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World News Quick Take

■ Indonesia
Cleric urges attacks on Israel
A reputed leader of an al-Qaeda-linked terror group said yesterday that Indonesia should send Islamic holy warriors to Israel to punish it for unleashing airstrikes in Palestinian territories. "Israel is the enemy of Allah," militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir told hundreds of members of the Muslim-based Crescent Star Party in the capital Jakarta. "That is why Indonesia should send holy warriors there." Bashir recently completed a 26-month jail term for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 dead. The US and Australia allege he is a key leader in the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.

■ Japan
Parachutists in royal error
A Japanese comedian and his instructor accidentally parachuted onto the residence of Crown Prince Naruhito, officials said yesterday. The two were parachuting for a TV quiz program on Sunday afternoon. They were trying to land at Jingu Stadium in downtown Tokyo, but instead were blown off course and landed in a vacant lot within the Akasaka Goyochi residential quarters, according to Imperial Guard Headquarters official Mitsuo Koibuchi. The stadium is just across the street from the quarters. Officials and Nippon Television Network, which produces the quiz show, refused to identify the comedian. But Japanese media, including Kyodo News agency, reported his name as Atsuhiko Nakata, who forms the popular comedy duo Oriental Radio with partner Shingo Fujimori.

■ India
Boy kills himself over HIV
A 15-year-old Indian boy has died after setting himself ablaze on hearing his parents were infected with HIV, police said yesterday. "The boy said in his dying declaration he was worried about his future," said C.M. Mudaliyar, a police officer in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat State, where his death occurred last week. "The fear of getting ostracized by society drove him to take this drastic step," he said. The boy had left school and was helping his parents sell vegetables.

■ Indonesia
Hungry monkeys a menace
Hundreds of famished monkeys are adding to the woes of residents on the slopes of Indonesia's rumbling Mount Merapi, a report said yesterday. The volcano, straddling Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces on Java island, has been spewing smoke, lava and clouds of gas since May, leaving two people dead, burning forests and forcing thousands to flee to safe shelters. Now hundreds of monkeys left hungry after escaping their own burned homes are raiding local crops and homes for scarce food, the Koran Tempo said.

■ China
Many sick on Tibet train
China's inaugural train from Beijing to Tibet passed its highest point yesterday with many passengers reaching for oxygen tubes to ward off altitude sickness. As the train climbed, many passengers attached the tubes to their nostrils and announcements warned passengers to avoid sudden movements that could trigger sickness, even in the pressurized cabins. About a third of those traveling in the cheaper cabins, mostly Tibetan students, appeared to be feeling ill. "Now we've reached the top, I feel sick and nauseous and have headaches," said Wu Jia, 32, a Chinese tourist. Older passengers, looking uncomfortable, were lying down, children were crying and some were being sick in the bathrooms.

■ Turkey
Intelligence chief murdered
A senior intelligence official in the nation's southeast was killed on Sunday by a colleague but the motive for the attack was unclear, Turkish media reported. Ismet Onal, chief of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in the town of Batman, was attacked outside his office and died of his injuries in hospital, NTV television said. The channel quoted local governor Haluk Imga as saying the attacker, an MIT employee, was mentally disturbed.

■ France
Ex-Gitmo inmates go on trial
Six Frenchmen who were released from the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay over the past two years were due to stand trial yesterday over "associating with criminals in relation to a terrorist organization." The six men, aged between 24 and 38, were captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan late in 2001 and held by US forces on suspicion of fighting for the Taliban regime. The men are to be judged for their trips to Afghanistan between 2000 and 2001, where prosecutors say five of them participated in al-Qaeda training camps. The sixth, Imad Kanouni, received fundamentalist religious training there.

■ Syria
Protesters hit the streets
Some 5,000 people protested in Damascus on Sunday against Israel's continued "aggression" against Palestinians in Gaza. Talal Nassar, a Hamas member, said that the demonstration was to protest the "crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people and to express solidarity with the Palestinian government." Hamas members stressed that the Israeli soldier kidnapped last Sunday should not be released before Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli jails. They criticized international concern over the missing soldier, pointing out that the world chose to remain silent on the matter of thousands of Palestinian detainees.

■ United Kingdom
MI5 keeping tabs on 8,000
The nation's internal intelligence agency M15 is spying on some 8,000 sympathizers of the al-Qaeda terror network in a bid to identify future terrorists, the Independent newspaper reported yesterday. Operation "Rich Picture", also aims to recruit agents within the Islamist movement, the report said. The nationwide investigation follows intelligence suggesting there is a very small, but significant number of British-born and Britain-based Muslims, who are prepared to carry out bombings and other terrorist attacks.

■ Ivory Coast
Annan heading for Abidjan
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will go to Ivory Coast for a summit tomorrow to try to ensure the war-divided state meets an October deadline for elections. Ivory Coast, split into a rebel-held north and government south since a 2002-03 civil war, is due to hold elections by Oct. 31, but is way behind on disarmament and voter identification programmes that must be completed first. "Clearly it would be preferable to hold these elections in October," Annan told a news conference on Sunday during an African Union summit in Gambia. "But if for technical reasons we must make an adjustment, and I hope it would be a very, very short adjustment, we must definitely have the elections this year because we can't continue with the situation as it is," he said.

■ United States
More rules, fewer fatalities
Laws that set numerous strict conditions before teenagers can get a driver's license can reduce fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers by up to 21 percent, public health researchers say. The more restrictions imposed, the greater the reduction. Examples include a waiting period before a young driver is eligible to move from a learner's permit to an intermediate license, restrictions on driving at night, required hours of supervision by an adult driver and limits on the number of passengers a teenage driver can have. States with such restrictions as part of strong graduated driver's licensing programs showed declines in fatal crashes involving 16-year-olds, according to a study released yesterday.

■ United States
Fires rage in Nevada
Firefighters endured temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) on Sunday in their battle against two wildfires in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge in southern Nevada. An 8,450-hectare fire centered on the Sheep Mountains about 80km north of Las Vegas was 50 percent contained, with full containment expected today, fire information officer Hillerie Patton said. No containment estimate was available for a 1,000-hectare blaze around Gass Peak about 6.5km north of Las Vegas, which was visible from the city. Winds caused the Gass Peak blaze to "kind of blow up on us," Patton said. Firefighters were sweating it out as daytime highs reached 40 degrees Celsius to 41 degrees Celsius in southern Nevada.

■ United States
Shuttle launch delayed
Concerns over lightning forced NASA to call off Discovery's launch for a second straight day at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday, delaying just the second space shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia tragedy by at least two more days. NASA will attempt to launch its seven astronauts on their key mission again today, Independence Day, at 2:38pm. A day of rest was needed for the launch crew and to recharge fuel cells that power the shuttle. The astronauts were once again sitting inside the space shuttle waiting for the green light when liftoff was canceled two hours before its 3:26pm scheduled time.

■ United States
`Governator' releases reports
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the release of intelligence reports prepared for the state Office of Homeland Security, a move administration officials say will quell complaints that California engaged in widespread monitoring of political protests. State lawmakers have complained that two homeland security intelligence reports from March and April carried details about the location and purpose of political rallies.

■ Venezuela
Chavez gets first jets
Two Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets, the first of 24 SU-30s that President Hugo Chavez plans to purchase from Moscow, arrived in this South American nation on Sunday, a top military official said. Air Force Commander Roger Cordero Lara told state-run television the new combat jets would be presented to the public during a military parade tomorrow to celebrate the anniversary of the country's independence from Spain. "These planes are here to safeguard our sovereignty," Cordero Lara said. Chavez said the SU-30s would replace a fleet of US-made F-16s, which the country has had trouble maintaining because the Bush administration has refused to sell Caracas parts.

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