■ China
Bus collision kills 13
A tour bus traveling in the wrong lane on a highway plowed into an oncoming bus, killing 13 passengers and injuring 75, state media said yesterday. The violent collision occurred early on Saturday in Hechi, a city in the impoverished Guangxi region, the official Xinhua news agency said. By yesterday, 50 people were still being treated in hospital, with four suffering serious injuries, the report said, without giving details. The bus traveling on the wrong side of the highway was carrying 41 people, while the other had 48 passengers. The accident was being investigated, Xinhua said. The country's roads are among the world's deadliest. Overloading of vehicles, reckless driving and poor road conditions are frequent causes of fatal accidents.
■ China
Workers perish in fire
At least 17 migrant workers died early yesterday as fire raged through their sleeping quarters in Zhejiang Province, media said. A number of others were injured as the blaze swept through 13 rooms housing laborers drawn to the booming eastern seaboard from other parts of the country in search of jobs, the semi-official China News Service (CNS) said. The Xinhua news agency put the death toll of the fire in Taizhou at 17. Authorities in the coastal city of Taizhou were still trying to establish what caused the blaze in the two-story structure, where the migrants lived above a store, reports said. CNS said it took 15 fire engines and 60 firefighters to douse the flames. The country has an estimated 120 million migrant workers, many of whom abandoned harsh livelihoods in the countryside in hopes of finding a job in the cities.
■ Thailand
Two shot dead in south
Suspected insurgents shot dead two rubber plantation workers in the south yesterday, the last day of a visit by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to the restive area. Surayud was making his fourth trip to the region since being appointed prime minister last year. He said soon after taking office that restoring peace in the south would be one of his government's priorities. Surayud, who arrived in the south on Thursday, met with teachers and high school students preparing for university entrance examinations in Yala and Narathiwat provinces to promote higher education.
■ Indonesia
Floods not abating
Flooding that has killed at least nine people and forced about 200,000 from their homes in Jakarta showed no sign of abating yesterday, as overflowing rivers sent muddy water gushing into homes and shops across the city. "Jakarta is now on the highest alert level," said Sihar Simanjuntak, an official monitoring the water levels of the many rivers that crisscross the densely packed city of 12 million people. Rustam Pakaya, from the health ministry's crisis center, said nine people in Jakarta and surrounding towns had died as of yesterday afternoon. He said about 200,000 had been made homeless.
■ Sri Lanka
National day celebrated
The insurgency-torn country celebrated 59 years of independence yesterday with displays of its military air and sea power, as President Mahinda Rajapakse said he would not give in to the separatist Tamil Tigers' "bloodthirsty" demands. The celebrations followed a successful military campaign to seize several strategic areas in the east from the Tigers' control. As he presided over festivities in Colombo, Rajapakse said his government was willing to discuss autonomy, but not separatism. Days ago, the government renewed calls for a return to peace talks to end fighting that has killed about 68,000 people since 1983.
■ Pakistan
Train kills six children
A passenger train crushed to death six young boys as they played on a train track in the east yesterday, police said. The train was passing through the heavily populated Dhobhi Gath neighborhood of the city of Bahawalpur when the accident happened. The boys, aged between eight and 10 years, died at the scene, police said, adding that their bodies were badly damaged. The railway line in Dhobhi Gath goes through a heavily populated area where children often play at or near the track, he said. Authorities have ordered an investigation to determine why yesterday's deaths occurred.
■ Bangladesh
Senior politicians detained
Security forces used emergency powers to detain eight senior politicians and former government ministers early yesterday, news reports and family members of those detained said. The politicians and ex-ministers were picked up from their homes in Dhaka, the United News of Bangladesh news agency and detainees' relatives said. Five of the detainees, including former ministers Nazmul Huda and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, are close aides of former prime minister Khaleda Zia. Those arrested also included Mohammad Nasim -- a former home minister and a senior leader of the Awami League party, headed by Zia's main rival, ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
■ United Kingdom
Young troops sent to Iraq
Fifteen British troops under the age of 18 have been sent to fight in Iraq, in contravention of a UN protocol on children's' rights, the government said yesterday. Defense Minister Adam Ingram, who gave the figure in a written statement to lawmakers, said the "vast majority" of the young troops had been within a week of turning 18 when they were deployed, or had been removed from the war zone less than a week after arriving. Some -- "fewer than five" -- were women, Ingram said, and none was under 17.
■ South Africa
Man convicted of murder
A man was convicted on Friday of murdering world-renowned historian David Rattray, South African Broadcast Corp radio reported. Sethe Nkwanyana, 23, was found guilty by the Pietermartizburg High Court just two days after his arrest and was to be sentenced yesterday. The death of David Rattray, an expert on the 1879 Anglo-Zulu war, has put South Africa's high rate of violent crime in the spotlight again. Nkwanyana told the court he and five others had gone to Rattray's lodge with the intention of stealing money. He said they fled after one of the men shot Rattray.
■ Congo
87 dead in street riots
The official death toll from the street riots last week following Congo's heated gubernatorial elections is 87, including 10 security forces, the interior minister said on Saturday. Human rights groups had estimated on Friday that 100 had died in the clashes, after rioters allied with former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba took to the streets to protest the election results, calling them fraudulent. Bemba's political allies failed to win a majority in the Jan. 27 elections, winning only one of the 11 governor races. Bemba himself was elected senator after coming in second in last year's presidential election.
■ Spain
Government draws protest
Tens of thousands of people rallied on Saturday in Madrid to protest against negotiations with the Basque separatist group ETA, with many lambasting the government for supporting the idea of peace talks. More than 180,000 people -- many waving Spanish flags -- marched down the capital's central Paseo de la Castellana boulevard to Retiro Park, where speakers called for a halt to negotiations. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who took office in 2004, has favored a negotiated solution to the Basque separatist conflict that has cost more than 800 lives since it began four decades ago.
■ Uganda
Priestess buried
Alice Lakwena, a Ugandan warrior priestess who led an ill-fated insurgency to topple President Yoweri Museveni in the 1980s, was laid to rest on Saturday at a funeral attended by several hundred followers. An enigmatic leader, Lakwena inspired her poorly equipped troops with claims that spirits spoke through her. She led them into battle singing Christian hymns and convincing them that smearing themselves in shea-nut oil would repel bullets. Her Holy Spirit Movement is widely believed to be the forerunner of today's Lord's Resistance Army, a brutal rebel group led by her cousin, Joseph Kony. Lakwena was 50 when she died from unknown causes in neighboring Kenya.
■ United States
Clinton stepfather laid to rest
Former president Bill Clinton and his family joined hundreds of mourners on Saturday for the funeral of his stepfather, the man who the former president said brought his mother the "most secure, stable years she ever had." Richard Kelley died on Wednesday at his home at age 91 after a long battle with cancer. "He didn't wuss out at the end. It was all done with grace and love," Clinton told more than 600 people at First United Methodist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas, describing his stepfather's final moments. Kelley met Clinton's mother at a horse racing track and they married in 1982. It was his second marriage and her fourth.
■ United States
River reopens to traffic
The Mississippi River reopened to traffic a day after a burning barge shut it down, the US Coast Guard said on Saturday. Traffic began moving through the area on Friday night, said a Coast Guard spokesman. The barge, which was carrying crude oil, hit a railroad bridge in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on Thursday night and burst into flames. The fire was put out on Friday and the barge's remaining oil transferred to empty tank barges, the spokesman said.
■ United States
Mom charged over mauling
The mother of a four-year-old Ohio boy whose foot was mauled by the family's pit bull puppy was charged with child endangering, authorities said. Martina Jennings, 23, took her son to a hospital on Friday because his foot was bleeding and told authorities she saw blood on the dog's face and chest, Lucas County Dog Warden Tom Skeldon said. The foot was amputated. The boy has no feeling below the waist because of spina bifida, so he did not know the dog was biting him, Skeldon said. The black-and-white puppy was destroyed. Skeldon said he questioned the puppy's ability to cause so much damage because its teeth weren't mature. Jennings was being held in the Lucas County jail on the felony charge.
■ United States
Nightclub trip ends in death
A 35-year-old man died after he fell down an elevator shaft at a swanky nightclub once featured on the television show Sex and the City, police said. Police said Orlando Valle got into a dispute on Saturday with a man at BED New York, a Manhattan club known for providing beds for its lounging patrons. The man pushed Valle against sixth-floor elevator doors that opened, causing Valle to fall into the shaft, police said. Valle plummeted four floors before landing on top of the elevator car of the converted warehouse space, police said. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Authorities were questioning the other man involved in the fight but had not charged anyone, police said.
■ United States
Phone assault man convicted
A man accused of shoving a cellphone down a woman's throat was convicted on Saturday of second-degree domestic assault. Prosecutors in Independence, Missouri, said Marlon Brando Gill, 25, had a history of abusing his former girlfriend, Melinda Abell, before he forced the cellphone into her mouth in December 2005 while they were arguing. Abell was rushed to a hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery to remove the phone. The defense said Abell was drunk and tried to swallow the phone to prevent Gill from finding out whom she had been calling. But a state witness testified that injuries to Abell's mouth were consistent with the phone being forced into it.
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