■ CHINA
Search for Russian called off
Search teams have called off the hunt for the final missing member of an ill-fated Russian canoe expedition, state media said yesterday. Russian and Chinese rescuers met on Wednesday in the city of Hotan in Xinjiang Province and agreed to end their joint 16-day search, the official Xinhua News Agency said. "They said they had found no sign of a survivor in the area," Xinhua said. The missing man has been identified as Dmitry Tishchenko. Two of the expedition's six members, Alexander Zverev and Andrei Pautov, were found alive last week. Rescuers earlier found the bodies of three others who were apparently killed in river accidents.
■ CHINA
Quarter of land deals illegal
Almost a quarter of new land acquisitions in cities are illegal, state media said yesterday, a problem fueling social discontent and a growing number of protests. The Ministry of Land and Resources said 22 percent of new land acquisitions in 90 medium and large cities were illegal in the year following October 2005, Xinhua news agency said. Data collected during the period showed more than 80 percent of acquisitions were illegal in eight cities, where more than 16,000 hectares of land was illegally used, it said.
■ INDIA
Protests held over killing
Hundreds of villagers held angry protests in Indian Kashmir yesterday over the killing of a Muslim farmer by paramilitary forces, police and residents said. Residents said 28-year-old Bilal Bhat was shot dead on Wednesday by paramilitary police after an argument. "Our men fired in self-defense after a group of villagers manhandled them and tried to snatch their weapon, resulting in the death of a villager," Central Reserve Police Force spokesman S.K. Singh said. One of the paramilitary troopers had been detained as part of investigations, Singh said.
■ AUSTRALIA
Joke puts barmaid in court
A "prankster" barmaid who served a patron a shot of disinfectant has appeared in court over what her lawyers said was a "misguided" joke. Melbourne barmaid Emily Craig, 23, served a client a single 30ml shot glass of Pine-O-Cleen disinfectant in March during a 6am drinking bout at Evolution Nightclub, causing him to become violently ill, the Melbourne Magistrates court was told. "This was a misguided joke at an ungodly hour," Craig's lawyer George Balot told the judge, according to reports on Tuesday in local newspapers. Police told the court that Craig "was known for her prankster-style behavior" and once covered a bar in sticky tape. She "upped the ante" with her pranks by serving up the powerful floor cleaner after giving the man shots of pure water.
■ CHINA
Five jailed for `slavery'
Five people have been jailed in eastern China for forcing a group of mentally handicapped people to work in brick kilns, state media reported yesterday, months after the country was rocked by a brickworks slavery scandal. The factory owner and four supervisors were jailed for up to two years for forcing the group to work at the kilns in Anhui Province without payment, the Beijing News said. "They threatened or beat up the victims to make them work for them in the day time, and locked them in at night," the newspaper said, citing the local police. The police discovered the factory in June during a work safety check, the report said. The workers were rescued and resettled, but it did not say how many there were.
■ MOZAMBIQUE
HIV in condoms: bishop
The country's Roman Catholic archbishop has accused European condom makers of deliberately infecting their products with HIV "in order to finish quickly the African people." The archbishop of Maputo, Francisco Chimoio, told the BBC that he had specific information about a plot to kill off Africans. "They want to finish with the African people. This is the program. They want to colonize until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time," he said. His views have prompted outrage from activists trying to combat AIDS. The archbishop's comments could undermine the government's campaign to educate people about the disease in a country where 500 people are infected each day.
■ GAMBIA
Wife given death penalty
A court sentenced a Senegalese woman to death on Wednesday for killing her husband by pouring boiling oil over him after she grew suspicious he was going to take a second wife. Magistrate Harry Jammeh told Kanifing Court that the behavior of Tabara Samb had been "shocking, cruel and deplorable." "The prosecution has proven their case beyond reasonable doubt," he said in his judgement. "Now I am going to sentence you to death."
■ SWITZERLAND
Apartment not for suicides
Right-to-die group Dignitas has been barred from its premises in a Zurich suburb after neighbors objected to the use of the apartment for assisted suicides, the local council said on Wednesday. It was the second blow for the non-profit association this year, after it was forced to move from a previous suburban Zurich apartment when residents complained. Last week, the local council ordered the charity to stop using the new apartment and apply to change its official function from a residence to an "assisted suicide flat." Six people have taken their lives at the new flat, residents say.
■ RUSSIA
Newborn weighs 7.75kg
A Siberian woman who gave birth to her 12th child -- doing more than her fair share to stem the country's population decline -- was stunned to find that little Nadia weighed in at a massive 7.75kg. Nadia was delivered by caesarean section in the local maternity hospital in the Altai region on Sept. 17, a local reporter said. "We were all simply in shock," said Nadia's mother, Tatyana Barabanova, 43. "What did the father say? He couldn't say a thing -- he just stood there blinking." "I ate everything, we don't have the money for special foods so I just ate potatoes, noodles and tomatoes," she said.
■ NIGERIA
House leader broke rules
The leadership of the House of Representatives acted against the rules in approving contracts worth US$5 million to renovate two official residences and buy 10 cars, a panel of legislators said on Wednesday. The scandal over the contracts has paralyzed the House, where emotions ran so high that members came to blows last week during a hearing by the investigative panel after some of them shouted "Thief!" at Speaker Patricia Etteh. Some members have called for Etteh to be impeached since news emerged of the contracts to renovate her 10-bedroom residence and that of her deputy and to buy 10 luxury four-by-four vehicles for the House leadership.
■ MEXICO
Handcuffed kids steal car
Three minors detained in California on suspicion of smuggling drugs stole a US Border Patrol car while still wearing handcuffs and drove it back across the border to Mexico on Sunday. Police in the border city of Mexicali said on Tuesday the three boys had been driving a pick-up truck on a remote Californian highway when a US Border Patrol agent stopped them. Suspicious they were carrying marijuana, he handcuffed them and put them in his patrol car while he searched their truck. But he left the vehicle running and the keys in the ignition, so one of the boys grabbed the steering wheel and they drove off, an official said.
■ UNITED STATES
Indians, Michigan make deal
Five Indian tribes will regulate hunting, fishing and plant gathering by their members on millions of hectares in Michigan under a tentative agreement with the state. Supporters hope the proposal will end decades of bickering over what rights Indians retained when they signed away ownership of land that amounts to 37 percent of the state. The 1836 treaty helped lead to Michigan acquiring statehood the next year. State officials and the leaders of most tribes and sporting groups were lining up behind the plan, saying it does not give the tribes all they want but does protect their interests. The proposed consent decree needs approval of each tribe's government and a federal judge to take effect. The proposal affects much of Michigan's western and northern Lower Peninsula and the eastern Upper Peninsula.
■ UNITED STATES
Boot camp death jury picked
A jury was selected on Wednesday for the trial of seven guards and a nurse from a Florida juvenile boot camp charged in the videotaped beating death of a 14-year-old inmate. The trial is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, the News Herald of Panama City reported. Martin Lee Anderson died in January last year after being taken to a hospital from the now-closed Bay County Juvenile Boot Camp. He had been sent there for a probation violation and became lethargic during a physical fitness test shortly after arriving. An exercise yard videotape shows seven guards hitting the boy with their fists and knees. The nurse is accused of watching but doing nothing during most of the 30-minute encounter. The defendants face as many as 30 years in prison if convicted.
■ UNITED STATES
Illness shuts horse center
Federal officials temporarily shut down the National Wild Horse and Burro Center in northern Nevada, where 130 horses have died from health problems that could pose a threat to workers and visitors. The voluntary closure of the center about 30km north of Reno is a preventive measure because the salmonella bacteria found in some of the mustangs can infect people and domestic animals, officials for the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said on Wednesday. The center's 65 hectares of corrals serve as a holding facility for up to 1,650 animals the BLM rounds up from public rangeland to be vaccinated and marked while awaiting shipment under the agency's wild horse adoption program.
■ UNITED STATES
Simpson memorabilia listed
Game balls, photographs and neckties are among the items authorities seized in O.J. Simpson's armed robbery and kidnapping case, according to a Las Vegas police evidence report. Most items listed on the report are memorabilia from the former National Football League star's career, including footballs, awards and signed photographs. Simpson and five others face several charges in connection with the raid.
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