■ Nepal
Government using vigilantes
Nepal's royal government is using vigilante groups to fight communist rebels, increasing civilian casualties in this Himalayan nation in the grip of nine years of insurgency, Amnesty International said yesterday. Clashes between the rebels and the so-called village defense forces, which began operating early this year, have killed 31 civilians and destroyed more than 700 homes in the southwestern district of Kapilvastu, the London-based human rights group said.
■ Hong Kong
More children get burned
Young children in high-rise Hong Kong are three times more likely to be taken to hospital with severe burns than children in Singapore, a survey published yesterday has found. Medical researchers blame the trend on Hong Kong people's cramped living conditions and liking for instant noodles combined with a frightening ignorance about how to treat burns. Many Hong Kong parents still believe in applying tooth paste or soy sauce to burns wounds rather than using first aid on their children, doctors at the Chinese University found.
■ Vietnam
Ducks to be vaccinated
The day before the trial vaccination of chickens against the deadly bird flu begins in northern Vietnam, agricultural officials announced yesterday that they planned to vaccinate 42 million ducks nationwide. "Recent tests showed that 70 percent of the waterfowl in the Mekong Delta carried bird flu virus," said Nguyen Van Thong, of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's veterinary health department. "It is much higher than it was last year. That is why we came to this decision."
■ China
Mine gas kills 24
A gas leak at a coal mine in central China has killed 24 miners and left two missing, state media reported on Wednesday, in the latest accident to strike the world's deadliest mining industry. More than 40 workers were underground in the Xinfa coal mine in Yuzhou, Henan province, when gas began filling the shafts on Tuesday night, Xinhua news agency said. Seventeen miners managed to escape, but 24 suffocated to death, it said. More than 6,000 miners were killed in explosions, gas leaks, floods and other accidents in the country's safety-poor mines in 2004. The government has launched a campaign to clean up the industry and pledged to spend more than 50 billion yuan (US$6 billion) to improve safety, but it has had little effect so far in halting a rising number of deaths.
■ Thailand
452 fake passports found
Thai immigration police arrested a British national with 452 fake passports early yesterday as he was about to board a flight to the Netherlands. Mahieddine Daikh, 35, a British citizen who had migrated from Algeria, was arrested at Bangkok's Don Muang International Airport before he was to board a China Airlines flight for the Netherlands, Police Major General Suwat Thamrongsrisakul said. Daikh had arrived on a flight from Samui Island in southern Thailand and had not left the airport before his scheduled China Airlines flight. "The suspect confessed he bought all the passports from a Pakistani for ?3,000 (US$5,475) on Koh Samui," Major General Suwat Thamrongsrisakul said.
■ Australia
Citizenship reinstated
Australia's immigration department has been forced to reinstate the citizenship of one of the nation's most celebrated architects, after it was made public it had revoked his citizenship 19 years ago but didn't tell him. Harry Seidler, designer of Sydney landmarks like Australia Square and awarded the Order of Australia for his services to architecture, fled Nazi-occupied Austria during World War Two and migrated to Australia. He became an Australian citizen almost 50 years ago, but after applying to change his address on the electoral roll recently he was told his citizenship had been revoked in 1986. Apparently, unbeknownst to Seidler, Austria had reinstated his Austrian citizenship in 1985 and under Australian law he could not hold citizenship to both countries.
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