■ CHINA
Five die of gas poisoning
Leaking carbon monoxide from a generator killed five people checking on irrigation works, state media reported yesterday. The five, including two electricians and managers of a local reservoir, had been asked by farmers to check whether larger pipes could be fitted in a tunnel carrying water to fields, Xinhua news agency said. They were apparently overwhelmed by gas that had built up inside the tunnel while conducting an inspection on Monday evening, it said. Their bodies were found the next morning. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas produced by all motors. If it accumulates in the blood, it can cause death.
■ AFGHANISTAN
Suicide bomber kills 17
A suicide bomber killed 17 civilians, including 12 children, on Tuesday in an attack aimed at Dutch NATO troops patroling a crowded bazaar in the south of the country, the interior ministry said. Some 30 people, including seven Dutch soldiers, were wounded in the attack in the small town of Deh Rawud, officials said. The interior ministry said some of the wounded were in a critical condition. The Dutch defense ministry said one of its soldiers was also critical. All the wounded were evacuated to a military hospital in the provincial capital Tarin Kot. Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack.
■ SOUTH KOREA
North Koreans seek asylum
Four North Koreans have entered the Danish embassy in Vietnam in an apparent bid for eventual asylum in South Korea, an activist said yesterday. The refugees were a man and three women, the South Korean activist said on condition of anonymity. The Danish embassy in Hanoi confirmed by telephone that a family of two adults and two children had entered the building, but gave no further information on how the case would be treated. The activist said that the defectors wanted to travel to South Korea and had requested help from a South Korean Embassy in an unspecified country, but that their plea had been rejected. The South Korean Foreign Ministry said it had no information about the latest asylum bid.
■ NEPAL
Royalty's allowance axed
The royal family will not be getting an annual allowance this year, officials and news reports said yesterday, amid government efforts to phase out the monarch's role in the Himalayan nation. The government last year allocated King Gyanendra and his family about 32.7 million rupees (US$500,000) in an annual allowance. But this year, the government decided to scrap the allowance, the popular Kantipur newspaper reported. Officials at the Finance Ministry confirmed the report but refused to elaborate. The government is scheduled to present its annual budget today, when details about the royal family's allowance are set to be released.
■ CHINA
Assassin gets death penalty
A court has sentenced to death the killer of a businessman shot in the head execution-style in a popular Hong Kong tea house in November 2002. The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court convicted six of eight people charged in connection with the murder of millionaire Harry Lam at the Luk Yu Tea House, the China Daily reported. Hired assassin Yang Wen, 27, was sentenced to death, and an accomplice was jailed for 13 years. Three masterminds were sentenced to life in prison and a sixth man was jailed for three years.
■ TURKEY
Government office bombed
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