■ THAILAND
Martial law for two districts
The government imposed martial law in two Muslim-dominated districts in the south yesterday, a day after Islamic separatists staged a new show of strength with bombings that blacked out a provincial capital. General Khwanchart Klaharn said announced that martial law was being declared in two districts of Songkhla province, which is next to the three provinces where an insurgency has flared since January last year. ``Now, the insurgents have used the districts of Chana and Thepha in Songkhla to hide weapons used to instigate violence and also extend violent attacks to the area,'' he said.
■ JAPAN
US wants relocation funds
The US has asked Japan to provide more than ?320 billion (US$3 billion) to cover the costs of relocating thousands of US Marines from Okinawa to Guam, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. The newspaper said the US gave Japan a cost estimate of US$3 billion to US$3.5 billion to move the troops and construct new facilities in Guam. Japan has promised to try to meet the US funding request, the paper said, with negotiations between to continue over the exact amount.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Activists barred for summit
Authorities will bar about 1,000 foreign activists from the country and keep 350 under close surveillance during APEC meetings to prevent protests, police said yesterday later this month in Pusan."We are taking these steps as a security precaution for APEC," a police official said. There are still likely to be heated protests. Thousands of farmers plan to stage rallies against measures to liberalize agricultural trade, representatives said.
■ THAILAND
Dutch gangster murdered
A Western man gunned down a well-known Dutch underworld figure in the resort of Pattaya, police said yesterday. John Mieremet died after being shot in the neck on Wednesday by two Western men who walked into his office, said police Colonel Waratchai Sriratanvuth. The two men were identified as Westerners by Mieremet's Thai wife, the officer said. He said the killing may have been because of a personal or business conflict.
■ JAPAN
Blog poisoner caught
A 16-year-old girl was arrested for trying to kill her mother with rat poison and keeping an Internet blog narrating how her condition deteriorated, news reports said on Wednesday. The girl reportedly kept animal body parts in her bedroom. "Mother has been sick since yesterday, having a rash all over her body," the Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted the girl as writing on August 19. Police found that the blog matched the illness of her 47-year-old mother, who was in critical condition at a hospital, the reports said.
■ CHINA
Graft list to be published
A list of names of people who give bribes will be printed and made available to the public starting from next year in a move to fight corruption, a newspaper said yesterday. It will provide details of people who have offered bribes since 1997, the China Daily said, citing a report in the Procuratorial Daily. The move follows a pilot scheme begun last year that banned building contractors who appeared on the list from bidding for new projects. The maximum penalty for taking bribes is death. Last year prosecutors charged 1,952 people with offering bribes, the report said. Government officials are required to report any gifts they receive worth over 50 yuan (US$6).
■ UNITED STATES
Thieves pinch leg
Callous thieves broke into the home of a teenage amputee and made off with the girl's artificial leg, her family said on Wednesday. California schoolgirl Melissa Huff, 16, was horrified to find that the heartless burglars had not only stolen a haul of loot including cash and valuables, but had also helped themselves to her leg. Melissa lost her right leg two years ago when a driver lost control of his car and ploughed into her in front of her Los Angeles school. Although she has other replacement legs, the prosthetic device that the burglars took was a special shock absorbent "sports leg" that allowed her to play softball. "That's my favorite leg," she said.
■ UNITED STATES
Halloween drunk arrested
A partygoer dressed as "Belligerent Drunk Man" was a hit at a Halloween bash until he started acting the part. Wearing a blue sweatsuit, a belt of beer can pop-tops and a Superman-style emblem on his chest reading "BDM," William Griffin, 26, got into a fight on Sunday morning at an apartment complex, authorities said. Joseph Gilliam, 37, dressed as the Green Lantern, tried to break up the fight but ended up pushing a sheriff's deputy. Both men were arrested and charged. Not that the deputies didn't appreciate Griffin's outfit. "It was the funniest, if not the most original costume I've ever seen," Deputy Glenn Ward said.
■ SPAIN
Autonomy on the table
Parliament voted early yesterday to accept for discussion a controversial plan for more autonomy for Catalonia, which defines the wealthy northeastern region as a nation within Spain. After more than 10 hours of debate, parliament voted 197-146 to send the Catalan autonomy statute to its constitutional committee, where it is expected to be debated and amended over the next two months. All "no" votes came from the opposition center-right Popular Party, which said the plan was unconstitutional and a threat to Spanish unity.
■ SPAIN
Leonor to attend academies
Spain's new-born Infanta Leonor will study in the military academies of the army, navy and air force as part of her preparation for the role of queen, the daily ABC reported on Wednesday. Princess Letizia, wife of Crown Prince Felipe, gave birth early on Monday to the girl who is second in line to the throne after her father. Spain's head of state is also chief of the armed forces, and Leonor's preparation for queenhood will require her to study in the military academies like her father did. The number of female soldiers is on the rise, where they make up about 11 percent of the armed forces.
■ CLIMATE
Eruptions offset warming
Volcanic eruptions help to combat some of the effects of global warming by cooling the Earth and keeping a check on rises in sea level, scientists have discovered. Eruptions are known to have a cooling effect on the planet's atmosphere because the fine particles thrown up by the volcanoes linger in the air and reflect sunlight and warming infrared radiation. In a study reported in the journal Nature scientists found that the huge eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 led to a vast cloud of fine particles that triggered a dramatic cooling of ocean waters, equivalent to losing the amount of energy contained in more than 700 million tonnes of oil.
■ GERMANY
Navy bound for another year
The German government on Wednesday committed forces for another year to the US-led anti-terrorism Operation Enduring Freedom, a mission under which German ships patrol off the Horn of Africa. Outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Cabinet approved extending the country's participation until Nov. 15 next year, a government statement said. Parliament must approve the extension in a session to be held Nov. 8, a week before the current mandate expires. Both of Germany's biggest parties support the mission, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, meaning the extension should pass easily.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Stamp branded `insensitive'
Britain's state-owned Royal Mail apologized on Wednesday after Hindus complained about a new Christmas stamp which depicts the image of a Hindu couple with a Christ-like baby. "The Royal Mail has apologized if people feel we have been insensitive," said company spokesman Patrick O'Neill. "It was not intentional. We wanted to look at the theme of the mother and child for this Christmas and how that theme is represented in international art." The image for the stamp, which has a face value of ?0.68 (US$1.20) -- the amount needed to send letters to the Indian sub-continent -- was sourced from a painting that hangs in a museum in Mumbai, India.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Nuclear attack possible
A chemical and biological terrorist attack was in prospect and a nuclear attack could not be ruled out in Britain, a former head of British intelligence said in remarks published yesterday. Sir Richard Dearlove, who retired last year as head of the Secret Intelligence Service, said the July 7 bombings that killed 52 London commuters did not amount to a "strategic terrorist event," the Daily Telegraph reported. Dearlove, who was taking part in a debate on terrorism arranged by the London law firm Ashurst, said the July attacks on three subway trains and a bus "bore the characteristic of a locally planned and carried-out event."
■ UNITED STATES
Man admits to mass murders
A man convicted of raping and murdering an Alabama woman has confessed to at least 12 more slayings in four other states, and may be linked to four more killings, authorities said on Wednesday. Alabama Attorney General Troy King branded Jeremy Bryan Jones "a monster who would kill without remorse." Jones, 32, of Oklahoma, faces a possible death sentence Dec. 1 for the killing of Lisa Marie Nichols, 44, in Alabama. During his trial last month, Jones maintained his innocence in the presence of his mother and girlfriend, but privately gave detectives details of the crimes, including victims' names and the locations of the killings, sheriff's Detective Paul Burch said.
■ ITALY
Forgeries made case for war
An aide to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and an intelligence director were to appear before a parliamentary commission yesterday to respond to allegations that Italy knowingly gave the US and Britain forged documents suggesting former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa. Cabinet Undersecretary Gianni Letta and Nicolo Pollari, the director of Italy's SISMI intelligence agency, will be questioned by members of a parliamentary commission overseeing secret services, said Micaela Panella, a spokeswoman for the commission.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was