■ AFGHANISTAN
Bike bomb kills one
A suicide attacker on a motorbike exploded himself next to highway police who were guarding a road construction project in Kabul yesterday, killing one policeman and injuring three Afghans, a police official said. Two police and one civilian were among the wounded, said Abdul Rahman, a police official. The attack came on one of Kabul's busiest and most dangerous roads, where more suicide and rocket attacks happen than in any other part of the city.
■ CHINA
Honking banned in Shanghai
Honking will be banned in downtown Shanghai from next month as part of efforts to reduce street noise in one of Asia's fastest developing -- and loudest -- cities, official media reported yesterday. Cars, mopeds and bikes will face fines of up to US$13 for leaning on the horn, the Shanghai Daily and other newspapers said, citing the Shanghai police. Not even police cars are exempt, with the use of sirens banned in all but emergencies, the rules say. Street noise is a major detractor from quality of life in Shanghai. Many drivers honk at anything that moves to avoid collisions.
■ PHILIPPINES
Wedding cake ordeal over
A 10-year legal fight over a "tawdry" wedding cake has ended after a couple lost their claim for damages for the humiliation and sleepless nights they said it caused them. An appeal court ruling made public on Tuesday rejected a claim seeking 50,000 pesos (US$1,053) in moral and other damages from a Manila pastry shop. Edgardo Abenina and his wife Stephanie filed suit shortly after their June 21, 1997, wedding reception at a Manila hotel, saying the five-tiered orange chiffon fondant cake did not meet specifications. They said it leaned to one side and had a "tawdry-orange" color.
■ PAKISTAN
Timebomb kills two
A timebomb hidden in a shopping bag exploded at a bus stop in the gas-rich but restive southwest yesterday, killing two people and injuring two more, police said. The blast happened in the remote town of Hub in Baluchistan Province, near the Arabian Sea coast, police official Mohammad Siddique said. "The bomb attached to a timer was concealed in a shopping bag. Two people were killed and two were injured," he said. The province has been gripped for more than two years by an insurgency led by autonomy-seeking locals. The rebels mainly attack government installations, gas pipelines and electricity lines and want a greater share of the province's natural resources.
■ INDIA
Market bombs wound five
Three bombs exploded in a communally sensitive city on Tuesday, wounding five people, police said. Tuesday's attacks in Gorakhpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh had taken place in a busy market area. "Apparently, these were low-intensity bombs because the damage caused is marginal and injuries to the people minor," Uttar Pradesh Principal Home Secretary K. Chandramauli said. Initial investigations showed that the three bombs were placed in lunch boxes on bicycles, Chandramauli said. In January, at least two people died in Gorakhpur after a drunken scuffle between two wedding guests snowballed into riots between majority Hindus and minority Muslims.
■ GERMANY
Police nab naked tourist
A naked US tourist raised eyebrows when he went for a walk through a city and told police he thought this was acceptable behavior in Germany. "The man said he thought walking around naked was tolerated in Germany," a spokesman for police in the southern city of Nuremberg said on Tuesday. Many people enjoy nude sunbathing which is allowed in public parks. The 41-year-old was carrying his clothes in a bag when police stopped him on Monday evening after complaints. They made him get dressed and pay a 200 euro (US$269) deposit pending his investigation for indecent behavior.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Seniors vital to economy
Old people have become the turbo charged motors of the community rather than its brakes, according to the backers of a 21-nation study on aging launched on Tuesday that shows one in 10 over-70s are still working. People in their 60s and 70s continue to play a vital role in the economy as they have reported feeling healthier and have chosen to reject a quiet retirement, a study by Oxford University's Institute of Aging showed.
■ ITALY
Abuse documentary to air
The state broadcaster on Tuesday decided to buy a BBC documentary on the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests but will only let it be aired if accompanied by balancing opinion from the Church. The program had sparked a political row which pitted conservative politicians opposed to the airing against those defending freedom of speech. On Tuesday RAI director general Claudio Cappon approved buying the documentary, called Sex Crimes and the Vatican, but he demanded that the program hosting the documentary, talk show Year Zero, also let prominent members of the Church give their version of events and contest the show's assertions.
■ TURKEY
Singer facing five years
A prosecutor on Tuesday demanded that a Kurdish singer be sentenced to five years in prison for performing a song that praises imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, the government-run Anatolia news agency reported. Zulfu Kizildemir, also known as Xemgin Birhat, was detained in March after performing his Kurdish-language song Mezin Apo, or The Great Apo, at a spring festival traditionally used by Kurds to assert separatist demands. Apo is short for Abdullah. Kizildemir rejected the charges and said because he had lived in Germany for 30 years, he was not aware of Turkey's anti-terrorism laws, Anatolia reported.
■ AZERBAIJAN
Editor on terrorism charges
Prosecutors have filed new, terrorism-related charges against an Azerbaijani opposition newspaper editor who was convicted of libel and sentenced to prison last month, a top security official said on Tuesday. Eynulla Fatullayev, editor and founder of the newspapers Real Azerbaijan and Everyday Azerbaijan, was charged yesterday with making a terrorist threat, said Arif Babayev, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Security. He gave no details for the new charges. On Sunday, officers from the Emergency Situations Ministry evicted the editorial staff from its offices, saying that the building was in a dangerous condition. But investigators seized documents and computer records and sealed off the office on Tuesday, said witnesses.
■ UNITED STATES
Police kill woman with Taser
A mentally ill homeless woman died after she was arrested outside an Oklahoma City shelter and stunned with a Taser while she was on the ground in handcuffs, authorities and witnesses said. An autopsy was performed on Milisha Thompson, 35, but her cause of death has not been determined pending toxicology tests, police Sergeant Paco Balderrama said Tuesday. One witness, Edwin Davis, said onlookers began yelling, "You killed her! You killed her!" as Thompson slipped out of consciousness during Saturday's confrontation outside the City Rescue Mission. But Balderrama said Thompson repeatedly kicked and attacked officers, even after being stunned with the Taser.
■ UNITED STATES
Man dies in golf cart plunge
A 65-year-old golfer died on Tuesday after his golf cart plunged 25m off a cliff and crashed into a road below, authorities said. The man teed off with three friends on the second hole of the Pala Mesa Resort Golf Course in northern San Diego County at around 10am and then got into his cart. The vehicle veered off the concrete pathway, traveled down a 8m embankment and went over the edge of a cliff, Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Kerns said. The recently retired real estate agent from Irvine was ejected shortly before the cart hit the road beneath the cliff and died on impact, Kerns said.
■ VENEZUELA
Plane crashes, drugs found
A small plane loaded with cocaine crashed, killing the two people on board and revealing a drug shipment that was seized by troops. National Guard soldiers confiscated 480kg of cocaine from the Cessna that crashed on Monday night, the attorney general's office said in statement on Tuesday. The wreckage was found near the town of El Tigre, about 400km southeast of Caracas. The bodies of the pilot and another person were found in the Venezuelan-registered plane. Authorities did not give details about the suspected causes of the crash, nor details about where the plane departed from or was headed.
■ UNITED STATES
Man DUI at McDonald's
A man found asleep in his car in a McDonald's drive-through lane in Camden, Arkansas, has been charged with drunk driving. Restaurant employees called police early on Saturday morning after waiting 15 minutes for Terrance Forte, 32, to drive from the first window to the second window of the drive-through. Officer William Mahon's report said he found Forte asleep with the engine running and his right foot on the brake. Forte offered Mahon US$10 for his food order when Mahon tried to wake him, the report said. Forte's blood alcohol level was registered at more than twice the legal limit.
■ UNITED STATES
Truck driver sentenced
A truck driver who improperly hitched a wood-chipper to his vehicle was sentenced on Tuesday to nine to 18 months in jail for causing a crash that killed a father and two of his triplets. Bradley Demitras' sentence also includes six years' probation and a requirement that he prominently display the accident-scene photo in his home. The wood-chipper broke free from Demitras' truck on a busy highway, rolled across the median and slammed into the family's minivan. Demitras, 35, of Pine Township, Pennsylvania, could have faced more than 17 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in March to three counts of involuntary manslaughter.
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the