■ PAKISTAN
China condemns deaths
The Chinese Embassy condemned the killing of three Chinese workers in Peshawar, urging authorities yesterday to launch a probe into the attack. The three died when gunmen opened fire inside an auto-rickshaw factory on Sunday. A fourth Chinese national was seriously wounded. The assailants and motive for the attack were unknown, said Abdul Karim, a senior police official in Peshawar. The embassy said its deputy chief and other diplomats had gone to Peshawar to deal with the issue. There have been several attacks on Chinese nationals in Pakistan blamed on Islamic militants in recent years.
■ AFGHANISTAN
Anti-drugs minister quits
Counter-Narcotics Minister Habibullah Qader has resigned, a ministry spokesman said on Sunday, as the nation's farmers bring in what is expected to be another record harvest of opium. Qaderi had been suffering health problems. "He has been sick for the last five months, suffering from a sore throat and hyper-tension," said Counter-Narcotics Ministry spokesman Zalmay Afzali. "He could not cope with the burden of ministerial duties and daily meetings." He has now been posted to Canada as consul general.
■ CHINA
Flood death toll rises
Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 94 people and left 25 others missing in seven provinces, state media reported. Xinhua news agency said on Sunday that about half a million people had been evacuated. It said more than 49,000 houses had been destroyed and another 240,000 damaged as a result of torrential rains in the worst-hit Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces over the past week. The estimated total direct economic losses could reach 3.83 billion yuan (US$500 million), Xinhua said.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Government offers aid
Wellington will give the Solomon Islands NZ$7.5 million (US$5.8 million) in aid over the next two years to help it recover from a deadly earthquake and tsunami, the government said yesterday. A quake and resulting tsunami in April devastated coastal parts of the western Solomons, killing 52 people, driving 9,000 from their homes and damaging or destroying around 6,000 houses and other buildings. "Three months later, 4,000 families are still living in makeshift camps, and there is a widespread need to rebuild basic infrastructure, especially health clinics, water, sanitation, housing, roads, bridges and wharves," Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.
■ ITALY
Old timer climbing high
An 89-year-old Italian man set a record on Sunday when he became the oldest person to climb nearly 3,000m to the top of a mountain, a news agency reported. Piero Paci, who turns 90 on Oct. 6, reached the top of the Gran Sasso of Abruzzo, an altitude of 2,914m, Ansa agency said. He opted not to make the climb on his birthday because he would have had to deal with snow. Paci, from Pesaro in central-eastern Italy, was accompanied by his son and a group of friends on the climb.
■ SPAIN
Few injured in bull run
The running of the bulls saw only minor injuries yesterday as six massive bulls galloped rapidly down crowded, narrow streets surrounded by thousands of alcohol and adrenaline-fueled revelers. Six Spaniards and a 30-year-old US runner -- who injured an elbow -- were treated at hospitals on day three of the festival, the Pamplona government said. The bulls completed the 850m route from a corral on the outskirts of town to Pamplona's central bullring in a fast 2 minutes, 46 seconds, officials said. Though several runners fell directly in the path of the bulls, the animals jumped over them. The runs are held every morning between July 7 and July 14.
■ GERMANY
Train drivers to strike anew
A union representing train drivers said yesterday it would stage a new walkout in a wage dispute with the national railway, while two other unions were locked in talks with the company over their own demands. The train drivers' union, GDL, said its members would walk off the job today for three hours today. A similar walkout last Tuesday helped bring parts of Germany's railway network to a standstill. GDL is seeking wage increases of up to 31 percent for some of its members and a separate wage deal with railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG for train drivers. Two other unions that represent a broad range of railway employees, Transnet and GDBA, have suspended their own campaign of limited walkouts and held weekend talks with Deutsche Bahn.
■ IRAN
Truck pile-up kills 13
Thirteen people were killed and four others injured when four trucks carrying smuggled gasoline collided in the southeast, state TV reported on Sunday. The trucks were traveling with their headlights off when the multiple pile-up occurred late on Saturday on the road between Zahedan and Mirjave, which lies on the border with Pakistan, it said. Millions of liters of cheap Iranian gasoline, which costs just US$0.10 a liter, are smuggled out of the country to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey where 1 liter costs between US$1 and US$2.
■ FRANCE
Sarkozy rejects pardons
President Nicolas Sarkozy will not give a traditional Bastille Day pardon to thousands of prisoners, raising concerns that disappointed inmates could riot. Sarkozy, elected in May on a tough law and order program, said he was keeping his election promise. "There will be no collective amnesty," he said. Prison officers, who had hoped the annual mass pardon would ease the pressure on the nation's dilapidated jails, warned the decision could prompt riots. Official figures show the nation's 188 jails have a capacity for around 50,000 inmates but are currently holding nearly 61,000.
■ UNITED STATES
Beauty queen threatened
Miss New Jersey has received a second threatening package from someone trying to blackmail her into relinquishing her crown, her attorney says. Anthony Caruso, an attorney for Amy Polumbo, said that that the package contained a threatening letter and possibly photographs of the 22-year-old beauty queen. Polumbo announced on Thursday that someone was trying to blackmail her with old photographs and demanding that she give up her crown by Friday. She did not step down. The first runner-up to Polumbo in the Miss New Jersey pageant has denied any involvement in the blackmail scheme.
■ UNITED STATES
Cats win dispute
City officials have sided with Ernest Hemingway's former home and its celebrated six-toed felines in its catfight with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Key West City Commission exempted the home from a city law prohibiting more than four domestic animals per household. About 50 cats live there. The USDA claims the museum is an "exhibitor" of cats and needs a special license. The new ordinance states that the cats are "an integral part of the history and ambiance of the Hemingway House." The cats are descendants of a six-toed cat given as a gift to the writer in 1935.
■ UNITED STATES
Cheeky ads draw protest
A bidet company's advertising plans in Times Square are too cheeky for the pastor of a nearby church. Reverend Neil Rhodes, pastor of the interdenominational Times Square Church, is asking a state court to block a billboard company from posting huge ads that feature naked buttocks with smiley faces on them on two sides of the building that houses Rhodes' church. "You walk into a church building, you have naked bodies before your eyes. How are you going to close your eyes and seek God?" Rhodes said. The ads promote the Washlet, a bidet-toilet seat that uses warm water and air.
■ UNITED STATES
Bon bon bandit strikes again
A series of armed robberies over the last three months at chocolatiers, ice cream shops, a patisserie and other establishments has the Boston police scrambling to give the robber his just deserts. "He's considered armed and dangerous," Elaine Driscoll, a police spokeswoman said. Since April 17, 18 robberies have occurred at shops like All Things Chocolate, Lindt Chocolate, Bon Bon and Ben & Jerry's. Usually wielding a knife, a handgun or a sawed-off shotgun, the robber has made off with a total of about US$10,000 in cash so far. Nobody has been injured. He has struck at all hours, every few days and picks "boutique-style vendors" likely to have lighter security and more women employees.
■ UNITED STATES
Pennsylvania budget woe
The governor has ordered a range of state government services shut down and placed about a third of Pennsylvania's government workforce on indefinite unpaid furlough after frantic last-minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate. Governor Ed Rendell said the shutdown would go forward but he and legislators will continue to work toward a deal. "I sincerely hope that this will be a one-day furlough and I have reason for optimism," he said. Starting yesterday, Pennsylvanians were no longer able to take driver's license tests and state-run museums were shuttered.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At 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
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Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese