■ CHINA
Malnutrition hits poor kids
Nearly one-third of children living in China's poorest areas suffer from malnutrition, the government said yesterday. Citing a report from the Beijing-based Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, the official Xinhua news agency said that 29 percent of children under the age of five living in poverty-stricken regions of southwestern China's Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and in Qinghai in the northwest, were affected by the malady. By contrast, it said, child malnutrition in urban areas stood at only 1 percent.
■ HONG KONG
WTO protests allowed
The government announced on Friday that it would seal off a small area around the site of the World Trade Organization ministerial conference when it is held here in December. The government also offered to let protesters hold demonstrations at two sites within view of the convention center during the Dec. 13-18 gathering. The government had proposed earlier this year to ban demonstrators from a wide area around the center, located in Wanchai.
■ CHINA
Cadets confirmed dead
Eighty police cadets from an academy that was hit by a landslide caused by Typhoon Longwang last weekend have been confirmed dead, state media reported yesterday. Five other cadets remain missing, according to Xinhua. The typhoon brought sudden downpours, triggering a landslide that hit two houses in the academy stationed in the provincial capital Fuzhou last Sunday, washing away the cadets inside. Rescuers saved 57 others, 39 of whom were injured.
■ VIETNAM
Angry bear kills owner
A pet bear being kept at a restaurant for its bile attacked and killed its 75-year-old owner in Vietnam Friday, a local military officer said yesterday. The 300kg, 163cm bear was one of a pair held in a small cage at the back of the man's restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City for nearly 20 years, the officer said. "Tran Hoang Loc, the restaurant owner, was attacked and hurled to the ground by the bear when he was opening the cage to feed the two animals," said Nguyen Dinh Trung, an officer from the military unit in Thu Duc district who was later sent to shoot and kill the bear. One of the man's staff was also injured in the attack. "Loc was found dead with his body crushed and torn while his assistant had one of his arms torn off by the bear when he stepped in to help," Trung said.
■ CAMBODIA
Man jailed for killing rapist
A Cambodian father has been jailed for four years for murdering a man he caught sexually assaulting his daughter as he tried to rescue her, court officials said yesterday. Deputy prosecutor for the central provincial court of Kampong Thom, Ty Sokon Thal, told reporters that Part Thy, 56, had heard his 15-year-old daughter screaming on January 9, 2001 and had run back from fishing in the river to find a man identified as Tol Buntheoun in the act of raping her. "He picked up a machete and chopped Buntheoun to rescue his daughter. Buntheoun was seriously injured and died the next day, and Thy then turned himself in to police and admitted the crime," Sokon Thal said.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Chinese official flees
The second highest ranking member in the Chinese government missed a ceremonial Maori welcome at the New Zealand Parliament on Thursday in order to dodge a one-man protest over Tibet by a local politician. New Zealand police refused a demand by security guards with Wu Bangguo (吳邦國), chairman of China's National People's Congress, to remove Rod Donald, co-leader of the Green Party in Parliament, who stood at the red-carpeted steps of the building holding a Tibetan flag as he arrived.
■ PHILIPPINS
Rebels rescue kidnapped boy
Muslim separatist rebels have rescued a four-year-old boy turned over by his nanny to a notorious kidnap gang in the southern Philippines after a misunderstanding with the victim's mother, the military said yesterday. Ralf Ashley Alcolar was abandoned by members of the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom syndicate when Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels raided their hideout late Friday in Pikit town, North Cotabato province, 960km south of Manila. Brigadier General Ben Dolorfino, a marine brigade commander, said that the Pentagon kidnappers did not put up a fight and immediately fled when the MILF rebels swooped down on their hideout.
■ PHILIPPINES
White House theft probed
The Philippine Justice Department said yesterday it has ordered an investigation into possible links between opposition leaders and a man arrested for stealing confidential information from the White House. The order from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to the National Bureau of Investigation directed the bureau to look into any links, especially money transfers to Leandro Aragoncillo, a naturalized American who allegedly stole information from the White House and the FBI.
■ SAUDI ARABIA
Abused TV presenter flees
Rania al-Baz, a Saudi Arabian television presenter who shocked her country by publishing photographs of herself after being beaten by her husband, has left for France, apparently never to return. "I won't go back," Baz said in Paris on Thursday, clearly exhausted. "At the moment I don't have anywhere to live. I will try to find work here or in London." Asked the reason for her departure, she would only say: "I was not safe any more in Saudi Arabia. Now, I must rest, remain quiet for a few days, and think about my children, who are still back in Jeddah."
■ UNITED STATES
Boy George arrested
Boy George was arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs and making a fake police report after calling the police emergency early Friday. The British singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, claimed his home had been burglarized around 3am on Friday. Officers arrived at O'Dowd's Manhattan apartment and discovered a small amount of cocaine next to a computer. O'Dowd was still in police custody and was awaiting arraignment before a judge on Friday evening. He was to be charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, allegedly more than an eighth of an ounce (5g) of cocaine, carrying a maximum penalty of five to 15 years in prison.
■ WEST BANK
Hamas members released
An obscure Palestinian group released two members of the Islamic group Hamas on Friday after kidnapping them the night before in two West Bank cities. Palestinian officials said the Omar Ibn El-Khatab Brigades released unharmed Bassam Obeid, from Hebron, and Hasan Safi, from Bethlehem, after less than 24 hours in captivity. Hamas accused the Palestinian intelligence service of carrying out the kidnapping.
■ UNITED STATES
Girl admits stabbing friend
A nine-year-old girl pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, admitting she stabbed her 11-year-old playmate after a tug-of-war over a rubber ball went sour. The girl, identified as "Shanice K.," admitted she stabbed Queen Washington once in the chest at a Memorial Day gathering last May in Brooklyn. The girls' mothers were best friends as well when Queen was invited to Shanice's home for a Memorial Day barbecue. Shanice's mother stepped out of her apartment to borrow something from a neighbor, and returned to find her daughter had plunged a steak knife into Queen's chest.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Rapist wins the lottery
An elderly woman in England lost her bid for financial damages from the man who was jailed for sexually assaulting her before he hit the lottery jackpot last year. London's High Court upheld a previous ruling that the woman, now 76, could not win the case because her claim was brought more than six years since she was assaulted in 1988 in a park in Leeds. Iorworth Hoare, 52, was jailed for life in May 1989 for trying to rape the woman. He won ?7 million (US$12.3 million) after buying a lottery ticket while on weekend leave from Leyhill open prison in Gloucestershire last year. Under current Home Office guidelines, prisoners on temporary release from jail are allowed to play the lottery and claim any prize. Hoare had previously been convicted of a string of sex attacks, including rape, during the 1970s and 1980s.
■ AUSTRIA
Marathon to be run backward
Running a marathon is a grueling feat for any athlete, but Austria's Paula Mairer is making it even tougher on herself: She hopes to set a woman's world record for covering the distance backwards. Mairer, 46, will make the attempt at today's Munich Marathon, and says she thinks she's in shape to become the first woman to do so. No woman is on record as having trotted a marathon in reverse.
■ CROATIA
Grannies spar over lover
A 71-year-old woman in Croatia attacked and seriously injured another elderly woman over an alleged affair with a 78-year-old man, the daily Vecernji list said on Friday. The jealous granny in the northern town of Cakovec reportedly used a wooden stick to attack her 75-year-old neighbor whom she accused of having a three-year affair with her husband. The victim identified only as Ana was knocked to the floor in the assault. "And it would have been much worse if it hadn't been for neighbors who stopped her," Ana said. Police were called to the scene but made no arrests.
■ UNITED STATES
Katrina broke storm barriers
Much of the city flooded not because water rushed over the tops of levees, but because two of the storm barriers that ring New Orleans actually shifted and then collapsed, a team of independent engineers said. The preliminary analysis contradicts initial reports by the US Army Corps of Engineers, which said water may have pushed over the top of the levees, eroding the earthen embankments that support the flood walls. The independent engineers said on Friday that the shifting of the barriers was understandable and did not assign blame or speculate about design flaws that the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina may have exposed.
■ UNITED STATES
DeLay asks for dismissal
Defense lawyers for Representative Tom DeLay asked a court to dismiss the indictments against him on Friday, claiming the prosecutor in the Texas case had taken "extraordinarily irregular" steps in trying to bring charges against the former House majority leader. DeLay was indicted on Sept. 28 of a single count of conspiracy, followed by a second indictment earlier this week on charges of money laundering. The charges stem from the 2002 campaign cycle in Texas, when a fundraising organization that DeLay helped form raised donations from corporations and allegedly funneled the money to Republican candidates for the state legislature in violation of state laws. Republicans captured control of the Texas house that year, and then redrew the state's congressional delegations to form a map more favorable to Republicans.
■ UNITED STATES
Mayor deflects criticism
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his police chief insisted on Friday they did the right thing by going public with a terrorist threat to bomb the New York subway, brushing aside suggestions from Washington that they overreacted to information of dubious credibility. "If I'm going to make a mistake, you can rest assured it is on the side of being cautious," Bloomberg said. The dispute came as thousands of extra police officers poured into the city's subway system, pulling commuters out of rush-hour crowds and rifling through their bags or briefcases. A police official said the tighter security was prompted by an informant's report of a plot to attack the subway system with bombs hidden in bags and possibly baby strollers.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion