■ Australia
Defector to testify in US
A Chinese defector granted asylum in Australia has flown to the US to testify to a Congressional human rights committee, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday. Middle-ranking diplomat Chen Yonglin (陳用林) abandoned his post at China's consulate in Sydney in May and asked for asylum, claiming he would be persecuted if he returned home because of his sympathy for the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which Beijing brands as an evil cult.
■ Malaysia
Traffic hall of shame set up
Malaysia has set up an online hall of shame where the public can post images of traffic offenders as part of a campaign to instill discipline and safety on roads. The Web site, www.panducermat.org.my, was launched Tuesday and will be used to catch offenders who usually get away because of a lack of enforcement, the transport minister said.
■ Hong Kong
Court rejects tenant's suit
Hong Kong's top court yesterday quashed a legal objection that stalled a US$3.85 billion privatization of the territory's housing authority shopping malls and car parks. A lone public housing tenant left hundreds of thousands of investors fuming when she challenged the sell-off and forced the government to scrap the privatization in December. Thousands of cheques had to be sent back to investors as Lo Siu-lan, 67, forced the government to shelve the sell-off pending her legal hearings. The High Court and the Court of Appeal both rejected court cases against the sell-off by Lo and the final door of her appeal process closed yesterday when the Court of Final Appeal also rejected it.
■ Australia
Women killed Aborigine boy
Two Australian women were jailed for life on Tuesday after pleading guilty to torturing and murdering a 14-year-old Aboriginal boy who they believed broke into their house, local media reported. The Western Australia Supreme Court sentenced Derrin Bardsley, 34, and Rebecca Papalii, 42, after they admitted to helping "hogtie," beat and kill Aborigine Cleon Jackman at a house in Perth in May 1999. Another person, James Stapleton, is already serving a prison term for the boy's murder. Prosecutor Phil Urquhart told the court the murder was a racially motivated, cowardly and gutless attack on the teenager.
■ Thailand
Monks stop Bangkok traffic
Thousands of Buddhist monks and other anti-alcohol campaigners brought Bangkok's notoriously slow traffic to a halt yesterday as they protested against plans to list Thailand's biggest brewer. Up to 10,000 anti-alcohol demonstrators caused traffic congestion which stretched to suburbs 10km from the city center, police said, as they demanded the Stock Exchange refuse to list Thai Beverage PCL, maker of Chang Beer. "The Thai bourse will become the market of sin," said one placard held by chanting monks in orange robes as laymen waved Thai national flags.
■ India
Baby girl marries dog
A baby girl in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal was married to a dog "to ward off the evil eye" after she grew teeth at six months. Six-month-old Disha was wedded to her canine groom, Pomi, on Monday at a Hindu ceremony at Polba village in Hooghly district of West Bengal, Indo-Asian News Service reported. The infant's family feared that she may be under the spell of evil spirits after she sprouted teeth well before they were due. Disha's father Kamalendu Bandopadhayay, who works at the local court, was advised by some priests to conduct the marriage ceremony to ward off the evil eye. The dog, Pomi, whose wedding outfit comprised a garland of fresh flowers, is likely to be looked after by his new "in-laws."
■ New Zealand
Catholic guilty of hate mail
A 53-year-old New Zealand Catholic from Upper Hutt, near Wellington, was convicted yesterday of sending hate mail to local Muslims containing slices of pork and ham. The man, whose name was suppressed by the court pending an appeal, sent up to 30 offensive letters, cartoons and pieces of meat to Muslims whose names he picked out of telephone directories because he was angry at the Sept. 11 attacks on the US and terrorist bombings in Bali, Radio New Zealand reported. An Iranian refugee told the court that she was afraid after she received the mail which referred to Muslims as pigs and said the Koran should be used as toilet paper, the report said.
■ China
Haitang lashes coast
One person was reported dead and several missing yesterday as China grappled with the havoc left by Typhoon Haitang, whose blasting winds and rain forced one million people from their homes. Houses collapsed, trees toppled and mudslides engulfed roads as the most violent storm of the season pounded two coastal provinces late on Tuesday, leaving more than 1,000 people trapped by raging floodwaters. "The police saved my life. All hope of survival was abandoned until the police appeared," Xinhua news agency quoted one resident as saying in Pingyang County, where floodwaters reached 3m.
■ United Kingdom
Far-right leader dies
One of the dominant figures of the British far right for the last 50 years has died two days before he was due to appear in court charged with inciting racial hatred. John Tyndall, 71, was found at his home in Hove, southern England, by his wife on Tuesday after he was believed to have had a heart attack. Tyndall, the founder of the modern British National party (BNP), was known for his jackboots, arrogance and dedication to Nazi racial ideals. He was due in court in Leeds today charged with race-hate crimes following a BBC documentary, The Secret Agent, in which an undercover reporter filmed him making a speech, saying: "The only thing the Africans have given us is voodoo, witchcraft and Aids."
■ Mexico
Thousands flee hurricane
Thousands fled as the outer edge of Hurricane Emily lashed coastal areas around the Texas-Mexico border and its already powerful center continued to strengthen just off shore. With sustained winds of 205kph, Emily was a Category 3 hurricane, but could swell to a Category 4 before its eye makes landfall early yesterday, US and Mexican forecasters said. Heavy rain and stiff winds were menacing northeastern Mexico, where army trucks roamed the streets collecting evacuees laden with suitcases and rolled-up blankets. In southern Texas, giant waves gobbled up stretches of beach and sent many scrambling for higher ground. Officials in Tamaulipas state, which borders Texas, said 18,000 people had been evacuated from 20 low-lying seaside communities.
■ United States
Boy, 8, kills baby sister
Prosecutors charged an 8-year-old Tampa, Florida boy with aggravated manslaughter on Tuesday for kicking and punching his infant half sister and then hitting her in the face with a two-by-four board, killing her. If convicted, he could be held in a juvenile facility until his 21st birthday. "We thought that the juvenile system was the place for him, where he can get the help he needs," state attorney spokeswoman Pam Bondi said in announcing that prosecutors had decided to file the criminal charge. The boy initially denied beating the 7-month-old baby. But he confessed later, after investigators reviewed autopsy results and confronted him again, authorities said. Investigators had never seen a crime in which a young child had displayed "so much violence and so little remorse," police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.
■ Chechnya
Rebels ambush state forces
Investigators questioned witnesses and searched for suspects yesterday, following an ambush on security forces in Chechnya that killed 14 people, including two children. The attack, which wounded nearly 30 people, was one of the worst on law-enforcement forces in the violence-torn southern Russian region in recent months. State-run television said police had identified several suspects wanted for questioning. The ITAR-Tass news agency, citing security officials, said no one had been detained, but said police were looking for the former owner of one of the vehicles used in the attack in the village of Znamenskoye. Officials say attackers set the trap by firing at a corpse left in a stolen police jeep to make the Interior Ministry troops believe a gun attack was taking place. When the troops arrived, a bomb went off.
■ United Kingdom
Soldiers charged with abuse
Three British soldiers have been charged with war crimes for the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees in the first case of its kind in Britain, the government said on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the men were the first British soldiers to be charged under the International Criminal Court Act 2001. Britain, Washington's key ally in Iraq, has investigated scores of deaths and injuries of Iraqis since joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Britain's army chief apologized to the Iraqi people in February after three British soldiers were jailed for abusing Iraqi detainees.
■ United Kingdom
Police use dogs on Tube
Sniffer dogs have been introduced on trains on the London Underground network to detect explosives in the wake of the bomb attacks on July 7, reports said yesterday. Dogs were already previously used on the Tube in east London to look for drugs and on the Heathrow Express to find explosives. Now a team of 28 of the specially trained animals is being deployed across the network and will be used "indefinitely", British Transport Police said. A spokesman said: "They operate just like dogs who search for drugs except they have been trained to sniff out explosives. They are far more effective than any machine."
■ United States
US busted 6,085 pedophiles
US authorities said on Tuesday they have arrested a total of 6,085 people over the past two years as part of an initiative targeting foreign pedophiles, international sex tourists, Internet child pornographers and human traffickers. The majority of those arrested under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiative were foreign nationals who could be deported as a result of their child sex crimes, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement issued in Miami. "With an average of nearly 250 child sex predator arrests per month, ICE's Operation Predator has emerged as one of most successful efforts ever launched to protect America's children," Chertoff said.
■ United States
Executed man innocent?
A convicted murderer executed 20 years ago in Missouri, could be the first person put to death to be declared innocent since capital punishment was reintroduced in the US. Jennifer Joyce, a St Louis district attorney, has decided to reopen the case of Larry Griffin, who was convicted in 1981 of the murder of Quintin Moss, a 19-year-old drug dealer who was shot dead. Griffin maintained his innocence to the end, but was put to death in 1995, aged 40, by lethal injection. Since then the first police officer at the scene, another witness to the shooting and the victim's family have all raised doubts that Griffin was guilty. There have been dozens of cases of prisoners on death row having their convictions overturned, but the innocence of someone who has been executed has never yet been proved since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1976.
■ United States
Officials defend vaccines
US health officials affirmed the safety of vaccines on Tuesday in an unusual news conference called to counter a growing movement alleging that vaccines can cause autism. Autism activists planned a rally in front of the US Capitol yesterday to press their contention that the government has covered up evidence linking autism to a mercury-based product once used in vaccines.
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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
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