■ VIETNAM
Old mortar shell kills man
A man was killed and two others were seriously injured when a Vietnam War-era mortar shell they were sawing for scrap metal exploded, state media said yesterday. The men discovered six 105mm mortar shells from the Vietnam War in Cu Pao village, in Dak Lak Province. One of the shells exploded when they tried to open it, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) Newspaper reported. Bui Huu Tam, 28, was killed instantly. The explosion also seriously injured two others, who were still hospitalized, the paper said.
■ INDONESIA
Bird flu fears ease
Authorities have cleared four out of six members of a family hospitalized with bird flu symptoms, a health official said yesterday. The six come from a small village in Banten Province and had been suffering from high fever after more than a dozen sick ducks died in their backyard. Tests showed four out of the six admitted to a hospital on Friday did not have the H5N1 virus, said Nyoman Kandun, director-general of communicable disease control at Indonesia's health ministry. "We are still awaiting test results for the remaining two to come out, but so far results have lowered fears of a cluster," Kandun said.
■ PHILIPPINES
Marine, militants killed
One marine and several al-Qaeda-linked militants were killed in a clash early yesterday on a southern island, the military said. Troops from the 2nd Marine Brigade were checking a report by villagers about the presence of Abu Sayyaf gunmen outside Kalingalan Caluang township on Jolo island when they encountered the militants Major General Reuben Rafael said.
■ CHINA
Xi moves up CCP ranks
One of China's new political heavyweights, Xi Jinping (習近平), has been appointed head of the Communist Party's leadership school, strengthening prospects that he will eventually take one of the country's top two posts. The People's Daily newspaper, the party's mouthpiece, yesterday also described Xi as president of the school, which carries great political power because it trains aspiring leaders. Appointments to such positions are not always formally announced. Xi, a former Communist Party boss of Shanghai, is believed to be poised eventually to succeed China's President Hu Jintao (胡金濤) or Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶).
■ CHINA
Ancient ship raised
An 800-year-old merchant ship was raised from the bottom of the South China Sea yesterday, loaded with artefacts that might confirm the existence of an ancient maritime trade route linking China and the West. The 30m wooden vessel, containing thousands of gold, silver and porcelain trading goods, was hoisted onto a barge in a steel cage as high as a three-story building, a live broadcast by national television showed. Named the Nanhai No. 1 or "South China Sea No. 1" by archaeologists, the ship was discovered in 1987 off the coast of Guangdong Province, buried in 2m of silt at a depth of 30m. The Nanhai could provide evidence of a "Marine Silk Road" linking China's Guangdong and Fujian provinces to Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.
■ JAPAN
Fire death toll rises to four
Another body was found at the site of a chemical plant fire in Japan yesterday, raising the death toll to four, plant officials and police said. Firefighters had already found three bodies by Friday night after putting out the fire at an ethylene plant of major Japanese chemical maker Mitsubishi Chemical Corp in the northern Tokyo suburb of Kamisu. Police were still trying to identify the bodies, and said they were aware the company was missing four workers at the factory. Company officials suspected the fire, which broke out on Friday afternoon, could have started if hot oil leaked while the workers conducted maintenance work on pipes.
■ PAKISTAN
WHO says bird flu contained
Limited human-to-human bird flu transmission may have occurred in Pakistan, but no new infections have been reported for two weeks and there appears to be no threat of further spread, a top WHO official said. A WHO team has finished its initial investigation in Pakistan after up to nine patients, including several family members, were suspected of being infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus in areas north of Islamabad. They were the country's first reported human cases. The experts were expected back in Geneva to begin piecing together how the virus may have spread, but they found no evidence of anyone currently sickened by the virus, David Heymann, the WHO's top flu official in Geneva, said on Friday.
■ TAJIKISTAN
Avalanche kills at least 16
An avalanche killed at least 16 people yesterday, a source in the Interior Ministry said. The avalanche hit a road that connects the Central Asian state's capital Dushanbe with another city, Khudjand. It was not immediately clear how many people were trapped at the mountainous site, 70km north of Dushanbe, the source said. The ministry made no official comment on the death toll.
■ FRANCE
Journalists held in Niger
Two French journalists detained while on assignment in Niger have been charged with threatening state security after they traveled to the volatile north of the country, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on Friday. Reporter Thomas Dandois and cameraman Pierre Creisson were taken in for questioning on Monday, while filming a piece for French-German television channel Arte, the statement said. Judicial officials contend the journalists traveled to the northern desert region to do a story about a rebel group when they had received official authorization do a story about bird flu.
■ FRANCE
Sarkozy visits Afghanistan
French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, touching down at Kabul airport early yesterday to visit with France's troops there, the presidential office said. The office said he would meet with his counterpart, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and visit with French troops. There was no mention of how long Sarkozy would stay there. However, his official schedule is free until tomorrow afternoon. France has some 2,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force there.
■ ITALY
Da Vinci papers grow mold
Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus, the largest collection of drawings and writings by the Renaissance master, has been infiltrated by mold, officials said on Friday. The extent of the damage is not yet known to the roughly 1,120-page Codex containing Da Vinci drawings and writings from 1478 to 1519 on topics ranging from flying machines to weapons and mathematics to botany. But officials say any conservation measures will be very expensive and there are no funds for the work. The Codex is kept in a vault at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, where temperature and humidity are constantly monitored. Mold was first discovered in April of last year by an American Da Vinci scholar.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Pleas entered in biker case
Five men pleaded not guilty on Friday in the murder of a Hells Angel biker who was gunned down while riding his motorcycle on a freeway. Gerry Tobin, 35, was shot in the back of the head in August as he returned home from the Bulldog Bash bikers' festival at Long Marston, in central England. Simon Turner, 41, Dane Garside, 42, Malcolm Bull, 53, Dean Taylor, 46, and Ian Cameron, 45, entered their pleas by video link at Birmingham Crown Court. Two more men also charged in the murder are due to plead next month.
■ RUSSIA
Putin judo video on the way
He is better known for political maneuvers, but soon anyone with a DVD player will be able to check out Russian President Vladimir Putin's moves in another area of expertise: judo. Putin, a black belt, said on Friday that he and Yasuhiro Yamashita, a World and Olympic judo champion from Japan, have made an instructional video together. Two years ago, Putin and Yamashita attended a judo lesson in St. Petersburg together, helping students to practice holds at the judo school Putin, 55, attended in his college years. He had met Yamashita during a visit to Tokyo the previous month. Putin co-authored a judo manual several years ago.
■ UNITED STATES
T-shirt causes ruckus
A high school official made a mistake by telling a student to cover up a lesbian-themed T-shirt or face suspension, the school's principal said, a day after the American Civil Liberties Union demanded the school apologize to the teen. Bethany Laccone, 17, said she was asked to cloak a logo of two interlocked female symbols while attending a hotel management class this month at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, Virginia. She is a senior at nearby Woodrow Wilson High School, where she has not faced a similar ultimatum.
■ UNITED STATES
We didn't start the fire
Three men pleaded not guilty to causing a wildfire that destroyed 50 homes in Malibu and their lawyers said outside court they were being made scapegoats by an outraged community. Attorneys entered not guilty pleas Friday for Brian David Franks, 27; William Thomas Coppock, 23; and Brian Alan Anderson, 22, all of Los Angeles. They are among five men who have been charged with recklessly causing a Nov. 24 fire that swept through 1,600 hectares of Malibu canyon land. Six firefighters were hurt battling the blaze, and 50 homes and 35 other buildings were destroyed.
■ UNITED STATES
Gift sparks stabbing
A woman stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife following an argument that began when she accused him of opening a Christmas present early, authorities said. Misty Johnson, 34, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and battery, a felony, and misdemeanor domestic battery. Her husband, Shawn Fay Johnson, 34, was treated at a hospital for a wound to the chest, police said on Friday. Misty Johnson made an initial court appearance on Thursday in which she requested a court-appointed attorney, authorities said. She was released after posting bail, which was set at US$7,500.
■ UNITED STATES
FBI seeks giant database
The FBI is embarking on a US$1 billion project to build the world's largest computer database of biometrics to give the US government more ways to identify people at home and abroad, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The FBI, the main investigative arm of the Department of Justice, has already started compiling digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns in its systems, the paper said. Next month, the agency -- which focuses on violations of federal law, espionage by foreigners and terrorist activities -- expects to award a 10-year contract to expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives, it said.
■ CUBA
Model visits housing project
Supermodel Naomi Campbell, who recently conducted a lengthy magazine interview with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on Friday visited a new housing project his country built for Cuban oil refinery workers. Cuban news agency Prensa Latina said the British-born model chatted with a young married couple who will live in one of 100 small, white cookie-cutter houses recently built near the Camilo Cienfuegos refinery. Accompanied by Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Alejandro Gonzalez, Campbell posed with the couple after congratulating them on their new home. It was unclear what Campbell was doing in Cuba, but she visited Venezuela in October for an interview with Chavez for an unspecified publication.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in