■ Indonesia
Boy dies from bird flu
A young boy died from bird flu yesterday, bringing the country's death toll to 56, while a woman infected with the H5N1 virus was being treated in hospital, the health ministry said. The two patients lived in different towns on the outskirts of Jakarta and had not been in contact with each other, said a staffer at the health ministry's bird flu information center. The two-and-a-half-year-old boy who died was admitted to hospital on Sunday, said the staffer, who declined to give her name, citing ministry rules.
■ Vietnam
US citizen deported
A Vietnamese-born US citizen who was convicted last week on charges of plotting against the government was deported from the country yesterday, officials said. They said Nguyen Thuong Cuc, 58, whose 14-month detention drew attention in the US ahead of this week's visit by US President George W. Bush, had her sentence reduced. "I can confirm that [Nguyen] has left Vietnam," said a spokeswoman at the US consulate-general in Ho Chi Minh City. On Friday, a People's Court sentenced Cuc and two other Vietnamese-born US citizens to 15 months imprisonment, including time served, and ordered them expelled within 10 days of finishing their prison terms.
■ Australia
Air guitar shirt rocks
Australian scientists have invented a T-shirt that allows air guitarists to play actual music as they strum the air. The T-shirt, created by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, is called a "wearable instrument shirt." The shirt has sensors in each elbow and sleeves to detect and interpret the air guitarist's arm movements -- one arm chooses chords and the other strums imaginary strings. The gestures are then connected wirelessly to guitar audio samples to generate the music. "It's an easy to use, virtual instrument that allows real time music making, even by players without significant musical or computing skills," Richard Helmer, an engineer at the organization, said in a statement yesterday.
■ Afghanistan
Al-Qaeda operative captured
US forces have captured an al-Qaeda operative who had escaped from the main US military prison last year, a Pakistani newspaper reported yesterday. The man, identified as Abu Nasir al-Qahtani, was captured recently in the southeastern province of Khost, the News newspaper said, citing Taliban supporters in the Pakistani border region of North Waziristan. Al-Qahtani has been referred to in some news reports as Mohammad Jafar Jamal al-Kahtani. The US military said on Nov. 6 a "known al-Qaeda operative and five other extremists" had been captured during an operation near Khost town early that day.
■ China
Mine blast kills 24
A colliery explosion killed at least 24 miners yesterday, state media said. The early morning gas blast happened at the Nanshan Colliery in Lingshi County, Shanxi Province, which Xinhua news agency blamed on the improper use of explosives at the village-run mine. "The mine, whose safety license has expired, had already been ordered to halt production," CCTV state television said, adding there were at least 34 miners underground at the time of the explosion. The blast came just a week after an explosion killed dozens of miners in another part of Shanxi and prompted authorities to launch a coal mine safety overhaul in the province.
■ United States
Man dies in parking spat
A man was shot to death during a fight over a parking space, police said. The fight, which broke out early on Saturday in a Brooklyn neighborhood, may have involved as many as a dozen people. After the attack, police said, the suspects piled into a couple of sport utility vehicles and raced from the scene, leaving Dallas Gilchrist, 34, on the ground and clinging to life. Gilchrist, shot five times with a .32-caliber handgun, died about an hour later at Brooklyn Hospital Center. There were no arrests as of Sunday, police said.
■ United Kingdom
Tanzania deal probed
Britain's military police and Serious Fraud Office are conducting an investigation into the sale of a military air traffic control system to Tanzania, the Ministry of Defence in London said yesterday. The inquiry is looking at the role of BAE Systems over the £27 million (US$52 million) deal, which was approved by Prime Minister Tony Blair. The ministry's confirmation comes after the Times newspaper said yesterday that the probe, which was launched six months ago, centers on allegations that the defense firm paid "backhanders" to the Tanzanian government.
■ Iran
Web video sparks outrage
Google has provoked the wrath of Iranian authorities by appearing to question the country's sovereignty over the province of Azerbaijan in an entry on its Google Video Web site. The site claims the Azeri provincial capital, Tabriz, is located "in southern Azerbaijan, currently in the territory of Iran". To add insult to injury, the city is listed as being in Azerbaijan, rather than Iran. Tabriz and southern Azerbaijan have belonged to Iran for more than 4,000 years. The text of a tourist film on the site has drawn accusations that the US-owned search engine is deliberately trying to undermine Iran's territorial integrity by fomenting separatist sentiment.
■ Austria
Sexist urinals sold online
Four urinals shaped like a woman's mouth have been auctioned online for more than 5,500 euros (US$7,070). The urinals, formerly located in a public toilet near Vienna's national opera, feature thick, lipsticked lips, a set of teeth and a bright red tongue. Last month, politicians demanded their removal, calling them sexist and inappropriate. In an online auction on eBay, the used urinals went to two bidders for a total of 5,583 euros, the Austria Press Agency (APA) reported. The identities of the new owners have not been disclosed, but APA reported that all four urinals will stay in Austria.
■ South Africa
Nineteen die in train wreck
Nineteen farm workers were killed yesterday when their truck collided with a commuter train at a railway crossing in South Africa, officials said. "Casualties included 19 people, including the truck driver, who died at the scene," Leonard Ramatlakane, acting premier for the Western Cape Province, said at a press conference yesterday afternoon. The accident, which injured 12 others, occurred when the truck carrying the workers was crossing the tracks near the Eerste River station outside Faure, about 25km east of Cape Town. The force of the collision pushed the truck hundreds of metres down the line and flung occupants into the air, according to Peter Hodkinson, a doctor who helped treat the injured at the crash site.
■ United States
Ford now oldest president
Gerald Ford has surpassed Ronald Reagan to become the longest-living US president. Ford, who turned 93 on July 14, became the oldest president on Sunday by living to 93 years and 121 days. "The length of one's days matters less than the love of one's family and friends," Ford said in a statement this week. "I thank God for the gift of every sunrise and, even more, for all the years he has blessed me with Betty and the children, with our extended family and the friends of a lifetime," he added. Ford was president from Aug. 9, 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal, until January 1977.
■ Colombia
Traffickers blamed for deaths
Six people were shot to death and six others were injured by a roadside bomb this weekend in the port city of Buenaventura, officials said on Sunday. The execution-style murders that included a six-year-old child on Saturday and the bomb on Sunday that injured four soldiers, a police officer and a civilian were blamed by police on drug traffickers, who have turned Buenaventura into a major shipping point for cocaine. The killings bring the death toll this year to 305, said Mayor Saulo Quinones, giving Buenaventura the chilling murder rate of 100 per 100,000 inhabitants.
■ United States
Deer kills owner
A deer being kept in a pen attacked and killed his owner, state police said. The buck that killed Ronald Donah, 43, was among about a half dozen deer penned up on his property in Ellenburg, New York, about 290km north of Albany, said state Trooper Joseph House. Details of Donah's injuries and what may have prompted the attack were not available. Maureen Wren, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said Donah had a license to keep the white tail deer on his property but did not know why he was doing so. She said deer attacks, at least in the wild, are extremely rare.
■ Mexico
Youths target McDonald's
Masked youths tossed gasoline bombs at a McDonald's restaurant in the conflict-torn city of Oaxaca, the latest violence in the southern state capital that has been besieged by protesters calling for the governor's ouster. Four youths attacked the restaurant before dawn on Sunday, damaging the store's windows, seats and play area, police said. The restaurant is near a university where leftist protesters set up their headquarters last month after police drove them out of the city's main plaza, which they had occupied since May in a bid to force Oaxaca's state governor to resign. Leaders of the movement, known as the Oaxaca People's Assembly, denied their members were responsible for Sunday's attack.
■ United Kingdom
Radio increases emissions
Digital broadcasting is increasing the threat of global warming by pumping massive amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, official figures suggest. The millions of Britons who listen to the radio through their digital televisions and computers together release an extra 190,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. According to the recently published Stern review of the economics of climate change, that amount of carbon pollution will cause £8.5 million (US$16.2 million) in damage to the planet.
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
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number