■ SUDAN
Flood aftermath kills 48
The UN said on Tuesday that massive flooding since mid-June had caused 48 deaths from acute diarrhea and totally or partially destroyed over 62,000 houses. As many as one million people could be affected by the torrential seasonal rains that have caused flash floods in the east, south and center of the country, a government statement also warned. There have been nearly 700 cases of acute diarrhea, causing 48 deaths, in the eastern region of Kassala on the border with Ethiopia, the UN office for coordination of humanitarian affairs said in a statement. Acute diarrhea is caused by poor hygiene conditions as well as by contaminated waters in flooded zones.
■ SUDAN
Explosives seized in suburb
Security services have seized large quantities of explosives in a suburb of the capital, Khartoum, and arrested 20 people for interrogation, the justice minister said on Tuesday. Police and security forces seized "huge quantities" of cylinders used to produce various explosive devices, 18 sacks of ammunition containing hundreds of bullets and four cylinders filed with explosive material, one of which was ready for use, Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi was quoted as saying by the official news agency, SUNA. The raid took place in Hatana, a quiet suburb north of Omdurman -- one of the three town districts that form the capital -- he said.
■ GERMANY
Six men found murdered
Six Italian men, aged 16 to 39, were fatally shot in the western town of Duisburg, a police spokesman said yesterday. Five bodies were found in two cars near the train station at 2:30am and a sixth victim died in an ambulance, police spokesman Hermann-Josef Helmich said. All six were shot in the head, Helmich said. Police did not know yet who could have committed the killings or what the motive might have been, he said. "A witness heard the shots and stopped a police patrol car which was incidentally driving nearby," police spokesman Reinhard Pape said.
■ GREECE
Missing swimmer rescued
A man swept out to sea by strong currents last week while swimming at a beach was rescued alive after three days in the water, authorities said on Tuesday. The 43-year-old man was found semiconscious in the sea late on Monday by holiday-makers at a beach near Aigio, some 180km west of Athens, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. His wife had declared the man missing on Friday, after he failed to return from a swim at a beach some 25km east of Aigio. The man, who was not identified, was treated in hospital for hypothermia.
■ RUSSIA
Man detained for video
Police detained a man yesterday for the suspected distribution over the Internet of a video showing the apparent murder of two men by neo-Nazis, Interfax reported, quoting an Interior Ministry source. The man was held in the town of Maikop, capital of the Adygeya Republic in south. The three-minute film purported to show the beheading of one man and the shooting of another as part of a neo-Nazi promotional video. It is still uncertain if the video material is authentic. The grainy video shows two men posing before a swastika and two others being tied up before apparently being killed in turn.
■ UNITED STATES
Oliver back behind bars
For the second time in two weeks, Oliver, a nine-year-old capuchin monkey at the Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo in Mississippi, escaped his cage. "I know he wasn't happy when we caught him the last time," zoo manager Kirk Nemechek said. He had spent US$300 on new locks for the cage Oliver shares with Baby, another of the park's five capuchins. The locks were installed Friday. On Monday, Oliver got out of his cage, the new locks on the ground. At 2pm on Tuesday the zoo got a tip-off and sent zookeepers and police officers to round up the escapee. Nemechek said he would try titanium locks next.
■ UNITED STATES
Deputy nabs his wife
An off-duty sheriff's deputy in Nevada was pulled over and charged with driving under the influence -- by her husband. Charlotte Moore, 36, a jail deputy and 11-year veteran, was driving her 2004 Pontiac Grand Am when she was pulled over by her husband, Elko County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Moore, a police report said. She allegedly left before being administered a portable breathalyzer test, the Elko Daily Free Press reported. Mike Moore pulled her over again and called the Elko Police Department for backup. He left shortly after another officer arrived.
■ UNITED STATES
Sex tourist pleads guilty
A retired Florida truck driver who traveled to Asia to engage in sex acts with children as young as eight years old has pleaded guilty to travel with intent to engage in illicit conduct, the US attorney's office in Detroit said on Tuesday. Karl Kaechele, 64, was arrested in 2005 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport as he returned from a 90-day trip to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines. He faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 15.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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