■ China
Flooding kills nine more
At least nine people died, six went missing and an estimated 150,000 were evacuated after floods swept through Dazhou in southwest China. Torrential rain since Wednesday left up to 5m of water in city streets. The Dazhou area had its highest rainfall in about 100 years from Wednesday to Friday, totalling 461mm. Summer floods and landslides have killed about 1,000 people in China this year. About 1.5 million people were evacuated last month. Last year, summer floods and landslides killed 1,343 people, the lowest death toll for several years, according to government statistics.
■ Indonesia
Radio announcer arrested
Police have arrested a former radio announcer who called a radio news station to report a deadly car bombing that did not happen. Former radio announcer Dedi Hartono said he made up the story "because there was no earth-shaking news." He called Jakarta news station Elshinta to report that a car bomb had exploded outside a discotheque in the town of Cirebon in western Java, killing two people and damaging several cars. The news was picked up by foreign news agencies. Hartono said he previously called Elshinta to report a typhoon and a landslide. "These two stories are for real. I witnessed the incidents myself," he said, but they could not be verified.
■ Australia
Man arrested for WWII crime
An 83-year-old Hungarian immigrant, Charles Zentai, faces extradition to Hungary after Australian police arrested him over allegations he abducted and brutally murdered a Jewish teenager more than 60 years ago. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a nazi-hunting organization, supplied material evidence to authorities. Zentai emigrated to Australia in 1950 and worked as a nurse in the Perth area, and is suspected of having tortured and murdered 18-year-old Jewish man Peter Balazs in Budapest in 1944 while serving in the army of Hitler's wartime ally, Hungary. The former warrant officer and two accomplices allegedly took the man to a barracks in Budapest and tortured and killed him before dumping him in the Danube River. He is then alleged to have escaped to Germany after the war by passing himself off as a refugee.
■ Vietnam
Gold banned from food
Authorities have banned gold being added to food, after a restaurant in Hanoi served gilded dishes it said had enhanced nutritional value. According to a scientific council set up by the health ministry, "gold is not on the list of micro-substances" needed by the body. Since January, the Kim Ngan Ngu Thien, or "Golden Feast" restaurant, had been serving meals mixed with gold dust. The restaurant was ordered to stop last month pending a decision by health authorities.
■ Nepal
Motoring passengers banned
The government, which has been battling a communist insurgency, has banned passengers from riding on the back of motorcycles to stop drive-by shootings by rebels. The Home Ministry said in a notice yesterday that motorcycles have been misused by terrorists to launch attacks and that "terrorists riding on the back on motorcycles have used weapons to attack." Maoist rebels, who mostly operate in rural areas, are known to use motorcycles to attack targets in cities and towns. Motorcycles are commonly used as family vehicles with parents and children riding on the same motorcycle, much like in Taiwan.
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