■ KOREAS
North ‘developing’ warhead
North Korea is working to develop a nuclear warhead which can fit onto a missile, Yonhap news agency quoted South Korea’s top military officer as saying yesterday. “I understand that North Korea is working to develop a small nuclear warhead which can be loaded into a missile,” Kim Tae-young, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told legislators. Kim said he could not say whether Pyonghand had already succeeded in developing such a warhead. But public confirmation by a top Seoul official that the North is trying to produce an atomic warhead for its long-range missiles is unusual. Kim said the North could make six or seven warheads, given an estimated plutonium stockpile of 40 kilos.
■ JAPAN
Man takes a ‘royal’ dip
A bald, naked man who said he was a British tourist went swimming in the moat of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Tuesday, climbing the palace wall, throwing rocks and splashing water at police before being taken into custody. Television footage showed the tall man getting out of the water at one point, chasing police with a rock and a plastic construction site pole.
■ PHILIPPINES
Congressional aide killed
Gunmen shot dead a top aide to a congressman who is an ally of President Gloria Arroyo in an ambush outside his home early yesterday, police said. Robert Delano was in his car when three unidentified gunmen attacked as he left his home in Quezon City, north of the capital Manila. Police said the suspects casually walked away from the scene of the crime, citing witnesses. Delano was rushed to hospital where doctors failed to save him. He was chief of staff to Manuel Zamora, an ally of Arroyo in the House of Representatives. Zamora said Delano was to have picked him up at his house, adding he could not think of any motive for the attack.
■ PHILIPPINES
Rebels dismiss US law
Muslim militants said yesterday that a new US law against recruiters of child soldiers had no bearing on them. The Child Soldiers Accountability Act, which was signed into law last week, makes it a federal crime for rebel groups in the Philippines and 16 other countries to recruit or to use soldiers under the age of 15. The Act allows the US to prosecute any individual on US soil for the offense, even if the children were recruited or served as soldiers outside its territory. Human Rights Watch said the law covers groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Philippines. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the new US law “should have no bearing” on his group, saying the rebellion was an internal matter to the Philippines. “Also, we don’t recruit minors. There is no policy from the MILF leadership allowing any of its commanders to use children in battle,” Kabalu said.
■ INDIA
Infant deaths probed
Authorities have ordered a probe into the deaths of 35 newborn babies in four days at a run-down hospital in West Bengal state, a minister said yesterday amid allegations of neglect. The deaths occurred due to pneumonia and septicaemia among the infants, who were all born prematurely at a large state-run hospital. Officials said the 600-bed hospital lacked basic facilities, with 140 children cramped into wards with only 40 beds. “Many children are accommodated on the floor due to non-availability of beds,” the state’s top health official, Sanchita Bakshi, said. Eyewitnesses said rodents, cats and dogs had been seen inside the children’s section of the hospital.
■ HUNGARY
Military plane forced to land
A plane carrying four Hungarian soldiers on its way to the Afghan capital Kabul was forced to land in Iran, the Defense Ministry said late on Tuesday, clearing up confusion about the aircraft, which Iranian media had claimed was from the US. The plane was forced to land for bureaucratic reasons, the ministry said. On board there were also three crewmembers from the company Jas Cargo, which had rented the plane to the army. The soldiers are part of a team that runs Kabul’s international airport. The Hawker 800 aircraft was forced to land because there was a mistake in one figure in the written overflight permit, ministry spokesman Istvan Bocskai said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Brits value sex and in-laws
Being too tired for sex is less of a problem for married Britons than for US or Australian couples, and Brits place more importance on agreeing on how to handle their in-laws, online dating company eHarmony has found. US-based eHarmony, which boasts 118 marriages every day in the Us and launches in Britain this week, says married people in Britain are also more satisfied with how they share household chores and how much time they spend together.
■ ISRAEL
West Bank closed down
The West Bank was closed ahead of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, which started at sunset yesterday, a military spokesman said. The closure will continue until 8am tomorrow. The West Bank is routinely closed before Jewish holidays for fear of attacks by Palestinian militants. Police on Wednesday also stepped up security across Israel. “We have carried out a maximum deployment of our forces across the whole of the territory,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Israel comes to a standstill during Yom Kippur: All TV and radio broadcasts are halted, all public transport stops, ports and airports are closed and entertainment venues are closed.
■ TURKEY
Anti-rebel effort up for vote
Parliament is getting ready to vote on whether to extend by another year the military’s authority to carry out operations against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Lawmakers were expected to approve the motion during yesterday’s session, which comes less than a week after rebels launched an attack from Iraq, killing 17 soldiers. The military’s current mandate expires on Oct. 17. The prime minister has indicated the military could launch new cross-border ground operations into Iraq.
■ RWANDA
New museum planned
The government plans to turn the home of assassinated president Juvenal Habyarimana into a museum to promote reconciliation. Habyarimana died on April 6, 1994, when his private jet was shot down near Kigali airport, an incident that helped trigger genocide in the central African nation. Some 800,000 people were killed in the mass slaughter that began the day after his death. The eight-bedroom presidential palace has been left much as it was that day in 1994, with big leather couches, gold-plated French-style chandeliers and thick carpets still in place. “Our children should grow up knowing that what happened was very bad and should never be repeated,” Minister for Culture and Sports Joseph Habineza said. One part of the house will tell the story of the 1994 bloodshed, including exhibits of some of the machetes and hoes used by militias to carry out the slaughter.
■ MEXICO
Calderon highlights murders
Latin America has the world’s highest murder rate with 27 killed for every 100,000 inhabitants compared with the world average of five per 100,000, President Felipe Calderon said on Tuesday. Suspected drug-related murders are reported almost daily in Mexico with some 3,500 killed so far this year. The US has promised a US$400 million package of anti-drug crime aid to Mexico, part of a US$1.6 billion “Merida Initiative” destined for Central America and the Caribbean. “It’s important that these initiatives also translate to a continental level, because the problem of criminality and organized crime is continental,” Calderon said at the start of a security conference of justice officials from 34 countries of the Organization of American States (OAS). Insecurity costs the area some 15 percent of GDP, he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Building climber indicted
A man who climbed the New York Times building over the summer to promote the fight against malaria has been indicted on criminal charges. Renaldo Clarke was indicted on Tuesday on three counts related to his June 5 stunt. If he is convicted of the most serious he could go to prison for a year. Clarke climbed to the top of the building hours after another man, who was not charged. A third man who scaled several floors of the building July 9 also has been indicted.
■ MEXICO
Heart attack kills 450kg man
One of the world’s heaviest men, 450kg 47-year-old Jose Luis Garza, died of a heart attack on Tuesday, doctors said in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon. Garza died during a journey to hospital from his house in a suburb of the city of Monterrey, where rescuers had to break down a wall to take him outside, said a state health official. Garza weighed 90kg more than another Monterrey resident, Manuel Uribe, who was rated the world’s heaviest man in the Guiness Book of Records but lost 230kg on a diet.
■ UNITED STATES
Palin related to Princess Di
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is distantly related to the late Princess Diana and late US President Franklin Roosevelt, genealogy experts said on Wednesday. The governor of Alaska and the princess are tenth cousins, while Palin and Roosevelt are ninth cousins once removed, Ancestry.com said. “When you’ve got candidates who have deep roots in America, there’s a good chance that they’re going to have some famous cousins,” said Ancestry.com’s Megan Smolenyak. “We’ve all got literally millions of cousins. The trick is finding that one little connection that results in something like Sarah Palin being related to FDR or Diana,” she said. Palin and the late princess descended from John Strong and his wife Abigail, Ancestry.com said. Strong was born around 1605 in England and emigrated to the US, Ancestry.com said. Palin and Roosevelt share ancestor John Lothrop, who was born in England in 1584 and emigrated to Massachusetts.
■ MEXICO
Hurricane strengthens
Hurricane Norbert strengthened into a powerful Category 2 storm over the Pacific Ocean and forecasters warned that it could reach Baja California by the weekend. The hurricane was expected to become a major Category 3 storm yesterday and then turn toward the northeast tomorrow on a path that could take it over the southern Baja peninsula and the Mexican mainland, the US National Hurricane Center said.
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