■ Pakistan
Gunman opens fire
A gunman opened fire at security officials who were trying to enforce a ban on carrying arms in a tribal town in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing two officers and wounding two others. The officers were attacked in a bazaar in Miran Shah when they gave an order to a local tribesman who was carrying an AK-47 rifle, local government administrator Tariq Hayat said. Instead of complying, the unidentified man allegedly opened fire at the officers and fled.
■ Philippines
Congress in heated debate
Opposition lawmakers yesterday warned Congress that throwing out impeachment charges against President Gloria Arroyo could lead to unrest and worsen a month-long crisis sparked by allegations she rigged last year's elections. The 236-seat House of Representatives, which is overwhelmingly dominated by pro-Arroyo legislators, are preparing for a final debate before voting on whether to uphold a justice committee's decision to throw out all three impeachment complaints against Arroyo. She is accused of rigging last year's election, and of bribery, corruption and other crimes.
■ China
Fuel truck rams a plane
Beijing International Airport was lucky to avoid tragedy after a refuelling truck rammed a plane in one of two accidents at Chinese airports over the weekend. The fuel truck hit a Finnair jet bound for Helsinki after refuelling it on Saturday, becoming lodged under the plane's wing, the China Daily said. Frantic maintenance staff were forced to pump out eight tonnes of petrol from the plane and deflate the truck's tires to release it. All 287 passengers on board were evacuated and no injuries were reported.
■ Australia
Muslim party created
The country now has a Muslim political party and its leader says he hopes eventually to gain control of the Canberra parliament and impose sharia law. The Best Party of Allah in Australia (BPAA) applied for registration yesterday to be the voice of the country's 300,000 Muslims. "We want leaders who believe in Allah and will legislate accordingly for the laws that Allah prefers for our personal lives," BPAA founder Kurt Kennedy said. He said there could be no guarantee that extremists would not infiltrate the party but doubted they would want to join. "We totally reject people who would kill people indiscriminately, you know, as violence for its own sake and that's the story, that's the end of it," he said. Kennedy, a Vietnamese-born recent convert to Islam, said the new party had 100 members.
■ Singapore
Maids found guilty
Two Indonesian maids, who admitted to killing their Singaporean employer, were found guilty of culpable homicide yesterday, escaping execution on the reduced sentence after a court found that mental anguish pushed them to kill. Juminem, 20, and Siti Aminah, 17, were sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 years' jail respectively for killing Esther Ang Imm Suan, Juminem's employer, in March last year by suffocating her with a pillow and bludgeoning her with a wine bottle. Judge Choo Han Teck said, "It appeared that [Juminem's] mind, constantly disturbed by loneliness and despair, became fragile, and overly sensitive to the comments and physical contact [by her employer]."
■ Russia
Putin picks new navy chief
Russian President Vladimir Putin shuffled the Russian navy's command on Sunday, a move expected after the latest submarine accident last month in which seven sailors aboard a mini-submarine were saved with the help of other countries. Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, the chief of the Russian navy, was retired and replaced by Admiral Vladimir Masorin. Critics say the Russian fleet is plagued by severe financial difficulties and low morale. Kuroyedov was also in charge of the fleet in 2000, when the Kursk nuclear submarine sank, killing 118 crewmen. Russia refused offers of foreign help to rescue the Kursk and the navy command initially concealed the extent of the disaster.
■ France
Paris fire was set: police
Police said on Sunday that a fire that swept through a high-rise apartment block overnight, killing at least 15 people, was deliberately set. Three children were among those who died in the fire, in the Paris suburb of L'Hay-Les-Roses, the fourth deadly blaze in as many months in the city. The 18-story structure contains 110 subsidized apartments that were renovated this year. The building houses low-income French citizens as well as immigrants.
■ UAE
US sub slams into ship
A US navy submarine collided with a Turkish cargo ship in the Gulf in the dark hours yesterday morning. No one was hurt on either vessel. The USS Philadelphia was traveling on the surface of the Gulf when it slammed into the Turkish-flagged M/V Yaso Aysen at around 2am. The Philadelphia was conducting surface operations on its way to Bahrain for a scheduled port visit. There were no immediate reports of damage to the Turkish ship.
■ Italy
Gay donor turned away
Italy's health minister has condemned a decision by one of the country's biggest hospitals to stop a gay man giving blood. A 39-year-old writer was turned away from the Policlinico hospital in Milan after telling staff he was gay. Paolo Pedote said he had been informed that, although Italian law allowed him to give blood, it was "internal policy" not to accept gay male donors. The health minister, Francesco Storace of the formerly neo-fascist National Alliance, announced an inquiry, and said: "We intend to determine the administrative responsibility. But what has happened could also be grounds for a criminal investigation."
■ United Kingdom
Nazi death snacks revealed
Luckily, the exploding Smedley's English Red Plums in Heavy Syrup were intercepted in Turkey before anyone got killed. But what of the hand grenade disguised as a chocolate bar? Or the incendiary Vichy pastille sweets? A secret file from the UK's spy services released this week shows ingenious methods, conjured up by Germans during World War II, for disguising bombs. Among the files declassified by the National Archive this year was a treasure trove of exploding gadgets, labelled "Camouflages for sabotage equipment used by the German sabotage services." The drawing of the design for the chocolate bar grenade says it is made from steel coated with real chocolate, and activated by breaking off a bit at one end. It doesn't say whether the grenade was ever actually manufactured or used. The file also includes photos of bombs hidden in anything from oil cans and food tins to a lump of coal.
■ Missing Britons
Blair says sorry
British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized yesterday to Britons caught in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but defended British diplomats on the ground. Some 150 Britons remain unaccounted for, a week after the hurricane struck the southern US, but Blair said he expected that number to go down. "I'm sorry if some people felt they didn't get the help they needed and we will look into that. We will do our level best to get to anybody still in there that we can get to, to get them out of there," Blair said in Beijing. He said it was "not sensible to speculate" on the number of British fatalities.
■ Rescue
Singaporeans lend a hand
Three Singapore Air Force Chinook helicopters based in Texas have airlifted hundreds of residents trapped in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Singapore's Straits Times reported yesterday. It said that as of nightfall on Saturday, the helicopters had airlifted about 700 people from the Superdome arena and a convention center. In dawn-to-dusk operations, the Singaporeans have also delivered to survivors tonnes of supplies, including food and water, the report said. The Singapore Defense Ministry said that the CH-47 Chinook helicopters were from a training detachment in Grand Prairie, Texas.
■ Celebrities
Penn's rescue bombs
Actor Sean Penn's personal crusade to save victims in hurricane-crippled New Orleans took on water on Sunday. The movie star and political activist was in the collapsing city to aid stranded victims of flooding sparked by Hurricane Katrina, but the small boat he was piloting sprang a leak. The outspoken actor had planned to rescue children waylaid by the deadly waters, but apparently forgot to plug a hole in the bottom of the vessel, which began taking water within seconds of its launch.
■ Celebrities
Grisham forks out
Best-selling writer John Grisham and his wife usually keep their charitable donations very private. But they've decided to disclose their US$5 million contribution to establish a relief fund to help Mississippians rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. "In these very, very rare circumstances -- this tragic time -- we hope the gift will get some attention and inspire other people to contribute money and help our fellow Mississippians on the Gulf Coast,'' said Grisham, who maintains a home in Oxford, Mississippi. Grisham, a former state legislator, said the fund will assist Mississippi residents and businesses. He said a staff will be hired to evaluate requests for help.
■ Cuban offer
Castro talks up aid
Cuban President Fidel Castro put on display some 1,500 doctors equipped with medical supplies on Sunday in hopes of persuading the US to allow them to treat victims of Hurricane Katrina. Castro, in a televised meeting with the doctors, said the US had not responded to his offer to send medical workers and 26 tonnes of supplies to the devastated Gulf Coast. He first made the offer public during a television presentation on Friday, saying political enmity should be put aside during such a crisis. The doctors, each with a green rucksack filled with emergency medicines, were brought to Havana over the weekend, Castro said, and were ready to leave at a moment's notice.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing