■ China
Elephant kills keeper
An elephant being treated for an illness at a Shanghai zoo has killed his keeper, a state press report said yesterday. The 5-tonne animal suddenly and fiercely tossed Li Guohua, 46, who was helping veterinarians, onto a fence on Thursday evening, Xinhua news agency said. Li had with other keepers at the Shanghai Safari Park cared for the Asian elephant since its birth in captivity seven years ago. An investigation was under way, the report said.
■ China
`PandaCams' switched on
China has set up Web cameras in the fog-shrouded mountains of Sichuan so that people around the world can spy on pandas doing what comes naturally to them. Wolong Giant Panda Reservation and Research Center, home to 154 wild and about 80 artificially bred giant pandas, launched the service on its Web site (www.pandaclub.net). "PandaCam" will go live for four 20-minute periods a day, giving the animals a bit of privacy at weekends, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.
■ China
Ten killed in explosion
Ten people were killed at an illegal explosives factory in a village in Shanxi Province, state press reported yesterday. A blast occurred early Thursday when 12 workers carried explosives and work tools into the illegal factory in Xiyankou village, Fanzhi County, to get ready for work, Xinhua news agency said. A police investigation found that nine people, including an old woman living in the neighborhood, were killed on the spot, it said. Another injured person died later in hospital. Another worker was seriously burned and was in a critical condition, it said.
■ Indonesia
Abbas calls off visit
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas canceled a planned visit to Indonesia just hours after the trip was announced, a foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday. Abbas was to have arrived on June 23 to discuss the Middle East peace process. "The visit was canceled because of [the Palestinian] domestic situation," ministry spokesman Desra Percaya said.
■ Australia
Monster snakes confiscated
Burmese pythons were seized yesterday from the Melbourne home of a man keeping them as pets. The snakes, one weighing 45kg and the other 20kg, measured more than 3m, wildlife officers said. Burmese pythons, boa constrictors and other exotic snakes are not allowed to be kept as pets in Australia. "These things have run amok in the United States, killing people's pets, getting in the waterways and even eating alligators in Florida's Everglades National Park," Department of Sustainability and Environment spokesman Glenn Sharp said. "People find out how big they grow, and how much they eat and then dump them."
■ Malaysia
Firm appeals Blair decision
A Malaysian firm has appealed against a decision to bar Cherie Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, from representing it in an important court case, its lawyer said yesterday. The High Court on Wednesday turned down the application for Mrs Blair to appear in the case, saying that although she is an expert in human rights and employment law, she did not have expertise in the case being tried. As a foreign-based lawyer Mrs Blair needed approval to act for the firm concerned, Fawziah Holdings, which is fighting for compensation over an allegedly corrupt deal involving a former finance minister.
■ Australia
Jailed for keeping slaves
A brothel owner was sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for keeping five Thai women as sex slaves. A Victorian County Court jury yesterday found Wei Tang, 44, guilty of five charges of possessing a slave and five counts of using a slave. During her trial, prosecutors alleged the women were brought from Thailand to Melbourne with the promise they would be able to work legally in the sex trade and send money home to their families. But the women were told they first had to work off a debt of A$45,000 (US$34,440) each by performing sex acts for no pay for six days a week, prosecutors said. The victims had their passports and return airline tickets taken from them and were forced to perform between 800 and 900 unpaid sex acts between August 2002 and May 2003, prosecutors said.
■ Italy
Refugee boat sinks
Twenty-five people are missing after a boat carrying clandestine migrants sank in international waters off Malta yesterday, the coast guard said. Sixteen other people were rescued by a fishing boat, which came upon the survivors at dawn just outside Malta's territorial waters. The survivors, four of whom were in a serious condition, said 25 other people had been on the boat. Their vessel was believed to have been heading for the Italian peninsula.
■ Italy
Verbal abuse of PM `useful'
Italy's highest appeals court has ruled that calling the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi a "buffoon" can be socially useful. Overruling the conviction of a freelance journalist who hurled insults at the then premier as he left a court three years ago, the court of cassation acknowledged that the man had levelled "strong criticism." But Judge Alfonso Amato argued in a written judgment that it was "socially useful in terms of the interest of society as a whole in the expression of opinions."The judge added that a courthouse was the "ideal" place in which to "stimulate reflection on the subject of legality and respect for the law."
■ Russia
Suspect extradited
The country has handed over Dragan Zelenovic, a Bosnian Serb wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal for rape and torture, to Bosnia, Interfax news agency reported yesterday, citing an unnamed source in Moscow. The report followed a sharp attack on Russia on Wednesday by the prosecutor for the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, who accused Moscow of dragging its feet over the Zelenovic case. "Zelenovic was handed over to Bosnian authorities yesterday," the source said. Zelenovic, a former policeman, is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for atrocities in the Bosnian war.
■ Russia
Law enforcer shot dead
Gunmen shot dead a top police commander, his three young children, driver and bodyguard in the troubled southern province of Ingushetia yesterday, the region's deputy prosecutor said. Musa Nalgiyev, chief of the riot police in Ingushetia, was attacked as he was being driven to work around 9:00am, deputy prosecutor Dmitry Gurulyov said. The assailants, who numbered two to three, opened fire with automatic weapons on the police official's car and managed to escape, the official said. In a separate incident yesterday, another group of gunmen riding in a car fatally attacked the deputy administration head of a village in Ingushetia close to the border with war-torn Chechnya.
■ South Africa
De Klerk out of surgery
The country's last white president, F.W. De Klerk, was recovering in intensive care on Thursday after two rounds of abdominal surgery, hospital officials said. De Klerk had a tumor, which was later found to be cancerous, removed on Saturday from his colon at Cape Town's Panorama Medi-Clinic. His condition deteriorated Wednesday due to respiratory complications and he was put on a ventilator, the statement said, according to the South African Press Association. A second round of surgery was performed on Thursday to eliminate the possibility of abdominal complications, which can contribute to lung complications, the hospital said.
■ United States
Bush meets with Bachelet
US President George W. Bush and his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, discussed initiatives for combating poverty and improving the economy in South American nations during a White House meeting in Washington on Thursday. Bush pledged to continue working to develop the economies in South America and characterized US relations with Chile as "very good." Bachelet told reporters after the meeting that the two leaders did not discuss the competition between Venezuela and Guatemala for a seat on the UN Security Council for the 2007-2008 term. Washington backs Guatemala's bid while Argentina and Brazil support Venezuela. Chile has not taken an official position.
■ United States
Bush slams Chavez again
President George W. Bush said on Wednesday in Omaha, Nebraska, that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was doing a disservice to the people and traditions of his country. "I am a little worried about your country," Bush told Lourdes Secola, who came to the US from Venezuela 25 years ago for her education and works in dentistry. "I'm worried about it. A little worried about it. I think it'll be OK," Bush said during a visit to the Catholic Charities Juan Diego Center. "But it's going to take a while. Sometimes leaders show up who do a great disservice to the traditions and people of a country," he said during a visit to the Catholic Charities Juan Diego Center. Chavez, a close ally of Cuban President Fidel Castro, has clashed with the United States as he pushes a socialist agenda to challenge US influence in Latin America. Top US officials see Chavez as a threat to regional stability.
■ United States
Fletcher faces arraignment
The governor of Kentucky is scheduled for an arraignment in Frankfort, Kentucky, today on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and political discrimination. Governor Ernie Fletcher will not attend the hearing because he is vacationing in Florida. His attorney, Steve Pitt, will attend and will enter "not guilty" pleas on the governor's behalf. Fletcher, a Republican, is accused of rewarding political supporters with protected state jobs after he took office in 2003. The hearing marks the first formal court proceeding for Fletcher on the matter since a Franklin County special grand jury indicted him on May 11. The indictment was just the start of another tumultuous episode for the governor and his administration since Attorney General Greg Stumbo's office began investigating allegations the state jobs were being doled out to Fletcher's political supporters based on their connections rather than merit.
■ United States
Accused priest enters plea
A priest accused of sexually abusing three boys pleaded not guilty in Chicago on Thursday to charges he abused two more children. Authorities said the two most recent counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against the Reverend Daniel McCormack involve a 10-year-old boy and an 11-year-old boy. Each charge carries a penalty ranging from probation up to seven years in prison. Prosecutors allege McCormack fondled the 11-year-old on "an almost daily basis" for nearly five months beginning in September. The alleged abuse against the 10-year-old took place sometime between August 2003 and June 2004, authorities said.
‘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