■ INDONESIA
Mount Soputan erupts
A volcano erupted on Sulawesi island early yesterday, sending plumes of smoke and hot ash shooting 1,500m into the air, officials said. There were no reports of injuries or damage, but villages along Mount Soputan's base were covered in volcanic dust and many residents were wearing face masks, local volcanologist Sandy Manengke said. "Smoke and debris keep spewing from the mouth of the volcano," he said, adding there was no immediate need for evacuations because the nearest villages were well away from the danger zone. However, farmers who regularly work soil along the mountain's fertile slopes were told to stay clear of the peak.
■ NEPAL
Strike closes schools
A strike called by a students' union to protest the beatings of students shut down schools in the capital yesterday. All elementary schools and high schools in Kathmandu were closed and tens of thousands of students stayed home. The strike was called by the Nepal Student Union, the student wing of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress party, to protest the beatings. The Nepal Student Union said its supporters were attacked at Thapathali College in Kathmandu on Monday. A half-dozen students were severely hurt. It was unclear who the attackers were, or what their motivation was. No immediate comment was available from officials.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Five killed on Ferris wheel
Five family members fell to their deaths from a Ferris wheel after the car they were riding in unexpectedly overturned on Monday at an amusement park in the southern city of Busan, police said. Four people, including a 68-year-old woman and a seven-year-old boy, died at the scene after they fell 20m at around 5:20pm, police said. A 28-year-old woman who was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment died later, police said. There were seven relatives riding in the Ferris wheel car, but the other two were able to cling to handholds and avoid injury, police officer Yoon Jae-man said.
■ JAPAN
Legless and oblivious
A motorcyclist cruised 2km down a road without noticing his right leg had been severed, media reports said yesterday. Police suspect that Kazuo Nagata, 54, was unable to feel the pain because it was so acute. Osada was on a ride with some 10 friends on Monday when he lost his right leg from the knee down after hitting a dividing barrier on a road in Shizuoka prefecture, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. He did not notice his leg was gone until he had to change direction. His friends went back to pick up his leg, which was transported with Nagata by ambulance to a hospital, the Mainichi Shimbun said.
■ MALAYSIA
Bus driver was wanted
The driver of a bus that crashed killing 20 people in the country's worst road accident had two outstanding arrest warrants for reckless driving, initial results of an investigation showed yesterday. Rohizan Abu Bakar, 28, who was among the dead, also had 13 summonses from police, the official Bernama news agency said. It was not clear however why he had managed to evade arrest or how why the operator of the express bus hired him despite his record. According to transportation authorities, Rohizan apparently fell asleep at the wheel.
■ ISRAEL
Dead soldiers identified
Army researchers have identified five soldiers nearly 60 years after they were killed in the 1948 war that led to the establishment of Israel, the army said on Monday. The five soldiers, who belonged to the Givati infantry brigade, were killed on April 28, 1948 near the Arab village of Tel Arish, which today lies near the city of Holon, south of Tel Aviv. The soldiers' remains were buried anonymously and the army spent years trying to establish their identities. These were ultimately established after years of intensive research, which included advanced DNA testing that was conducted in the US, the army said.
■ GAZA STRIP
Israeli army attacks group
Israeli troops and aircraft attacked Islamic militants in the southern part of the territory yesterday, killing two Hamas fighters and two civilians and wounding 15 people, Hamas and Palestinian medical officials said. Hamas said one of its men died in a pre-dawn airstrike, east of the town of Khan Younis, and a second was killed along with his 70-year-old mother when ground troops fired at their house. An Israeli army statement said that in an operation against "terror threats" from the southern part of the territory, forces fired at armed militants in four separate incidents and hit the targets on each occasion.
■ MOROCCO
Man explodes gas canister
A man exploded a gas canister near a tourist bus in a town east of the capital on Monday, the Interior Ministry said. The man, whose arm was blown off in the explosion, had apparently been targeting the bus, said an Interior Ministry official who asked not to be named, citing the department's policy. No other casualties were reported. The attack in Meknes, 130km east of Rabat, came as Moroccan authorities continue a crackdown on suspected extremists following suicide bombings earlier this year. "The individual, who was going toward the bus in a very populated neighborhood, was not able to reach his objective due to the vigilance of the driver," state news agency MAP reported.
■ SPAIN
Five die in bus crash
A bus crashed on a highway on Monday, killing at least five people and injuring 40 others, authorities said. The accident happened near the town of Lopera in the province of Jaen, about 350km south of Madrid, when the bus veered off the highway and overturned, Civil Guard Lieutenant Emilio Garcia said. A preliminary investigation suggested that the bus may have been going at an excessive speed and it crashed while in a sharp bend in the road, Garcia said. TV footage showed the bus overturned in an olive field and rescue teams treating passengers on at the scene.
■ SYRIA
Hostage dies in Nigeria
A man who had been held hostage for a month and a half in Nigeria has died, his cousin said on Monday. Hanna Daher said that he received a telephone call from the embassy in Nigeria on Monday informing him that his cousin, also named Hanna Daher, had passed away. The embassy said Daher had been in a Nigerian hospital suffering from a coma since Saturday. Daher had been working as a foreman for a Nigerian construction company before he was kidnapped.
■ UNITED STATES
Pokemon champs crowned
Three new world champions from Finland, the US and Japan have been crowned at the annual Pokemon games held over the weekend in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Tom Roos, 18, of Finland won the masters division late on Sunday, while Jeremy Scharff-Kim, 13, of the US and Jun Hasebe, 7, of Japan won the senior and junior divisions respectively. Hasebe is one of the youngest champions ever, and the lightning-fast game between him and runner-up Hioki Yano, 11, of Japan, battled down to one prize card each. More than 190 players from 28 countries battled it out over three days in hopes of winning the winners trophy and a share of US$100,000 in scholarship money.
■ UNITED STATES
Man convicted for scam
A jury convicted a man in a marriage fraud scam where hundreds of immigrants gained permanent residency illegally by paying up to US$16,000 to be matched with Americans in fraudulent marriages. Peter Absolam was convicted on Monday in federal court in New York City, three years after an immigrant from Dominica reported the scam to the FBI. Prosecutors say the fraud from April 2001 through November 2005 produced as much as US$1 million from fees paid by hundreds of immigrants. So far, 26 of the 29 people originally charged in the case have pleaded guilty, choosing to avoid trial. Alleged ring leaders Phillip Browne, a US immigration office worker, and his sister, Beverly Mozer-Browne, who owned a financial and legal aid business, have both pleaded not guilty.
■ UNITED STATES
Controversial blogger nabbed
A man who blogs about his attraction to young girls but says he does not touch them was arrested near a child care facility at the University of California, Los Angeles, with a camera, police said. Jack McClellan, 45, who is unemployed and lives out of his car, was arrested on Monday, campus police said. He violated a restraining order requiring him not to loiter or congregate within 9m of minors, police alleged. He maintained a Web site in Washington for years where he posted photos of children he had taken in public places. He also discussed how he liked to stake out parks, fast-food restaurants and other places where little girls congregate.
■ UNITED STATES
Woman pleads guilty
A woman has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a former drummer for the Jackson 5, Indiana authorities said on Monday. Yolanda Davis, 45, will be sentenced to two years in prison if a judge accepts an agreement with prosecutors in Johnny Jackson's slaying. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 24. Davis told police she fatally stabbed Jackson with a steak knife when he lunged at her during a fight. Police found Jackson's body in a Gary home on March 1 last year after responding to reports of a disturbance. Jackson, 55, of Gary, replaced the Jackson 5's original drummer around 1967 but he was not related to the family.
■ UNITED STATES
Garbage takes toll on trucks
It is tough times for trash haulers in West Virginia's second-largest city, which is down to three working garbage trucks. Eight of Huntington's 11 garbage trucks are out of service, along with two flatbed trucks used to pick up loose trash in alleys, Public Works Director Chuck Cornett said. ``It's the age of the equipment catching up with all of the work,'' Cornett said on Monday. The average age of trucks was about 15 years.
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