■ China
Blind activist faces trial
China will try a blind rural activist whose campaign against forced abortions attracted worldwide attention, his lawyer told reporters yesterday. Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠), from Shandong Province, will go on trial there on July 17 on charges of disrupting traffic and destroying property following a February protest in his home in Dongshigu Village, defense lawyer Li Jinsong (李勁松) said. Chen had been placed under house arrest for almost 200 days last year after drawing international attention to claims that officials in Linyi in Shandong had imposed late-term abortions and other coercive family planning measures. Li said he and other defense attorneys had been prevented from visiting Chen's home village and family and from speaking to potential witnesses. Previously, Li also complained of threats and intimidation by hired thugs around Chen's village.
■ China
Fire forces robot sale
A farmer was forced to sell his beloved homemade robots to pay off debts after his house burnt down, state media reported yesterday. All 25 robots were made of wire, metal, screws and nails that the farmer found in rubbish sites, with some able to serve tea, light cigarettes and push rickshaws, the China Daily said. Wu Yulu, 44, from the village of Mawu in eastern Beijing, sold one robot for 30,000 yuan (US$3,750). "I couldn't sleep for several days after selling the child, but I had no other choice. I had to pay off my debts," Wu said. "I love to play with robots. The cleverer they became, the deeper the emotional link I felt to them. Later, I began to call them my sons." Wu now plans to build new robots to help repay his debt.
■ Vietnam
Corrupt officials fired
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has sacked two top police and government officials in an anti-corruption drive that follows a major graft scandal this year, state media said yesterday. Dung fired Major General Cao Ngoc Oanh as deputy chief of police, months after Oanh had met middlemen offering bribes to protect transport ministry cadres who had embezzled millions of dollars. The prime minister also allowed Nguyen Van Lam, deputy head of the Government Office, to resign, after Lam "admitted shortcomings" in a separate case, taking cash gifts from officials three years ago.
■ Indonesia
Girl dies of bird flu
A three-year-old girl who died just hours after being admitted to a hospital has tested positive for bird flu, a senior health official said yesterday. The girl, who had been sick for more than a week, was admitted Thursday to a Jakarta hospital and became Indonesia's 41st victim of the disease. "It's a local positive, which means the specimen has to be sent to Hong Kong for confirmation," I Nyoman Kandun, director general of the Indonesian Health Ministry, told reporters. Because of its limited laboratory facilities, The country sends all human specimens of the H5N1 avian-flu virus to laboratories in Hong Kong for confirmation.
■ Australia
Three escape in toilet ruse
Police were searching on Thursday for three prisoners who broke out of jail after one of them convinced an officer to open the cell door by asking for toilet paper. The three were among five prisoners who broke out of a courthouse holding cell in Maroochydore, near the Queensland state capital of Brisbane. Two were recaptured almost immediately. Police said one of them had asked a female officer for a roll of toilet paper but the solid cell door had no hatch and had to be opened to hand the paper in. It was then the prisoners inside made a run for it. "It was an old-style door and a prisoner asked for a roll of toilet paper, and it couldn't fit under the door," a police spokesman said.
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