■ JAPAN
Fire in Tokyo kills two
Two women were killed yesterday in a fire that burned down an 80-year-old dormitory for foreign residents in Tokyo, police said. “Two women who appear to be in their 70s and 40s died,” a police spokesman said, adding they were yet to be identified. Several other people were injured, he added. News reports said the fire was set off early in the morning by a resident’s cigarette. Police declined comment. The three-story dormitory was built in 1927 for students from Taiwan, which was then under Japanese colonial rule. Some 40 Taiwanese, Chinese and Japanese of various ages now live there, the reports said.
■ CHINA
Eight die in fungus feud
A feud between two southwest townships over access to valuable wild fungus erupted into a gun battle that left eight people dead and 44 wounded, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing the local government. The violence occurred in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of mountainous Sichuan Province last Friday. “A county government official said around 200 residents from Danba and Sumdo townships clashed in a dispute over access to wild fungus and firewood,” Xinhua news agency said. Some of those involved drew rifles and the gun battle lasted around 10 minutes, the official said.
■ CHINA
Most widely read blogger
Actress-turned-director Xu Jinglei (徐靜蕾) became the world’s most widely read blogger this month when her blog logged 100 million page views within about 600 days, the Beijing News said yesterday. And Xu, who has a reputation for a high intellect and integrity, has done it without writing about sex or providing a catalogue of kiss-and-tell stories — but focusing on her work and day-to-day life. The 100 millionth hit occurred on July 12, according to www.sina.com.cn, a popular Web site which provides blog services to many entertainers, including Xu who started hers in October 2005 and published a book of her blogged articles in March last year.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Firefighter counts his luck
A firefighter is counting his luck after a red-hot steel rod was fired into his helmet from an exploding vehicle, local media reported yesterday. The steel rod was traveling at such speed it punched a hole through a steel door before hitting 41-year-old Gary Wright’s Kevlar fire helmet, the New Zealand Herald said. Wright was getting ready to fight a blaze earlier this month that had engulfed a garage full of vehicles in a suburb of Auckland when the steel rod fired out of an exploding van 19m away. “I had only just put my BA [breathing apparatus] set on and put my helmet back on,” he said.
■ CHINA
Protest organizer arrested
Beijing has arrested at least one activist for organizing protests in a southeastern port city last month in which thousands of residents opposed construction of a chemical plant, two friends said yesterday. Liaising via cellphone text massages and the Internet, the protesters marched through downtown areas of Xiamen on June 1 and 2 to demand the government scrap plans to build the Taiwan-funded plant to make paraxylene, a compound used in polyester and fabrics. Citing critics including government experts and advisers, they said the factory, next to a residential area, was a “timebomb” for public health and a grave threat to the environment.
■ ITALY
Murderer gets 20 years
A judge handed a 20-year sentence on Wednesday to one of the men behind last year’s murder of an epileptic toddler, who was snatched from his highchair at home and then killed with a shovel. The murder of 18-month-old Tommaso Onofri horrified people who had waged a month-long campaign for the toddler’s release — complete with appeals from the pope — without knowing the boy was already dead. Tommaso’s kidnappers, who planned to demand a ransom, hit him in the face with a shovel to stop him crying shortly after the abduction, the force of the blow killing the toddler.
■ SPAIN
Argentine officer to be tried
A former Argentine naval officer accused of murdering thousands during the country’s “Dirty War” will stay in Spain to be tried, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday, instead of being extradited to Argentina. Ricardo Cavallo has been held in a Spanish prison since 2003, when he was extradited from Mexico and charged by authorities in Spain with genocide and terrorism. Spanish prosecutors requested multiple life sentences in prison for Cavallo for the death and torture of Spanish citizens during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. When Cavallo was handed over to Spain, it was the first time a country had extradited a suspect to another to stand trial for alleged rights abuses committed in a third.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Extra cash didn’t cut crime
Billions of extra pounds spent on the police since Labour came to power has made no clear impact on crime, a powerful group of members of parliament (MPs) said yesterday before the release of annual crime figures. In a critical report, the Home Affairs Select Committee said it was “puzzling” that falls in crime since 1997 took place before the government significantly boosted police budgets. The MPs said they would have expected the extra investment in the police service to have had a measurable impact.
■ RUSSIA
Funeral rocked by bomb
An explosion ripped through a crowd of mourners at a cemetery in the violence-plagued south on Wednesday, wounding at least 10 people, including four police officers, officials said. The funeral was being held for a Russian woman fatally shot along with her two grown children Monday in Ingushetia, a mostly Muslim republic, in what authorities said may have been an ethnically motivated attack. The funeral at the cemetery in the settlement of Ordzhonikidze was halted and the site was cordoned off by police after the explosion, believed to have been caused by a homemade bomb, the district police said.
■ NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Voting gets under way
Voting for a new leader started in this breakaway region yesterday in an election intended to stress the Armenian-populated region’s self-proclaimed independence from Azerbaijan. The head of the region’s election commission, Sergey Nasibyan, hailed the election campaign as democratic and said local and foreign observers were monitoring the polls, Armenian television reported. Azerbaijan, which lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh after a war in the early 1990s, has already denounced the election as illegal under international law. At least 25 percent of the enclave’s 91,000 voters have to take part for the 8am to 8pm election to be considered valid by Karabakh authorities.
■ UNITED STATES
Mystery object stumps NASA
A hunk of metal that crashed through the roof of a Bayonne, New Jersey, home had NASA, Federal Aviation Administration and even US defense officials curious until the mystery was solved on Wednesday. A man was watching TV on Tuesday when he heard a crash. In the next room he found a hunk of gray metal, 9cm by 13cm. "It doesn't look very `spacey,'" said Henry Kline, a spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Finally, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said on Wednesday that a colleague had solved the mystery: The chunk was part of a commercial woodchipper. Peters said the grinder piece can apparently launch into the air if something goes wrong.
■ CANADA
Ruling sparks security fears
A recent provincial court ruling has poked a potentially massive hole in the country's border security by forcing guards to obtain warrants to search vehicles at checkpoints, officials said on Wednesday. "This ruling could be a concern," said Chris Williams, a spokesman for Canada Border Services Agency, after the agency reviewed the little-noticed decision. "It could affect our commitment to keep illegal drugs, firearms and contraband out of Canada, affecting the way we conduct searches," he explained. The government is appealing the decision, he added.
■ UNITED STATES
Elder Bush's gun returned
Former US president George H.W. Bush presented the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia with his World War II service revolver, returned to him 60 years after he gave it to a lieutenant on the submarine that rescued him after his plane was shot down. The son of the late Lieutenant-General Albert Brostrom on Wednesday returned the .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and its leather shoulder holster to Bush, who presented it to the Constitution Center for permanent display in the museum. Brostrom was the sonar man on the USS Finback, the sub that rescued Bush on Sept. 2, 1944, after his plane was shot down by the Japanese in the Pacific. Brostrom took Bush to the infirmary, and later shared his bunk with the future president. As he left the sub, Bush gave Brostrom his revolver in gratitude.
■ UNITED STATES
Firefighters at wrong house
Firefighters in Braintree, Massachusetts, drove to a vacant house on Tuesday, cut holes in the roof and walls, and broke windows to test their tools and their proficiency -- only to discover it was the wrong house. They were supposed to be two blocks away at a house slated for demolition. The owners of the damaged home now want the town to pay for the mistake.
■ UNITED STATES
Spiders save arachnophobe
A woman who hates spiders is crediting them with helping save her from a house fire. Danielle Vigue, 18, says she awoke early on Tuesday to find spiders in her room, and started killing them. When more showed up, she went across the hall and got into bed with her 15-year-old sister, Lauren. "I hate spiders, they freak me out," Danielle Vigue told the Saginaw News. A fire was apparently smoldering in the attic of the home in Hemlock, Michigan. A few hours later, Vigue's mother and eight-year-old sister smelled smoke, and flames greeted the family when they opened the door to the room Danielle had earlier left. "I will never kill another spider again," Vigue told WNEM-TV.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not