■ AUSTRALIA
`Rudd's reputation intact'
The vast majority of citizens believe a drunken visit to a strip club by the man tipped to be their next prime minister simply proves he is "a normal bloke," an opinion poll showed yesterday. A remarkable 85 percent of voters, both men and women, saw opposition leader Kevin Rudd's escapade in a New York nightclub in those terms, according to a poll for the Herald Sun newspaper. The Labor Party leader had predicted he would suffer in opinion polls after admitting visiting the racy Scores nightclub in New York during a trip to the UN four years ago -- and being too drunk to remember much about it.
■ CHINA
Miners crawl to safety
Two brothers have crawled to safety after being trapped for nearly six days in a coal mine, state media said on yesterday. Rescuers and their family had given them up for dead after 130 hours underground after a tunnel collapsed, the China Daily said. Brothers Meng Xianchen (孟憲臣) and Meng Xianyou (孟憲有) were trapped while working at an illegal mine in Beijing's Fangshan District late on Saturday, Aug. 18. Two days later, rescue efforts were called off. "The miners' families were in despair, burning `ghost money' for the deceased at the entrance of the mine," the China Daily said. "The only people who didn't give up were the miners themselves" who started building a tunnel towards the entrance.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Fat animals going on diet
After almost a decade of the good life, tubby animals in a zoo are to go on a diet. Seoul Grand Park zoo, which had been feeding its charges according to 1998 guidelines, has decided to go back closer to nature, the JoongAng Daily reported yesterday. "Feeding the animals according to the 1998 guidelines made the animals overweight," Park Seon-deok, a member of the animal management team, was quoted as saying. The zoo will decrease the amount of processed food, to which the animals have become accustomed, and increase the amount of natural materials.
■ JAPAN
Internet murderers arrested
Three men who met on an Internet site that matches up criminals were arrested after battering a woman to death and abandoning her body in a forest, police and media said on yesterday. The three arrested men swapped details on a "crime mates" site through their mobile phones, Kyodo news agency reported, and agreed to kidnap a 31-year-old office worker as she walked home late on Friday night. They never told each other their names, and bashed the woman to death in a car park after she saw their faces, Kyodo said, adding the three robbed the woman of around ¥70,000 (US$601).
■ AFGHANISTAN
US regrets football drop
The US military yesterday expressed regret for a publicity campaign aimed at winning hearts and minds that ended up offending scores of Muslims. US troops on Friday dropped dozens of free footballs for soccer-mad children from helicopters in the southeast, all marked with flags of various countries. But the balls depicted the Saudi Arabian flag, which features the Islamic declaration of faith and includes the names of Allah and the prophet Mohammed. The idea of kicking something bearing their names is considered deeply offensive to Muslims.
■ BULGARIA
Wildfires kill two
Weekend wildfires killed two people in the southern part of the country, reduced hundreds of acres of meadows and forests to ashes and destroyed dozens of houses, officials said yesterday. Two elderly people died in a fire that burned down their house in the southern village of Prisadets, said Darina Stamatova, spokeswoman of the regional administration. A photographer on the scene said almost all houses in the villages of Prisadets, Varnik and Filipovo were destroyed by the flames. Emergency units were taking injured to nearby hospitals to be treated for burns and breathing problems.
■ RUSSIA
Ten arrested in probe
Prosecutors have detained 10 people in connection with the killing of reporter Anna Politkovskaya and will soon charge them, the Itar-Tass news agency quoted the chief prosecutor as saying yesterday. "We have made serious progress in the Politkovskaya murder investigation," the agency quoted Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika as saying. "Ten people have been arrested in connection with this case and literally, in the very near future, they will be charged with carrying out this grave crime." Politkovskaya was a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin. Her murder last October brought a wave of international condemnation and prompted concern about press freedoms in the country.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Camilla to miss service
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has announced that she will not attend Friday's memorial service marking the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death. She had accepted an invitation from her husband Prince Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, to attend the service. But some criticized that as inappropriate, since Camilla had had an affair with Charles when he was still married to Diana. "I'm very touched to have been invited by Prince William and Prince Harry to attend the thanksgiving service for their mother Diana, Princess of Wales," the duchess said in a statement on Sunday. "However ... I believe my attendance could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion, which is to focus on the life and service of Diana."
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Shooting suspects released
Four teenagers arrested in connection with the shooting death of 11-year-old Rhys Jones have been released without charge, and two more were released on bail, police said yesterday. Two boys, aged 16 and 19, were released on bail, while two others, aged 15 and 19, and two girls, 15 and 18, were released without charge, Merseyside police said. This leaves no one in police custody in connection with the death of Rhys, who was shot in the neck last Wednesday in the Croxteth area of Liverpool, apparently by a teen riding a bicycle.
■ UGANDA
Soldiers killed in crash
Seventy-one soldiers were killed and another 41 injured, many seriously, when their huge truck crashed into a concrete barrier at the side of a mountain road, a spokesman said yesterday. "It was a trailer and the soldiers were changing location from eastern Uganda. Apparently no one escaped unhurt," army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye said. The crash, one of the country's worst in recent memory, happened late on Sunday in the nation's mountainous east, he said.
■ GUATEMALA
Menchu wraps up campaign
Trailing in the polls and short on funds, Nobel peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu closed her national campaign for the Sept. 9 presidential election on Sunday. Menchu was forced to halt her campaign earlier than the other main candidates due to a lack of funds. A survey in the Prensa Libre newspaper last week showed less than 3 percent of respondents would vote for her. Most Guatemalans are ethnic Mayans but Menchu has been unable to close the gap on front-runners Alvaro Colom, a left-leaning engineer, and right-wing retired General Otto Perez Molina. The pair are headed for a runoff vote in November.
■ COLOMBIA
FARC blamed for deaths
Gunmen raided a southern farm and killed nine people, including four children, in an attack which authorities blamed on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Colonel Harold Martin Lara, chief of police in Putumayo state, told Caracol Radio on Sunday that the assailants belong to FARC. He said the owner of the farm where the two families had lived "received threats for refusing to pay bribes to the guerrillas." The farmers were killed after attending a church service near the town of Puerto Asis. A 13-year-old girl who was asleep at the time survived, Lara said.
■ UNITED STATES
`Designer estrogen' created
Researchers have designed a form of estrogen that can protect the brain against degeneration without increasing a woman's risk for breast or uterine cancer, according to a study released yesterday. The scientists suggest this "designer estrogen" could be used to treat brain deterioration in several conditions including Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury. The experimental estrogen has only been tested on mice so far, but in those studies it halted the progress of the disease in mice infected with the animal version of the autoimmune disease MS. The animals also recovered their ability to walk again. The study was published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
■ UNITED STATES
Student hugs 765 people
Kneeling for children and stretching to embrace taller people, college student Jordan Pearce believes she has hugged her way into the record books. Pearce, 18, said she hugged 765 people in less than an hour on Saturday and plans to send the results to Guinness World Records to be confirmed. "I feel like I'm on cloud nine," Pearce said after the last hug Saturday in Provo, Utah. To help certify the event, District Judge Lynn Davis and state Senator Curt Bramble counted the hugs, which required arms and hands wrapped around the person. One man spilled a drink on Pearce. A little girl refused to let go of her blue sucker, and a little boy kicked and screamed, not wanting to hug a stranger, the Daily Herald of Provo said.
■ UNITED STATES
Mine search continues
Federal and mine company officials said on Sunday that a seventh borehole was being punched into the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah and that a special robotic camera was being lowered into a hole drilled during previous efforts to find six miners trapped by an Aug. 6 cave-in. The camera is similar to one used to search within the wreckage of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks. "The families are thrilled to hear this," said Colin King, a lawyer for the miners' families.
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