■ Bangladesh
Handouts lead to deaths
Seven women and a child were killed in two separate stampedes on Saturday when destitute people scrambled for free cloth being handed out before a festival marking the end of Ramadan, news reports said. Four women and a child died in a stampede in Mymensingh district, about 110km north of Dhaka, when about 2,000 people, many with children, gathered in a narrow lane to receive cloth distributed by the owner of a textile mill, a TV station reported. About 12 people were injured. A stampede in Patuakhali district, 152km south of Dhaka, where about 1,000 people had gathered killed three women and injured four others.
■ Malaysia
Abdullah, Mahathir meet
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi met with his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad for two hours yesterday to discuss Mahathir's allegations of nepotism and corruption. Mahathir has been carrying out a virtual one-man campaign to remove Abdullah, accusing him of mismanaging the country and offering government contracts to his friends and family. Abdullah denies the charges. Mahathir left Abdullah's official residence in a black Mercedes via a private entrance and neither man talked to reporters. No details of the meeting were immediately available.
■ Philippines
Aftershocks rock country
The country has been rocked by 591 aftershocks following a 5.2 magnitude earthquake on Friday, but most could not be felt by humans and none was strong enough to cause any damage, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said yesterday. Friday's earthquake was centered between the islands of Mindoro and Marinduque.
■ Pakistan
Foreign hand in bombing
Foreigners were responsible for a bombing that killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more in Peshawar and will be arrested soon, a top elected official said. No one has claimed responsibility for the powerful bomb on Friday that ripped through a crowded market. "At this stage, I can only say that a foreign hand is behind it," Akram Durrani, the chief minister, told reporters on Saturday. An official said additional police have been deployed at government offices, places of worship and other important sites since Friday's blast.
■ India
India dilutes accusations
New Delhi appeared to retreat from its charge that Pakistan's spy agency had planned Mumbai train bombings in July, with its national security adviser saying yesterday that investigators don't have strong evidence. "I would be hesitant to say that we have clinching evidence," M.K. Narayanan said. Narayanan's statement came as India and Pakistan prepared to resume official-level talks next month which New Delhi put on hold after the train bombings that killed more than 200 people.
■ Australia
Children face court orders
Hundreds of parents are taking out court orders against children as young as 10 years old to protect their own children from bullying. "Violence by young people in and out of school is a major problem," said Don Weather-burn, the director of the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics. In New South Wales, more than 700 Apprehended Violence Orders (AVOs) have been taken out against children aged be-tween 10 and 14 in the past three years. A court can issue an AVO if it believes a person has reasonable grounds to fear violence or harassment.
■ Nigeria
Hostages released
Militants have freed seven foreign oil workers seized during an attack earlier this month on an ExxonMobil compound, a spokesman for the company said. Exxon-Mobil spokesman Paul Arinze said government officials informed the company Saturday that all the hostages -- four Scottish oil workers, a Romanian, an Indonesian and a Malaysian -- had been released. Malcolm Wilson, chief operating officer of Sparrows Offshore, the Scottish firm that employs three of the British men, confirmed their release and said it was the result of "intensive efforts by the governments and companies involved."
■ United States
Huge gem found in park
Bob Wehle of Ripon, Wisconsin, found a a 5.47-carat canary diamond at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Mur-freesboro, Arkansas, on Oct. 14. The park is the world's only publicly operated diamond site where visitors are allowed to search and keep any gems they find. Wehle's diamond is bright yellow and has no visible flaws, park superintendent Tom Stolarz said. It is the second-largest gem un-earthed this year at the park. The largest diamond this year -- a 6,35-carat brown diamond -- was found by a Texas couple last month.
■ Croatia
War crime suspects nabbed
Police arrested six former soldiers they suspected of committing war crimes against Serbs at the start of the country's 1991-1995 war of independence from Yugo-slavia, state news agency Hina reported on Saturday. "After 15 years we have gathered information about the killings of civilians in Osijek and the perpetrators who tied the victims' hands, put sellotape on their mouths and threw them into the Drava river," Osjecko-Baranjska county police chief Vladimir Faber said. A police spokeswoman said the former soldiers were arrested on suspicions they tortured and killed a number of civilians, mostly Serbs.
■ Russia
Elections off over murder
Election authorities on Saturday canceled a mayoral vote in the country's far east following the slaying of a candidate, news reports said. Dmitry Fotyanov was gunned down on Thursday outside his campaign office in Dalne-gorsk, a small town about 9,300km east of Moscow, where he was running for the mayor's office. Election officials initially said that the runoff scheduled for yesterday would still be held, but they canceled it on Saturday after the candidates withdrew their candidacies under pressure from local residents angered by the killing.
■ Bulgaria
Citizens hit the polls
People were voting yesterday to elect a new president, with Georgy Parvanov favored to win a second term, although low turnout could force him into a second round vote against an ultra-nationalist. The latest opinion polls gave Parvanov, a 49-year-old former Socialist leader who has shepherded his country entry into the EU next year, a commanding lead over his two closest rivals with some 43 to 55 percent of the likely votes. However there were fears that less than 50 percent of the electorate may bother to vote, which would mean a second vote on Oct. 29, with the risk of an ultra-nationalist candidate making the running.
■ United States
Maverick professor resigns
A physics professor from Brigham Young University in Utah who suggested the World Trade Center was brought down by explosives has resigned, six weeks after the school placed him on leave. "I am electing to retire so that I can spend more time speaking and conducting research of my choosing," Steven Jones said in a statement released by the school. His retirement will be effective from Jan. 1. Jones recently published theories about US government involvement in the events of Sept. 11, including one suggesting that the airplanes that struck the twin towers did not cause the structure to collapse.
■ Germany
Man drives into toilet
A motorist followed the command "Turn right now!" from his navigation system and crashed into a small toilet hut by the side of the road -- about 30m before the crossing he was meant to take. The overly obedient 53-year-old from Freiburg drove his sport utility vehicle off the road into a building site, up a stairway and into the small toilet shack, police in the eastern town of Rudolstadt said yesterday.
■ Germany
Former chancellor tells all
Former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose second term was marked by vehement opposition to the war in Iraq, described in an advance copy of his memoirs how he was suspicious of US President George W. Bush's constant references to his Christian faith. In an excerpt of his book, Decisions: My Life in Politics published in the German weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday, Schroeder discusses the key political choices that marked his seven-year term in office, including the decision to call early elections and his split with Bush over the Iraq war. "I am anything but anti-American," Schroeder told Der Spiegel in an interview.
■ Malawi
New twist in adoption saga
The father of the boy Madonna plans to adopt added a fresh twist to the saga, saying he never intended his son to be adopted by the pop diva, but only for her to raise the child on his behalf. In a television interview on Saturday, Yohane Banda said Madonna asked that she be able to raise his one-year-old son on his behalf, rather than that the child should become her own. Banda's statement is a major shift from his earlier remarks last week when he railed against human rights groups that have gone to court to stop Madonna from adopting his son David. "Had they told us that Madonna wanted to adopt my son and make him her own son, we would not have agreed to that," Banda said in his local language of Chichewa. "It would have been better for him to continue staying at the orphanage because I see no reason why my child should be given away forever when I can feed him," he said.
■ United States
Campaign ad decried
Both major-party candidates for a New York State congressional seat decried an ad sponsored by a national Republican committee that accuses the Democrat of billing taxpayers for a call to a phone-sex line. The ad, which began airing on Friday, shows Michael Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, "Hi, sexy. You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line." Arcuri's campaign said an associate mistakenly dialed an 800-number sex line two years ago from Arcuri's New York City hotel room, and released records supporting the claim.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of