■ NORTH KOREA
Summit may be postponed
North Korea has asked for its landmark summit with South Korea, originally scheduled for later this month, to be postponed until early October, the South Korean presidency said yesterday. "North Korea asked for the summit to be put off until early October," an official said. The request came as the North struggles to recover from devastating floods that have left almost 300 people dead or missing. The summit had been scheduled for Aug. 28 to 30 in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
■ AFGHANISTAN
Insurgents killed in ambush
Nearly a dozen insurgents were killed after an ambush on a joint patrol of Afghan police and coalition troops in Afghanistan's restive southern Helmand Province, the US-led force said. There were no losses among the police or coalition soldiers, it added in a statement late on Friday. US military spokeswoman Captain Vanessa Bowman said it was the third such failed attack in that area in recent days. The statement said around 20 insurgents attacked the patrol with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. Police and troops responded with small arms and artillery fire.
■ japan
Plant damage limited
Key parts of a Japanese nuclear facility appeared to have sustained little damage from a recent earthquake but further observation is needed to establish long-term effects, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday. The magnitude-6.8 quake on July 16, which killed 11 people and injured more than 1,000, caused malfunctions and leaks at Japan's northern Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest in terms of capacity. Philippe Jamet, the IAEA team leader for the mission, said that because of repairs and follow-up inspections it would take "probably a year" to get the complex running again.
■ ITALY
Mattel toys seized
Italian custom agents announced on Friday they had confiscated nearly 75,000 Chinese-made Mattel toys in response to the US company's recall of 18 million products worldwide out of concerns for child safety. The toys were seized at the main Mattel depot in Italy in the Novara Province in the northwest, as well as from containers at the Port of Genoa that had arrived from China. Officials were to test the toys to determine whether they met European standards. Mattel collaborated with the customs agents, they said. The California-based manufacturer of the famous Barbie doll announced the recall on Tuesday amid concerns about high lead levels and small magnets which have seriously injured at least three children.
■ MYANMAR
Drug figures released
Myanmar, the world's second-largest opium producer after Afghanistan, arrested 320 suspected drug dealers and seized some 30kg of opium last month, state media said yesterday. Among those arrested in the military-ruled nation, some 18 percent were women, the official New Light of Myanmar daily said, citing police figures. The junta seized some 16kg of marijuana and 26,200 stimulant tablets last month, the paper said. It gave no comparative data. China, one of the few countries believed to hold any influence with Myanmar's ruling generals, has publicly pressured the junta to do more to crack down on the drugs problem.
■ GERMANY
Fire interrupts teen sex
A teenage couple having sex for the first time were interrupted when candles set fire to the girl's attic bedroom and forced them to flee naked from her parents' house, German daily Bild reported on Friday. The girl had wanted to create a romantic atmosphere for the occasion. But when the room suddenly became engulfed with flames, they had to make a hasty escape. The couple, both 18, were pictured naked in the paper among the burned wreckage of the attic. A charred teddy had survived but the fire wrecked the entire top floor of the house causing around 100,000 euros (US$134,800) in damage.
■ GREECE
Jealous priest in court
A Greek Orthodox priest accused of cutting the brake cables of the man he thought was his wife's lover will appear in court in northern Greece, legal sources said on Friday. The priest, who is married with two children, faces charges of attempted assault, possession of explosives and threats. He serves the northern village of Peristera. He is accused of having waged a campaign against his imagined rival since the spring because he thought the man was having an affair with his wife. The target of the campaign, the village grocer, thought at first that a commercial rival was to blame. He only realised who the culprit was when the priest's wife confided to his own wife.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Man dies in hotel fire
One man died and six people were unaccounted for after a serious fire swept through a hotel in Cornwall early yesterday, police said. Emergency services were called to the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay shortly after midnight after reports that fire, fanned by the wind, was sweeping through the building which forms part of an Edwardian-era terrace. Police said one man had died and three were being treated for injuries in a nearby hospital. Eighty-six residents were evacuated but six were missing. Newquay is known as a surfing center.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Hitler's champagne sold
A bottle of champagne thought to have been taken from Adolf Hitler's wine cellar was sold at auction in Britain on Friday. The bottle of 1937 Moet et Chandon was bought by an anonymous Swedish bidder for ?1,688 pounds (US$3,359 dollars). It is believed to have been in Hitler's personal stock and grabbed by a British soldier in Germany as Hitler's Nazi regime collapsed at the end of World War II. The bottle was given to solicitor Nigel Wilson, 62, to thank him for some legal work "by a soldier who, as far as we can work out, retrieved it from the ruins of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin after the Nazis were defeated in May 1945," said valuer Chris Copson.
■ FINLAND
Nurse charged with murder
A Finnish nurse dubbed the "angel of death" has been charged with murdering two patients and attempting to murder another two including a baby reported to be her own nephew, police said on Friday. The 26-year-old nurse has been charged with the poisoning of a 79-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man at the rehab center where she worked in Yloejaervi, near Tampere in southwestern Finland. She denies the charges and those related to the suspected poisoning at the center of a third pensioner and an eight-month-old baby, reportedly her nephew who was injected with a potentially lethal dose of insulin.
■ UNITED STATES
Pilot takes steak break
A helicopter pilot was ticketed for an illegal landing on Tuesday after he touched down on a grassy area on a busy commercial corridor in Midland, Michigan. The man and the female passenger crossed the road to eat at a steakhouse, police said. Police said the pilot first claimed to have permission to land there, then said the helicopter was having mechanical problems. Police then said a mechanic must ensure the helicopter was flight-ready. "They changed their tune and admitted they ... stopped for lunch," Midland Deputy Police Chief Robert Lane said.
■ UNITED STATES
Hurricane troubles NASA
Worried about Hurricane Dean, Mission Control considered scaling back yesterday's spacewalk at the orbiting space shuttle and station complex to allow for a possible early end to Endeavour's mission. NASA wants to keep its options open for moving up Wednesday's shuttle landing by one day, and shortening the spacewalk would be one way to do it, said Le Roy Cain, a ranking member of the mission management team. Shuttle managers also decided on Friday to put off fuel-tank preparations for the next launch until engineers decide how to best solve the latest foam-loss problem.
■ UNITED STATES
Principal pleads guilty
A former middle school principal accused of selling crystal methamphetamine from his office and home pleaded guilty to drug charges. John Acerra, 50, pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of felony delivery of methamphetamine and one count of felony possession with intent to deliver. He faces at least two years in prison. Acerra was principal of Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, when he was arrested in his office during a police sting. Prosecutors have said there was no indication that Acerra sold the drug to students. Acerra resigned a few days after his arrest.
■ UNITED STATES
Experiment lawsuit settled
Iowa has agreed to pay US$925,000 to unwitting subjects of an infamous 1930s stuttering experiment -- orphans who were badgered as children by University of Iowa researchers trying to induce speech impediments. Judge Denver Dillard issued an order approving the settlement on Friday morning. The six plaintiffs, for whom the experiment left lifelong psychological and emotional scars, had originally sought US$13.5 million. "We believe this is a fair and appropriate settlement," Attorney General Tom Miller said. The 1939 experiment has come to be known as "The Monster Study" because of its methods.
■ UNITED STATES
Heat death toll rises
Authorities in Tennessee and Alabama reported 10 more heat-related deaths, bringing the toll in the southeast and midwest to at least 47 since oppressive high temperatures settled over the region last week. In Memphis, Tennessee, heat has been blamed as a factor in 10 deaths, mostly elderly victims, in nine days. A 62-year-old man was found dead in his home on Friday, the Shelby County Medical Examiner's office said. The heat reached 38.9oC in Memphis on Friday. In Alabama, one reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant remained idle on Friday and two others were operating at reduced power because of overheated water in the Tennessee River, used to cool the plant.
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