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World News Quick Take

■ NEW ZEALAND
Kids lead cops on car chase
Three children led police on a high-speed 390km chase in a stolen car in North Island, news reports said yesterday. For more than eight hours, the 14-year-old male driver evaded police in a pursuit that at times hit 140kph and ended with crash into a road block in Hastings on Thursday. The driver, another 14-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, all three in state custody, stole the car in Hamilton. Police said they would face a variety of charges in juvenile court.

■ SOUTH KOREA
Holy finger on public display
A 2,500-year-old fragment of bone believed to be one of Buddha's fingers went on public display in Seoul yesterday after arriving from China, officials said. The bone was sent to an indoor stadium in southern Seoul for a temporary exhibit after a ceremony at Jogye Temple, said a temple official. "I think this event will greatly help solidify friendship and religious faith between Korean and Chinese Buddhism," said the Venerable Jigwan, head of the Jogye Order, according to Yonhap news agency. About 1,000 people attended the ceremony, officials said.

■ AFGHANISTAN
Cargo plane crashes
A civilian cargo plane with 10 people on board crashed near Kabul yesterday, causing an unknown number of injuries, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. It was not clear if there were any fatalities. "There are injuries, the extent to which we don't know," said the NATO-led force's spokeswoman, Squadron Leader Annie Gibson-Sexton, adding that it was not one of ISAF's planes. The US-led coalition also confirmed that none of its aircraft was involved. Afghan police said the plane was totally destroyed.

■ SINGAPORE
Youths shown lenience
Four teenagers who had sex with a 12-year-old girl in a toilet cubicle may be spared jail terms after the judge noted their ages and previously spotless criminal records, news reports said yesterday. District Judge Wong Choon Ning called for a probation report for the three footballers and another youth. She will announce her ruling on Dec. 1. Footballers Syed Shafreen Syed Kasim, 17; his brother Syed Hashreen, 19; Muhammad Taufiq Mansor, 18; and Muhammad Noor Kamurudiin, 18, still face possible five-year jail terms after admitting they had sex with the girl on Sept. 26 last year.

■ CHINA
Corruption-fighter sentenced
A Communist Party official once revered for fighting corruption has been sentenced to life in prison on bribery and embezzlement charges, a court official and state media said yesterday. Supporters of Huang Jingao, a career bureaucrat who gained national notoriety for publicizing his graft-busting efforts in an open letter to the party newspaper People's Daily, contended that the charges against him were trumped up by officials fearing exposure. The Intermediate People's Court in Nanping sentenced Huang to life after convicting him of taking about 5.8 million yuan (US$717,000) in bribes, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

■ THAILAND
Few interested in offer
The kingdom's offer to provide free accommodation and airplane tickets to relatives of victims from the Dec. 26 tsunami to attend commemorative ceremonies next month has been accepted by only 400 people, Bangkok media reports said yesterday. The Foreign Ministry's Web site, on which the invitation has been posted for the past few months, has received about 6,500 hits from abroad, the Bangkok Post reported.

■ JAPAN
Tokyo to fast-track heliport
Japan yesterday vowed a quick implementation of plans to construct a US military heliport on Okinawa and allow a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be based near Tokyo, even as the agreement drew protests from local residents. Japan and the US reached an interim pact last month to close the US Futenma Marine Corps Air Station on the southern Japanese island to move its functions to another base on the island, Camp Schwab. They also announced plans for the US Navy to station a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan for the first time. The US Navy said it would have greater capabilities than the diesel-powered USS Kitty Hawk currently based at Yokosuka.

■ POLAND
New government wins vote
The minority government of new Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz easily won a vote of confidence on Thursday, consolidating his conservative party's hold on power after its victories in parliamentary and presidential elections. The lower house of parliament backed Marcinkiewicz, of the Law and Justice party, by 272 votes to 187. Lawmakers stood and applauded following the vote. "I declare that starting tomorrow -- no, starting today -- I will, step by step, efficiently implement the program of my government," Marcinkiewicz later said.

■ UNITED STATES
Deli robber killed
An armed bandit who tried to hold up a delicatessen in Brooklyn died after he was smashed in the face with a prayer candle by a worker and then was shot as he stumbled outside. Ryan Walters, 23, was killed after he allegedly began firing during a violent struggle inside the deli. The deli worker, though suffering wounds to the arm and hand, struck him in the face with the candle holder, police said. A second gunman fired more than a dozen shots toward the store and then fled. Investigators were uncertain if Walters was killed by the second gunman or if he accidentally shot himself during the struggle.

■ ALBANIA
Drought causing power cut
The country is suffering from the worst power shortages in its history, brought on by drought, booming consumption and decades-long neglect of the crumbling electricity infrastructure. Power cuts have been common since communism collapsed in 1991 and the antiquated grid has struggled to cope with ever rising demand. At night, street lamps are switched off and neon signs are the only illumination. A government official said they too may soon be extinguished, leaving the capital in darkness. No new power plants have been built in 25 years, making Albania the most import-dependent country in the region for electricity.

■ SWEDEN
Elks menace old folks
A herd (known also as a gang) of elks, thought to be drunk on fermented apples, surrounded an old people's home and had to be driven away by armed police. The elks attacked the home in the town of Ostra Goinge, near Malmo, after devouring large numbers of the apples. Police with dogs had failed to scare them off, and the animals only ran away after hunters with guns arrived on the scene. "It's not unusual for elks to get drunk," forester Fredrik Jonsson said. "They don't recognize the difference between fermented and not fermented and stuff themselves down to the last apple."

■ UNITED STATES
Deer strikes man
A motorist in California had a deer slam into him just as he was checking his car for signs of an animal collision, the highway patrol said. Robert Brooks, 55, was driving about 45km from San Francisco at dusk when he swerved to miss a deer that leapt into the roadway. Brooks pulled over and was checking his car for damage when a vehicle coming the other way knocked a deer into Brooks. "It was a one-in-a-million-type situation," Creel said. "The irony of thinking you struck a deer and then having a deer strike you." It turned out that Brooks missed the deer with his car but by stopping, wound up "in the wrong place at the wrong time," Creel said.

■ GERMANY
"Parties close in on deal
Almost two months after the general election, the main political parties were returned to the negotiating table yesterday hoping to reach agreement on the program of a left-right coalition government. Despite intense talks on Thursday, they were left without a consensus on tax rises and spending cuts. The Christian Democrats of incoming chancellor Angela Merkel and outgoing leader Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats are racing to seal a deal by the week's end.

■ SWITZERLAND
Lemur named after comic
Most people know him as the crazy English hotel owner in Fawlty Towers. But John Cleese will also go down in history for another reason: lemurs. The University of Zurich named a newly discovered species of lemur after the comedian in honor of his work with the animal. The avahi cleesei, which weights less than 1kg and eats leaves, was discovered in Madagascar in 1990 by anthropologist Urs Thalmann. Cleese's drew attention to the plight of lemurs in the documentary Operation Lemur with John Cleese. ``Woolly lemurs can't really walk -- but they do enjoy silly jumps,'' Thalmann said.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Napoleon's tooth sold
A tooth believed to have been extracted from Napoleon's mouth was sold at auction in London for US$22,600. The tooth, part of a small collection of Napoleon Bonaparte items, was bought by a private collector from England who asked to remain anonymous. The previous owner, who died recently, was a Napoleonic scholar. The tooth came with papers tracing it back to Napoleon's physician Barry O'Meara, who apparently extracted it from the former French emperor's mouth in 1817 during his exile on the island of St. Helena.

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