■ Hong Kong
Arsonist receives life
A 68-year-old man began a life sentence on Thursday after being found guilty of setting fire to a commuter train during rush hour, the South China Morning Post said. The man, Yim Kam-chung, ignited a bottle of solvent in a train carriage in February as it left a busy station in Tsim Sha Tsui, the daily said. The fire was extinguished by a passenger who stamped on the bottle and alerted fellow passengers. Yim later told police he had set out to "cause a tragedy" because the government has confiscated six of his vehicles.
■ Hong Kong
Old food seller arrested
A street hawker has been arrested for selling tins of food out-of-date by up to six years scavenged from trash cans, officials said yesterday. The 47-year-old woman was buying foodstuffs and other items collected from rubbish collection points by scavengers for around a US$1 a bag. She was then selling them on at prices well below the normal market value. They included tea, dried noodles, soy sauce and potato chips. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department was alerted to the case when a woman became ill after eating soup she bought from the hawker that had an expiry date three years earlier.
■ South Korea
Agent Orange makers lose
The Seoul High Court yesterday ordered two US manufacturers of the defoliant Agent Orange to pay US$62 million in medical compensation to South Korean veterans of the Vietnam War and their families. The court ordered Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan, and Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri, to pay the compensation to about 6,800 people. The herbicide was widely used to destroy jungle cover used by communist troops during the war, but South Koreans, Vietnamese and many US veterans later blamed their exposure to the chemical for a variety of illnesses and reproductive disorders, including miscarriages, birth defects, cancers and nervous disorders.
■ Philippines
Rebels battle each other
Fighting broke out between rival factions of the largest Muslim separatist group on Mindanao island on Thursday, highlighting what analysts have said could be a split in the rebels. Hundreds of people have fled a remote village in Maguindanao province after some 200 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) occupied the area following two days of fighting, a rebel spokesman and army officials said. An army spokesman said the fighting was between MILF's radical faction.
■ Egypt
Farmer dumps chicks
A farmer abandoned 10,000 newly hatched chicks to their fate on a desert road east of Cairo fearing they might be infected with the deadly bird flu virus, a police official said on Wednesday. Shocked motorists traveling on the road about 130km east of Cairo contacted police after seeing the chicks running loose on the tarmac on Tuesday, the official added. Health officials gathered the chicks and confirmed after testing that they were not carrying the virus. The farmer has taken back the birds and would not be facing legal proceedings, the official said.
■ Russia
Alleged spies urged to stay
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday said that four British diplomats accused of espionage in Moscow should not be expelled, as their replacements might be cleverer than they were and harder to catch. Putin said he wanted the Russian security services and the foreign ministry to suggest a line of approach to the Kremlin, but questioned the wisdom of expelling the four men. The diplomats were shown on Russian state television on Sunday allegedly retrieving data from a Russian agent, by palmtop computer, via a transmitter hidden in a fake rock. The program claimed that Britain was using spies to fund and communicate with Russian non-governmental organizations.
■ Colombia
Hiccups lead to two deaths
A man accidentally shot his nephew to death while trying to cure his hiccups by pointing a revolver at him to scare him, police in the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla said on Tuesday. After shooting 21-year-old university student David Galvan in the neck, his uncle, Rafael Vargas, 35, was so distraught he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police said. The incident took place on Sunday night while the two were having drinks with neighbors. Galvan started to hiccup and Vargas, who worked as a security guard, said he would use the home remedy for hiccups of scaring him. He pulled out his gun, pointed it at Galvan and it accidentally went off, witnesses told local TV.
■ Libya
Rights record praised
Tripoli won praise on Wednesday for taking "important steps" to improve human rights but was warned it will have to do more to meet international standards. Despite improvements, including the release of 14 political prisoners, Libya continues to hold other political prisoners, conducts unfair trials and restricts free speech, Human Rights Watch said. Monitors from the New York-based body were allowed to visit Libya for the first time last year, a move it welcomed as a step towards greater transparency. Libyan authorities provided access to top officials as well as police stations, an immigrant detention centre and five prisons, where 32 prisoners were interviewed in private, the report said.
■ Bolivia
Sister appointed first lady
Bolivian President Evo Morales' sister will give up her butcher shop to become Bolivia's first lady, filling the role because the new leader is single, his office said on Wednesday. Esther Morales, 54, is married with three children and owns a grocery shop that sells beef and llama meat in the small town of Oruro. Esther Morales, who raised her younger brother after their mother died, has refused to be referred to as first lady, saying it was contrary to her humble social class.
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