World News Quick Take

■ Malaysia
Thieves steal man's leg
Thieves a disabled man's motorcycle, leaving him to hobble about on crutches because they grabbed his prosthetic leg as well, the Star newspaper said on Monday. "They stole my motorcycle but why did they have to steal my leg too?" asked lottery-ticket vendor Tan Seh Poon, who had left the leg on his bike while using crutches to walk around a mall near Kuala Lumpur to sell tickets. Tan, 63, discovered the theft after three hours and had to ask a friend for a ride home, the newspaper said.

■ Sri Lanka
Grenade accident hurts 17
At least 17 people were hurt yesterday when a grenade was accidentally detonated during a demonstration by a police officer at an exhibition in Colombo marking the nation's independence, police said. "We have ruled out anyone hurling a grenade at the stall of the STF [Special Task Force] commandos," the officer said, adding the detonation was now being investigated as an accident. The STF was not supposed to have live explosives at the exhibition venue, the officer said, adding that "an officer was showing a hand grenade to spectators when it went off" at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Center. "We suspect the man was trying to show how to defuse a bomb when the blast occurred," a police investigator said.

■ United States
Uighur Muslims in protest
Scores Uighur Muslims protested on Monday in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a massacre by Chinese troops in the Xinjiang autonomous region. "Ten years have passed but the Chinese authorities have still not accounted for the innocent lives lost and those missing following the Ghulja massacre," said Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of China's Uighur Muslim minority. "What is worse is China continues to oppress our people," she said as demonstrators waving light blue Uighur flags shouted: "We want justice," "We want human rights" and other slogans.

■ Japan
Gang member gunned down
A gang member was gunned down in an upscale district of Tokyo in a string of rare shootings in one of the world's safest countries, police said yesterday. A senior member of the Sumiyoshi gang, one of Japan's leading crime syndicates, was shot to death early on Monday in Tokyo's upmarket Azabu district, a police spokeswoman said. Yesterday morning, assailants also fired bullets into the doors of two apartments in other parts of Tokyo, police said. Both apartments were reportedly related to another crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi, leading police to believe that the shootings were linked to a conflict between the two gangs. A record low of two people were killed in gun crime last year, the National Police Agency said last week.

■ India
Boy dies in reenactment
An boy has died trying to show his sister how ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hanged, police in the southern state of Kerala said yesterday. Vishnu Sashi fell from a bathroom water tank after tying a plastic cord round his neck on Sunday evening in Vaikom, said inspector Rajesh Menon. Vishnu decided to show his five-year-old sister Sitalakshmi what he had seen on television about how the former president was put to death. "While enacting the drama, Vishnu tied a plastic rope around his neck and hooked it on the wall," neighbor Damodaran Bharathan said by telephone.

■ United States
Teenage girls sentenced
Four teenage girls were sentenced on Monday to probation, house arrest and community service for a hate-crime assault where they beat three white women and shouted racial insults. The teens were part of a larger group that also threw pumpkins and lemons at the women and used skateboards as weapons, prosecutors said. Four other teens got the same sentences last week for the beating. Another girl will be sentenced on Tuesday. In all, nine teens, eight female and one male, were convicted of assault, and the judge found proof of hate crimes in all but one of their cases.

■ United States
Bacteria found in skin
Researchers a safari for microbes have found that human skin is populated by a veritable menagerie of bacteria -- 182 species -- some apparently living there permanently and others just dropping by for a visit. There's no need for alarm, said microbiologist Dr. Martin Blaser: the bacteria have been with us for quite a while and some are helpful. Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms believed to have been the first living things on Earth. While some cause disease, bacteria also reside normally in our bodies, for example in the digestive tract, performing useful chores.

■ United States
Kidnapper charged
A man accused of holding a Missouri boy captive for more than four years has been charged with 69 counts of forcible sodomy, US officials said on Monday. Michael Devlin, 41, has pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping of William "Ben" Ownby, 13, and Shawn Hornbeck, now aged 15, who was 11 when he disappeared in October 2002 while riding his bike to a friend's house. Both boys were found alive in Devlin's suburban St. Louis, Missouri apartment last month, just four days after Ownby disappeared. Devlin is currently being held in the Franklin County jail.

■ United States
Gunman disrupts clinic
A gunman wearing a camouflage helmet was taken into custody on Monday after witnesses said he ordered doctors and nurses out of a small medical center, where fleeing patients reported hearing shots. Police reported that no one was injured in the standoff at the Primecare outpatient clinic, said city spokeswoman Cynthia Greene. Police Chief John Powell earlier said authorities were negotiating with the man in the Primecare building, which was surrounded by police and sheriff's officers. Photographs taken during the standoff showed the man with blood on his hands, wearing a camouflage helmet and holding a rifle.

■ Germany
Six people found dead
Six were found shot dead in a Chinese restaurant in northern Germany in the early hours of Monday, but a two-year-old girl survived, police said. The victims were three men and three women, all believed to be of Asian origin. They had been tied up and their bodies were found in different rooms of the Lin Yue restaurant in Sittensen, near Hamburg. Police said it was possible the two-year-old girl had been in living quarters above the restaurant at the time of the shootings and it is unlikely she will be able to help investigators to piece together what happened. The motive for the killings was unclear, police said.