■ China
Shoe thief hot foots it
A shoe thief forced a man to take off his pricey sneakers at knifepoint and then left him A$50 (US$38) and his own scuffed work boots in compensation, police said yesterday. The 20-year-old victim was using a public phone in Melbourne on Saturday night when he was approached by a man who asked him for his A$300 black and white Nike "Air Force" shoes. When he refused, the man drew a knife and took the shoes. He put them on and handed over his own boots and a A$50 note to the startled victim before hailing a taxi to make his escape, police said.
■ Philippines
100 flee volcano boulders
About 100 residents fled from a farming village after hearing boulders and rocks rumbling down restive Mount Bulusan amid heavy rains from a tropical storm, an official said yesterday. Army and government trucks helped the residents flee from Cogon village below Bulusan. No one was injured and no houses were damaged by the mudflow and boulders -- some as big as a car -- that tumbled down the volcano late on Saturday, said Mayor Lilia Gonzales of Irosin town, where Cogon is located. The boulders and rocks -- ejected during Bulusan's previous ash expulsions -- were washed down the volcano by the heavy rains, Gonzales said.
■ Indonesia
Sulawesi hit by quake
A powerful earthquake struck Sulawesi island early yesterday, panicking residents but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, the Hong Kong Observatory said. The 6.2-magnitude quake, which hit just before dawn, was centered under the sea 290km southwest of the city of Manado on the central island of Sulawesi, the observatory said in a statement. "I was so shocked because my furniture and my roof started creaking," one witnesses in Gorantolo City told Indonesia's state news agency Antara. "When the shaking started, I immediately thought of my wife and child who were still asleep."
■ Thailand
PM defends his party
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra insisted yesterday that his ruling Thai Rak Thai party was innocent of vote fraud charges stemming from inconclusive elections held in April. "The party did not do anything wrong," Thaksin told reporters in his first public comments on the charges. "I have played by the rules, and everyone else should play by the rules as well," he said. The Election Commission on Thursday accused the party of breaking two laws in the campaign for the April 2 elections, which have since been invalidated by the courts. Prosecutors are expected to decide tomorrow whether to bring the case before the Constitutional Court.
■ China
Abortion changes dropped
The legislature has scrapped an amendment to the criminal law that would ban abortions based on the sex of the fetus, state media reported yesterday, despite a growing population imbalance between males and females. Members of the national legislature's standing committee were divided over criminalizing sex-selective abortions and removed the provision from a draft amendment on Saturday, the China Youth Daily said. "Many controversies remain," the Xinhua news agency said. The original amendment, last discussed by the National People's Congress committee in April, called for fines and prison terms of up to three years for aborting a fetus because of the sex for non-medical reasons, the reports said.
■ Uganda
Railway link planned
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