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World Quick Take

■ PAKISTAN
Boiler blast kills seven
A boiler exploded at a towel factory in Karachi yesterday, killing seven workers and injuring 28 others, police said. Three people were killed at the scene when the steam-producing boiler exploded in the factory's dying unit, police officer Naveed Ahmed said. Four other people died later at a hospital. The blast also injured 28 people, at least seven of them seriously, he said. The deaths and injuries were caused by burns and debris from the boiler and the collapsing factory building, said Liaqat Memon, a doctor at the hospital. Authorities are investigating the cause of the explosion, Ahmed said.

■ INDONESIA
Blocked roads hinder rescue
Rescuers struggled to get emergency aid to regions cut off by floods and landslides in central Indonesia yesterday as the number of people feared dead rose to more than 50, a senior health official said. Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry's crisis center, said local officials reported that seven bodies had been recovered, but at least 45 remained buried after landslides overwhelmed hundreds of houses on Sulawesi island on Sunday. "We believe they have been killed," Pakaya said. He said roads blocked by floods were preventing officials from distributing rice, instant noodles, blankets, medicine and other emergency supplies to some 16,000 forced from their homes.

■ MALAYSIA
Car crash kills 11
Eleven people died and four others were seriously injured yesterday when their van crashed into the back of a truck on a highway, police said. The two Malaysians and nine Burmese who died were traveling on the East Coast Highway toward Kuala Lumpur, said Ahmad Fadzilah Mohamed, acting police chief of Temerloh District. Four other Burmese who were in the van have been hospitalized, Ahmad said, adding that the weather was foggy and the driver was believed to have been sleepy. The driver was not injured.

■ VIETNAM
Officials stand trial
Three government officials and six other men will stand trial next month on charges of gambling and bribery in one of the country's most high-profile corruption scandals, a court official said yesterday. Bui Tien Dung, former head of a project management unit under the Ministry of Transportation, and eight other defendants are accused of organized gambling, illegal betting and bribery, said Nguyen Dinh Hoa, an official at the Hanoi People's Court. The case surfaced last year when police alleged Dung and three accomplices bet US$768,000 on European soccer matches, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. Dung allegedly put down US$760,000 of the total, reports said.

■ MALAYSIA
Spoils spat exposes graft
Four anti-piracy officers who allegedly took a bribe from a DVD bootlegger nearly escaped the law -- until a spat over how to split the spoils caused one of them to confess the crime, the New Straits Times newspaper reported said yesterday. The Anti-Corruption Agency arrested two officers from the Domestic Trade Ministry and two others from a private enforcement agency for allegedly accepting 50,000 ringgit (US$14,700) from the operator of a pirated DVD factory in Klang District, the Times said. The four allegedly received the cash last week in return for turning a blind eye to the factory's contraband output. The deal turned sour after one of the officers allegedly received just 500 ringgit, it said.

■ JAPAN
Blackout strikes Barcelona
About 80,000 households faced a second day without electricity in Barcelona yesterday as power companies tried to repair damage from a broken cable which triggered a chain reaction of network fires. The blackout that struck the city on Monday snarled traffic, hobbled public transportation and knocking out electricity in much of Barcelona, including 300,000 homes. City officials said tens of thousands of homes might have to wait weeks to have their power restored. Firefighters reported a flood of calls from people stuck in elevators on Monday, and police were sent to major intersections to direct traffic.

■ AZERBAIJAN
Journalist stitches mouth
A journalist has gone on a hunger strike and stiched up his mouth to protest his prison sentence, a media freedom activist said. Faramaz Allahverdiyev, a reporter from the opposition Nota Bene newspaper, sewed up his mouth when he went on a hunger strike last week, said Emin Huseynov, who heads the Institute for Freedom and Security of Reporters. Allahverdiyev was sentenced to two years in prison in January on charges of slandering the nation's interior minister. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized the verdict as a blow to media freedom in the nation.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Sacred bull loses in court
The decision to slaughter a bull revered as sacred by his Hindu caretakers is justified, a court ruled. The ruling on Monday could spell the end for Shambo, whose life has been in jeopardy since he tested positive for bovine tuberculosis in April. Local regulations stipulate that cattle with the disease be slaughtered, but Shambo's caretakers at the Skanda Vale monastery in Wales mounted a campaign to save the beast. The monastery also took its case before the public, creating a Webcast called "Moo Tube." Last week, a judge in Wales ordered authorities to reconsider their decision to slaughter the bull. But on Monday the Court of Appeal in London reversed the decision.

■ SOUTH AFRICA
UN ambassador robbed
The ambassador to the UN was robbed at gunpoint at his son's home in Johannesburg last weekend, the latest in a string of attacks on prominent South Africans, a newspaper reported yesterday. Dumisani Kumalo was ambushed by three armed men in the driveway of his son's house on Saturday night, shortly after landing at Johannesburg's airport, the Star said. The thieves took Kumalo's luggage and cell phones, and wallets belonging to him and a number of others who were at the house to attend a birthday party for Kumalo's grandson. One of the guests was shot in the abdomen.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Galloway suspended
The House of Commons on Monday suspended member George Galloway, who was accused of concealing his financial dealings with former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's government. Galloway, known for his fierce opposition to Britain's role in the invasion of Iraq, was suspended for 18 days, following an investigation which found that a charity he set up was partly funded by the late Iraqi dictator. The decision was made without a vote. His suspension will take effect Oct. 8, after parliament returns from recess.

■ US TERRITORIES
Minimum wage goes up
New federal hourly minimum wage rates for American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands were set to rise US$0.50 yesterday. Under a provision of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, the minimum rates for the island territories will further increase US$0.50 an hour each May until they reach the minimum wage generally applicable in the US, the US Department of Labor said in a news release issued on Monday. The minimum wage rates in American Samoa had been established by special industry committees that met biennially. The hourly rates varied by industry, and had ranged from US$3.18 for garment manufacturing employees to US$4.59 for stevedoring workers.

■ UNITED STATES
One sextuplet survives
Only one of six babies born to a Minnesota couple last month was still alive on Monday, and he remained in critical condition, hospital officials said. The fifth sextuplet, Lucia Rae Morrison, died on Sunday, Children's Hospitals and Clinics said. Her death leaves Sylas as the only survivor of the sextuplets born to Ryan and Brianna Morrison on June 10. Three died within the first week of their birth. A fourth child died on June 23. The Morrisons released a statement through the hospital thanking family and friends for support. The babies were born about four months early and ranged in size from 312g to a little more than 500g.

■ UNITED STATES
Drunken riders charged
They were not charged with drunken driving, but police said two people now charged with public drunkenness did try to evade capture on horseback. They were caught when one was knocked off his horse after riding into a utility wire and the other fell off her horse, police said. They were charged with riding a horse on a highway after dark without proper reflective material, being drunk in public and obstruction of justice.

■ UNITED STATES
NBC sued over show
The sister of a former state prosecutor who killed himself after he was targeted by a TV show as a suspected pedophile is suing NBC Universal for US$105 million. Louis William Conradt, 56, shot himself last November after he was confronted at his Terrell, Texas, home by police, whom the lawsuit said were carrying TV cameras for a "To Catch a Predator" segment of NBC's Dateline. The lawsuit by Patricia Conradt accuses NBC of "steam-rolling" police to arrest Conradt "with neither a search warrant nor an arrest warrant" that met legal standards. "They were met by [Conradt]. He told them `I'm not gonna hurt anyone' and shot himself. Then a police officer said to a Dateline producer, `That'll make good TV.'" it said.

■ UNITED STATES
Police nab `Mad Hatter'
FBI agents said that they have arrested a serial bank robber dubbed the "Mad Hatter." James Madison of Maplewood, New Jersey, was arrested on Monday. Authorities believe he is the robber who wore a baseball cap, a fishing hat or a military hat during a number of recent robberies. Madison, 50, was paroled in 2005 after serving 18 years of a 40-year prison sentence for manslaughter of his live-in girlfriend, who was struck with a lamp during a fight. A bank employee wrote down the license plate of the black Nissan Altima as he drove off after the latest robbery.


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