■ China
Hospital blast kills 27
The death toll in a blast in a hospital parking garage in the north jumped by 10 to 27, with others still missing, the government said. The explosion occurred early on Monday morning in an underground garage at a hospital for employees of the Xuangang Coal and Electricity in Shanxi Province. The cause of the explosion was under investigation, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Most of the victims were hospital staff and their family members, said Li Jianzhang, an official with Xuangang.
■ China
Sandstorm leaves one dead
The country’s far west has been hit by the worst sandstorm since 1984 with one person killed and thousands stranded after sand blanketed railways and high winds smashed train and car windows, the government said yesterday. The storm on Saturday hit many parts of the Xinjiang region. With wind speeds in the tourist towns of Hami and Turpan reaxhing 183kph, Xinhua News Agency said. One person died and another was injured when several houses collapsed in Toksun County, Xinhua said.
■ Hong Kong
Skulls may be murder clue
Pathologists yesterday were examining the skulls of seven children found on a building site in Kowloon that police believe might tell the story of half-century-old murders. The skulls and other bones were found 2m to 3m underground on Monday by workmen laying water pipes, police said. Pathologists later said they believed the skeletons were about 50 years old, and they were carrying out tests to try to establish the age, sex and cause of death. One theory is that the skulls are those of children murdered and buried in the Homantin area.
■ Pakistan
Bomb blast kills at least 20
A powerful bomb exploded during evening prayers at a public park in southern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 20 people and injuring dozens of others, witnesses and a doctor said. The bomb went off at Nishtar Park in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh Province, as hundreds of people were saying prayers after celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, said Mohammed Asif, a witness. Semi Jamali, a doctor at a nearby hospital, said at least 20 people killed in the blast were brought to the facility, where dozens more were being treated for injuries.
■ Thailand
Holiday death toll mounts
As Thais nationwide celebrate Songkran -- the New Year -- drunk drivers and speed demons have marred the revelry, causing hundreds of accidents that have left 138 people dead and 1,751 injured, the government said yesterday. There have been 1,544 road accidents so far in the first four days of the New Year holiday. More than a quarter of the accidents involved drunken drivers, and more than four out of five were motorcycle accidents, the Road Safety Center said in a statement.
■ Japan
Conman tries to con cop
A swindler picked the wrong building to target when his victim turned out to be a senior police officer. Masakazu Kamitanida, 52, went to the top floor of a three-story apartment building after midnight on Sunday and tried to pass himself off as a resident who needed to borrow cash because of a death in the family. What Kamitanida did not know was the building was an official residence for executives of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police -- and he was trying to fool the chief of Joto Precinct. The conman had identified himself as a second-floor resident who had recently moved in.
■ New Zealand
Grandma jailed for drugs
A 52-year old South African grandmother was jailed for nearly eight-and-a-half years yesterday after being caught trying to smuggle cocaine hidden in garden gnomes into the country. Linda Martin was sentenced in the Auckland High Court, after being caught with more than 3kg of cocaine at Auckland Airport two years ago, Radio New Zealand reported. The cocaine was found hidden in four garden gnomes in Martin's suitcase after she entered the country on a false passport.
■ China
Big gang trial opens
A 98-member gang has been put on trial in Hunan Province for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking and abduction, the China Daily reported yesterday. The trial in Loudi's Intermediate People's Court has required the services of 70 defense lawyers and is the biggest ever in the province, the newspaper said. The gang is suspected of having organized about 150 crimes since 1998.
■ Hong Kong
Cabin crew seek support
Flight attendants are seeking support for a campaign to end compulsory retirement at the age of 45. Cabin crew working for Cathay Pacific, British Airways and Dragonair have collected thousands of signatures from passengers supporting their case. They say women are being forced from stewardess jobs while their counterparts overseas can work until 60 because the territory doesn't have an age discrimination law.
■ Kenya
Nation mourns after crash
Kenya prepared yesterday to bring to the capital the remains of 14 lawmakers, government officials and troops a day after their military plane crashed in the north of the country. As the nation began three days of mourning, pathologists combed through the charred remains of the officials who died in Marsabit, about 430km northeast of Nairobi, where the plane went down in heavy rain and fog on Monday. Four people were rescued, but one survivor died as he and the others were being flown to the capital for emergency treatment, bringing the death toll to 14.
■ United Kingdom
Teacher loses `fart' case
An employment tribunal has ruled against a teacher who claimed a noisy chair made classroom life a misery. Bristol City Council confirmed on Monday that the tribunal last week dismissed the complaint by Sue Storer, 48, former deputy head teacher at Bedminster Down Secondary School. Storer said the school failed to replace a chair which made an embarrassing "farting" noise whenever anyone sat on it, although other staff received new chairs. She said the chair was a source of embarrassment at parent-teacher evenings.
■ Germany
Serial killer strikes again
The Turkish owner of an Internet cafe has become the ninth victim of a serial killer targeting foreigners living in Germany, police and prosecutors said on Monday. The 21-year-old victim was found dead last Thursday with gunshot wounds to the head, two days after another Turk aged 39 was shot and killed in his kiosk in the city of Dortmund. All the victims were shot with a Czech-made 7.65mm Ceska 83 pistol in what prosecutors called execution-style killings. Eight of those killed were Turks, one a Greek. Police are baffled by the murders, which began in September 2000 and have targeted the owners of small businesses.
■ Israel
Rabbi replaces Web porn
A group of Jewish ultra-Orthodox hackers is waging a war against pornographic Web sites, replacing their content with nothing but the picture of a revered rabbi, an Israeli paper reported on Monday. To fight what they see as an abomination, the ultra-Orthodox "sex commando" has so far targeted only Israeli-based Web sites, the Yedioth Aharonot reported. In one case the hackers scrapped the site's entire contents. Instead of seeing images of sexy girls, anyone who logs onto the site encounters the stern look of the white-bearded Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson, the late leader of the popular Jewish Lubavitch stream.
■ United States
Cheeta celebrates 74 years
Cheeta the chimp, star of a dozen Tarzan movies in the 1930s and 1940s, celebrated his 74th birthday with sugar-free cake. Although healthy and active, Cheeta is diabetic. "He had a good time. The party went real good," said keeper Dan Westfall, operator of the primate sanctuary Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes -- or CHEETA. Representatives from a Spanish film festival also showed up for Sunday's party to present Cheeta with the first award of his career -- an International Comedy Film Festival of Peniscola prize. Cheeta has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest chimp. Chimps rarely live past the age of 40 in the wild, but can reach 60 in captivity.
■ United Kingdom
PM gives up on new peers
Prime Minister Tony Blair has lost his battle to create four new working peers (members of Britain's House of Lords) from prominent Labour donors, bowing to objections from the House of Lords appointments commission because they had not declared secret loans worth millions to the party. An attempt to include at least two replacement Labour nominees -- one a senior industrialist and the other a former retired union general secretary -- were abandoned when the prime minister's office at 10 Downing Street realized that it would have delayed the announcement of a new list.
■ Canada
LTTE listed as terrorist group
The government has listed Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels as a terrorist group and made it a crime to support or participate in its activities, the government said on Monday. "The decision to list the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] is long overdue and something the previous government did not take seriously enough to act upon," Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in a statement. "Our government is clearly determined to take decisive steps to ensure the safety of Canadians against terrorism." The Conservatives defeated the Liberal government in an election on Jan. 23.
■ United States
Air Force One secrets out
Air Force One, the presidential jet, is a near-mythical symbol of US power, shrouded in so much secrecy that even foreign leaders invited on board are forbidden from seeing every corner. But the aircraft just became rather less mysterious after it emerged that detailed plans of its interior and exterior had been made publicly available on the Web site of a US air force base. One diagram shows the location of the president's suite, at the very front of the Boeing 747, which is known to include a medical facility, workout room, kitchen and office, as well as a bedroom. Another shows the location of oxygen tanks which could, in theory, be targeted by a terrorist sniper.
■ United States
Wrongful-death lawsuit filed
A wrongful-death lawsuit was filed in the case of a six-year-old boy who called the emergency service after his mother collapsed and was told by an operator he should not be playing on the phone. Attorney Geoffrey Fieger has said Sherrill Turner, who had an enlarged heart, would have survived Feb. 20 if help had been sent immediately. The lawsuit was filed on Monday by Turner's family against two unnamed dispatchers. Fieger said the city was not named in the lawsuit because state law prohibits it, but that Detroit would be liable for its employees. An amount was not specified in the lawsuit.
■ Venezuela
Spat with US continues
The government cited the US ambassador's charity visits to poor neighborhoods as a sign that he is meddling in the country's internal affairs, and said he could face expulsion for aligning himself with the opposition. President Hugo Chavez first threatened to kick out US Ambassador William Brownfield on Sunday, accusing him of trying to provoke confrontations in recent run-ins with pro-government protesters. The US State Department responded sharply, saying it wouldn't tolerate any more "thuggish" activities like those faced by the ambassador last week, when Chavez supporters pounded on his car, hurled eggs and tomatoes, and chased his convoy on motorcycles.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in