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■JAPAN

Protest meets US submarine

Officials lodged a protest with the US after a US nuclear submarine made an unannounced visit in a southern island, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The USS Providence arrived in the White Beach Naval Facility on the southern island of Okinawa on Monday without prior notice, a requirement under a bilateral agreement, and stayed there for two hours, the ministry said. “It is extremely regrettable that a US submarine visited one of our ports without proper advance notice,” the ministry said in a statement. “The United States must notify our government at least 24 hours before its nuclear submarines visit our ports.”



■CHINA

Stadium engulfed in flames

A second fire in four months engulfed the indoor stadium that is being built for next year’s 11th China National Games in the eastern city of Jinan, state media reported yesterday. About seven fire trucks and dozens of fire fighters rushed to the lotus-shaped Olympic Sports Centre stadium in Shandong Province, which will stage the ball games next October, Xinhua news agency said. Fire fighters were still battling the blaze, which started on the stadium’s roof at about 11:30am local time yesterday, Xinhua said, citing witnesses. No casualties had been reported.



■CHINA

Police chief arrests family

A police chief in a remote county of the southwest has taken down 48 of his relatives for various crimes, including brothers, cousins and a number of his wife’s family, local media said yesterday. Laobulaluo, a police chief in Heizhugou Township, Sichuan Province, had seen 25 relatives either jailed, sent for “re-education through labor,” or punished in other ways, according to a report posted on state news portal Chinanews.com. The police chief, who is in his 30s, is a member of China’s Yi ethnic minority. Over a 10-year career, he had personally arrested a brother and two cousins after finding they had beaten local teachers at a primary school while drunk.



■CHINA

Five killed in earthquake

Five factory workers were killed when a building collapsed during a powerful earthquake that rocked the northwest, state media said yesterday. The deaths were the first reported so far from the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit Qinghai Province on Monday, about 150km northeast of the city of Golmud. The quake shook buildings hundreds of kilometers away and sent people fleeing into the streets. The five workers died in the provincial capital of Xining, 615km from the epicenter, when a workshop they were building collapsed, Xinhua news agency said.



■UNITED STATES

World’s ugliest dog dies

A one-eyed, three-legged dog that won the title of world’s ugliest pooch this summer has died in Gulfport, Florida. The St. Petersburg Times reports that Gus, a Chinese crested dog, had cancer. He was nine. Gus was rescued from a bad home and went on to win the annual World’s Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in northern California. Gus came from humble origins. According to the fair, his adopted family rescued him after learning he was being kept in a crate inside someone’s garage. He had one leg amputated because of a skin tumor and lost an eye in a cat fight. Gus’ owner had said the prize money from the contest would be put toward the dog’s radiation treatment.



■IRAQ

Navy captures escapee

A detainee attempted on Monday to escape from Camp Bucca, a sprawling US detention facility in the southern part of the country, but was quickly recaptured by a unit of the country’s navy, local and US officials said. “The Iraqi navy arrested at sea terrorist Najem Abdullah Abbas who escaped on Monday morning from Camp Bucca,” spokesman for the defense ministry, General Mohammad al-Askari, said. “This terrorist is accused of killing 100 citizens. He was arrested a few hours after he escaped,” Askari said. A US military spokesman Major Neal Fisher confirmed the re-arrest, which he said took place in the Um Qasr port area of the southern city of Basra.



■TURKEY

Kurdish positions shelled

Armed forces shelled Kurdish guerrilla strongholds in northern Iraq for an hour and a half on Monday, according to an official with the Iraqi border guard. The official, who asked not to be named, said the bombardment took place north of the town of Dohuk near the border between 4:30pm and 6pm. There there was no word yet on casualties. The official added that people in the nearby village of Dereluk were fleeing because of the sound of the shelling in the distance. Last month Turkey’s parliament extended by one year the government’s mandate to strike the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in northern Iraq.



■ISRAEL

Ancient gold earring found

Archeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old gold earring beneath a parking lot next to the walls of Jerusalem’s old city, the official antiquities authority said on Monday. The discovery dates back to just after the time of Christ, during the Roman period, said Doron Ben-Ami, director of excavation at the site. The piece was found in a destroyed Byzantine structure built several centuries after the jeweled earring was made, showing it was likely passed down through generations, he said. Archeologists unexpectedly discovered the earring in a corner of the building while excavating.



■UNITED STATES

Gangster bling auctioned

If you’re in the market for a diamond-studded gold gorilla pendant, the North Carolina Department of Revenue may have just what you’re looking for — thanks to busted drug dealers. The department hopes to auction hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry — including a US$38,000 watch and a US$23,000 gold pendant depicting Jesus — confiscated during drug busts over the past year by the department’s unauthorized substances division. Necklaces, rings and bracelets will be available alongside more unique items, such as a US$29,500 Jacob & Co five time zone watch with a face of sparkling yellow, pink and blue stones forming the continents on a world map.


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