■ China
Fugitive leaves cave
A man wanted by police on gun charges has given himself up after hiding in a cave constructed at the back of his house for eight years, the Xinhua news agency said. The 35-year-old man from Fuzhou had tunneled the cave out of a hill behind the bedroom of his house and had put a wardrobe in front of the entrance as a disguise, Xinhua said in a report on Thursday. The man, named as Liu Yong, left the cave during the day to read, wash and watch TV in the house, but went back into it at night, it said. He told his wife he was hiding from debt collectors, it said. Xinhua said Liu was accused of attacking people with guns.
■ India
Elephants to get microchips
Elephants in Mumbai are to be microchipped to make sure unlicensed pachyderms don't give authorities a jumbo-sized headache. "A microchip is like a voter identity card: If an elephant doesn't have one, we'll know it's in the city illegally," said Sarfaraz Khan, deputy conservator of forests for Mumbai's Thane district and the driving force behind the initiative. Khan said there are just five licensed elephants in the city, but with owners not reporting their animals to avoid paying fees, animal activists estimate there could be 15 in the capital.
■ China
Mine blast kills 13
A gas explosion at a coal mine killed 13 people yesterday, Xinhua news agency said, adding to a grim set of statistics from the world's deadliest mining industry. Thirteen people had been confirmed dead and seven were injured at the mine in Sichuan Province, the agency said. Last year, 3,300 coal mine blasts, floods and other accidents killed nearly 6,000 people, according to official figures.
■ Cambodia
Court hearing postponed
An appeals court hearing that could free two men many say were wrongly convicted of killing labor leader Chea Vichea was postponed indefinitely on Friday. Judge Saly Theara halted the proceedings after one of the two other judges on the appeals panel failed to show up in court due to an illness. The announcement stunned a courtroom packed with relatives of the two alleged killers, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, who begged Prime Minister Hun Sen and former king Norodom Sihanouk for help as they were led back to prison. Both are serving 20-year sentences for gunning down the head of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia in January 2004.
■ Japan
Naval support extended
The Cabinet agreed yesterday to extend for one year a law allowing the navy to provide logistical support in the Indian Ocean to US-led troops in Afghanistan, the government spokesman said. The bill was approved by the Cabinet of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who supports a more active military role for his nation, which has been officially pacifist since its World War II defeat. The bill is expected to be approved by parliament, where Abe's Liberal Democratic Party holds a majority. The law was first passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which triggered the US military operation that toppled Afghanistan's extremist Taliban regime.
■ Afghanistan
Suicide bomber kills cop
A suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of the police headquarters of the eastern town of Khost yesterday, killing himself and a policeman, the provincial police chief said. The Taliban, fighting an intensified insurgency in the east and south, claimed responsibility for the latest in a bloody wave of suicide attacks. "Police wanted to search him when he blew himself up," provincial police chief Mohammad Ayub said. Three policemen were wounded, he said. Suicide blasts used to be unheard of in Afghanistan, but there have been scores of such attacks since last year when militants began copying tactics used in Iraq.
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