■ Indonesia
Man dies of avian flu
A 44-year-old man has died of bird flu, the health ministry said yesterday. The man died last Wednesday at a hospital in East Jakarta and tests by the health ministry found he had the H5N1 virus, said health ministry official Joko Suyono. "The man had a history of contact with chicken," he said. If confirmed by a laboratory approved by the WHO, the man's death would bring the country's bird flu death toll to 42, equaling Vietnam. No one is known to have died from bird flu this year in Vietnam, which remains the country with the most human deaths from the disease.
■ Indonesia
Officer beaten to death
A mob beat a police officer to death in Papua Province after he allegedly shot and killed a girl during a drunken rage, a news report said yesterday. Another officer was seriously injured in the incident on Saturday in the highland town of Wamena, which has often sees fighting between security forces and local people sympathetic to the region's separatist movement, the state news agency Antara reported. Antara said the officer shot the girl and then asked to be taken to the police station, presumably to give himself up. On the way, a mob beat him to death, it said. The wounded officer was attacked when he intervened, Antara said, without giving more details.
■ China
Miners killed, again
Eighteen miners were killed and 57 others were trapped in two separate coal mine accidents, state media reported yesterday, the latest in a never-ending series of disasters to hit the beleaguered industry. An explosion occurred at around 4pm on Saturday at the Linjiazhuang coal mine in Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, when 64 miners were working underground. Eighteen were killed and 39 trapped, Xinhua news agency said. Eighteen miners were trapped in a flooded coal mine in the southwestern province of Guizhou, Xinhua reported in a separate dispatch. The accident occurred at around 11:00pm Saturday in the Pianpoyuan coal mine in Ziyun Miao Buyi County, it said.
■ Philippines
Pope's man slams killings
The Papal envoy yesterday expressed alarm at the growing number of murders of journalists and activists, saying the country's reputation was suffering. "I am surprised to see that in the Philippines there is still an activity of high incidence of a moral and political violence against those who profess different political ideologies," said Papal Nuncio Archbishop Fernando Filoni. He told a forum that while the church was heartened by President Gloria Arroyo's recent abolition of the death penalty, the positive image created by this act was damaged by the rash of murders.
■ Hong Kong
SARS expert honored
The microbiologist who cracked the code that helped identify and control the SARS virus has been made a fellow of Britain's Royal Society, the world's most prestigious scientific academy, a newspaper reported said yesterday. Malik Peiris was inducted into the ancient academy on Friday in London. The Sri Lankan-born Peiris, a professor at the Hong Kong University, was honored for his work on SARS and other human viral infections that cause respiratory disease. The Royal Society was set up in November 1660 and counts among its fellows some of history's greatest scientists, including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking.
■ United Kingdom
Diplomats escaping justice
Foreign diplomats to London have been accused of a variety of serious criminal offences but escaped prosecution because of immunity, several newspapers reported yesterday. The Sunday Times, Sunday Express and Mail on Sunday all carried reports quoting British government statistics that overseas officials were accused of 122 serious criminal offences between 1999 and 2004. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett released the figures to members of parliament under Britain's Freedom of Information laws on Wednesday. Alleged offences included murder, rape, child abuse, bribery, fraud, possession of a firearm or offensive weapon, indecent assault, smuggling and money laundering.
■ Russia
Anti-G8 protesters arrested
Police detained 37 anti-globalization protesters yesterday who briefly blocked a road in St Petersburg, which is hosting this weekend's G8 summit, a protest organizer said. The demonstrators, who included EU nationals, sat down in the middle of the city's main thoroughfare and held up posters with the slogan "No G8!," said Olga Miryasova of campaign group the Anti-G8 Network. Police could not immediately be reached for comment. Demonstrations around the summit have been low-key, in sharp contrast to the mass rallies at past G8 gatherings. Activists say Russian police have used intimidation and arbitrary detentions to keep protesters away from the city.
■ United States
Beer boss drove drunk
Beer baron Peter Coors' driver's license has been revoked by a hearing officer who ruled the executive had been driving under the influence of alcohol, officials in Denver, Colorado, said. Hearing officer Scott Garber ruled Friday that Coors did not stop at a stop sign on May 28 and was driving intoxicated. Coors, 59, said he had consumed a beer about 30 minutes before leaving a wedding, the Rocky Mountain News reported on Saturday. "I made a mistake. I should have planned ahead for a ride," Coors said in a statement.
■ Italy
Spy chief questioned
The head of the country's military intelligence agency was questioned by prosecutors for the first time on Saturday on suspicion of helping the CIA kidnap a terrorism suspect in Milan, judicial sources said. The development makes Nicolo Pollari the highest ranking official connected to the Italian investigation -- which has already led to the arrests of his No. 2 and another leader of his Sismi intelligence agency earlier this month. Both were released from house arrest on Saturday, but were believed still to be under investigation, a lawyer for one of the men said.
■ United States
Judges can pack a pistol
It is certainly one way to assure order in the court. The New York state Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics has ruled that it is permissible for judges to wear a pistol beneath their robes while on the bench. "From an ethical standpoint, there is no prohibition ... barring you from carrying a firearm while performing your duties on the bench," the committee said in a decision published in this week's New York Law Journal. The committee was asked by one of the state's 3,400 judges whether it was "ethically permissible" to carry a pistol into the courtroom.
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the
Australian police yesterday said a 40-year-old itinerant with mental illness was behind a Sydney shopping center stabbing rampage that killed six people, including a new mum whose nine-month-old baby is still in hospital with serious wounds. New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said the assailant — who was shot and killed by a senior police officer at the scene on Saturday — was Queensland man Joel Cauchi. Five women and one male security guard were killed in the attack as Cauchi roved through a packed shopping center in the city’s Bondi Junction neighborhood with a large knife. Twelve more people
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number