■ Japan
Man shoots at condo
A man angry that a new apartment building put his house in the shade was arrested after shooting about a dozen bullets at it with a competition rifle. Police said the man apparently fired at the 11-story building, which was completed last October, from a window on the third floor of his house. "He felt the building management didn't take a sincere attitude toward his complaints that the building was keeping sunlight from reaching his house," a police spokesman in Kyoto said. Walls, railings and two lights on the apartment building were damaged.
■ Malaysia
Hillside collapses
More than 300 families were evacuated from a 15-story apartment complex in Putrajaya after a hillside partially collapsed and barely missed burying parts of the building, news reports said yesterday. No one was injured in the incident, which damaged up to 25 cars in a parking lot next to the three-block complex, the Star and the New Straits Times newspapers reported. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in the reports that the slope in the suburb had previously been reinforced by planting of hundreds of trees on it in the past 10 years since the area was developed.
■ Australia
Tunnel crash kills three
At least three people were killed yesterday in a fiery multi-vehicle crash in a Melbourne tunnel that led to an explosion and forced hundreds of motorists to evacuate, rescue services said. Three trucks and four cars were involved in the pile-up in the Burnley Tunnel, Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade spokesman David Mann said. Hundreds of motorists were forced to abandon their vehicles and leave the 3.5km tunnel on foot after the accident. "I was eastbound and I overtook a truck which was slowing down and the next thing, there was a big explosion behind me," said one driver, who identified himself as Peter.
■ Hong Kong
Spinal discs transplanted
Doctors from China and Hong Kong announced they have transplanted human spinal discs into five patients, offering what could be a viable alternative to treat degenerative disc disease (DDD) in the future. The compressible discs that separate the interlocking bones that make up the spine can break down with age. They act as shock absorbers for the spine, allowing it to flex, bend and twist, but slipped discs can affect nerve function, leading to numbness and pain in a leg or arm. Writing in the latest issue of the Lancet, researchers said they transplanted discs from three donors who died from trauma into five patients suffering from DDD in 2001.
■ Bangladesh
Tropical storms kill six
Tropical storms swept through the south, killing at least six people, injuring dozens and leaving several thousand villagers homeless, a television station reported yesterday. The storms struck late on Thursday, leveling hundreds of mainly tin-roof houses in Bhola district, 104km south of Dhaka, ATN Bangla TV station reported. Rescuers recovered six bodies buried under debris of collapsed houses early yesterday, the station reported. Dozens of injured people were taken to a hospital, the report said. The storms knocked down trees and electricity poles, hampering immediate rescue work. Several thousand people were left homeless, the report said.
■ United Kingdom
Spears wins injunction
Lawyers for Britney Spears won a court injunction on Thursday designed to prevent publication of stories about her recent stay in a rehabilitation center. The singer's London law firm said the injunction barred unidentified "person or persons ... who has/have been leaking information about Ms. Spears' time in a rehabilitation clinic from further disclosures invading her privacy." The firm said Spears planned to ask the court to force media outlets that had printed stories about her time in rehab to reveal their sources.
RSS