■ China
Lying journalists fired
Two reporters lost their jobs in northwestern China for making up a story about two cooked children's arms found at a dump in a bag with ginger, chili and other ingredients, a newspaper reported yesterday. The reporters, Tang Yuanzhi and Lu Jinfeng, published the report on April 4 in the Lanzhou Morning Post in Gansu Province. The report quoted unidentified police as saying the limbs were recently cooked. But a day after the report, Lanzhou police said the arms were from a body used by a class at the Gansu College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the South China Morning Post reported. The arms were accidentally thrown in the trash, and police said no cooking ingredients were found with the limbs, the paper reported. The Post quoted a statement by the Gansu provincial government as saying the reporters were fired "to curb false news in journalism and propaganda."
■ China
Tibet trains to start test runs
Test runs of a controversial railway to Tibet will begin in two weeks' time, state media reported yesterday. Empty trains will start traveling along the 1,142km of rail from the northwestern Qinghai Province to Tibet's capital Lhasa on May 1, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the railway ministry. Full-scale trial operations, with people on board the trains, will begin on July 1, according to the current timetable, the agency said. Once the system is operational, the remote Himalayan territory known as the "roof of the world" will be linked to the rest of China by rail for the first time, with the journey from Beijing to Lhasa taking 48 hours.
■ Japan
Cash in trash recovered
A Japanese man wept for joy this week when he recovered ?5 million (US$42,210) in cash his wife had mistakenly thrown out with the household rubbish. The 35-year-old man had withdrawn the money from a bank account but, fearing it would be stolen, hid it inside a refuse bag which he placed in a rubbish bin, Japanese media said. His wife unknowingly threw out the bag, which was found last month at a refuse collection point outside an apartment in Saitama, north of Tokyo. Local police returned the money after the man was able to give details of the exact amount and where he had withdrawn it.
■ India
Eight die over actor's funeral
Bangalore came to a standstill yesterday, as the death toll from the violence that followed the death of popular film actor Rajkumar mounted to eight, police said. Frenzied fans went on the rampage in several parts of Bangalore on Thursday, angry over being denied access to the film icon's funeral at Kanteerava stadium. Irate mobs also damaged vehicles and clashed with police. Officers used baton charges and opened fire to try to control the protests. The death toll rose to eight yesterday after three people who had been seriously injured died overnight, said Sampat Kumar, a police officer in Bangalore.
■ India
Grenade attacks kill five
A series of grenade attacks by suspected separatist rebels shook Indian-controlled Kashmir's capital yesterday, killing five people and injuring at least 27 others, police said. All of those killed were civilians -- three women and two men who died of their injuries at the main hospital in Srinagar, said Mushtaq Ahmad, a police officer at the hospital. The blasts began when a grenade was hurled at an Indian paramilitary truck passing through one of the main thoroughfares in Srinagar, injuring two soldiers.
■ China
Rights groups slam forum
International human rights groups yesterday denounced a government-sponsored forum on Buddhism as "cynical propaganda" aimed at sugarcoating religious repression in Tibet. The conference has included a rare appearance by 16-year-old Gyaltsen Norbu, China's disputed choice for the Panchen Lama, who delivered a speech on Thursday endorsing China's policies on religion. Mary-Beth Markey, head of the International Campaign for Tibet, said in a news release: "It's shameful that Beijing has scripted Gyaltsen Norbu ... with statements that are clearly untrue about religious freedom in China."
■ Russia
Police arrest worshippers
Police broke up a Moscow prayer meeting attended by about 200 Jehovah's Witnesses, a representative of the religious group said on Thursday. Police arrived on Wednesday at a public hall in the Lyublino neighborhood that the group had rented over the past few months and forced the worshipers to end their service, said Vasily Kanin, a member of the small Russian community of Jehovah's Witnesses. Fourteen Jehovah's Witnesses were questioned by police for four hours before being released, he said. A police spokeswoman said that officers arrived at the meeting after receiving a complaint about excessive noise.
■ Serbia-Montenegro
River reaches record levels
The River Danube rose to new record levels in Serbia-Montenegro yesterday, forcing measures to be taken against massive flooding in Belgrade and other cities. Most of its tributaries also swelled to unprecedented levels. Rivers were expected to continue rising until the weekend. Dozens of people had to be evacuated from riverside homes in Belgrade and several main streets were submerged. As high levels of water are expected to linger for weeks, authorities said they would not start assessing damage before May 1.
■ Georgia
Russian troops to withdraw
Parliament on Thursday ratified an agreement on the withdrawal of Russian military bases. With opposition legislators boycotting parliament over unrelated issues, lawmakers voted 132-0 to back the deal that obliges Russia to complete the pullout of the bases by the end of 2008. Russia and Georgia agreed on the pullout last May, and military officials signed a deal laying out details late last month. About 3,000 troops are stationed at bases in the southern city of Akhalkalaki and the Black Sea port of Batumi.
■ United Kingdom
Windsurfer blown away
A windsurfer who went for a quick sail off the south Wales coast had the wind put up him when a gust blew him way off course across dangerous shipping lanes, newspapers said yesterday. Adam Cowles, 24, was blown 68km from Swansea across the busy Bristol Channel to southwest England, dodging cargo ships as he breezed by. Stunned locals near Lynton, on the north Devon coast, rushed to the aid of the exhausted windsurfer after his three-hour, death-defying ordeal. He emerged from the sea at Woody Bay asking baffled passers-by where he was. "Even though I did not have any money, a couple took me off to a pub and bought me some beer," he said.
■ United Kingdom
More kids stealing phones
The number of schoolchildren robbing each other of their mobile phones has soared, new police figures showed on Thursday. Nearly 15,000 pupils in London, aged between 10 and 17, were robbed in the 11 months to February, mainly for their mobile phones, police said. That represents a nearly 50 percent rise compared with the equivalent period three years ago with police citing "schoolboy on schoolboy" robberies as the cause. Schoolchildren are now the victims in almost two out of every five muggings, the police said. In almost half of those robberies, the suspects were described as being aged 17 or under. Forty-nine percent of those crimes involved mobile phones.
■ Canada
Suspected mad cow found
Federal officials said on Thursday they were testing a six-year-old dairy cow in British Columbia for mad cow disease, potentially bad news for cattle ranchers still recovering from a two-year ban on their beef in the US. The Food Inspection Agency said it was trying to confirm whether it is a new case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. The cow was identified on a Fraser Valley farm through the national BSE surveillance program. It would be the fifth case in Canada since May 2003, when the US border was closed to Canadian beef after the first cases of mad cow were detected in Canada.
■ Venezuela
Photographer's `killer' held
Authorities have detained a former police officer they say is the prime suspect in the killing of a newspaper photographer gunned down on his way to cover an anti-crime demonstration. Meanwhile in two kidnapping-and-killing cases, officials said they have detained a Caracas police officer and were on the lookout for a second officer and a military colonel. Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez announced on Thursday the capture of 33-year-old Boris Lenis Blanco -- an ex-policeman dismissed last October from a Caracas force for "lack of integrity" who is suspected of shooting and killing photographer Jorge Aguirre.
■ United States
Man held after six murders
Police said on Thursday a 21-year old man has been arrested for the murder of six family members whose bodies were found wrapped in bloody sheets and blankets in the basement of his Pennsylvania home. Jessie Wise, 21, is accused of killing his grandmother Emily Wise, 64, two other female relatives, 45 and 30 years old, two young men, 19 and 17, and a five-year old boy, said John Bowman, police chief for the East Lampeter Township. In bedrooms upstairs in the family house, police found a hammer, walls and ceilings splattered with blood and hair with bone fragments scattered on the floor, local newspapers reported.
■ Russia
Prince Albert heads north
Prince Albert II of Monaco set off on Thursday on an expedition to the North Pole armed with food prepared by a top chef and a helping hand from a Russian airplane. The prince, 48, and his team of seven left on sledges pulled by dogs from the Russian tent camp of Barneo, which is erected each winter on the frozen Arctic Sea, coordinator Dmitry Shparo said. Albert II, known officially as His Serene Highness and more used to the sunshine and glamor of his tiny principality on France's Riviera, had only a short distance to go. The team expected to reach their goal tomorrow, Shparo said.
■ Iraq
Name changes ease fears
Iraqis lining up at a state registry say the best protection against sectarian violence is a new name. "I changed my name to Abdullah because it is a neutral name. It could be Sunni or Shiite. My life is more precious than my name," said Omar Sami, an Arab Sunni university student. Iraqis have become increasingly fearful that their religious allegiance could cost them their lives as the country slides toward civil war. So names, many of which can clearly identify which sect you are from, have become a matter of life or death. Bombings at mosques, hit squads and kidnappings have forced some people to apply legally for a new identity, a painful move in a country consumed by sectarian passions.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not