, and three other members of a group called Sumate, face trials for having used US$31,000 from the US government in an effort to remove Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez, whose government is sharply at odds with the Bush administration, accuses Washington of using the National Endowment for Democracy to funnel money to anti-government groups.

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