■ 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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number