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World News Quick Take

■ Philippines
Cop kills three, himself
Three policemen were killed in a shooting rampage by another cop, who later shot himself dead in an eastern Philippine province, police said yesterday. The victims were on duty when the shooting occurred inside the headquarters of the police mobile group in Esperanza village in Sorsogon province, 345km southeast of Manila. Senior Superintendent Gil Hitosis said the suspect, police officer Rodel Docog, suddenly opened fire using his M-16 rifle shortly after entering the headquarters' radio room. Docog killed three of the officers inside the room, and injured another, Hitosis said. "After shooting indiscriminately, Docog then shot himself," he added.

■ New Zealand
Kiwis join US military drills
The US has allowed New Zealand to take part in a joint military exercise this week, after a 20-year freeze in defense cooperation, but has refused to say yesterday whether the approval signaled a wider thaw. Australia, Japan and Britain are also involved in the multinational exercise off Singapore to feature the interception of ships carrying weapons of mass destruction. Washington removed Wellington's ally status in 1985, after New Zealand banned nuclear-powered and armed vessels from its waters, and has since withheld military and intelligence cooperation.

■ Hong Kong
Pig-borne bug hits butcher
A butcher has contracted a pig-borne disease that has infected over 200 people and killed 39 in southwest China, triggering calls for the city's government to expand curbs on pork imports from the mainland. The 44-year-old man, who worked at Wellcome Supermarket, is the fourth person to become infected with the Streptococcus suis bacteria in the territory since the outbreak in China was first reported in June, and the ninth person to catch the disease in the city this year.

■ Australia
Sex slave allegation rejected
Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison yesterday dismissed claims by a former policeman that as many as 1,000 foreign women are being held as sex slaves in brothels throughout the country. Former federal police officer Chris Payne told a conference last week that around 1,000 women were being forced to work in legal and illegal brothels nationwide. He said the figure marked a significant increase over the previous estimates of 200 to 300 women 10 years ago. Ellison told the Australian Broadcasting Corp radio that current police intelligence did not support the figure.

■ China
Editor blasts censorship
A veteran editor has launched rare attack on his state-run newspaper, criticising a proposed appraisal system which links reporters' pay with government or communist party approval. Li Datong, editor of a weekly supplement at the China Youth Daily, said the move would jeopardize editorial freedom -- an unusual show of dissent against the communist party's iron grip over the media. The appraisal system, to be implemented this week, gives guidelines on which reporters' salaries and bonuses would be calculated. Reporters would be awarded 300 points for stories praised by central government leaders, 120 points for those praised by the Communist Party Propaganda Department and 100 points for those praised by party officials. But by the same standard, reporters will receive negative points for writing stories that are criticized by these officials.

■ United Kingdom
Sex selection debated
The right of British parents to use fertility treatment to choose the sex of their children is to be debated by medical experts under a three-month consultation launched by the government on Tuesday. "We are asking a specific question -- should sex selection play a role in terms of family balancing," Public Health Minister Caroline Flint said. Current legislation allows sex selection only to avoid gender-linked medical conditions such as hemophilia, a position supported by a public consultation held in 2002 and 2003.

■ Canada
Killer on the loose
Canadian police launched a manhunt on Tuesday for a high-school killer who walked away from a halfway house, and his family appealed to him to give himself up. Todd Cameron Smith, 20, was 14 years old when he shot and killed one student and wounded another at his rural Alberta high school in 1999. Smith was convicted of murder and attempted murder in 2000. He was transferred to a Toronto halfway house last March and walked away from the facility on Monday, police said. Media reports said he had left behind a note saying he would not be taken alive.

■ United States
Duck masher sought
Police and outraged animal lovers were hunting on Tuesday for a nocturnal duck masher who massacred part of a tame flock in a small town near San Francisco. The duck death toll from the Aug. 5 carnage outside Delta Queen Classic Car Wash in Campbell rose to 11 on Tuesday after one of the wounded fowl was euthanized an assistant manager at the business, said. A reward fund for information leading to the capture of the duck killer topped US$11,000 on Tuesday. Car wash surveillance cameras filmed the duck devastater in action at 12:30am that morning, flattening docile ducks and dozing ducklings with his sedan. The videotaped attack lasted nearly 20 minutes, said Buell. "Whoever did this better hope the police catch him before we do," Buell warned. "There is going to be another news story if someone from the neighborhood catches him first."

■ United States
Power Ranger a murderer?
A former child actor and his wife were ordered to stand trial on Tuesday for the murder of a wealthy California couple who, prosecutors say, were tied to the anchor of their yacht and thrown overboard alive, never to be seen again. A judge ordered 26-year-old Skylar Deleon, who once starred in the Power Rangers TV series, and his wife, 24-year-old Jennifer Henderson Deleon, to stand trial for the murders after a two-day preliminary hearing in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles. Also bound over for trial in the case, which baffled police for months as they searched for the missing couple, were a member of the Crips street gang and a prison guard who are accused of helping carry out a conspiracy to steal the 17m luxury yacht Well Deserved. A detective testified during the hearing that Deleon and his then-pregnant wife posed as interested buyers and convinced the Hawks to take the yacht on a test run. Miles off the coast of Newport Beach, prosecutors say, Thomas and Jackie Hawks were attacked with a stun gun, handcuffed and gagged with duct tape. After signing over power of attorney to one assailant, they were tied to the boat's 30kg anchor and thrown overboard.

■ United States
Bush neighbor offers land
One of President George W. Bush's neighbors will allow use of his land by dozens of war protesters who have camped in roadside ditches the past 11 days, giving them more room and halving their distance from Bush's ranch. Fred Mattlage, an Army veteran, said he sympathizes with the demonstrators whose makeshift camp off the winding, two-lane road leading to Bush's ranch has angered most residents. Mattlage said the group will be safer on his corner 0.4-hectare lot. "I just think people should have a right to protest without being harassed," Mattlage told reporters Tuesday night. "And I'm against the war. I don't think it's a war we need to be in."

■ United Kingdom
Veggie motivation backfires
Managers at two branches of the Bank of Scotland made staff sit vegetables on their desks to try to prompt improved performance. The move prompted outrage instead. Two tellers at branches of the bank in Glasgow and Paisley had the vegetables placed on their desks within full public view. In the first case, an 18-year-old male teller was said to be deeply upset by the cabbage put on his desk. In the second case, which only emerged on Tuesday, a 24-year-old had a cauliflower placed on her desk. She was apparently told she could only pass it on when someone opened an account.

■ Zimbabwe
UN charges disputed
Zimbabwe accused the UN yesterday of exaggerating the impact of its urban demolition campaign, denying police killed anybody and accusing the UN of bias against President Robert Mugabe's government. The official Herald newspaper said Harare had completed an official response to a UN report issued last month which accused Zimbabwe officials of "indiscriminate" demolitions that destroyed the homes or livelihoods of some 700,000 people. "In its 45-page response, the government said the launch of the operation was intended to address a cocktail of social, economic and security challenges that were negatively impacting on the country's economy and the populace," the Herald said.

■ United States
Unit knew about Atta
A US army intelligence officer says his unit was blocked in 2000 and 2001 from giving the FBI information about a US-based terrorist cell that included Mohamed Atta, the future leader of the Sept. 11 attacks. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer said the small intelligence unit, called "Able Danger," had identified Atta and three of the other future Sept. 11 hijackers as al-Qaeda members by mid-2000. He said military lawyers stopped the unit from sharing the information with the FBI. The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks left the Able Danger claims out of its official report.

■ United States
Juice can fight arthritis
Drinking a glass of orange juice a day may help stave off arthritis, new research suggests. Certain carotenoids, compounds commonly found in some fruits and vegetables, appear to be responsible. The findings from previous studies have suggested that dietary carotenoids, the chemicals responsible for the orange and yellow coloring of fruits and vegetables, can reduce inflammation through antioxidant effects. Dr. Alan Silman, from The University of Manchester in the UK, and colleagues analyzed data from a study of more than 25,000 subjects to investigate the association between dietary carotenoids and arthritis risk.

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