■ India
Troops deployed after riots
New Delhi deployed troops in its troubled northeastnortheast yesterday, one day after 10 students were shot dead by police in protests. Soldiers patrolled the deserted streets of Tura, where hundreds of students hurled stones at police and broke through bamboo barricades on Friday. Ninety people were injured when police opened fire in Tura and Williamnagar during seperate clashes with students protesting against plans to move a school education board to the state capital from Tura. The two towns are dominated by the Garo tribe, which opposes moving the board as it regards it as a matter of prestige that it stays in Tura.
■ Australia
Diver killed by crocodile
Autopsy results have confirmed that a 55-year-old Australian has become the second diver to be killed by a saltwater crocodile off the Northern Territory in five days, police said on Friday. Russell Butel was mauled by a crocodile as he dived with a friend off Cobourg Peninsula, police said. His companion scrambled out of the water and called police upon seeing a big crocodile after Butel went missing. Butel's death came just five days after British snorkeler Russell Harris, 37, was killed by a 4m crocodile off Groote Eylandt.
■ Thailand
Emergency rule to continue
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday that his government would extend the controversial emergency rule covering the restive southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala as the violence there had not stopped. The emergency rule was imposed in July and expires on Oct. 20. It can be renewed every three months with Cabinet approval.
■ Pakistan
Militants attacked at border
The nation's forces attacked al Qaeda-linked militants in mountains near the Afghan border for a third day yesterday, pounding their hideouts with helicopter gunships. Pakistan has been trying to clear its lawless tribal areas on the Afghan border of militants since early last year. Hundreds of militants and Pakistani soldiers have been killed in clashes.
■ India
Crackdown on corruption
Investigators on Friday scoured the homes and offices of more than 70 senior government officials in a nationwide anti-corruption crackdown. Nearly 2,000 inspectors from the federal Central Bureau of Investigation -- India's equivalent of the FBI -- were involved in raids of 198 sites in 54 cities, said CBI Director Uma Shankar Mishra. The officials whose houses and offices were raided included some senior bureaucrats, tax collectors and administrators of government agencies. No arrests were made, but Mishra said investment certificates, property papers and jewelry worth US$3.3 million, US$186,000 in cash and dozens of bank lockers were also seized.
■ India
Bollywood challenges ban
A court Friday asked the federal government to respond within a month to a petition from a top Bollywood filmmaker challenging a ban on smoking on-screen that had been extended to Jan. 1. Producer-director Mahesh Bhatt filed a petition in the Delhi High Court calling the ban a violation of the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by India's 1950 constitution. As well as an absolute ban on smoking in new productions, older films and programs must display a health warning when a person who is smoking appears on the screen.
■ Australia
Muslims asked for help
Moderate Muslims should join with government anti-terrorism forces to root out extremists among them, Australia's foreign minister said in a speech delivered at the opening of an interfaith conference in Sydney. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the war on terror was "a battle we all share in because Muslims are as much the targets as the so-called Westerners." Earlier this week, Australia's state and territory leaders agreed to help the government enforce tough new anti-terror laws that could include holding terror suspects without charge for 14 days and tracking people suspected of involvement with terror groups for up to a year.
■ Australia
Appeal denied in murder case
The High Court on Friday refused to hear an appeal by a drug addict convicted of murdering a British backpacker by throwing her off a bridge in eastern Australia. Ian Douglas Previte was convicted last October of the murder and robbery of 19-year-old Caroline Stuttle in the sugar cane growing community of Bundaberg, in Queensland state in 2002. He is serving a life sentence. The court refused to hear his case saying it was not convinced "an error or miscarriage of justice had occurred" in his original trial. Previte's lawyers contend the trial judge erred by admitting the evidence of a handwriting expert who testified that Previte was the likely author of a confession written on a picnic table. Judge Michael Kirby said that while the picnic table evidence was "weak," stronger evidence -- including Previte's confession to a fellow prisoner and police -- supported the decision to deny his request for an appeal.
■ United Kingdom
Newlyweds get unusual lift
One bride did not expect the traditional "something blue" for her wedding to be the flashing lights on a police car. Nicky Clark and her new husband Andrew Allen were on their way to their reception after the wedding when their car broke down, according to the Eastern Daily Press newspaper. A policeman found the couple stuck on the bypass near Sudbury a week ago Saturday. He whisked them to their wedding reception with the flashing lights on and the sirens blaring. "We don't normally offer a breakdown service," a Suffolk Police spokesman said. "But on this occasion the officer was passing and saw that the couple had a problem and it wasn't any trouble for him to help out."
■ Poland
Pilgrimage turns deadly
Twelve people, nine of them high-school students, were killed and more than 40 injured on Friday when their bus and a truck collided head-on in the northeast. The bus was taking some 60 students and their teachers from two classes of a school on a trip to the nation's most revered Roman Catholic shrine in Czestochowa. The bus burst into flames, and the victims either burned to death of suffocated, authorities said. Students who were not seriously injured managed to scramble through the bus windows. The bus driver and two people in the truck were also killed.
■ United Kingdom
Man charged in murder
A 47-year old man was to appear in court yesterday after he was charged with the murder of a teenager whose dismembered body was found on a run-down council estate in south London, police said. Officers believe Rochelle Holness, 15, was abducted and killed on or before last Wednesday by John McGrady. A woman who was arrested with McGrady has been released. The hunt for Holness, who had been reported missing, focused on a flat on the Milford Towers estate after an ambulance crew raised the alarm after they had been called to one of the apartments to treat a man suffering from cuts.
■ France
Dead pets to cost owners
Pet owners will now have to pay up to 150 euros (US$180) to have their dead animals' remains taken away for cremation if they do not bury them themselves in their gardens under a change in the law. Previously the cost was carried by the state, but under the new rules only deceased farm animals, abandoned pets in shelters and horses and ponies in racing or training centers will continued to be collected at taxpayers' expense, according to a decree published in the official government gazette last week. France has some 10 million cats and 9 million dogs, one of the highest rates of pet ownership per capita in the world.
■ United States
O.J. fails to attract crowd
O.J. Simpson appeared at a comic book convention on Friday to sign autographs, but few beside the media seemed to care. Simpson's rare public outing in Los Angeles show drew no more than a dozen people -- besides the reporters and camera crews. Asked if he was being paid for his appearance, Simpson replied, "I'm not doing this for my health." A promoter said Simpson was "not getting a penny" for his visit but was using the event as a dry run for possible future appearances he might make in exchange for donations to his children's college fund.
■ United States
Schoolbus overturns
Dozens of children were injured, eight of them critically, when a schoolbus overturned on Friday morning while driving along a New York City highway. Scores of emergency workers responded to the crash scene on a Bronx Expressway, where the bus, with 46 children and eight adults, flipped onto its side. Students in their school uniforms exited the bus after the crash as the vehicle lay on its side. There was no word from authorities on what caused the accident.
■ United States
Woman made anthrax threat
A former analyst for the National Institutes of Health pleaded guilty to making an anthrax threat against a county agency during a tax dispute. Michelle Ledgister, 43, faces up to five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine for violating an anti-terrorism law making it a federal crime to falsely threaten someone with anthrax. She pleaded guilty on Thursday. Ledgister made the threat after the Broward County, Florida, Property Appraiser's Office revoked a tax break for her Florida home, effectively raising her annual taxes by about US$2,300. According to the FBI, Ledgister called the office on July 26, identified herself, and said, "You guys now have anthrax spores once again, so do be careful."
■ United States
Honeymooners busted
Immigration officials broke up a ring that arranged marriages between US nationals and foreigners seeking to legalize their immigration status, making 29 arrests, Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) said. The two year investigation was dubbed "Operation Honeymoon." Among those involved in the ring, which operated in several Florida cities, were citizens of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Israel, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. "Those who received green cards will be placed in revocation proceedings," CIS added. Those arrested face as many a 10 years in jail and fines of a maximum US$250,000 if convicted.
■ Canada
Japanese tourist drowned
A Japanese tourist drowned in a lake late Thursday after being caught inside a float plane that was flipped upside down by strong winds prior to takeoff. "There were very strong winds last night," police said. The man, whose name or age were not released, was one of six people in the aircraft that was preparing to take off from Lake Ouimet, north of Montreal, witnesses said. The pilot and four Japanese women managed to escape and hold onto the floats. Rescuers managed to free the man after 10 minutes, but he was unconscious and pronounced dead in hospital.
■ Brazil
Eight die in river crash
An Amazon River passenger ship crashed into two barges and sank, leaving at least eight people dead and a dozen missing, Brazilian authorities said on Friday. The wooden ship was traveling on a remote stretch of the Amazon late on Thursday night en route to the jungle city of Manaus when it collided with river barges carrying commercial trucks, Captain Edlander Santos of the Brazilian Navy said. Manaus is 2,700km northwest of Sao Paulo. Local media said the passenger boat, which was carrying 60 people, tried to cross in front of the barges just before it was struck. Eight passengers were found dead and 12 were still missing by Friday afternoon, Santos said. Forty people were rescued and eight suffered serious injuries, he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of