■ Hong Kong
Universal suffrage ruled out
Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) has promised increased democracy in the 2007-2008 elections, but has rejected moves for full universal suffrage, the Standard reported yesterday. Tsang said government reforms for the 2007 chief executive and 2008 legislative council elections would allow more people to take part, the daily reported. But he added: "I hope everybody faces the political reality that it is impossible to have universal suffrage in 2007-08 because Beijing has already ruled it out." He called on pro-democracy parties to soften their demands for universal suffrage, warning their opposition could derail the government proposals.
■ INDIA
Building collapse kills 11
A four-story residential building collapsed in Mumbai early yesterday, killing 11 people and leaving at least 25 trapped in the debris, police and hospital officials said. Fire and police teams rescued 47 people from the building, a police officer said. At least 31 people were injured in the collapse which took place shortly after 1am, a police officer said.
■ South Korea
Ex-spy chief questioned
Chun Yong-taek, who headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 1999, was questioned yesterday about a wiretapping scandal that has lifted the curtain on corrupt ties between business and politicians, prosecutors said. According to the Yonhap news agency, Chun obtained audiotapes from illegal wiretapping. It is uncertain whether information relating to the wiretapping was reported to then-president Kim Dae-Jung, who has flatly denied having allowed illegal wiretapping while in office, Yonhap said.
■ Indonesia
Polio cases increasing
The number of people infected with polio rose to 225 after five more people in Java were reported infected, including one man in Jakarta, the the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday. More national immunization days are scheduled for Aug. 30 and Sept. 27, targeting 24.4 million children under the age of five throughout the country in a bid to curb the disease's spread.
■ China
No longer in the dog house
More than 50 people in Tangzhuang Township, Henan Province, have thrown their centuries-old surname to the dogs, hoping to free themselves of a stigma supposedly imposed on their clan by an ancient emperor, Xinhua news agency reported. The villagers have legally changed their surname from "Gou" (humble), which is pronounced the same as the word for "dog," back to their original family name "Jing" (respect), Xinhua said on its English Web site. "It was really embarrassing. My son couldn't even find a girlfriend because of his name," one resident was quoted as saying before the name change. The Gou families said Shi Jingtang, founder of the Jin Dynasty (936 to 947), ordered their ancestors to give up the surname Jing and adopt Gou.
■ The Philippines
`Cybersex' den raided
Police arrested a 39-year-old American man after raiding a "cybersex" den he was suspected of running near a former US airforce base north of Manila, officials said yesterday. Six women, including two minors, were working as "models" in the Angeles City Internet cafe run by James Paul Kelly, an official said.
■ Netherlands
Truck in chicken crash
A truck carrying 8,000 live chickens crashed into a motorway maintenance vehicle near the Dutch city of Utrecht early yesterday, causing motorway chaos for kilometers around, police reported. The trailer containing the chickens toppled, presenting firefighters with the chore of capturing the survivors and loading them onto another vehicle before the truck could be moved. The driver suffered light injuries after crashing into a mobile motorway barrier at around 2:30am.
■ United States
Court sets precedent
California's highest court ruled on Monday that lesbians who conceive children while they are a couple must both be treated as parents, even if they are not registered as a couple, giving them rights and responsibilities similar to unmarried heterosexual parents. Gays in California may register as domestic partners and establish parental rights, but the rulings in three cases broke ground by holding unregistered partners to such standards. "This is the first time any state supreme court in the country has made this ruling," said Courtney Joslin, a senior staff attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
■ Australia
Floods cause chaos
Emergencies were declared in communities in western Austria as residents described "violent flooding" that washed out train tracks, shut down highways and caused mudslides. As torrential rains that began Monday continued, flooding worsened, causing brooks, streams and rivers to overflow their banks. The hardest-hit areas were in the states of Tirol and Voralberg, the Austria Press Agency reported. Train service was suspended across Vorarlberg, and more than 1,000 firefighters were deployed in the Feldkirch district of the state.
■ United States
Rudolph gets life
Nearly nine years after setting off the bomb that disrupted the 1996 Summer Olympics, Eric Rudolph was sentenced to four life terms in prison at a hearing in which victims described him as a cowardly terrorist. Monday's hearing covered the Olympics blast, a bombing at a gay nightclub in Atlanta and another at an abortion clinic in the city in 1997. One woman was killed and more than 100 people were injured by the Olympics bomb. John Hawthorne, whose wife died in the Olympics bombing, said the thought of Rudolph being executed -- "peacefully going to sleep on a gurney with a smile on his face" -- was unacceptable to him. He said he was pleased to know that Rudolph instead will "never again see the beauty of flowers and trees" as he sits in prison. "May God bless you with a long life," he told Rudolph.
■ United States
Moog dies at 71
Robert Moog, the man who transformed the sound of popular music with his Moog synthesizer, has died aged 71 at his home in North Carolina. The electronic keyboard he pioneered led to the birth of progressive rock and disco and helped inspire elements of funk, hip-hop and techno. It played an integral role in the music of artists as diverse as the Beatles, the Black Eyed Peas and Mariah Carey. Moog, who invented his first electric synthesizer in 1964 while studying for a PhD in engineering physics at Cornell University, always considered himself a technician.
■ United States
Pat wants Chavez dead
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on his religious TV show on Monday, calling him a "terrific danger" to the US. Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, said that it was the US' duty to stop Chavez from making Venezuela a "launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism." "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
■ United States
Backwards to safety
This is a story that should be told in reverse, so here's the ending: Jim Peterson is readjusting to life on land and his deckhand is getting free drinks. Peterson, a 61-year-old fisherman, was 130km off the coast of Newport, Oregon, last week when the reverse gear on his 11m boat seized up on him. He managed to get the boat to shift into reverse. Far from his home port of Coos Bay, Peterson and deckhand Jeremy Welsh considered their options: Wait hours for a Coast Guard tow, wait for help from other fishermen or drive the boat all the way back in reverse. Peterson wasn't waiting. "It was odd, watching the wake roll out the front windows; like watching a movie in reverse," Peterson told the Register-Guard of Eugene after the 39-hour trip back.
■ United Kingdom
Tower Bridge to host gig
London's latest concert venue looks decidedly unpromising at first glance. It is 111 years old, lacks seats and has a tendency to break in half. But London Mayor Ken Livingstone hopes that a free gig on Tower Bridge, one of the most famous landmarks, by the Scottish rock band Texas will help bring tourists back to the city after last month's terror attacks. The concert, which will take place on the bridge's walkway on Sept. 6, is organized by Virgin Radio and tourism organization, Visit London, as part of a series of free festivals and events next month.
■ Spain
Married man ordained
Spain's conservative Roman Catholic hierarchy has ordained the country's first married priest, a former Anglican minister from Zimbabwe with two grown children. The diocese of Tenerife denied that the ordination, approved by the Vatican, was a step toward the abolition of Catholic celibacy. "It is a very unique exception that takes into account the unusual circumstance that he comes from the Anglican Church, which allows its ministers to marry." Some in Spain, however, hope this unusual ordination will open the door to reforms in an institution under increasing pressure from civil society to abandon orthodox doctrine.
■ Lebanon
Bomb injures three
Three people were injured in an explosion that rocked a main shopping street in a Christian suburb north of Beirut late on Monday, police said. The bomb went off at the entrance to the underground parking garage of a shopping center. The roof of the center collapsed, and a neighboring hotel and office block housing departments of the National Bank were badly damaged, witnesses said. Two passers-by and a photographer were injured by flying glass, police said. It was the 10th bomb blast in Beirut since the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in February.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in