■ Australia
Japanese wreck inspected
Navy divers were examining a wreck believed to be a Japanese submarine that took part in a daring attack in Sydney Harbour 64 years ago, Environment Minister Ian Campbell said yesterday. Three two-man midget submarines took part in the raid on the night of May 31, 1942, in a failed bid to torpedo the battle cruiser USS Chicago. One sub became entangled in a boom net and its crew deliberately blew it up. Depth charges destroyed the second. A third vanished after torpedoing a barracks ship near the Chicago, killing 19 Australian and two British sailors. Campbell said he had protected the site 3 nautical miles (6km) off the Sydney coast under the law as a historic shipwreck before navy divers went out yesterday to try identify it.
PHOTO: AP
■ Philippines
Teachers sickened by spill
At least 10 teachers and school staff were hospitalized after exposure to noxious chemical fumes at San Isidro High School in Makati yesterday, an official said. A storage cabinet fell over causing bottles of unidentified laboratory chemicals to spill and mix together, a fire officials said. She said those who were exposed to the fumes suffered vomiting and skin rashes. "We are still trying to identify the chemicals," she said. Classes were suspended while firemen decontaminated the site.
■ India
Seventeen killed in crash
At least 17 people were killed and 57 injured when a truck they were traveling in veered off the road in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday. The accident took place late on Sunday in Kathripallam Village as the driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a sharp curve, a police officer said. The truck had 80 people on board at the time of the accident, he said, adding that rescue operations were delayed as the accident took place in a remote area. He said that the death toll was likely to rise.
■ Indonesia
Teacher `knocks' pupil out
A teenage high-school student died on Saturday after a physical education instructor threw a stone at him to discipline him, South Sulawesi, the Detikcom online news portal, said yesterday. Nur Ikbal Caraka, 16, ignored an order from his teacher to stop kicking a volleyball while waiting for his turn to be tested on his basketball shots last Thursday, it said. The teacher threw a stone to discipline him, hitting him on the head, it said. Caraka was taken to a hospital where he received three stitches. He began throwing up on Friday and died the next day.
■ Bangladesh
Wife-killer executed
A man convicted of killing his newlywed wife after she failed to meet his demand for dowry was hanged yesterday, a jail official said. Former bank official Abul Kalam Azad's execution was a rare case of a husband being punished for domestic violence. Azad and his wife Mahmuda Sultana had argued over his demand that her family give him money to start a business in 1999. She was found dead on Oct. 30, 1999 in her bedroom, a piece of cloth tied around her neck. Azad claimed his wife committed suicide. He was convicted in 2000 of strangling his wife.
■ China
Bruce Lee park planned
A Bruce Lee-themed park with a statue and memorial hall will be built at the late action star's southern Chinese ancestral home of Shunde, the president of his fan club said yesterday. The park will also contain a martial arts academy and conference center, said Wong Yiu-keung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Bruce Lee Club. The Apple Daily newspaper reported yesterday that the park was budgeted at 200 million yuan (US$25.5 million) and was expected to be completed in three years.
■ China
Activist's son sent to jail
A son of an exiled Muslim activist was sentenced to seven years in prison for tax evasion, but the court exempted another of her sons from imprisonment, Xinhua reported yesterday. Alimu Ahbudurimu was found guilty of evading taxes worth 208,430 yuan (US$26,000). He is a son of Rebiya Kadeer, an ethnic Uighur who was jailed for more than five years in China for providing state secrets to foreigners before she was sent into exile in the US last year. Alimu's brother Kahaer Ahbudurimu was found guilty of evading nearly 2.5 million yuan in taxes, but was exempted from serving time in jail. The court ordered Alimu to pay 500,000 yuan in fines and Kahaer to pay 100,000 yuan.
■ China
Truck overturns, 20 die
Twenty people were killed and four injured when the truck they were riding in turned over, the government reported yesterday. The accident happened early on Sunday near the remote border region of Xinjiang and Qinghai Province, the State Administration for Work Safety reported. No other details were immediately available.
■ United Kingdom
IRA dissident charged
Detectives charged a suspected Irish Republican Army dissident on Sunday with firebombing Belfast stores, police said. The 22-year-old man, who wasn't publicly named in keeping with police policy, was expected to be arraigned yesterday in Belfast Magistrates Court on a lone charge of causing an explosion likely to endanger life. Police said they arrested the man on Saturday on suspicion of planting time-controlled firebombs in two Belfast stores, including a massive hardware store that burned to the ground, on Nov. 1.
■ Austria
Man attacks Jewish school
Police arrested a man suspected of causing widespread damage by smashing windows and other glass surfaces at a Jewish school in Vienna early on Sunday using an iron rod, a spokesman said. The man, who has not been identified, was arrested at the Lauder Chabad school after residents alerted police because of the noise, police spokesman Herbert Hutter said. The man's motive was not immediately clear. He refused to answer questions and was largely silent, Hutter said. Austrian radio reported that the man told police he was Croatian.
■ Italy
Berlusconi in hospital
Silvio Berlusconi was spending the night in a hospital intensive care unit after the former Italian prime minister said he had a heart problem, adding to speculation about his political future. Berlusconi, 70, fainted as he addressed young supporters at a rally in Tuscany on Sunday. His eyes closed and his legs gave way before aides propped him up and took him off stage to be assisted by his personal doctor. "They found something on the electrocardiogram, something like an irregular heartbeat, so they want to keep me under observation for 24 hours," Berlusconi told reporters.
■ Poland
Opposition win Warsaw
The governing conservatives lost the Warsaw mayor's office to the country's biggest opposition party in a weekend runoff election, according to results released yesterday. The governing Law and Justice party had hoped that former prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz would hold on to the city hall, which was once run by Polish President Lech Kaczynski. However, the city's electoral commission said that the pro-business opposition Civic Platform party's candidate, former central bank governor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, won with 53.2 percent of the vote. Marcinkiewicz polled only 46.8 percent, it said.
■ United Kingdom
Top 100 criminals listed
British criminal psychologists are putting together a list of the 100 most dangerous murderers and rapists before they have committed any such crimes, the Times said yesterday. Experts from London's Metropolitan Police's Homicide Prevention Unit are creating psychological profiles, compiled through statements from previous partners, information from mental health workers and details of past complaints. The team is apparently focusing its work on reducing the risk of those with a history of involvement in domestic violence turning to murder, the Times said. Pilot projects to target high-risk future offenders have been operating in five London boroughs for about two months.
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