■ China
Fines for Online rumormills
Internet users in southwest China who spread malicious rumors online face fines of up to 5,000 yuan (US$630) and possible detention, state media reported yesterday in the latest crackdown on dissent. Under legislation passed in Chongqing municipality, people who post "defamatory comments or remarks, launch personal attacks or seek to damage reputations online" will receive a warning or be fined between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan, the China Daily said. "Those whose rumors cause serious consequences could be detained for five days or even more," the paper said.
■ China
Beijing's beat police doubled
Beijing has doubled the number of plainclothes police officers on the beat in a bid to make people feel more secure, state media reported yesterday. A 1,200-strong plainclothes team under the Public Security Bureau was put in place this week to combat street crimes such as theft, robbery, fraud and drug dealing, the China Daily reported. The plainclothes police officers will be deployed across the city in public places such as railway stations, hotels, restaurants and business districts and will be allowed to carry weapons, including guns. Some local residents have expressed reservations about such a measure, fearing it would lead to more abuse of power, which is often cited as a huge problem among police.
■ Turkmenistan
`Free creativity' house opened
President Saparmurat Niyazov has inaugurated a massive, book-shaped building dedicated to the media in the heavily censored and tightly controlled Central Asian nation, a government-run daily newspaper reported yesterday. The US$17 million ``House of Free Creativity'' was unveiled on Tuesday as part of lavish celebrations of the country's 15th anniversary of independence. The new building will accommodate offices of the government-controlled press. Niyazov -- who has declared himself Turkmenbashi, or Father of All Turkmen -- personally approves the content of all newspapers.
■ Solomon Islands
Immigration minister arrested
The country's immigration minister was arrested and charged yesterday over his government's attempts to prevent the extradition of Julian Moti, its attorney-general, to Australia, on child sex charges. Peter Shanel was charged with perverting the course of justice, misleading a police officer and misleading a public officer over his role in the affair, which has led to the development of a crisis in the relationship between the Pacific neighbors. The charges against Shanel relate to an order he signed which would have allowed Moti -- a close friend of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare -- to enter the country without a passport.
■ Philippines
Four kidnapped in Jolo
Gunmen kidnapped a Filipino engineer and three workers who had inspected a US-funded road project on the Jolo island, officials said yesterday. Six kidnappers, who were believed to be security guards for the project in Jolo's Parang town, stopped the victims' pickup truck and dragged them away at gunpoint on Tuesday, provincial army commander Colonel Reynaldo Sealana said. It was still not clear if the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, who are being targeted by a months-long US-backed offensive in Jolo's hinterlands, were involved in the kidnapping. A US embassy spokesman said the incident would not affect humanitarian projects in Jolo that are being funded by Washington.
■ Mexico
Fourteen killed in bus crash
Fourteen people were killed on Tuesday when a passenger bus crashed into the back of a tractor trailer in the western state of Nayarit, officials said. The bus was heading from the state capital of Tepic to Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city, when it smashed into the trailer and exploded into flames, said Nayarit fire chief Jose Lopez. Tepic is 625km northwest of Mexico City. Four people suffered minor injuries. Lopez said an investigation would be launched to determine the cause of the crash but it appeared likely that the bus was speeding. The area is often foggy, he added.
■ United States
Dinosaur stolen
New York police are on the lookout for a missing dinosaur, last seen at the weekend in an affluent Long Island suburb. The life-size fiberglass replica of a carnivorous Deinonychus went missing on Saturday from a local festival, the New York Post reported on Tuesday. "It's a very unusual theft, and because of that, we're hoping the public will spot it somewhere," police detective Lieutenant John May said. The report said that someone had sawn through a metal pole attaching the 3m-long model to a trailer. "You'd definitely notice it, if someone rode by with it," said Cindy Smith, spokeswoman for the Oyster Bay Festival.
■ United States
Drunk driver guilty of murder
A New York man who drove the wrong way down a highway following a night of heavy drinking, slamming head-on into a wedding limousine and killing the chauffeur and a seven-year-old flower girl, was convicted on Tuesday of two counts of murder. Martin Heidgen, 25, was charged with murder -- a rarity in driving-while-intoxicated fatal crashes -- after prosecutors said he showed a "depraved indifference to human life" by ignoring drivers on the Long Island highway who flashed their headlights and honked their horns as he drove into traffic. The slain girl's parents and several jurors cried when the verdict was read out.
■ United States
Study details medicine harm
Harmful reactions to some of the most widely used medicines -- from insulin to a common antibiotic -- sent more than 700,000 US citizens to emergency rooms each year, landmark government research shows. Accidental overdoses and allergic reactions to prescription drugs were the most frequent cause of serious illnesses, according to the study, the first to reveal the nationwide scope of the problem. People over 65 faced the greatest risks. The study was developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, and published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
■ Turkey
Erdogan leaves hospital
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was discharged from hospital on Tuesday several hours after he was admitted after fainting due to exhaustion and fasting. A smiling but tired Erdogan emerged from the private Guven hospital in the company of his wife Emine and was greeted by children throwing petals on his path and presenting him with flowers, live footage on the NTV news channel showed. "Thank you very much and I wish you a good night. I will continue onwards," Erdogan said, waving and posing for photographers before leaving in his official car. Erdogan, 52, fainted around 11am as he was being driven to parliament.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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
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