■HONG KONG
Flu-related death confirmed
The territory has reported its third swine flu-related death after a 58-year-old man who died of a heart attack later tested positive for the H1N1 virus. The Princess Margaret Hospital said in a statement yesterday that the man, who had chronic heart disease, sought hospital treatment on Thursday because he was suffering from a chest infection with a fever. The hospital said he died of cardiac arrest on Friday and that hours later the hospital confirmed that he also had the swine flu virus.
■VIETNAM
Would-be bomber jailed
A state-owned newspaper said a man has been imprisoned for 12 years for trying to bomb and blackmail a luxury hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. Youth newspaper says a court in the southern city convicted 22-year-old Vo Anh Tuan in a one-day trial on Friday. The report yesterday said Tuan hid a homemade bomb in the hotel in May then demanded US$20,000, hoping to recoup stock trading losses. It says police arrested Tuan when he went to collect the money from a hotel representative. It said authorities defused the 0.5kg bomb that Tuan said he made using instructions online.
■KYRGYZSTAN
Russia to post more troops
The Central Asian country yesterday agreed to allow Russia to station more troops on its territory as Moscow seeks to increase its military influence in the region. A memorandum signed by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the country had “approved a proposal by Russia to house an additional Russian military contingent in Kyrgyzstan.” The memorandum, signed at the resort of Cholpon-Ata on Lake Issyk Kul, said the size of the contingent could be up to a battalion. The two sides also vowed to sign a formal agreement by Nov. 1 on the formal status of Russian bases in the country, the memorandum said.
■AUSTRALIA
Piggery quarantined
A piggery was quarantined after a swine flu outbreak, officials said yesterday, amid fears the virus could mutate and return to humans in a more deadly form. An emergency team of vets and health officials shut down the farm and were tracing the movements of animals, people and equipment to determine where the infection started and contain further spread, said Nathan Rees, the premier of New South Wales state. “There is no threat to pork products,” said Rees. “All the appropriate measures are in place.” A sick farmer was believed to have infected the pigs, which began coughing at the 2,000-animal farm in Dunedoo, 360km west of Sydney.
■FIJI
Suva unmoved by ultimatum
The government said yesterday it would not react to the latest suspension threat from the Commonwealth until directly informed of the ultimatum. The Commonwealth has renewed its warning that the country would be suspended from the grouping next month if it failed to commit to holding new elections by next year following a 2006 coup. Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was quoted by the Fiji Village Web site as saying the government had not received official word on the suspension threat and would only comment when there had been talks with the Commonwealth. In a statement agreed after seven hours of talks in London on Friday, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group called for the country to inform it in writing by Sept. 1 that it would hold elections by October next year.
■UNITED NATIONS
Ban calls for referendum
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday appealed to parties in the west African nation of Niger to refrain from violence ahead of next week’s referendum on a new constitution that would allow President Mamadou Tandja to remain in office until 2012. Ban “calls on the people of Niger to exercise utmost restraint and urges all parties to refrain from any form of violence,” his press office said in a statement.
■AUSTRIA
Two Mozart pieces unveiled
The huge musical puzzle that is Mozart is about to be expanded by two potentially important pieces. More than two centuries after his death, two additional works have recently been identified as being composed by the master. While the pieces might have been played before, today will be the first time they will be performed as compositions of the popular prodigy. The venue is Salzburg, Amadeus’ birthplace and the city that nurtured his early musical career. The International Mozarteum Foundation will officially present the piano pieces at a hotly awaited event that will feature a live performance by pianist Florian Birsak.
■GERMANY
Gun jam botches rampage
An 82-year-old man who planned a shooting rampage at a meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses was deterred because his submachine gun jammed, police said on Friday. He was overpowered and arrested. The man entered the group’s meeting hall in the western city of Bielefeld on Thursday evening, wielding the weapon, police said in a statement. The hall was evacuated and the man quickly left the building, waving the gun as he walked toward his car. He was then overpowered by two Jehovah’s Witnesses and arrested. Police said the man also had a samurai sword and a knife. Notes found during a search of the man’s apartment suggested that he had intended to shoot into the crowd, police said. He apparently blamed the Jehovah’s Witnesses for the fact that he had lost contact with his daughter years ago, police said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Agent reveals Gitmo ‘torture’
An agent visited Morocco three times while an ex-Guantanamo Bay inmate was allegedly tortured there, a court heard on Friday, raising questions about government claims it was unaware of his treatment. The disclosure was made at London’s High Court, where lawyers for Binyam Mohamed are seeking the release of a secret document they say will show that the government knew he was being tortured during his time in US custody in Morocco. Ethiopian-born Mohamed, 31, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and spent six-and-a-half years in US custody either in the US or countries involved in the CIA’s so-called rendition program of suspected extremists.
■RUSSIA
Police snuff out rally
Camouflage-clad riot police on Friday detained about 20 protesters who were trying to hold an anti-Kremlin demonstration in central Moscow. Moscow’s City Hall refused to give permission for the rally on Triumfalnaya Square, saying a sports event had already been scheduled for the same time and place. Authorities generally refuse permission for any opposition gatherings to be held in central or highly visible areas. Demonstrators arrived on the scene, near the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, in small groups, and many were seized by police and hustled away quickly.
■UNITED STATES
Man sentenced for threats
A man who pleaded guilty to threatening President Barack Obama and the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis was sentenced on Friday to four years of probation and home detention. US District Judge Christine Arguello sentenced 21-year-old Timothy Ryan Gutierrez to serve the first 10 months of his probation under house arrest with electronic monitoring and pay nearly US$1,500 to Mall of America security. Gutierrez pleaded guilty to a charge of making threats by e-mail. In January, he sent two e-mails from his brother’s home to the FBI, threatening Obama eight days before his inauguration and saying he had planted explosives outside the mall. One of the e-mails said: “I’m going to assassinate the new president of the United States of America. P.S., you have 48 hours to stop it from happening.” Gutierrez says the e-mails were pranks.
■UNITED STATES
H1N1 claims 51 lives
Fifty-one more swine flu-related deaths were reported this week, bringing the toll to 353 in the country worst affected by the global pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention said 5,514 people have required hospitalization for the A(H1N1) virus. The CDC said it would no longer publish individual confirmed and probable cases or the aggregate total of cases. The “CDC will report the total number of hospitalizations and deaths weekly, and continue to use its traditional surveillance systems to track the progress of the novel H1N1 flu outbreak,” the CDC said.
■CUBA
Party congress postponed
President Raul Castro has indefinitely postponed a Communist Party congress planned for the end of the year, saying the government must focus on the economy, state media said on Friday. The government lowered its GDP estimate from 2.5 percent growth to 1.7 percent. The economy was in a very serious crisis, the president said. Castro was expected to raise the issue at yesterday’s parliamentary session. This year’s party congress was deemed important to chart the country’s political future. The last congress took place in 1997, but the Constitution says it should take place every four years.
■UNITED STATES
Dog thrown from roof
A New York man has been accused of throwing his dog from the roof of a six-floor city housing project, critically injuring the animal. Animal welfare officers arrested 19-year-old Fabian Henderson of Brooklyn on Friday. He has been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and reckless endangerment, both felonies. Joseph Pentangelo, of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said surgeons had to reassemble Oreo’s front legs. The one-year-old terrier mix is able to walk.
■UNITED STATES
Donkeys get in the way
Federal officials said as many as 100 wild donkeys will be rounded up in the Mojave Desert next month and put up for adoption because they keep invading the Fort Irwin Army base in California. The Bureau of Land Management said the donkeys are attracted by natural springs in the area. A fort official said training had to be halted each time the donkeys roamed through live-fire areas. They also affect the habitat of the threatened desert tortoise. There have been two previous roundups of wild donkeys. The bureau said the donkeys are popular and finding homes for them should be easy.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was