■ Australia
Women overrun store
Hundreds of women overran a department store yesterday to snap up Stella McCartney's new collection, tearing clothes off mannequins and each other in a chaotic stampede for style. Around 300 fashion-hungry shoppers, some of whom lined up for more than two-and-a-half hours before the doors opened, rushed a Target department store in Sydney where McCartney's limited edition special collection went on sale. "They took clothes off mannequins, they were just tearing clothes off other people -- it was just absurd," said one bemused customer after the frenzy left shelves bare of the British designer's fashion fare. "Someone just ripped a jacket out of my hands," shopper Lori Herbert told the Daily Telegraph.
■ Indonesia
Clashes leave nine dead
Nine people were killed and more than 150 hurt in the remote Papua province after a murder accusation triggered clashes between tribesmen armed with spears and arrows, police said yesterday. A woman accused of poisoning her husband to death encouraged members of her clan to attack members of a rival group which her accuser -- and her dead husband -- belonged to, said police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra. Nine people were killed in the ensuing clashes between the Kobagau and Sani tribes and 154 others were injured, including a policeman hit by an arrow, the spokesman said.
■ China
Chlorine fumes injure 59
Chlorine fumes injured 59 people, eight of them seriously, when a demolition worker broke a derelict tank at a construction site for Shanghai's 2010 World Expo, a doctor and reports said yesterday. The workers were dismantling an old solvent plant in the Pudong District of China's financial capital when the leak occurred, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. A doctor at nearby Shanghai Punan Hospital said 59 workers were brought in for treatment and eight were in a serious condition. Local police refused to comment on the accident. Xinhua and local reports said safety workers stopped the leak soon after it started.
■ Philippines
Rice facility funding agreed
The world's largest collection of rice varieties will receive US$600,000 a year in funding under an agreement announced yesterday to help preserve crucial crop diversity. The Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust signed the agreement to fund IRRI's Genetic Resources Center, the two groups said. The center's special earthquake and fireproof facility in the foothills of Mount Makiling, south of Manila, houses at least 80,000 rice varieties, the largest and most important collection in the world.
■ Australia
Labor lead in opinion polls
Character attacks by the conservative government have failed to dent support for the opposition, with a new poll yesterday showing Labor in a strong position to win elections due later this year. Labor's support under new leader Kevin Rudd surged to 61 percent compared to 39 percent for Prime Minister John Howard's conservatives, who have held power for 11 years and will push for a fifth election victory in the second half of the year. The AC Nielsen poll came after the government launched character attacks over Rudd's meetings with a disgraced lobbyist, and as Labor lost a senior member for writing a reference for a drug criminal.
■ Thailand
Swiss man pleads guilty
A Swiss man accused of insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej by spray-painting over several portraits of the king pleaded guilty yesterday and faces a maximum 75-year prison sentence. Oliver Rudolf Jufer, 57, was caught by surveillance cameras on Dec. 5 spray-painting black paint over several portraits of the king in Chiang Mai, police said. His lawyer said he was intoxicated during the act. The vandalism coincided with Bhumibol's 79th birthday, which was celebrated across the kingdom with fireworks and prayers. Jufer made no comment yesterday as he entered the courthouse with his legs chained, dressed in an orange prison uniform. The judge said a sentence was expected to be issued on March 29.
■ Morocco
Internet cafe blast probed
The government said yesterday it was investigating whether an overnight blast was a militant suicide attack after a man with explosives under his clothes was blown up and three wounded at a Casablanca Internet cafe. Security officials said the man had a dispute with the Internet cafe's owner and that the blast occurred as the two men were coming to blows. But they did not rule the possibility he was planning an attack at some stage. The Sunday night blast occurred in the Sidi Moumen slum, home to 13 suicide bombers who killed 32 people in Casablanca in 2003.
■ United States
Snatched newborn found
A newborn baby kidnapped from a Lubbock, Texas, hospital by a woman wearing hospital scrubs was found safe about 160km away and police had a suspect under arrest. Four-day-old Mychael Darthard-Dawodu was found on Sunday, a day after she was smuggled from the hospital in the woman's purse. She was later reunited with her parents. "It's a joyous time," Gwen Stafford, senior vice president of Covenant Health System, said at a news conference on Sunday. "This has been a roller coaster of emotions." Rayshaun Parson, 21, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.
■ United Kingdom
Rich divorcee gets robbed
A woman awarded £48 million (US$93 million) in a landmark divorce settlement last year was tied up and robbed of jewellery at her home in Kent, police and media reports said on Sunday. Beverley Chapman, 53, was alone on Saturday evening when a masked robber carrying a gun forced his way into her home. Police said several hundred thousand pounds of jewellery was stolen in the raid. "The police were alerted after the woman's son came home at 10pm and found her," a Kent Police spokeswoman said. "No violence was used and she was not injured in the incident."
■ Dubai
Incident closes airport
Dubai airport, a major international hub, was closed for at least eight hours yesterday after a Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft was involved in an accident while trying to take off, officials said. Fourteen people were slightly injured in the accident, airport officials said. The plane was carrying 236 passengers and crew. No details of what caused the 6:30am accident were immediately available but Dubai civil aviation authorities said they were investigating. Dubai airport is the busiest in the Middle East and a major hub for transfers between Europe and Asia.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was