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World News Quick Take

■ China
Grenade ends card game
Four people died in the northeast after a dispute over a game of cards ended in bloodshed when one of the players returned with a hand grenade which later exploded, state media said yesterday. The four were playing cards on Wednesday in Meihekou City in Jilin Province when a quarrel broke out, the Beijing Times said. One of the group later returned with a hand grenade and it went off during a scuffle. Three people died on the spot while the fourth died in hospital the next day, it said.

■ Japan
Euthanasia probe launched
Police have begun investigating the deaths of seven elderly patients on suspicion that a doctor carried out mercy killings, the Kyodo News Agency said. A surgeon at the Imizu City Hospital in Toyama, northwest of Tokyo, is suspected of removing respiratory tubes from the seven people to assist their deaths, it said. The head of the hospital suspected possible mercy killings after the surgeon asked permission to remove a respirator from one of the seven, a 78-year-old man, last October, it said.

■ Australia
Researchers test scramjet
Researchers conducted a test flight yesterday of a supersonic jet intended to travel at speeds of up to 8,000kph. The A$2 million (US$1.42 million) project was launched by researchers at the University of Queensland in Woomera. The so-called Supersonic Combustion Ramjet -- scramjet -- was attached to a rocket and launched to an altitude of 314km during its 10 minute flight, the university said. Program leader Allan Paul said it was too early to tell if the rocket had reached its target speed of up to 8,000kph.

■ United States
Confidentiality no more
The National Security Agency (NSA) has the authority to listen without warrants to conversations between lawyers and their clients and doctors and their patients if a connection to al-Qaeda is suspected, the Justice Department told Congress in a report released on Friday. The Justice Department's position on the question of privileged conversations came in its written responses to nearly 100 questions posed by Republicans and Democrats about the NSA's eavesdropping program, which has provoked fierce debate in Congress since it was disclosed last December.

■ United States
Stolen sandwich costs man
A stolen roast beef sandwich has landed a man in jail for a year and a half. Jason Elliot, 27, of Barrington, New Hampshire was arrested last April after a convenience store employee reported he had stolen a US$4 sandwich. When police caught up to Elliot, they found drug paraphernalia in his car, the Foster's Daily Democrat reported on Friday. The sandwich theft charge was elevated to a felony because Elliot had theft convictions. After pleading guilty, Elliot was sentenced recently to a year for stealing the sandwich and six months for drug possession.

■ United States
First lady backs Condi
US first lady Laura Bush thinks US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would make an "excellent" president -- but indicated Rice is a reluctant candidate. Her comments were made in an interview broadcast on Friday on CNN with talk show host Larry King. "She'd make an excellent president, but I don't think we can talk her into running," Bush said. "She'd be a great president." The names of Rice, a Republican, and Democratic Senator Hilary Clinton repeatedly surface in discussions about the 2008 presidential race. But Rice, a committed fan of American football, has made clear she'd much rather become commissioner of the National Football League.

■ United States
Judge restrains Hasselhoff
A judge has issued a temporary restraining order requiring that David Hasselhoff stay away from his estranged wife, according to court papers unsealed this week. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas signed the order on March 6 ordering the former Baywatch star to stay at least 100m from actress Pamela Bach except for "peaceful contacts related to court ordered visitation" of one their two teenage daughters. Bach, 42, has custody of one daughter while Hasselhoff, 53, has custody of the other. In her request for the order, Bach claimed instances of domestic violence in December and last month.

■ United States
Marines want pensioner
Sonia Goldstein was flattered by the recruiting letter asking her to consider becoming one of "the few, the proud." But at age 78, she believes she's just a little old to enlist in the US Marine Corps. "I couldn't believe it," Goldstein told KCAL-TV on Friday. "My girls were sitting here ... we were in hysterics, we laughed so hard." The letter told her the corps could use her unique language skills, but also warned that life as a Marine would test her physical and mental abilities "beyond anything you've ever known." "There I am with my walker. I can't maneuver from here to there without it," said Goldstein.


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