■ HONG KONG
MURDERS SURGE IN HALF YEAR
The number of murders nearly tripled in the first half of this year even though the territory’s overall crime rate fell, a media report said yesterday. There were 21 murders in the territory in the first six months of the year, compared with eight in the same period last year, the South China Morning Post said. However, the 10-year average was 49 homicides while last year’s figure was the lowest in 30 years, the police force’s crime and security director John Lee said.
■ INDIA
OFFICIAL SACRIFICES ANIMALS
After the government won a crucial confidence vote last week, there was relief and celebration in the victors’ camps. And, for one central lawmaker, there was also blood. Kishor Samrite, a member of a key party that supports the ruling coalition, said he sacrificed more than 200 goats and four buffaloes at a 16th-century temple in the northeast to thank a goddess for delivering victory to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government. Singh and his Congress party survived the July 22 confidence vote after weeks of political uncertainty that nearly toppled the government.
■ JAPAN
Police raid manufacturer
Police yesterday raided a machine tool maker for exporting equipment without government approval that can be used to make nuclear weapons, officials said. Television footage showed officers raiding the headquarters of Horkos Corp near the western city of Hiroshima. Police were suspicious about the company’s exports of equipment that is normally used to make auto parts but can be converted to produce centrifuge parts for uranium enrichment, a spokesman said. Exports of such sensitive equipment normally require prior approval by the government.
■ THAILAND
BOMB INJURES 18 IN SOUTH
Eighteen people, including a six-month-old baby, were injured in a bomb blast early yesterday at a busy market in the Muslim south, where a separatist insurgency is raging, police said. The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle and detonated with a mobile phone. The blast sent metal flying into the crowded market in downtown Narathiwat. Witnesses told police that a teenager had parked the motorcycle at the market early in the morning, and that the bombed exploded just as two soldiers walked by.
■ PHILIPPINES
TOXIC FERRY SPILL CONTAINED
The toxic cargo of pesticides on a ferry that capsized in June is contained, though leaks may occur if typhoons hit the region, a UN official said. The MV Princess of the Stars lies about 3km off Sibuyan Island with about 10 tonnes of the agricultural chemical endosulfan on board. Water samples show no spill has occurred, the UN’s news service IRIN cited Andrew MacLeod, who oversees relief operations in the country, as saying.
■ THAILAND
INCENSE STICKS CAUSE CANCER
Joss sticks lit as offerings in shrines and temples fill the air with cancer-causing toxins as deadly as traffic fumes and cigarette smoke, according to a Thai study. Manoon Leechawengwong, who led a two-year study of temple workers who clear the smoldering sticks, found the chemicals in the smoke put them at risk of leukemia, lung, blood and bladder cancers. “One joss stick creates the same amount of cancer-causing chemicals at one cigarette,” said Manoon. The findings came from 40 workers in three temples.
■ CYPRUS
SERIAL TREE KILLINGS PROBED
A businessman and his brother appeared in court on Wednesday on suspicion they destroyed scores of pine trees because they were obstructing the view of advertising billboards. The advertising company owner and his brother are accused of destroying 233 pine trees mainly on public highways by injecting pesticide or herbicide through holes drilled into the trunks. The men, who deny any involvement, could face maximum jail terms of three years if convicted. “According to the forestry department, the cost of damage to the trees — which average 27 years old — is 21,127 euros [US$33,000],” investigating officer Iosif Katsouides told the court. “But this is not only about money. The damage is catastrophic to the environment,” he said. The court heard that the businessman had previously complained to the forestry department and asked for the removal of trees that spoilt the view of his advertising billboards.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
BLOOMERS FETCH THOUSANDS
A pair of hand-stitched and embroidered bloomers, with a waistband big enough to fit around a rain barrel, and a VR monogram proving they once belonged to Queen Victoria, sold yesterday for £4,500 (US$8,953). A Canadian collector bought the underwear, which have a 128cm waist. They were sold through Hanson’s auctioneers in Derbyshire, England, by a family whose ancestor once received them as a reward for service as a lady-in-waiting.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
SNAKE SLITHERS INTO BODAYWORK
Firefighters were called to disentangle a 3.65m albino Burmese python trapped in the car bodywork of a pet snake lover, it was reported on Wednesday. Danny Palmer took his pet snakes — Jack, the python, and Molly, a 1.2m boa constrictor — for an outing on the grass in a public park in Southampton, the Daily Southern Echo newspaper reported. But before Palmer was able to get out of his Ford Fiesta, Jack had slithered through a small gap in the boot next to the car’s rear lights. “About 60cm of the snake had disappeared into the car’s bodywork and the rest was in the boot. It looked like there was no way we would be able to get him out,” said Jim Green, animal rescue specialist at the local Fire and Rescue Service. “It’s not something we come across very often, that’s for sure,” Green said.
■ GERMANY
COURT REJECTS SMOKING LAWS
The country’s top court upheld complaints on Wednesday against anti-tobacco laws in two states, in a ruling with broad implications for a country once seen as a smokers’ paradise. The Federal Constitutional Court said clauses of laws in the city-state of Berlin and the southwestern region in Baden-Wuerttemberg were unconstitutional because they threatened the livelihood of owners of small bars and clubs. The ruling means that patrons in single-room bars and discotheques in the two states can keep smoking until at least the end of next year.
■ TURKEY
NINE HELD AFTER BLASTS
Nine people were detained on Wednesday in connection with two bombs in Istanbul on Sunday that killed 17 people and injured 150, state-run news agency Anatolian reported. The bomb blasts were the worst such attacks in the country since 2003, when al-Qaeda carried out a series of bombings in Istanbul. No one has claimed responsiblity, although authorities have pointed the finger at the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK has denied any involvement.
■ MEXICO
Eleven killed in drug war
A police chief and 10 people were murdered on Wednesday in Ciudad Juarez, bringing to 127 the death toll from drug-related violence for last month alone in the city bordering the US, police said. The warfare between rival drug cartels on Wednesday ended the life of police chief Francisco Ventura, who was gunned down after leaving work. Alerted by witnesses, police made three arrests after the shooting, “one of them apparently a local police officer,” the city’s Public Safety Office said. Two men and a woman were shot execution-style before dawn and seven bodies riddled with bullets were found around the city, police said. The 11 killings followed seven murders on Tuesday.
■ HAITI
Ex-officers end standoff
The 24-hour occupation by former military officers of two buildings ended without bloodshed, Radio Metropole reported yesterday. The approximately 200 men occupied a former prison in Cap Haitien and a military barracks in the city of Ouanaminthe on Wednesday, demanding the reinstatement of the army that was dissolved in 1995 by ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and were demanding 14 years of back pay. It was not immediately known what ended the protest. Experts believe the protests could also be connected with attempts by President Rene Preval to reinstall a prime minister after being forced to dissolve his government following April’s famine-related protests.
■ UNITED STATES
Bouncer bars governor
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire was turned away from a bar in the state capital because she couldn’t prove she’s of legal age to drink — and she’s taking it as a compliment: The 61-year-old governor and her staff had served burgers at the annual Capital Lakefair last weekend and afterward went to a downtown Olympia bar called Hannah’s to celebrate. Gregoire says the man checking identifications at the door told her she couldn’t get in without ID, even when others pointed out she was the governor. So she went home. The governor said it was a compliment that the bouncer thought she might be under 21. Hannah’s owner said his 23-year-old part-time bouncer needs more training.
■ UNITED STATES
Gator takes off boy's arm
Sheriff’s deputies say an alligator has bitten off an 11-year-old boy’s arm in Slidell, Louisiana. Deputies say Devin Funck was playing in a neighborhood pond in a subdivision about 32km northeast of New Orleans when the alligator pulled him under. The gator was described as between 3m and 3.6m long. The boy managed to free himself and was airlifted to a hospital. Wildlife officials say they shot the alligator and recovered the boy’s arm largely intact from its belly. The arm was taken to the hospital, but relatives say they are not sure whether it can be successfully reattached.
■ UNITED STATES
Dog cares for tiger cubs
Three tiger cubs at a Kansas zoo are getting some maternal care from an unlikely source — Isabella the golden retriever. The cubs were born on Sunday at Safari Zoological Park in Caney but their mother soon stopped caring for them. Isabella had just weaned her own puppies and was able to step in. “The timing couldn’t have been any better,” zoo owner Tom Harvey said. Isabella licks, cleans and feeds the cubs just like her own puppies. Safari Zoological Park specializes in endangered species. It has leopards, lions, baboons, ring-tailed lemurs, bears and other animals.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion