■ Thailand
Shootings kill seven
Seven people were killed in four separate shooting incidents in the nation’s troubled southern states, police said yesterday. In a drive-by shooting early yesterday, witnesses said at least five militants in a pick-up truck opened fire on a tea shop in Yala Province’s Raman District, killing four villagers and wounding four others. Nearby, in the Bannang Sata District of Yala, a 56-year-old Thai Buddhist man was shot dead and beheaded before his body was set on fire Friday, while his 28-year-old son was seriously wounded. A 41-year-old Thai Muslim man was shot dead in his pick-up truck in a drive-by shooting in the same area shortly afterwards. In the neighboring province of Pattani, a 56-year-old retired teacher was shot dead on Friday evening in the Meung District after leaving a mosque. More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004 in the south.
■ CHINA
Skimpy outfits barred
The government has told discos, karaoke bars and other entertainment venues to install windows in private rooms and ensure staff dress modestly from Oct. 1 as part of an effort to crack down on prostitution and drugs. Rules released on the Ministry of Public Security’s Web site state that entertainment venues must install transparent partitions between rooms that ensure “the whole environment of the consumer’s entertainment area in the room can be seen.” “When open for business, the transparent part of rooms and windows to rooms at singing and dancing entertainment venues must not be obstructed,” the rules say. Discos, karaokes and other bars in the country frequently have private rooms for hire and are a favorite places for businessmen to entertain guests.
■ Sri Lanka
Thirty-five rebels killed
Government forces attacked Tamil Tiger rebels along the country’s northern front lines, triggering a series of gunbattles that killed 35 rebels and one soldier, the military said yesterday. The latest fighting broke out in the Jaffna, Vavuniya, Welioya and Mannar regions bordering the rebels’ de facto state in the north on Friday, a defense ministry official said on condition of anonymity because of government regulations. Troops captured a rebel bunker along the front lines in Vavuniya on Friday after a clash that killed two rebels and one soldier, the official said. Other battles in Vavuniya killed 18 rebels and wounded three soldiers. Fighting in Mannar, Jaffna and Welioya left 15 rebels dead and one soldier wounded, he said. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not immediately be reached for comment.
■ Hong KOng
Drugs in schools on the rise
Police were preparing yesterday to put more officers on duty in schools after a surge in the number of drug cases involving young teenagers. The wealthy city of 6.9 million has seen a 50 percent annual rise in drug-related arrests involving youths aged between 10 and 15 in the first four months of this year, police statistics show. Police commissioner Tang King-shing said more than 1,800 people aged under 21 were arrested last year over cases involving drugs, a 70 percent rise from 2006. Speaking on government-run radio station RTHK, Tang said the force would recruit 27 more school liaison officers who will visit schools regularly and try to identify the sources of the problem. Legislators have also been asked to consider allowing random drug testing of pupils in an effort to weed out the suppliers spreading drugs inside schools.
■ NETHERLANDS
No nukes for Iran students
The country will ban Iranian students from studying nuclear technology, a source of tension between Iran and world powers, at its universities, the government said on Friday. Some powers including the US suspect Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at producing energy to serve a growing population. Friday’s measure adds to a Dutch decree adopting international sanctions against Iran that were put in place last year. It bans Iranians notably from the nuclear reactor in Borssele in the southeastern Netherlands, and from a test reactor at the Delft University of Technology. The ministry said the ban does not cover undergraduate studies up to bachelor’s degree level, which are considered not to be specialized, and that it will consider requests for exceptions to be made.
■ ARGENTINA
Glacier ruptures in winter
Park officials say one of Argentina’s most famous glaciers has begun a rare winter rupture. Carlos Corvalan is director of the country’s Glacier National Park. He says there is no record of such an ice break during the southern hemisphere’s winter months, June through August. Breaks during summer melts happen regularly. The break began on Friday morning, officials said. Corvalan said the rupture could be caused by global warming. The Perito Moreno glacier cuts Lake Argentino in two. Water flows beneath the ice when the level on one side of the lake rises higher than the other. The rushing water erodes the ice and sometimes causes it to collapse.
■ UKRAINE
Judge outlaws statue
A judge on Friday ruled illegal a move by Russia to put up a statue of its former Empress Catherine II in Sevastopol, a flashpoint of tensions between the country and its ex-Soviet master. Judge Viktor Alsufiyev read out a ruling ordering that the city authorities’ decision to place the bronze and marble statue in the southern port — home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet — be “recognized as illegal.” He did not explain the legal grounds for his ruling on the statue of the 18th century empress, under whose rule Russia invaded the Crimea region where Sevastopol lies. Alsufiyev said a legal motion to have the monument demolished could be lodged at the court. The 6m statue was inaugurated last month by supporters of Moscow.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Sex ed for four-year-olds
Two leading sexual health charities are calling for children as young as four to be given compulsory sex education. Brook and the Family Planning Association argue that teaching children about sex from a young age would help cut abortion rates and sexually transmitted infections when adolescents. The charities said children should be taught the names of body parts and about sex and relationships. The Brook chief executive, Simon Blake, said: “If we get high-quality sex and relationships education in every primary and secondary school across the UK all the evidence shows teenage pregnancy rates will continue to fall and will improve young people’s sexual health. “While sex and relationships education continues to be patchy, another generation of children and young people do not get the education they need to form healthy relationships and protect their sexual health.” He wants every primary and secondary school to be legally required to provide sex and relationships education and secondary schools to ensure young people have access to free confidential contraceptive and sexual health services.
■ UNITED STATES
Man fakes heart attack
A 52-year-old Milwaukee-area man has been accused of faking heart attacks to avoid paying restaurant bills and cab fares. Police say the Waukesha, Wisconsin, man took a cab to a mall on Monday and pretended to have a heart attack. The cab driver left unpaid. Authorities say the man then ran up a US$23 bill when he had a steak dinner at a restaurant. He again pretended to have a heart attack. This time the fire department took him to a hospital. A doctor there recognized the man as having pulled the same stunt in the past few weeks.
■ UNITED STATES
Cheese at Times Square
A sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence made from a 1-tonne block of cheddar cheese glistened on the sidewalk of Times Square in New York on Thursday as an artist’s tribute to the Fourth of July. “It’s very patriotic, using the signing of the Declaration of Independence, bringing Americans together for the Fourth,” said Troy Landwehr, who carved the sculpture for cracker company Cheez-It to celebrate Independence Day. He worked eight hours a day for a week in a 4.4˚C cooler carving the block of Wisconsin cheddar.
■ UNITED STATES
Man fires into crowd
At least one person fired a gun into a crowd in a street in Milwaukee early on Friday, killing four people and sending panicked revelers running for cover, police said. Two women and two men were killed at about 2:30am, police spokeswoman Anne Schwartz said. Two people were injured, including Sylvia Ware, who was returning home from celebrating her 35th birthday at a nightclub. She pulled up in front of her house and saw 10 to 20 people outside. She heard gunshots and ducked in her car. The window shattered and she felt something hit her upper back. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God. My back is burning. I’m hit! I’m hit!’” she said.
■ UNITED STATES
Teens pelted with rocks
Two teenagers who drove to Oniontown, New York, after a series of YouTube videos portrayed the hamlet as a run-down, backwoods dump were pelted with rocks by an angry group of young residents, authorities said. The two 17-year-olds from Mahopac, about 48km south of Oniontown, suffered head and face injuries. Troopers arrested a 17-year-old from Oniontown on Thursday and charged him with criminal mischief. Additional arrests were expected, police said. State police investigator Eric Schaefer said it was not the first time out-of-towners were attacked by local residents. “The biggest recommendation at this point is for everybody to stay out of there,” Schaefer said.
■ CANADA
Poutine offends group
The US embassy in Ottawa apologized on Thursday for a party invitation that featured a prominent figure in Canadian history brandishing a large plate of French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. The dish — known as poutine — is often looked down on as a kind of staple fast food in the French-speaking province of Quebec, where some nationalists are quick to take offense at what they see as unfair treatment by the country’s English-speaking majority. The e-mailed invitation to a Canada Day party on Friday showed Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who founded Quebec City on July 3, 1608, holding a plate of poutine.
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the