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■CHINA

Crackdown on drink diving

The police caught 15,000 people in the first week of a crackdown on drink driving, organized partly to appease anger over a series of fatal accidents, state media said yesterday. Drink-driving cases are concentrated in wealthy areas, with 3,075 reported in Zhejiang Province and 1,542 in Shanghai, Xinhua news agency said, citing the public security ministry. Despite the crackdown, there had been “no obvious drop” in drink-driving cases, the ministry said. China launched the two-month campaign on Aug. 15, hoping to ensure safer roads before and during the 60th anniversary of the communist state on Oct. 1, the agency said.



■CHINA

Alarm over drought

A drought in China’s north has damaged crops and left nearly 5 million people short of drinking water, while dry weather in the south could cause more shortages, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The drought has caused water shortages for 4.6 million people and 4.1 million head of livestock, it said, citing the national anti-drought administration. The affected areas stretch from Jilin Province in the northeast to Inner Mongolia — and the drought is spreading. Crops on some 8.7 million hectares of farmland have been damaged, the report said.



■HONG KONG

Protest over Liu Xiaobo

About two dozen Hong Kong democracy activists protested yesterday outside the Chinese government’s liaison office, demanding the release of a dissident ahead of the 60th anniversary of communist rule on Oct. 1. The protesters chanted “release Liu Xiaobo [劉曉波] now” and “release all dissidents.” The 53-year-old former professor was detained after co-authoring a manifesto urging civil rights and political reforms.



■AFGHANISTAN

Bomb kills six in north

A bomb in the usually peaceful north killed six police, two days after a coordinated militant ambush disrupted voting during elections in the same province, the government said yesterday. The roadside bomb killed the commander of the Baghlan provincial rapid reaction police force and five other police in the area of Kook Chinar near Baghlan town on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said. On Thursday, suspected Taliban militants stormed Baghlan town, launching a multi-pronged assault that left up to 30 militants and two police dead, and stopped voting during the second presidential election.



■PAKISTAN

Remote bomb kills militant

A remote-controlled bomb exploded in a car on Saturday, killing a militant spokesman and his driver while wounding five others in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. “Two people were killed and five others were injured in the car bombing,” Peshawar police chief Sifwatullah Ghayyur said. “The bomb was planted in the car and was detonated by a remote control,” he said, identifying the victims as Mubeen Afridi, spokesman for militant group Ansar-ul-Islam, which operates in Khyber tribal district near the Afghan border, and his driver.



■PHILIPPINES

Official calls for restraint

The government’s chief peace negotiator with Muslim separatist rebels yesterday urged the guerrillas and government security forces to practice “self restraint” and avoid armed clashes during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. Rafael Seguis said he also hoped that the military, the police and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would observe a ceasefire in the southern region of Mindanao to boost efforts to resume stalled peace talks.



■ITALY

Euro jackpot won

Residents of a village in the central part of the country were celebrating on Saturday after a ticket sold there produced the richest jackpot in European lottery history — nearly 148 million euros (US$212 million). After weeks of mid-summer lotto madness, the winning ticket was sold in a bar in the village of Bagnone, in the central region of Tuscany. The identity of the winner — who is now 147,807,299.08 euros richer, Agicos agency said — was being kept secret. But TV pictures showed emotions running high in the picturesque village of only 2,000 inhabitants.



■UNITED KINGDOM

Stunt pilot dies in crash

A leading US stunt pilot was killed on Saturday when her light aircraft crashed at an aerobatic show. Vicki Cruse, 40, from Santa Paula, California, died in an accident during the World Aerobatic Championships at the Silverstone motor racing circuit. Cruse, who was president of the International Aerobatics Club, is a former member of the US national aerobatics team and was the first woman to qualify to race in her class at the Reno National Championship Air Races. Team manager Norm DeWitt said Cruse had been carrying out a qualifying flight when she lost control of her aircraft. DeWitt said in a statement that Cruse appeared to have suffered a mechanical problem in flight and was unable to bail out of her Edge 540 plane because of the low altitude at which she was flying.



■NETHERLANDS

Rave brawl turns deadly

An 18-year old was killed and seven others injured a beach rave of thousands of people turned into a mass brawl yesterday. It was not immediately clear whether the teenager was shot dead or died from other injuries at the party titled “Sunset Grooves” near Hoek van Holland. Police officers shot down another visitor after they were attacked by him, local officials confirmed, adding the man was in a stable condition. Police had intervened after gun shots were reported from the brawl. Witnesses confirmed that the officers first fired warning shots after they were attacked by a mob of people.



■HUNGARY

Police raid extremist group

Police on Saturday raided a compound of several hundred members of a right-wing extremist group, in a move to counter extremism in the country, the police officials in Budapest reported. About 500 new recruits of the paramilitary organization formerly known as the Hungarian Guard were taking part in an oath-taking ceremony on a private property near the town of Szentendre outside of Budapest, when hundreds of officers surrounded the area. Police took the personal details of all the participants and plan to initiate criminal proceedings against them, officials said.



■RUSSIA

Old artillery shell found

An unexploded artillery shell dating from World War II was discovered under a runway at Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg and safely removed, an airport spokeswoman said on Friday. The shell was found on Thursday as work was being carried out on the runway and bomb disposal experts were called to Pulkovo, the city’s main airport, to dispose of it, spokeswoman Olga Antipova said. The northern city, known at the time as Leningrad, was besieged for nearly 900 days by Nazi troops between September 1941 and January 1944, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of residents.



■CUBA

Singer threatened

The government is condemning threats made against Colombian pop singer Juanes, who plans to stage a “Peace Without Borders” concert next month in Havana. Culture Minister Abel Prieto blamed anti-Castro exiles in the US for the threats and said the Sept. 20 show will go on as planned. Juanes told police in Florida that someone sent him a message on Twitter that said, among other things, “I hate what you are saying but you will die for defending your right to say it.” A police report said that Juanes considered canceling the concert and cited “fears for his safety as well as his family.” Florida police say they are taking the threats seriously and are keeping a watch on the Key Biscayne, an exclusive island enclave homes of the singer and his manager.



■UNITED STATES

Man convicted of rape, theft

A Nebraska man who stole a painting of the Virgin Mary from a Roman Catholic cathedral to finance an abortion for a teen he raped has been convicted of first-degree sexual assault and felony theft. Aurelio Vallerillo-Sanchez, 39, of Omaha, pleaded no contest to the charges on Friday and faces up to 70 years in prison when sentenced in October, Douglas County prosecutor Brenda Beadle said on Saturday. Beadle said Vallerillo-Sanchez fled to Mexico with the 300-year-old painting worth US$100,000 and the pregnant teen in March 2007. “The plan was that when they got to Mexico, she was to undergo an abortion,” she said. When an abortion was not possible, Vallerillo-Sanchez pushed to have the baby given up for adoption, Beadle said. “He wanted to do everything he could to get rid of this baby ‘cause it was evidence against him,” she said. The teen returned to Nebraska after giving birth, the prosecutor said. Vallerillo-Sanchez was arrested in February after DNA linked him to the September 2006 assault of the then-14-year-old girl.



■UNITED STATES

Man held in wife’s slaying

A Massachusetts man was ordered held without bail on Friday in the killing of his wife after her remains were found in a suitcase in the woods. Asim Amran, 30, of Fitchburg, pleaded not guilty in the slaying of Faiza Malik, 27, who was reported missing in January. Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr said Malik emigrated from Pakistan to marry Amran several years ago. State police using dogs discovered her body on Thursday morning in a large suitcase in a wooded area in Oxford. Amran was arrested on Thursday night. The couple’s three-year-old son is being cared for by family members.



■UNITED STATES

Woman admits to torture

A Phoenix, Arizona, woman accused of torturing and killing a man in a wheelchair says she did it because he was a snitch, and she enjoyed it. In a jailhouse interview with television station KTVK, 33-year-old Angela Simpson said in a calm voice that she lured 46-year-old Terry Neely to her apartment with a promise of sex and drugs. Once there, Simpson says she beat Neely with a tire iron, pulled out his teeth and strangled him with a TV cable during three days of torture. Simpson says she dismembered Neely’s body and set it on fire. Neely’s remains were found burning in a trash container outside a church Aug. 5. Autopsy results show an 8cm nail had been driven into his head. Simpson says she has no remorse for her actions and actually enjoyed killing Neely.


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