■ Nepal
Police fire on refugees
Police fired on a group of Bhutanese refugees demonstrating outside their camp in southeastern Nepal, killing one and wounding several, officials said. Police opened fire on Monday after the refugees defied a curfew and began throwing stones at police, said Jayamukunda Khanal, the chief government administrator in the area. Officials were investigating the incident and the curfew was still in place in the area to stop the spread of violence, Khanal said. There are seven camps in the area about 500km southwest of Katmandu, where more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have been living since the early 1990s. Trouble began on Sunday when two refugee factions began fighting. Police reached the site and opened fire to control the situation. One person was killed.
■ Japan
Government ordered to pay
The country's top court ordered the government to pay about ?3 billion (US$24.65 million) in damages to thousands of residents for noise from a US military base in Tokyo, a news report said yesterday. In a suit brought against the government in 1996, about 6,000 plaintiffs living near Yokota Air Base in Tokyo's western suburbs demanded that early morning and late night flights be suspended, and residents be compensated for the noise. Yesterday, the Supreme Court ordered the government to pay -- but refused to acknowledge some of the compensation a lower court had awarded the residents, Kyodo news agency reported.
■ Japan
71-year-old beats Everest
A 71-year-old Japanese mountain climber has become the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, a news report said yesterday. Katsusuke Yanagisawa was 71 years, 2 months and 2 days old when he reached the 8,850m peak last Tuesday, Kyodo News agency reported. He beat the previous record set last year by another Japanese climber, Takao Arayama, who was aged 70 years, 7 months and 13 days, Kyodo said. Yanagisawa, a retired junior high school teacher from central Japan, was part of a New Zealand climbing expedition, Kyodo said.
■ China
Rich-list executive arrested
Police have arrested a businessman once listed as one of the country's 100 richest men on fraud charges, state media reported yesterday. Sun Shuhua was arrested on Monday in the province of Henan suspected of swindling 1.36 billion yuan (US$177.9 million) from several banks using fake financial reports, state television said on its Web site, citing a local newspaper report. Sun, a delegate to the Henan provincial parliament and former plastics' recycler, was listed in 80th place on the 2004 Hurun China Rich List, with estimated wealth of US$170 million. "The reason for his success depended on borrowing money from banks," the newspaper report said. "His common tricks were to use illegal or fake land certificates to borrow the money." Sun could not be reached for comment.
■ China
Bone-breakers busted
A Shanghai gang of nine who helped break each others' arms and then jumped off building sites to win compensation were jailed for extorting 100,000 yuan (US$13,000) from their bosses, local media said yesterday. A Shanghai court handed down three-year jail terms to the gang's ringleaders, surnamed Cheng and Yang, who helped seven men get jobs on construction sites around the city, the Shanghai Daily said.
■ Germany
EU, Iranian officials to meet
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