■ India
Bus crashes kill 37
Nineteen people were killed and 25 injured yesterday when a bus plunged into a dry river bed near the northern town of Rampur, 180km east of New Delhi. Four of the injured were in a critical condition, a local official said. The bus had left the hill resort of Nainital for the capital. On Tuesday 18 people died when their bus veered off a bridge near Mumbai.
■ China
Beslan kids to get therapy
Ten children who survived a school hostage holdup in Russia's southern city of Beslan have arrived in China for a month of therapy, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. The children, and four chaperons, arrived in the city of Sanya in Hainan Province on Tuesday, Xinhua said on its Web site. The site ran a picture showing one of the Russian girls, wearing a garland of flowers, being greeted by a local schoolboy. Another photo showed an adult Russian delegate handing over a gift to a representative of Sanya city -- an oil painting of Beslan's mountains. The children, averaging 13 years old, suffered either gun wounds or verbal threats during the holdup, Xinhua said. China's health department dispatched a medical team to Russia in March to examine the children, it said.
■ India
`Marathon boy' outrages
A four-year-old child has been dubbed India's "marathon boy" after he ran a 65km race on Tuesday, but critics accused his coach of risking the boy's health for cash. Budhia Singh covered the distance in just seven hours and two minutes, after setting out to become the youngest Indian to cover the marathon distance. Born in a slum in Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern state of Orissa, Budhia was a year old when his mother sold him for just 800 rupees (US$20) after his father had died. Biranchi Das, a local judo teacher, adopted Budhia and later discovered his unusual stamina.
■ Australia
Pedophile to be deported
A serial pedophile will be deported back to Britain following his release from prison after the Australian government revoked his visa on character grounds, officials said yesterday. William John Gallagher, 62, has a history of sex offences against young boys dating back to 1973. He was due to be released from prison last month, but the New South Wales state government won an order to keep him locked up until it could prepare a case against him under a new law that allows for high-risk sex offenders to be kept in jail indefinitely. However, the immigration department decided to revoke his visa on character grounds before the new law could be tested. Gallagher will now be handed over to immigration officials for deportation on his release on May 14.
■ Thailand
China bars voodoo dolls
Beijing has reportedly slapped a ban on the import on handmade "voodoo" dolls from Thailand because of rising concerns over their popularity among young people, media reports said on yesterday. Authorities imposed the ban after parents complained that their children were using the dolls to perform "black magic" rituals against people they hate by piercing the toys with needles, the Nation newspaper said. Kanya Thuailai, manager of the Saen Ha Co that markets the dolls, made mainly from string and wire, said that China was the only country to have imposed a ban on the toys. She said the handmade dolls were supplied by 250 villages in Chiang Mai Province.
■ Egypt
New bird flu case reported
A new human case of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza was reported yesterday, bringing to 13 the total number of Egyptians who have been infected by the deadly virus. The health ministry said late on Tuesday that the new case was detected in a 27-year-old woman who was infected by poultry from her domestic rearing in the Nile Delta governorate of Menufiya. Out of the 12 cases that have been reported in Egyptians since mid-March, four were fatal and eight people recovered after being treated with Tamiflu.
■ Ghana
Koizumi calls for UN seats
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday reiterated his call for Africa and Japan to be represented on an enlarged UN Security Council, following a meeting with President John Kufuor. "Japan is concerned that Africa should also be represented in the Security Council", Koizumi said at a press conference in Accra. "Together with other members of the G4 -- India, Germany and Brazil -- and the two other African countries, we shall continue to advocate the membership issue," he added. The G4 wants to increase this to 25 members and to add six permanent seats, which would go to the G4 and two African countries.
■ Netherlands
Church slams asylum policy
The Dutch asylum policy of imprisoning children due to be deported is inhumane, the Dutch Council of Churches said on Tuesday, calling for an investigation by parliament. The council, an umbrella for most Christian groups including the Roman Catholic and united Protestant Churches, has criticized the government's asylum practices before, but this was the first call for a parliamentary inquiry. "We particularly object to the detention of children who are not guilty of anything," said the council's general secretary, Ineke Bakker. She said the treatment of unwanted refugees had grown harsher in recent months.
■ France
Water lilies back in the sun
Daylight is again streaming onto Claude Monet's celebrated water lilies in a Paris museum where eight of the color-drenched canvasses are returning to public view. The Orangerie Museum is reopening to the public on Friday after a painstaking six-year renovation, paying tribute to Impressionists' love of light by installing a giant skylight and making the building again resemble a greenhouse -- its original use. "The most important part of our work was to give the light back to the water lilies," said Olivier Brochet, one of the architects on the US$31 million project.
■ Norway
Arctic trip deadly for rower
The coast guard found the body of a 67-year-old adventurer roped to the keel of his overturned and wrecked boat on Tuesday, two days after he had set off from the North Cape to row the length of Norway's coastline. Without protection a man can survive for only a few hours in the cold Arctic waters around the Cape, but Richard Horntvedt told a local newspaper he was not taking a life raft or a survival suit as he did not have enough space. "We found his body drifting about 10 miles east of the Cape," emergency services spokesman Erlang Herstad said. Horntvedt had set off Sunday from the Cape, deep inside the Arctic Circle, to row the 2,500km coastline south to Lindesnes in an open 6m-long 1850s-style boat.
■ Canada
Hacker mocks Harper
A mocking announcement about the prime minister, "Stephen Harper Eats Babies," was flashed on electronic advertising signs on Toronto area commuter trains for several days, and technicians were still scrambling on Tuesday to get the signs fixed. "It appears that this was a case of electronic vandalism," said Stephanie Sorensen, corporate communications and media specialist for the GO Transit commuter system. "We assume it was a hacker. We haven't identified the person who did this but we're working closely with the contractor who runs the signs to fix the problem," she said.
■ United States
Rams sign up Denzel's son
The son of actor Denzel Washington was signed by the St. Louis Rams after his impressive performance as a running back on his college team, according to US press reports on Tuesday. John David Washington played in Division II for Morehouse College last year and had a school record of 1,095m, leading the league in rushing. He also ended his collegiate career as his university's career and single-game leading rusher. Rams Coach Scott Linehan said he was unaware of Washington's Hollywood connection until after the team became interested in him.
■ United States
Brazilian fugitive caught
A Brazilian fugitive convicted of two murders including the assassination of a union leader was arrested in Massachusetts, federal authorities said on Tuesday. Jose Serafim Sales, 40, also known as Barrerito, was apprehended without incident near Boston on April 25 following an investigation by US and Brazilian authorities, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. Sales, who escaped prison in March 2000, was convicted of shooting in 1991 Expedito Ribeiro de Souza, who defended rural workers against rich landowners in the remote Amazon. Sales was also convicted of another murder in the Rio Maria area and charged with a third.
■ United States
Study says English healthier
White middle-aged Americans, aged 55 to 64, are not as healthy as their English counterparts, according to a new study released on Monday which examined US and British health and aging surveys. Comparing self-reports of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease between the two, the Anglo-US research team found that Americans reported significantly higher levels of disease than the English. The healthiest Americans in the study, those in the highest income and education levels, had rates of diabetes and heart disease similar to the least healthy in England, which included English people in the lowest income and education brackets, the study found.
■ United States
Court favors students
Members of a high school basketball team can sue over their suspensions after they protested a verbally abusive coach, an appeals court ruled on Monday. Eight students on the Clatskanie High School basketball team in Clatskanie, Oregon, during the 2000-2001 season signed a petition seeking the removal of coach Jeff Baughman because of what they described as his intimidation tactics. The players were suspended after they refused to board a bus to their next game, and in 2003 they filed a lawsuit claiming school officials violated their First Amendment rights to free speech. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the lower court erred in dismissing the students' free speech claims.
‘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