■ Singapore
Air pollution goes up
Forest fires in Indonesia have sent air pollution to the highest level in Singapore this year, the National Environment Agency said on its Web site. The agency said south-southwesterly winds had helped blow smoke from land and forest fires in Jambi and South Sumatra to Singapore, obscuring sunlight and reducing temperatures and visibility. The city-state's Pollutants Standards Index (PSI) level reached 73 -- or "moderate" -- on Monday, although rain was expected to bring some relief. Each year, uncontrolled slash-and-burn practices by farmers, plantation owners and loggers on the Indonesian islands sends billows of smoke to Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand.
■ Singapore
Police probe floating body
Police said yesterday they started an investigation into the death of an ethnic Indian man whose body was found floating in the Singapore River a day earlier. Police said the case is being investigated as an unnatural death. The man, believed to be in his 20s, was found on Monday morning floating face down near a busy office complex. He was dressed in blue jeans and a black T-shirt, but barefoot. Police said he had no injuries. The man was carrying no identification and police have not yet identified him.
■ South Korea
Highway pileup kills 11
At least 11 people were killed and 50 injured yesterday in a multiple-car pileup on a key highway bridge on South Korea's west coast, officials said. Two trucks collided on the Seohae Grand Bridge around 8am and caused more than 20 vehicles to crash into each other because of heavy fog that created blinding conditions for motorists, police officer Choi Kyung-wook said. Lee Eun-seok, an official at Korea Highway Corporation, said a total of 29 vehicles were involved in the collision. The incident occurred as millions of South Koreans began traveling to meet relatives for the Korean Thanksgiving holidays.
■ India
Meeting to tackle dengue
The government was set to hold an emergency meeting yesterday on an outbreak of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease that has killed 14 people in northern India in the past six weeks, media reports said. The meeting was called after thousands of health workers in New Delhi went door to door spraying pesticides to stop the spread of the disease on Monday. New Delhi health administrators, meanwhile, were also set to meet after one city hospital was found to be a central breeding ground of mosquitoes that spread the disease, the Times of India daily reported. At the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the country's premier state-run health institute, 19 doctors and students have fallen ill with the disease and one has died.
■ Australia
Olympic medalist dies
Peter Norman, the Australian who stood between the US athletes staging the civil rights protest from the medal podium at the 1968 Olympics, died yesterday of a heart attack. He was 64. The medal presentation for the 200m at Mexico City was significant for the black power salute by American gold and bronze medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Norman, the silver medalist, wore a human rights badge on his shirt during the ceremony, in support of the two Americans. "It was like throwing a pebble into the middle of a pond, and the ripples are still traveling," Norman said last year.
■ Ireland
Restaurateur wins shell-off
A local man was the proud winner on Saturday of the 2006 World Oyster Opening Championship, beating the competition from 17 other countries to open 30 oysters in the fastest time. At 2:35, Irish restaurateur Michael Moran was five seconds ahead of Sweden's Hasse Johannesson and 46 seconds faster than Britain's Frederick Lindford. "It's just great to bring it home for Ireland," said Moran, whose father Willie took the title twice in the 1970s and whose time of 1:31 seconds has never been beaten.
■ Russia
Chess resumes after row
It went down to the wire but in the end the Russian turned up to play. A 12-round chess match between Russia's Vladimir Kramnik and Bulgarian Veselin Topalov to decide who is the world's top player resumed on Monday after a row over toilet breaks forced a two-day suspension. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, World Chess Federation president and head of the south Russian republic Kalmykia, which is hosting the match, interrupted a conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin to broker a successful truce between the two teams over the weekend. Kramnik, the reigning Classical World Chess champion, leads Topalov, the World Chess Federation champion, 3-2.
■ United Kingdom
Guide offers racy tips
For hundreds of years, Debrett's has guided Britain's aristocracy through the niceties of meeting royalty, going to the races or eating soup in the correct way. Now the publishers are straying into previously unmentionable areas with a new book offering guidance on adultery, toplessness and celebrity gossip. The first edition of Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage was published in 1769. But according to its editor, Jo Aitchison, the new book Etiquette for Girls is a sign that the traditional arbiters of civility are catching up with the times.
■ United Kingdom
Council guilty in drownings
The Barnet Council pleaded guilty on Monday of failing to ensure the health and safety of two teenagers who drowned in a police swimming pool in 2002. The boys were discovered lying at the bottom of the pool in July 2002 during a summer holiday play scheme run jointly by the Barnet Council and the police. The Metropolitan Police pleaded not guilty to the same charge and the Metropolitan Police Authority did not enter a plea. The Health and Safety Executive accused all three of breaching health and safety regulations after the death of 15-year-old William Kadama and 14-year-old Gameli Akuklu, who drowned in the pool at a police training center.
■ Kenya
Elephant kills honeymooner
Patrick Smith, 34, was attacked in front of his wife Julie while they were on a walk in the Masai Mara game reserve. They had been married for a week, local officials said. The rare attack took place when the couple were out with a Masai guide at about 9:30am on Sunday. Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, said: "The elephants showed no sign of agitation, and in that area they're pretty habituated to visitors. Something spooked them. They rushed away and the visitors were in their path. It was a tragic accident." Mr Smith, an employee of Reuters in London, was set upon by one of the elephants and killed, he said, but his wife and the guide escaped unharmed. The guide was not carrying a firearm.
■ United States
Accused waives extradition
The husband of Nevada's late state controller waived extradition on Monday to face first-degree murder charges for her death. Chaz Higgs, 42, was arrested Friday in Hampton, where he had been staying with relatives. He is accused of injecting Kathy Augustine, 50, with a lethal dose of muscle relaxant in July. Augustine was campaigning for state treasurer at the time of her death. She had been impeached by the Nevada Assembly, convicted by the Senate for using state equipment on her 2002 campaign and censured, but she had not been removed from office.
■ United States
Karr's computer probed
The FBI is comparing information found on computer equipment belonging to the man once suspected in the slaying of former child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, to data on a national database of child porn victims, a country attorney said on Monday. The digital files found on John Mark Karr's computer are unrelated to the current child porn possession case against the defendant, but contain pornographic images of teenagers, Deputy Sonoma County Counsel Anne Keck said. The FBI is trying to determine whether child porn victims from the database appear in the photos, she said.
■ United States
Health program launched
Massachusetts began signing up its poorest residents for low-cost health insurance, the first step in the state's goal to be the first in the US to require all citizens to have health insurance. "This is a historic day for us," said Governor Mitt Romney on Monday. "It's real today," he said. Romney signed the state's new health care law in April. This summer, the federal government gave the state its approval for a first-in-the-nation program that will require everyone 18 and older to carry health insurance. The state's universal health insurance program will use a combination of subsidies and penalties to make coverage more affordable and to encourage people to buy it.
■ Venezuela
Minister denies ETA link
The justice minister on Monday denied that the government of President Hugo Chavez is employing members of the Basque separatist group ETA. Jesse Chacon's comments came after opposition candidate Manuel Rosales accused Chavez of flirting with terrorist groups, citing Spain's announcement last week that it was investigating reports that Arturo Cubillas -- an alleged former ETA militant -- has been working at Venezuela's agriculture ministry since October last year. "No member of ETA exists in the government," Chacon said on Monday. The justice minister told reporters that Cubillas has lived in the country since 1989 with his Venezuelan-born wife, who works for the government.
■ United States
Man threatened Bush
An engineer at a nuclear power plant has been charged with sending threatening letters containing a powdery substance to a country club where US President George W. Bush was scheduled to appear yesterday for a Republican campaign event. Michael Braun, 51, appeared in court on Monday on two federal charges of sending threats through the mail. The FBI said he is also a suspect in the distribution of dozens of similar threats shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The charges are connected to two letters prosecutors said Braun mailed to a country club. Bush was scheduled to visit.
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
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was