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World News Quick Take

■ Vietnam
Bus kills fleeing thief
A man who was caught red-handed stealing a television set was killed by a bus while trying to escape, and stolen mobile phones were found on his body, police said. Nguyen Ba Giang, 30, and an accomplice, broke into a house early on Monday in Cam Xuyen District in Ha Tinh Province, 350km south of Hanoi, deputy district police chief Tran Huu Ha said. The thieves took a mobile phone and were carrying a television set when they were discovered by the owner, who shouted to neighbors for help, the officer said. The two dropped the TV and were chased by a horde of villagers toward Highway One, where Giang was struck by the bus.

■ Indonesia
Woman caught with TNT
An Indonesian woman was arrested on Tuesday with 2kg of TNT at a train station in East Java province, a senior police detective said, and authorities were trying to determine if she had links to terrorism. The 55-year-old suspect was being questioned at police headquarters in Surabaya, the country's second largest city, after being detained at the Sidoarjo train station, Colonel Amhar Azeth said. "She was behaving suspiciously so police searched her," he said.

■ Australia
Taxman scaring hookers
The taxman is driving prostitutes underground, risking public health and causing a skills crisis in the world's oldest profession, sex workers told yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald daily. Tax authorities decided to audit the sex industry earlier this year to try to recoup some of the millions of dollars in revenue they feared was being lost every year by prostitutes not declaring their earnings. "Whenever the ATO comes in and asks about service providers, they [sex workers] go straight out the back door and into the illegal industry," the owner of one well-known brothel said, referring to the Australian Tax Office.

■ China
Fog disrupts travelers
Heavy fog in the country's northeast yesterday forced the closure of highways and the cancelation of airline flights, disrupting travel during the weeklong National Day holiday, a news report said. No accidents or injuries were reported. The fog rolled into Shenyang, the biggest city in northeastern China, at about 4am, cutting visibility to 50m, Xinhua said. Four provincial highways were temporarily closed and at least 20 flights from Shenyang to South Korea, Japan and Chinese cities were delayed or canceled, Xinhua said. The fog cleared by midday and normal road and air travel resumed, the report said.

■ United States
Warrant issued for singer
A Massachusetts judge has issued an arrest warrant for singer Bobby Brown after he failed to show up at a hearing on overdue child support payments for two of his children, a court official said on Tuesday. The singer had been expected to turn up at court in Canton, Massachusetts, on Monday, for the hearing on payments to Kim Ward, the mother of two of his children. Patrick McDermott, an official in Norfolk District Court, confirmed that Brown was overdue on US$11,000 and that an arrest warrant had been issued.

■ United States
Canadian drugs now OK
US Customs and Border Protection will stop seizing prescription medications mailed from Canada for personal use in small amounts, the government said. The new policy will go into effect on Oct. 9. It was announced in an e-mail from the Department of Homeland Security sent on Monday to congressional staff. Customs spokeswoman Lynn Hollinger confirmed the policy change on Tuesday, saying the agency would no longer issue letters to postal carriers indicating it is illegal to import prescription medications, or intercept the drugs. Hollinger said ordering prescription drugs by mail was still illegal. She said the policy change was due to political pressure from constituents.

■ United Kingdom
Cartoon renews anger
The far right British National Party (BNP) was accused of deliberately ramping up racial and religious tensions after distributing a leaflet that included one of the controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that sparked protests across the Islamic world earlier this year. "This is a deliberate ploy to create huge tensions within and between communities and it is adding to the feeling of isolation, fear and frustration felt by many people in the Muslim communities," Azad Ali of the London-based Muslim Safety Forum said. The BNP said the leaflet was part of a "coherent campaign to alert people to the Islamification of Great Britain."

■ Russia
Hackers convicted
A Russian court on Tuesday convicted three computer hackers accused of extorting money from British bookmakers, news reports said. The Balakovo City Court sentenced each of the three hackers to eight years in prison and a fine -- an unusually harsh sentence for Russia, where hackers usually get lighter punishment. Prosecutors said the hackers had flooded British online betting sites with false requests for information in "denial of service" attacks and then sent e-mails demanding money for stopping the attacks. They extorted a total of US$4 million. The trio conducted 54 attacks on computer servers in 30 countries.

■ Austria
Long-dead tenant found
A landlord who unlocked an apartment after his letters announcing a rent increase went unanswered found the body of an elderly tenant on Tuesday, and police believe the man died three or four years ago, an Austrian newspaper reported. The remains of the 93-year-old man, a former university professor, were found in a bed after the housing management company obtained the keys to his flat and made a visit. Police found only old Austrian schilling banknotes in the apartment. Austria, like many EU countries, switched to the euro common currency on Jan. 1, 2002.

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