■ Thailand
UK bomb suspect nabbed
Police have arrested an Algerian national wanted in Britain in connection with last month's deadly London bombings that left 52 dead, the Nation daily reported yesterday. Atamnia Yachine, 33, was arrested on Wednesday in Bangkok on charges of possessing 180 fake French and Spanish passports, the paper said. He is believed to have provided terrorists behind the London bombings with fake papers, a senior immigration police official said. British officials in London yesterday said that they would seek Yachine's extradition.
■ Nepal
Roadside bomb kills seven
At least seven people were killed and three others injured yesterday in an explosion that occurred when they tried to remove road blocks erected by the Maoists in the southwest, the Nepalnews Web site reported. It quoted security sources as saying the incident occurred when bus passengers attempted to remove obstacles placed on the highway by the rebels.
■ Hong Kong
Hospitals hike delivery fees
Mums-to-be from foreign countries face higher charges for giving birth in the territory as of Thursday after the Hospital Authority increased fees, a media report said yesterday. The minimum package for a three day-two night hospital stay including delivery will cost HK$20,000 (US$2,564), while every extra day will cost HK$3,300, the Standard said. Doctors fees will rise to HK$2,250. Currently, it costs just HK$3,300 a day to stay in hospital while giving birth, while doctors charge a flat rate of HK$1,500 per day. The move is intended to cut down on the number of Chinese women who come to the territory to give birth. Children born in the territory automatically become permanent residents, which entitles them to a Hong Kong identity card and passport.
■ Pakistan
Five sentenced to death
A military court has sentenced five men to death for their roles in a 2003 plot to kill President Pervez Musharraf, an army spokesman said. The men, including a soldier, were arrested after suicide bombers tried to ram two explosives-laden vehicles into Musharraf's motorcade on a road in Rawalpindi on Dec. 25, 2003, the official said. Sixteen people, mostly police guards, were killed in the attack. Three other civilians were given lesser sentences on in connection with the plot.
■ Thailand
New cab stands for Bangkok
Hailing a taxi on Bangkok's traffic-thronged streets may soon become as easy as pressing a button. Bangkokg authorities on Friday opened the first of 150 electronic taxi stands that will allow pedestrians to summon a cab by pressing a green button, signaling a dispatcher to send a taxi, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday. The devices will display the estimated arrival time and license plate number of the approaching taxi, the paper said. The stands are expected to be installed across the city by November.
■ India
Thief gets 100th sentence
A petty thief and illicit liquor pedlar has notched up a record of sorts -- his 100th prison sentence. A court in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, jailed 25-year-old Gopal Singh for one month, police said. "Gopal Singh has spent his prime 13 years behind bars," a police inspector said yesterday. More than half his convictions have been for peddling local liquor, which is banned in Andhra Pradesh.
■ Greece
Pilot's body identified
The body of a German pilot of a Cyprus plane that crashed near Athens on Aug. 14 killing all 121 on board, has been identified by his daughter, Greek television reports said on Friday. Hans Juergen Merten, 58, had been among three people still reported missing after the plane crashed during a flight from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague. His body was reported to be badly damaged by the impact and ensuing fire and had to be identified using the examination of DNA tissue and dental records.
■ United Kingdom
Boy, 12, guilty of rape
A 12-year-old boy was found guilty on Friday in Liverpool Crown Court of raping a six-year-old boy. A jury unanimously convicted the youngster after a three-day trial. The boy was convicted of two rape offences, two of inciting the younger child to engage in sexual activity and one of sexually assaulting six-year old. He was cleared of two other rape offences and one charge of incitement. The judge warned the boy he could face a custodial sentence. Sentencing has been set for Oct. 17 to allow psychiatric and pre-sentence reports to be drawn up.
■ Peru
`Dead' woman found alive
A woman believed killed when a plane plowed into a jungle swamp has been found in a hospital, reducing the number of victims to 39 and bringing that of survivors to 59, the TANS airline said on Friday. A 28-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was found by her husband in a hospital in Pucallpa, near where the plane crashed in a freak hailstorm as it came in to land, said an airline spokesman. The woman has been transferred to Lima, where she was in serious condition and on a ventilator. Her son, who was traveling with her, was reported to have undergone surgery in Lima. Six of the dead have yet to be identified.
■ United States
No charges in washing case
A Virginia judge dismissed a manslaughter charge against a teenager whose 5-year-old half-sister died after he put her in a coin-operated laundry machine that then began running. The ruling on Thursday came after prosecutors said they did not believe they could convict the 14-year-old boy. The boy put the girl into the triple-load machine "during a playful game between brother and sister" on June 17, defense attorney John Graham said. The boy put no coins in the machine but it started anyway, Graham said, and the teen then tried "frantically" to stop the washer and free his sister, smashing at the glass with a large rock from the parking lot.
■ United States
`Raging grannies' free
Charges have been dropped against the "Raging Grannies," five Arizona women accused of trespassing after they tried to enlist at a military-recruitment center to protest the war in Iraq, a Tucson prosecutor said. The five women tried to enlist on July 13, saying they wanted to go to Iraq so their children and grandchildren could come home. Recruiters called police. Their group, dubbed the "Tucson Raging Grannies," includes members ranging in age from 65 to 81. They have protested at the center once a week for three years. The prosecutor said on Friday that the trespassing charges were dropped because they would have been difficult to prove.
■ Canada
Smugglers' tunnel blocked
What could have been a gold mine for drug smugglers is no more, after US officials on Friday poured cement into the US half of a tunnel that ran under the Canadian-US border. US Drug Enforcement Administration officials said the 110m tunnel could have been used to smuggle millions of dollars of narcotics into the US. A backhoe began cutting through a roadway above the tunnel between Lynden, Washington, and Aldergrove, British Columbia, on Thursday. The US portion of the tunnel was filled with a liquid foam cement compound. Canadian authorities were to seal up their side in the coming days.
■ Chile
German colony seized
Authorities seized control of a secretive German colony in southern Chile that has been accused of cooperating with the security services of General Augusto Pinochet during his military dictatorship. The intervention on Friday at Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony) was ordered by Judge Jimena Perez, who appointed lawyer Herman Chadwick to take control of the enclave 480km south of Santiago. Colony leaders have been accused of allowing their facilities to be used as a torture and execution center by the secret police of Pinochet's 1973-1990 regime. They were also suspected of keeping the colony's 300 residents against their will.
■ Brazil
Amazon destruction `slows'
Brazil said on Friday that the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest was slowing, but environmental groups suggested much of the reduction was due to a slump in farming instead of government action. Using data obtained by satellite, the government estimated that 9,106km2 were razed in the world's largest tropical forest between August last year and last month, down sharply from 18,724km2 in the same period a year earlier. Officials attributed the drop to a government action plan launched last year aimed at curbing illegal logging in the Amazon, home to 30 percent of the world's animal and plant species.
■ United Kingdom
Record reward on offer
A desperate British couple is offering a £40,000 (US$72,000) reward for the safe return of their dog, Natasha. Diane and Roy Cousins, both 55, have put up what is believed to be the highest-ever reward for a domestic animal, in this case a 15-year-old labrador cross. Diane Cousins has remortgaged their house in Bromley, Kent, and sold her wedding and engagement rings; Roy Cousins has swelled the fund further with money he was left by his father. But even with this kind of wild-west bounty on Natasha, there have yet to be any sightings of the elderly tan-colored pet, who needs regular veterinary attention because of her age.
■ United States
Bag-search data still secret
A federal judge blocked the release of information about random bag searches in New York City subways, saying officials may be able to prove that the success of the program depends on its secrecy. US District Judge Richard Berman's decision on Friday overruled a magistrate judge who had ordered the city to disclose details such as the number of days during a one-month period that searches were conducted. Berman said the magistrate judge did not adequately consider the city's concerns. He said it would serve little purpose to allow the New York Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case, to see the sensitive data before officials and experts testify at a hearing next month.
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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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