■ Japan
Former PM dies
Former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto died yesterday at a Tokyo hospital, officials said. Hashimoto, who was prime minister from January 1996 to July 1998, had been in a critical condition after suffering abdominal pain and underwent surgery to remove a large part of his intestines early last month. Hashimoto died yesterday afternoon, according to Hajime Takayama, spokesman at the International Medical Center of Japan, where the former leader had been treated.
■ Pakistan
Railway line blown up
Suspected tribal militants, fighting for greater political and economic autonomy, blew up a railway line linking southwestern Pakistan to Iran early yesterday, a railway official said. Four bombs exploded at the railway track near the town of Noshki in southern Baluchistan province several hours before the train bound for the Iranian border town of Zahedan was due to pass. Noshki is 100km southwest of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan. "No one was hurt in the blast,"a senior railway official said.
■ Japan
Handling a hot spot
The nation's coast guard will not seize South Korean boats sent to survey waters around a group of hotly disputed islets that were the site of a high seas standoff earlier this year, a newspaper reported yesterday. "We will calmly respond on the scene and through diplomatic routes," Japan Coast Guard Chief Hiroki Ishikawa said on Friday, the Yomiuri reported. "Seizure of official vessels cannot happen under international law." Japanese plans to survey the region earlier this year were met with strong protests from South Korea.
■ India
Kashmir protest turns violent
Police in Srinigar fired teargas and water canons yesterday to disperse thousands of demonstrators protesting the alleged killing of a shopkeeper by security forces. Authorities said six policemen were injured in a clash. Angry protesters, shouting anti-India slogans, set fire to tires and roadside police booths and threw stones at police and government vehicles in Srinagar. Shops and businesses in many parts of the city closed when nearly 4,000 people took to the streets.
■ Afghanistan
Rocket attack wounds 10
Two rockets fired by insurgents slammed into the main coalition military base in the south, wounding seven foreign soldiers and three civilian contract workers, military officials said yesterday. The wounded included five US and two Canadian soldiers, as well as three foreign contract workers, said coalition spokesman Major Quentin Innis. Their nationalities were not immediately released. One Canadian and one US soldier were seriously injured, and were being flown to Germany for medical treatment, he said. The other eight received treatment for minor wounds, he said. Officials said more than 20 rockets have been fired at the Kandahar base since February, but Friday's rocket attack was the first to cause casualties.
■ Cambodia
Traffic even more deadly
Traffic has become the nation's second biggest killer after HIV/AIDS, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech to the Interior Ministry broadcast on national TV. Hun Sen said the government had drafted legislation in an effort to control bad driving which it hoped would be implemented soon. Meanwhile, figures compiled by ASEAN on traffic accidents showed Cambodia had the worst death rates with 20 deaths per 10,000 vehicles -- double that of the second-worst nation. Hun Sen said basic measures to curb the alarming rates would include making sure people formally learned to drive, increasing the length of driving school courses at private schools, and making the use of number or license plates on vehicles mandatory. Vehicles would also have to be registered, he added.
■ Australia
Pizza delivery sets record
A movie director claimed a new world record yesterday after traveling 20,000km to deliver a pizza. Paul Fenech, the writer and director of the movie Fat Pizza, undertook the three-day journey from Australia to New Zealand via Spain to raise awareness of the youth cancer charity CanTeen. "The pizza isn't spring fresh, but I have eaten a piece to show it is edible," Fenech said yesterday, after delivering the cold pizza, bought in Madrid, to 13-year-old non-Hodgkin's lymphoma sufferer Niko Apostolakis in Wellington. The previous record was a delivery from London to the set of the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Guiness World Records has not yet verified the claim.
■ Malaysia
Dead granny pays off
A mechanic won 42,500 ringgit (US$11,580) in a lottery by playing a number his dead grandmother had given him in a dream, the Star reported yesterday. But Tan Tay Seck's hopes for a big fortune turned into a nightmare. Tan, bought two tickets with the 6064 combination he received from the apparition, but a thief stole the wallet with the second winning ticket in it and the lottery company refused to pay up without it.
■ Netherlands
Queen consults politicians
Queen Beatrix yesterday continued consultations in The Hague on the crisis following the loss of a parliamentary majority by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's government. After talks with the large parties, Beatrix invited representatives of smaller factions and independent parliamentarians to separate discussions. The Queen will decide whether Balkenende will remain in a leadership position until new elections, or whether a new government will be formed.
■ Mexico
Echeverria under arrest
A judge on Friday ordered the house arrest of former president Luis Echeverria, on his probable involvement in the 1968 student slaughter on the eve of the Olympic games in Mexico City. Jose Angel Matta Oliva said there appeared to be adequate basis for charging Echeverria, 84, with genocide that occurred on his watch as Mexico's interior chief. Echeverria's lawyer, Juan Velazquez insisted that the 1968 deaths resulted from "crossfire" and rejected that there was a deliberate policy of extermination. Echeverria went on from the cabinet post to become president from 1970 to 1976.
■ United States
Top drink-drive cop quits
The commander of the Utah Highway Patrol's drunken driving unit has resigned, a week after being cited for driving under the influence. Lieutenant Fred Swain crashed his cruiser into a concrete barrier after veering off the shoulder of a highway on June 21. He resigned on Friday. "We understand that people in this state, in this country, should be shocked over something like this because they certainly were," patrol Colonel Scott Duncan said at a news conference. "They should be angry. This is a violation of public trust. They should feel betrayed. And I don't know if they'll feel embarrassed, but we certainly are."
■ United States
Couple kept girl as slave
An Egyptian couple living in southern California have pleaded guilty to slavery charges involving a now 16-year-old girl they forcibly kept working in their home for two years, according to US attorneys on Friday. Abdelnasser Eid Youssef Ibrahim, 45 and his ex-wife, Amal Ahmed Ewis-abd Motelib, 43, are accused of harboring an illegal alien, obtaining labor by force, and conspiracy. The girl worked as nanny and housekeeper for a family of seven for up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week. "She had to work all day long," Assistant US Attorney Robert Keenan said. "They used unlawful forms of coercion such as hitting and slapping, and threats of arrest by the police if she ever went outside on her own."
■ Congo
Violence leaves 13 dead
Thirteen people died in political violence as campaigning began for Congo's presidential elections, a human rights worker said. Demonstrators in the city of Matadi attacked and killed a soldier on Friday before troops fired on the crowd killing 12 civilians, said Christian Malidini, of Congo's Association of Human Rights Defenders. The deaths were the first reported in the campaign ahead of a scheduled July 30 vote. Dozens of candidates are vying for the presidency in Congo's first multiparty elections in 40 years, balloting for a government to take over from a transitional administration arranged in the wake of a 1998-2003 civil war.
■ Canada
Gay Mounties wed
Two gay members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were married in a ceremony on Friday. Dressed in their distinctive scarlet coats, constables Jason Tree and David Connors exchanged vows before a justice of the peace and a troop of other Mounties in their fabled red serge. Reaction to the wedding -- the first between two male Mounties in uniform -- has befuddled the couple, who have been overwhelmed by interview requests from reporters and congratulations from well-wishers they have never met. "We don't see our wedding as anything different or special," Tree said. "Our goal was to get married, not have an international media story. I fail to see the big deal."
■ United States
Sheehan challenges ban
Cindy Sheehan and four other war protesters filed a lawsuit challenging roadside camping and parking bans near President George W. Bush's Crawford ranch. Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, California, was in Waco on Friday to file the case, which asks that the ordinances not be enforced during protests next month and ultimately be declared void. The suit, filed in state district court, was filed against McLennan County, the sheriff and county commissioners. Sheehan, whose oldest son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, reinvigorated the anti-war movement last summer with her peace vigil that started in ditches off the road to Bush's ranch.
■ United States
US offers US$5m for Masri
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday authorized a reward of up to US$5 million to anyone providing information leading to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, a senior al-Qaeda leader and successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. Masri trained in Afghanistan and formed al-Qaeda's first cell in Baghdad, according to the US military. US officials describe him as an explosives expert trained in the construction of improvised bombs. "We encourage anyone with information on al-Masri's location to contact the US embassy in Baghdad, any US military commander in Iraq, any US embassy or consulate, or the Rewards for Justice staff," said Adam Ereli, a spokesman for the State Department.
■ United States
Sears plotter on trial
A man accused of leading a group that authorities said was plotting to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower wanted to create a distraction so he could free Muslim prisoners at a nearby jail, Assistant US Attorney Jacqueline Arango said in Miami on Friday. Narseal Batiste, 32, who is accused of leading the group, was recorded as he spoke to an FBI informant who was posing as an al-Qaeda operative, Arango said. Authorities have said the men never had explosives or contact with al-Qaeda. US Magistrate Judge Ted Bandstra heard arguments on Friday on whether to release Batiste and five co-defendants on bond. The judge adjourned the hearing until Wednesday so the defense could finish questioning law enforcement agents.
■ United States
Hubble camera back on
A balky camera on the Hubble Space Telescope has been restarted and will begin taking pictures again this evening, NASA officials said on Friday. The Advanced Camera for Surveys, which consists of three electronic cameras that can detect light from ultraviolet to near infrared wavelengths, malfunctioned on June 19. Engineers quickly suspected a problem with the power supply, but spent a week and a half investigating to be certain. "Everything worked out great," said NASA spokeswoman Susan Hendrix.
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Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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