■ Japan
Russia seizes fishing boat
A Japanese fishing boat has been seized by Russian authorities in disputed waters on suspicion of fishing without a permit, Japan's Coast Guard said yesterday. The 13-tonne vessel was seized on Thursday morning about 250km east of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island -- in waters controlled by Russia but also claimed by Japan, according to Coast Guard official Takashi Sato. The boat and its six Japanese crew have been escorted to Korsakov in Sakhalin for questioning over allegedly fishing in the area without a permit, Sato said. Russian authorities notified Tokyo of the seizure on Friday afternoon, and said the crew members were in good health, according to Sato. The Russians told the Coast Guard they found almost 10 tonnes of salmon on the boat. A string of islands northeast of Hokkaido were occupied by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II. A bilateral pact allows some Japanese fishing boats to enter the surrounding waters while the two sides negotiate rights in the area.
■ China
Treacherous roads claim 32
At least 32 people, including two traffic police and three ambulance workers, were reported dead yesterday in a series of major accidents on China's roads. The two police and three rescuers were struck and killed by a truck as they were responding to a hit-and-run accident in Urumqi, the regional capital of western China's Xinjiang region, on Friday, the Beijing Morning Post reported. One other ambulance worker was injured when the truck plowed into two police mini-vans and an ambulance that had arrived to attend the hit-and-run accident which also left two pedestrians dead, the report said. In separate mishaps that also occurred on Friday, at least 13 people were killed when their mini-bus plunged off a mountainous road in southwestern China's Chongqing municipality, the Chongqing Evening News reported. Twelve people remain in hospital after the wreck.
■ Japan
Student torches his home
A Japanese boy in Tokyo burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test. The 16-year-old, whose name has not been released, is thought to have set fire to the house in Nara, western Japan, and left his stepmother to die along with his seven-year-old brother and five-year-old sister, domestic media reports said on Saturday. The boy's parents had been scheduled to attend a meeting with teachers about his exam results that same day, reports said. The teenager told police his father, a doctor, had put him under extreme pressure over his academic performance, Kyodo news agency said.
■ China
Leaping robbers grounded
Beijing police have detained a gang of thieves who pulled off a high-speed highway heist straight out of a Hollywood action movie. Police patrolling a Beijing freeway saw several people "surfing" on top of a van as it pulled alongside a truck loaded with cargo, the Beijing News said on Friday. "The men leapt from the van onto the truck's trailer and started throwing back bags of a white-colored substance" into the moving van, the paper said. After several kilometers, the men leapt back on to the van and sped away. Police later intercepted the van, the thieves and a 1 tonne cache of polyethylene, used originally in making hula hoops, worth more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,250).
■ Israel
Troops enter Gaza Strip
Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip before dawn yesterday to arrest two members of the Hamas militant group pulling out of the area in what was apparently the first incursion to the Palestinian-controlled area since withdrawing last summer, Israeli military officials said. The troops entered the southern Gaza Strip, east of the town of Rafah, about 700m to storm a house, make the arrests, and then withdraw, Hamas said. They stayed in for about an hour but were still located near the border later in the morning, the group said.
■ Mali
Deportation deal reached
Spain and Mali agreed on Friday to seek a legal framework for deporting illegal immigrants, as Madrid warned it could not accommodate any more poor African migrants seeking jobs. Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Bernardino Leon said after meeting Malian Prime Minister Ousmane Issoufi Maiga that Spain hoped to foster development in Mali by improving agriculture and the security of its food supply. With more than 9,500 migrants flooding the Spanish Canary Islands this year in ramshackle boats, Madrid has launched a diplomatic offensive offering aid to stem the tide from West Africa and return the immigrants to their countries of origin.
■ Poland
Finance minister fired
The sacking on Friday of the liberal Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska amid accusations she lied about her alleged communist past sent a shockwave through investors and revived the specter of the country's communist past. Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz fired Gilowska after a judge announced he had opened an inquiry to determine if she had lied during a vetting procedure in 1999 about her links with the nation's former communist security forces. "I have no reason to doubt the good faith of Mrs Gilowska, but the principles regulating the government have to be applied to each minister," Marcinkiewicz said.
■ Guinea
Refugees refuse to leave
About 1,000 refugees who fled a civil war in Sierra Leone to camps in neighboring Guinea are refusing to return home and want to be moved to Western countries, a humanitarian source said on Friday. Guinea shelters about 42,000 refugees from wars in neighboring Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, mainly in the capital Conakry and in the southeastern Forest Region, near the border with those countries. The UN announced this week that it would close the Boreah camp at Kissidougou in southeastern Guinea, about 600km from Conakry.
■ Spain
Mayor pulls plug on neon
Madrid is switching off 120,000 neon signs that illuminate the capital in an attempt to give the brash, noisy city center a more upmarket ambience. Under a new city ordinance, Madrid's stores, hotels, cinemas and even chemists with their flashing green crosses will have to tone down their advertising or face fines of up to 3,000 euros (US$3,765). Madrid's conservative mayor, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, said the lights-out law would save energy, reduce light pollution and improve the overall aesthetics of the city, which he described as a "chaotic, disorderly and out-of-control shop window."
■ United States
Judge orders visa decision
A federal judge in New York on Friday ordered the Bush administration to decide by September whether to grant an entry visa to a prominent Muslim scholar. The scholar has been barred from entering the country for nearly two years, first because of supposed ties to terrorism, then for unspecified national security reasons. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of three academic groups, including the PEN American Center, which had invited the scholar, Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen, to speak at its meetings.
■ United States
Mineta leaves Cabinet
US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the only Democrat in Republican President George W. Bush's Cabinet and one of its three remaining original members, will step down on July 7. Mineta, the son of Japanese immigrants, oversaw the huge transportation security buildup after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He had been plagued at times by back problems and spent months working from home and the hospital. But he has since recovered. He is "moving on to pursue other challenges," his spokesman, Robert Johnson, said on Friday. White House press secretary Tony Snow announced the resignation. Asked why Mineta, 74, decided to leave, Snow said: "Because he wanted to," Snow said.
■ United States
Man wins implant suit
The Rhode Island Supreme Court on Friday awarded a former handyman more than US$400,000 in a lawsuit over a penile implant that gave him a 10-year erection. Charles "Chick" Lennon, 68, received the steel and plastic implant in 1996. The Dura-II is designed to allow impotent men to position the penis upward for sex, then lower it. But Lennon could not position his penis downward. He said he could no longer hug people, ride a bike, swim or wear bathing trunks because of the pain and embarrassment. He has become a recluse and is uncomfortable being around his grandchildren, his lawyer said.
■ United States
Police nab 13 `flashers'
New York police said on Friday they had nabbed 13 flashers and gropers in a recent sting operation on the city subway system that used undercover policewomen as bait. "We hope there'll be deterrent value for potential perpetrators who recognize their victim may be a police officer," said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne. The two-day sting mission, dubbed Operation Exposure, was actually carried out last month in response to increased complaints from women commuters of men behaving lewdly on the subway network. The 13 suspects were charged with forcible touching or public lewdness.
■ United States
Arnie turns down request
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week rejected a request from the Bush administration to send an additional 1,500 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, the governor's office confirmed. The National Guard Bureau asked for the troops to help with the border-patrol mission in New Mexico and Arizona, but Schwarzenegger said the request would stretch the California Guard too thin in case of an emergency or natural disaster. Schwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn confirmed the governor's decision on Friday. Mendelsohn said the governor believed sending more troops would create an inappropriate burden on the state.
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
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