■ Japan
Minister receives threat
Trade Minister Toshihiro Nikai received a letter along with a razor blade in the mail, threatening him not to flatter Beijing, media reports said yesterday. Nikai is one of the few ministers in Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet who has personal contacts with Chinese politicians. "Don't pander to China. You're handing over Japan's assets and riches," said the letter, according to the reports quoting Tokyo police. "We urge you to commit suicide," it added.
■ China
Crook flight to be curbed
Authorities yesterday vowed to stop suspected economic criminals fleeing abroad. Gao Feng, an official at the Ministry of Public Security, said about 800 suspected economic criminals had escaped in recent years and more than 300 of them had been repatriated in cases involving more than 70 billion yuan (US$8.73 billion). "The Ministry of Public Security has intensified cooperation with the Audit Commission, People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Taxation ... to prevent suspects from transferring money and running away," Gao told a news conference.
■ Pakistan
Condemned man given stay
President General Pervez Musharraf has granted an indefinite stay of execution for a British-Pakistani man who was set to hang next month for the killing of a taxi driver 18 years ago, the man's brother said yesterday. Mirza Tahir Hussain, now 35, was acquitted of murder by the high court 10 years ago, but an Islamic court imposed a death penalty two years later. Rights groups have protested his trial was unfair, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week urged Musharraf to reconsider the sentence.
■ Japan
Half-baked beans risky
Dieters were warned to stay away from half-cooked kidney beans on Monday after a dieting method aired on TV made at least 158 people sick. In a program aired earlier this month, Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc encouraged people to eat rice sprinkled with lightly roasted white kidney beans to lose weight. But at least 158 people who tried the method developed symptoms of nausea and diarrhea, including 30 who were hospitalized, the Health Ministry said on Monday. White kidney beans contain lectin, a protein that can cause diarrhea if the beans aren't heated thoroughly, according to health officials.
■ Thailand
Floods kill at least five
Flash floods triggered by days of heavy rain killed at least five people and trapped thousands of others on rooftops and inside trains in northern Thailand, officials said yesterday. Officials said the death toll was expected to rise as outlying villages hit by landslides were reached by rescuers. The floods, following three days of rain, inundated several towns in the provinces of Nan, Phrae, Lampang, Sukhothai and Uttaradit and caused landslips in the mountainous region, officials said. In Uttaradit's Lablae district, more than 2,000 people were trapped on the roofs of their houses or in trees, said Nitipat Pimpiriyakul, chief of the provincial Disaster Prevention and Rescue Center.
■ Mauritania
China to give big dollars
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) announced a 20 million yuan (US$2.5 million) aid package to Mauritania on Monday and pledged to encourage more Chinese companies to invest in the West African country. The Islamic republic, which lies on the western edge of the Sahara and straddles black and Arab Africa, began pumping oil in February and sold its first cargo to China, whose rapid industrialization has boosted its thirst for minerals and crude. "China will continue to support and aid Mauritania," Li said. He also thanked Mauritania for supporting the principle of a "united China" by recognizing Beijing's sovereignty over Taiwan.
■ Thailand
Two killed in market attack
Two border patrol policemen were killed and five bystanders injured when suspected Islamic militants opened fire yesterday on a crowded market in the restive south, police said. Sergeant Supot Napasith and Sergeant Pradit Techa, both aged 30, were killed while five people in the busy morning market were injured when the gunmen shot at the two men through the crowd, police said. The shooting in Krongpinang district of Yala Province came amid surging violence in the Muslim-majority provinces along the southern border with Malaysia.
■ Singapore
Indian Ocean air improves
A year-long sampling of air over the Indian Ocean found that levels of banned pollutants are falling amid international pressure to stop their use, a study showed yesterday. Paid for by Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research, the persistent organic pollutants (POP) are typically ingredients in banned pesticides and industrial chemicals which resist degradation and remain in the environment. Prolonged exposure to some of them can lead to cancer and damage the human nervous system, said the findings published in the Straits Times.
■ United States
Boy escapes from Alcatraz
A seven-year-old Arizona boy swam from Alcatraz Island, the site of the infamous former maximum security prison, to San Francisco in 47 minutes, then was lifted by his father from the chilly waters. Braxton Bilbrey was joined by his coach and two other adults for the estimated 2.25km swim on Monday. The second-grader was greeted at the finish by reporters, photographers and well-wishers. "I think it's pretty cool," the wetsuit-clad boy said. Braxton said his next ambition is to swim the 33.8km English Channel. "He did great," said his dad, Steve Bilbrey. "He looked so strong. I'm so proud of him."
■ United Kingdom
`Bangers' found with fries
Workers at a french fries factory in northern England had to be evacuated on two consecutive days last week when armaments suspected to date back to World Wars I and II were discovered in batches of imported European potatoes, the company said on Monday. Canadian-based McCain Foods said employees at its plant in Scarborough, 400km north of London, discovered a suspected hand grenade on Saturday, a day after a shell tip was found among a batch of potatoes. On both occasions, police and bomb squad officials set up a 100m exclusion zone and the devices were detonated in a controlled explosion, a company statement said.
■ United States
Prince voted sexiest veggie
Prince has been voted the "world's sexiest vegetarian" in PETA's annual online poll, the animal rights group announced on Monday. A strict vegan, Prince, 47, wrote in the liner notes of his 1999 album, "Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic," about the ills behind wool production. He closed the disc with a quote from Mohandas Gandhi: "2 my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being." Prince released his latest album, "3121," in March. He shares the honor with Kristen Bell, the 25-year-old star of the television show "Veronica Mars." Runners-up in the poll included Natalie Portman and Joaquin Phoenix.
■ Colombia
Mistake kills 10 cops
Ten undercover police officers conducting an anti-drugs operation have been accidently shot dead by soldiers, Defense Minister Camilo Ospina said late on Monday. "I regret to inform the public that an accident occurred that resulted in the death of 10 police officers and one civilian," Ospina told a news conference. The undercover officers were near the town of Jamundi when they ran into troops on Monday who mistook them for drug traffickers, he said. Police chief Jorge Daniel Castro said the officers were members of the judicial police on a mission to bust a drug trafficking group.
■ United Nations
US wants peacekeepers out
The US pressed the UN Security Council on Monday to scale back the UN peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea by the end of the month after the Horn of Africa neighbors failed to make progress last week in meeting council demands. Russia, however, opposed trimming the 3,300-strong UN force preserving a shaky peace between the former foes after their two-year border war, which ended in a 2000 peace deal. UN troops were sent to Ethiopia and Eritrea following the deal. As part of the agreement, both countries agreed to accept as final and binding a new border set out for them by the international boundary commission. But Ethiopia rejected the border and insisted on further talks.
■ Gaza Strip
Minister hopes to raise cash
Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar was to depart yesterday for Asia, including a stop in Iran, where he hoped to raise money for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, his office said. Zahar will visit Iran at the end of a trip that will include Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Sri Lanka, his spokesman Taher Nunu said. The ruling Hamas Party has been unable to pay salaries of 165,000 civil servants since it was elected to power in January. The US and Europe have cut off millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority in an effort to force the anti-Israeli Hamas to reform.
■ Mexico
Fox accused of meddling
Mexico's main leftist party asked the attorney-general's office on Monday to investigate conservative President Vicente Fox on charges of interfering with the campaign to elect his successor on July 2. Mexican presidents are forbidden by law from trying to influence elections, but Fox has frequently been accused by two opposition parties of promoting the candidacy of Felipe Calderon, from his National Action Party. The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, whose candidate is lagging behind Calderon in second place in opinion polls, presented a written complaint about Fox to a department of the attorney general's office that deals with electoral crimes.
■ United States
`Son of Sam' sues ex-lawyer
The serial killer known as the Son of Sam, whose murder spree brought terror to 1970s New York, is suing his former lawyer under a law that was introduced to stop him from profiting from his crimes. New York and many other US states introduced "Son of Sam" laws in response to rumors that David Berkowitz was being offered vast sums to write a book describing how he killed six people and wounded seven others. Now Berkowitz is suing, arguing that a book by the lawyer violates the spirit of the law and that the proceeds should be used to compensate his victims and bereaved families.
■ United States
Veterans' data compromised
A burglar who stole a laptop from the house of a government employee snared the personal electronic data of up to 26.5 million military veterans, including their Social Security numbers and birth dates, officials said on Monday. Social Security numbers, which identify individuals' government pension accounts and are widely used as personal identifiers in private-sector business transactions, can be easily used in identity fraud and other financial crimes, especially when combined with birth dates and addresses. The laptop was at the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, who had carried it out without authorization, the agency said.
■ Brazil
Lawyers grilled over leak
Lawmakers are expected to grill two attorneys for a notorious gang about whether their clients received advance notice of a police crackdown before launching coordinated attacks leading to 172 deaths across Brazil's biggest city and state. The lawyers were to be forced to testify yesterday before Congress in Brasilia about accusations they purchased a tape of police telling lawmakers of their plans to isolate incarcerated gang members just before the attacks began May 12. Some congressmen who were at the supposedly secret legislative committee session on May 10 denied the leaked tape sparked the unprecedented week of violence launched by the First Capital Command gang.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema