■ CHINA
Panda habitat expanding
China's endangered pandas have expanded their habitat areas in bamboo forests in two western provinces, researchers have found by tracking their droppings, state media reported yesterday. Xinhua news agency said forestry researchers have identified panda droppings in areas beyond known habitats bordering northwestern Gansu Province and southwestern Sichuan Province. "This indicates an expansion of the giant panda's habitat and probably of its population, too," Huang Huali, vice director of the Baishuijiang Nature Reserve Administration said.
■ INDIA
Floods kill 27
At least 27 people have died and nearly 3 million hit by floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains in eastern India, officials said yesterday. Fourteen people were swept away in swirling floods in eastern Bihar State, officials said. Twelve deaths occurred in worst-hit Bhagalpur District while two people were killed in Darbhanga and Sitamarhi Districts. Two million people were hit by the floods which inundated homes and farms in 11 districts of Bihar, India's second most populous state, they said. The overnight deaths took the rain- and flood-related national toll to almost 800 since the onset of monsoon in India in June.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Possible shark spotted
You might want to stick to the swimming pool: a tourist has filmed what experts said could well be a Great White shark 182m from a beach off England's southwest coast. Nick Fletcher, a holidaymaker, told the Sun tabloid how he saw "the 12 foot maneater" while he was videoing dolphins near the town of St Ives in Cornwall. After seeing the footage, Oliver Crimmen, fish curator at London's Natural History Museum, said: "It's definitely predatory and definitely big. I can't rule out a Great White." Marine experts have said sharks may be seen more often off Britain because of global warming and a rise in sea temperatures.
■ MOROCCO
Hunger strikers to move
A group of 36 Muslim activists jailed over the deadly May 2003 attacks have ended their hunger strike after being promised transfers closer to their families, a support group announced late on Friday. The prison authorities had agreed to begin transferring the inmates, who are being held at Kenitra, north of the Moroccan capital Rabat, to prisons closer to their families. All 36 prisoners were convicted in connection with the devastating Casablanca bombings of May 16, 2003, which killed 45 people and wounded dozens more.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Anti-terrorist leaker jailed
A British police civilian worker was jailed for eight months on Friday for leaking a secret anti-terrorism intelligence report warning of massive al-Qaeda attacks on the West. Thomas Lund-Lack, 59, a retired detective inspector with London's Metropolitan Police, admitted to disclosing secret documents to the Sunday Times. According to the newspaper, the report, compiled by Britain's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC), notably warned that al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq were planning large-scale attacks on the West "on a par" with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Lund-Lack admitted he had done wrong but felt morally justified in informing the public.
■ UNITED STATES
Ice chunks fall from sky
Large chunks of ice, one of them reportedly 22.5kg, fell from the sky in Dubuque, Iowa, smashing through a woman's roof and tearing through nearby trees. Authorities said they were unsure of the ice's origin but have theorized that the chunks either fell from an airplane or naturally accumulated high in the atmosphere -- both rare occurrences. "It sounded like a bomb," said Jan Kenkel, 78. She said she was standing in her kitchen when an ice chunk crashed through her roof early Thursday morning. "I jumped about a foot!" She discovered a messy pile of insulation, bits of ceiling, splintered wood and the ice.
■ UNITED STATES
War planes crash at show
Two single-engine war planes at an experimental airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, collided while landing, killing one of the pilots and injuring the other, officials said. The Federal Aviation Administration said the collision of two P-51 Mustangs happened on Friday afternoon after the planes finished a performance at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture show. P-51 Mustangs are single-seat fighters that were used in World War II. The planes clipped wings on landing. The convention is considered one of the world's largest gatherings of recreational aviators and draws more than 600,000 people and 10,000 planes from around the world.
■ UNITED STATES
Dime worth US$1.9m
John Feigenbaum did not sleep at all during his late-night flight across the country. He is not a nervous flier -- he had a dime coin worth US$1.9 million in his jeans pocket. Feigenbaum, 38, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, is a rare coin dealer, and the dime he was carrying from San Jose to New York is a 1894-S dime, one of only nine known to exist. He picked up the dime, one of only 24 known to be coined in 1894 in San Francisco, on Monday from the seller's vault in Oakland, California, and delivered it to the buyer's vault the next day in Manhattan. Feigenbaum said he and the seller's agent would split a 6 percent commission.
■ UNITED STATES
Virginia Tech aid under way
The lawyer drafting recommendations for Virginia Tech on how to distribute millions in donations after the mass murder on its campus says he will probably make changes to his proposal after he met with victims' families, he said. Kenneth Feinberg met privately with the families on Friday and said there is "a tremendous amount of anger at Virginia Tech." They feel the school "should do more financially and spiritually" to support relatives of the 32 people killed on April 16, he said. Under Feinberg's proposal, victims' families could receive US$150,000 each.
■ UNITED STATES
Lobbying rules tightened
House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a bill to tighten lobbying restrictions, including a requirement that lawmakers disclose those influence peddlers who collect large sums of campaign money for them, participants said. Democratic leaders hope to pass the measure next week. The proposed legislation would require lawmakers to disclose lobbyists who raise US$15,000 or more within a six-month period through bundling. Bundlers solicit campaign checks from numerous people, but their efforts often go undetected under disclosure laws.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number