■ China
Prank triggers stampede
Eight children were killed and 45 injured when students yelling "ghost" sparked a stampede on a darkened elementary school staircase in Sichuan Province, officials said yesterday. The accident occurred on Tuesday evening in the school in Guangna Township when someone shouted "ghosts are coming" as students filed out of their evening classes. A local official said that as the students rushed down the stairs, one fell down and a surge of others stumbled over him, unable to stop as more students pushed from above.
■ Malaysia
Memorial demolished
Authorities have torn down a memorial honoring Vietnamese refugees who died fleeing communist rule, an official said yesterday, after Vietnam demanded its removal. Former refugees living in the US and Australia erected a marble plaque in March on Bidong island, where 250,000 Vietnamese arrived in fishing boats after communists took over South Vietnam in 1975. "The plaque was built illegally without the state government's consent," said a local official.
■ Australia
Bad shot fined
A man who twice missed while trying to shoot a friend's cow only to accidentally shoot a passer-by in the leg was fined A$1,000 (US$750) yesterday by the Brisbane District Court. In April last year, Rudolf Stadler, 61, lured the cow to a shed, and then took aim with his rifle. He missed. He fired again and missed but the bullet went through the back of the shed, a fence across a paddock and then through the door of a car being driven along a road behind the farm. The bullet hit 46-year-old Carrie Tunning in the leg. Tunning made a full recovery.
■ Malaysia
Court ponders devices
Malaysia is considering ordering witnesses in court cases to wear electronic monitoring devices on their ankles to ensure they turn up to testify, a report said yesterday. The proposal comes after the recent highly-publicized murder trial of a 14-year-old Chinese national, which ended in the acquittal of all three accused after two witnesses failed to appear. The proposal will be submitted to the Cabinet next month and, if it is accepted, the bracelets could also be used to keep tabs on those accused of minor offences such as theft, instead of holding them on remand.
■ Australia
Pilot whales stranded
A third pod of whales stranded themselves yesterday on a remote southern Australian beach even as wildlife officials and about 100 volunteers struggled to keep the earlier survivors afloat. More than 130 pilot whales had died in Marion Bay in the southern island state of Tasmania in the previous 24 hours, and only about a dozen had been saved. Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Liz Wren said that most of the whales were dead before rescuers arrived on Tuesday because Marion Bay, although only 60km from Hobart, is isolated and easily reachable only by boat.
■ Philippines
Militants captured
Philippine troops and police yesterday captured eight suspected Muslim militants, including the leader of an Islamic convert group linked to past terror attacks and the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group, officials said. Hilarion del Rosario III, the alleged leader of the Rajah Solaiman Revolutionary Movement, was arrested with seven other militants while they were sleeping in a hideout in southern Zamboanga city, the officials said. They said the arrests thwarted bombing plots by the group. Authorities also recovered a rifle, anti-tank rounds and other weapons, they said. The military planned to announce details of the arrest of del Rosario, also known as Akhmad Santos, later yesterday.
■ China
HIV spreading
Active measures are needed to prevent millions of Chinese from becoming infected with HIV, state media quoted an expert as saying yesterday. China could have either 10 million or 1.5 million HIV carriers in five years, Dai Zhicheng, the director of the health ministry's AIDS Expert Committee, told a forum in southwestern Chongqing city. "If China takes active and effective measures, provides sufficient medical funding, and sets up a scientific mechanism for AIDS prevention, it will be able to limit the number of HIV carriers to 1.5 million in 2010," he said. The figure of 10 million infected by 2010 has been frequently mentioned in local and foreign media in recent years as a warning of what will happen in China if no decisive measures are taken.
■ New Zealand
Sleeping student attacked
A South African student who attacked his sleeping room-mate with a baseball bat, told a judge in Nelson yesterday that he was surprised to learn he was acting illegally in New Zealand. Artur Kalauov, 19, was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to a charge of assault with intent to injure his room-mate at an aviation college near the South Island town of Nelson. "He didn't even realize what he had done was a criminal act," Kalauov's lawyer John Sandston told the court. "In his culture they deal with things in a much more robust fashion."
■ Italy
Police arrest gangsters
Italian police have arrested two people and seized 7kg of plastic explosives as part of the country's efforts to crack down on the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate, police and news reports said yesterday. Police in Milan said the arrests were made overnight in Brescia, in northern Italy, and Reggio Calabria, the capital of the southern region where the organization is based. They did not disclose other details. The explosives were seized in Milan, the ANSA news agency said. Experts say the 'ndrangheta is becoming more powerful in Italy than the Sicilian Mafia. Earlier this month, the killing of center-left politician Francesco Fortugno was blamed on the group.
■ Croatia
Call costs criminal dearly
A phone call to his mother led to the downfall of a suspected German robber, who was arrested in Croatia after fleeing his homeland and eluding police for nearly two weeks. Croatian police said the security guard made off with US$8.6 million he was supposed to deliver to a German bank and fled to the Adriatic coast -- where he had apparently always dreamed of living. After managing to evade a police and Interpol manhunt for 10 days while hiding out in the coastal Croatian city of Zadar, the suspect was nabbed after making a phone call to his mother, the daily Jutarnji List reported on Tuesday. Most of the money was still in his car as he only bought some clothes and shoes, police told the newspaper.
■ United States
Parrot sings to senators
A yellow-naped Amazon parrot sang How Much is that Doggie in the Window? and Alouette to surprised Pennsylvania senators. The parrot, named Groucho, sat on a perch in a Senate visitors' balcony and sang in a warbling, croaking voice for several minutes after Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll formally recognized the bird from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh and an aviary staff member with it. Immediately afterward, Senator Robert Jubelirer, the chamber's president pro tempore, was seen scolding Knoll on the Senate floor. Knoll's spokeswoman Johnna Pro said Knoll was simply recognizing the bird after Jubelirer approved the gesture. The parrot's visit to Harrisburg with aviary staff was intended to raise awareness for World Rainforest Week.
■ Ivory Coast
Country in crisis
An international rights group said violence could flare anew in war-divided Ivory Coast if a solution isn't found soon to the country's crisis, expected to deepen on Sunday as President Laurent Gbagbo's five-year mandate expires. Long-awaited presidential elections were supposed to have been held on Sunday, but Gbagbo canceled the vote last month. Both sides agree the country isn't ready to hold a ballot, but rebels and opposition parties reject Gbagbo's claim that the Constitution allows him to remain in power after Sunday.
■ Poland
No coalition yet
Poland's center-right parties failed to strike a coalition government deal in late-night talks on the scope of free market reforms and power sharing, setting the stage for a possible showdown in parliament yesterday. But prime minister-designate Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz signaled hopes remained for an eleventh-hour deal between his conservative Law and Justice party and the pro-business Civic Platform.
■ United States
CIA-leak case jury meets
The federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's identity was scheduled to meet yesterday amid signs the prosecutor in the case was preparing to seek criminal charges. The grand jury session follows a last-minute flurry of interviews by investigators with CIA operative Valerie Plame's neighbors and a former colleague of top White House adviser Karl Rove. White House officials were anxiously awaiting the outcome of the leak case since any indicted officials were expected to resign immediately.
■ United Kingdom
PM's wife faces flak
Cherie Booth, the lawyer wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was in hot water yesterday over her lucrative charity speaking tour of Australia, British newspapers reported. Australian authorities are investigating a Children's Cancer Institute of Australia gala. The charity could be banned from fundraising because it received only a fraction of the money from the February event in Melbourne. The dinner cost A$195 (US$147) a head to attend, generating A$192,000. Only A$16,000 went to the charity. However, Booth received a £17,000 (US$30,300) fee.
■ Germany
Al-Qaeda-linked men jailed
Three Jordanians and an Algerian linked to al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were sentenced to jail terms of five to eight years yesterday for planning attacks against Jewish interests in Germany. The three Jordanians of Palestinian origin were handed sentences of between six and eight years by the court in the western city of Duesseldorf, while the Algerian was sentenced to five years in jail. The prosecution described the defendants, aged between 32 and 41, as the "most important members" of the German cell of the Islamic group al-Tawhid whose overall commander is said to be al-Zarqawi.
■ United Kingdom
Secret films show suspect
The alleged ringleader of the July 7 London bombers was recorded in an intelligence operation last year, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, was secretly filmed and recorded speaking to a British-based terror suspect, a source told the BBC. The investigation suggested that he was in contact with activists from al-Qaeda for five years before the London blasts which killed 52 commuters and the four bombers themselves. Khan "had extensive contacts with an international jihadi network which British intelligence either missed or ignored," the BBC said.
■ United States
Appointment in doubt
The senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee vowed on Tuesday to defeat US President George W. Bush's choice for chief Pentagon spokesman, citing an op-ed article the nominee wrote in April accusing US television networks of aiding al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. The comments by the senator, Carl Levin of Michigan, cast serious doubt on J. Dorrance Smith's chances to win approval by the full Senate. Smith, a former ABC News producer who has worked as an adviser in both Bush administrations, said in an article in the Wall Street Journal on April 25 that the Arab satellite news channel al-Jazeera operated on behalf of terrorists and that US networks aided them by televising al Jazeera's videotape.
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