■ 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.
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