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World News Quick Take

■ China
Hu to visit Pyongyang
President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) will visit North Korea next week, Beijing announced yesterday. Hu will travel to North Korea next Friday before visiting Vietnam from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, China Central Television said. The report didn't say whether Hu would raise the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear program or what other messages he might convey. Hu is making the trip in his capacity as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. That will let Hu meet as an equal with Kim, who is leader of the North's ruling party but not the official head of state.

■ China
Protestants detained
More than 50 leaders of the independent Protestant church movement were detained after police raided a religious retreat in the village of Gougezhuang, Hebei Province, an overseas support group said yesterday. At least one of the women was beaten by police in Thursday evening's raid, the US-based China Aid Association said. The condition of the other detainees was not known. Church leaders from more than 20 provinces and cities had gathered for discussions on outreach to the urban poor, orphans and migrant workers.

■ Azerbaijan
Ministers arrested
Police said on Thursday they arrested a former minister for plotting a coup as President Ilham Aliyev tried to stamp out dissent inside his ruling elite before elections. On Wednesday Aliyev arrested the head of the country's largest private oil firm, Rafig Aliyev, and sacked Aliyev's brother, Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev. They have been charged with funneling cash to an opposition leader.

■ India
Seer survives own death day
Hundreds of people flocked to a village on Thursday to see if an astrologer who forecast his own death would indeed die as predicted. But the 75-year-old man survived the day. Kunjilal Malviya, who lives south of the Madhya Pradesh state capital Bhopal, had been meditating in his house after announcing he would die on Thursday between 3pm and 5pm. A police official confirmed the astrologer was fine and quoted his family members as saying the prediction failed because many of those gathered had prayed for him to live. Police have been posted near the house to prevent him from killing himself, authorities said.

■ Singapore
Drink driving crackdown
A sharp increase in drunk-driving cases prompted police to warn motorists yesterday they can be charged even if they have not exceeded the alcohol limit. The number of intoxicated drivers involved in accidents climbed 111 per cent to 267 in the first six months of this year, police data showed. On average, police nabbed 11 drivers a day for drunk driving in the first half of this year. "Even if you are able to handle the vehicle, you can still be charged ... if you have exceeded the legal limit," Traffic Police commander Ng Guat Ting said. First time offenders face fines of up to S$5,000 (US$2,958) or up to six months in jail.

■ Australia
Dead driver gets fined
A traffic warden slapped a parking ticket on a car which had its dead driver slumped at the wheel, an official said yesterday. The body of the 71-year-old man was discovered on Thursday in a parking lot in Melbourne, The Age newspaper reported. The man had been reported missing nine days earlier and was known to be seriously ill, the newspaper said. Nevertheless, a parking officer failed to notice the man inside and issued the parking fine. Paul Denham, the mayor of Maroondah council, where the man was found, said "The local laws officer is extremely distressed to have learned of the situation."

■ Kyrgyzstan
Prison riot kills MP
Inmates at a prison hospital killed a parliamentarian and two other people after taking his entourage hostage on Thursday, the government said. The deputy, Tynychbek Akmatbayev, had been visiting a hospital attached to Prison No. 31, about 25km northwest of the capital Bishkek, when the violence erupted. "The deputy Akmatbayev died from gunshot wounds," said a spokesman for the prison service. The head of the prisons service, Imatulla Polotov, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries. His fate was unclear with conflicting statements about his condition.

■ Brazil
Suspect turns up dead
Police found the bullet-riddled body on Thursday of a key suspect in Brazil's biggest bank robbery, in which US$72 million was stolen after thieves tunneled their way in. Luiz Fernando Salles, 26, was kidnapped next to a bar in Brazil's financial capital of Sao Paulo last night by assailants claiming to be federal police agents. Police said it seemed to be the work of bandits. "A body was found and identified as that of Salles," said Rui Ferraz, head of the Sao Paulo police bank robberies unit. Salles' family had paid a ransom of 2 million reals (US$890,000), but when the victim wasn't released they reported the crime to the police.

■ The Netherlands
Youth immobilizes self
Dutch fire offices were called upon to free a young man who had locked his head with his moped lock and promptly lost the key, the Telegraaf newspaper reported yesterday. The unnamed young man turned up drunk at an Amsterdam police station at 1am with the lock around his neck. The bemused officers directed him to the nearest fire station, where firemen freed him. "They used a grinder to take the lock off the man's head," a fire brigade spokesman told the daily. "They laid him on his side, gave him ear guards and protected him from the sparks," the spokesman said.

■ United Kingdom
Elvis fan sentenced
A local government worker who stole £500,000 (US$900,000) from her employer to fund her obsession with Elvis Presley was sentenced on Thursday to three years in jail. Prosecutors said cashier Julie Wall, 46, pilfered up to £10,000 a month in parking-meter takings in her home town of Sleaford, central England. The theft went on for almost a decade before an internal audit revealed the missing funds. Prosecution lawyer Sam Robinson told Lincoln Crown Court that Wall spent the money on rare Elvis records and memorabilia. Wall admitted her guilt, saying she was "deeply ashamed" of her crime.

■ United States
WWII airman found?
Climbers in a remote region of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains have discovered an ice-covered body that is believed to be an airman who crashed during a World War II training flight, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Thursday. The body was found on Mount Mendel in the Kings Canyon National Park last Sunday, still wearing military fatigues and an unopened parachute.

■ United States
Welfare seizes baby
Pennsylvania child-welfare officials obtained an emergency court order to seize a baby just 24 hours after he was born, contending the infant would be unsafe because his father is a convicted sex offender. The hospital, however, refused to hand over the infant so soon after birth, according to a lawyer representing the mother, Melissa WolfHawk. WolfHawk, 31, planned to check out of the hospital on Thursday night -- against medical advice -- without her son to prepare for yesterday's court hearing, said her lawyer. The child was born on Tuesday, and Schuylkill County Children and Youth Services was granted the order on Wednesday. The agency expressed concerns that the boy could be in danger because his 53-year-old father, DaiShin WolfHawk, was convicted of rape and sodomy more than two decades ago in New York.

■ Canada
Anti-freeze found in fleas
Tiny fleas that survive on fungus found under a blanket of snow contain a unique antifreeze that could have implications for farming or transplant surgery, Canadian researchers said. The researchers, whose a report is published in the latest edition of Science, said their findings could help protect plants or animals from frost, or allow donated transplant organs to be stored and transported at lower temperatures. The six-legged snow fleas are between 1mm and 2mm long, with six legs and no wings. Their bodies contain proteins that limit the growth of ice by lowering the freezing point of fluids by 6 degrees Celsius, said the researchers, from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

■ Argentina
Inmate used as jail staff
Staff shortage is so desperate in the small town of Fuentes that an inmate was pressed into service and even given a gun. The inmate was staffing the reception desk in the Fuentes police station, in the Sante Fe Province, when the victims of a robbery came seeking help. The man, who as it later turned out was an inmate, received them politely and called a police officer. When the policeman arrived, he handed a weapon to the inmate and the two of them chased after the robber. A police spokesman tried to explain the situation, saying the inmate had been a model prisoner. The inmate was barely thanked, lost his rights to free movement and was transferred to the central prison in the city.

■ United States
Senator wins lottery
You might not expect the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee to go around buying lottery tickets, but Senator Judd Gregg is glad he did. On a whim prompted by the frenzy over Wednesday's US$340 million Powerball lottery jackpot, the New Hampshire Republican bought a ticket that matched five of the six numbers in the Powerball game. He collected a US$853,492 check on Thursday. The lawmaker said he doesn't buy lottery tickets often but was intrigued by the publicity surrounding the huge jackpot. Gregg, 58, said he will donate part of his winnings to the Hugh Gregg Foundation, which supports New Hampshire charities and is named after Gregg's late father, a former governor of New Hampshire.

■ Ireland
Journalist freed in Iraq
The family of kidnapped journalist Rory Carroll was "over the moon" when he telephoned home on Thursday from Baghdad with the news he had been released. "We are over the moon at the news," Rory's father Joe Carroll said after hearing the voice of his son Rory, a 33-year-old correspondent for the British newspaper the Guardian. The elder Carroll, himself a veteran journalist, said Rory told him he had been held in a cell following his abduction by armed men on Wednesday. Two men came to the cell this evening and told him he was free to go.

■ United States
Anti-bacterial soaps bogus
Anti-bacterial soaps and washes aren't any better than plain, old soap and water for fighting illness in the household, says a panel of federal health advisers. They warned manufacturers they will have to prove their products' benefits or they may be restricted from marketing them. The advisers also worried the potential risks of the products, particularly the common hand soaps and body washes that use synthetic chemicals, create an environmental hazard and could contribute to the growth of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

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