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World News Quick Take

■THAILAND

Car bomb injures 42

Forty-two people were wounded, at least four seriously, when a powerful bomb exploded outside a restaurant packed with civil servants in southern Thailand yesterday, police said. The 50kg device was hidden inside a stolen Toyota pick-up truck and exploded during the busy lunch hour in the center of Narathiwat, the main town in the province of the same name, officials said. “It’s very horrible. We had intelligence that militants would mount a large-scale attack,” Lieutenant General Pichet Wisaichorn, the southern region army commander, told reporters. The bombing was the latest in a slew of attacks that have claimed 13 lives in the past week in the south, where rebels fighting for an independent Muslim state regularly target government officials.



■CHINA

Coach held over boy’s death

Police in Chongqing City have detained a soccer coach over the alleged beating of a 14-year-old boy who was left in a coma and later died, officials said. The coach, Lin Lin, “educated and physically punished” the boy, Mu Shihao, for not following instructions during a practice session on July 24, the city’s Jiulongpo District government said in a statement. The teen lost consciousness and was rushed to hospital, where he died on Aug. 17 after 25 days in a coma, the statement said. An autopsy has been performed and the results are due within a month. Police are treating the incident as a criminal case and officials have told the family they are welcome to seek compensation in court, it said. The Yangtze Evening Post quoted the boy’s father, Mu Xianqiang, as saying the coach became angry when his son left the field to go to the washroom.



■AUSTRALIA

Nelson to quit next month

The lawmaker who replaced former prime minister John Howard as conservative leader said yesterday he would quit politics next month. Brendan Nelson succeeded Howard as the Liberal Party’s leader after the former prime minister suffered a landslide election loss in November 2007. But dogged by poor opinion polls, the Liberal Party replaced Nelson with Malcolm Turnbull in a vote last September. Turnbull is also proving unpopular in opinion polls, but Nelson, 51, ruled out any chance of a leadership comeback after announcing yesterday he would quit his post in the Sydney electoral district of Bradfield late next month. “It has become increasingly clear to me that Bradfield needs an energetic new advocate and representative sooner rather than later,” Nelson told reporters. The former doctor was elected to parliament when Howard’s government first swept to power in 1996. He served as education then defense minister in Howard’s government.



■AUSTRALIA

Politicians get bus passes

To entice politicians into practicing what they preach and traveling by public transport rather than in chauffeur-driven cars, bus company Greyhound Australia said yesterday that they could all ride for free. “We’re doing this to save taxpayers money, but also to help politicians set the example when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint,” Greyhound chief executive Robert Thomas said. “It would also help our politicians get back in touch with the people they represent.” The offer of free bus transport comes as anger grows over even former politicians enjoying rides in government cars at taxpayer expense and free, unlimited air travel.



■GREECE

Firefighters control inferno

Firefighters claimed victory yesterday over a devastating, wind-swept wildfire that ravaged the outskirts of Athens over four days, enabling them to redeploy waterbombers to other blazes in Greece. “The situation has greatly improved, we currently have no active fronts in greater Athens,” a fire department spokeswoman said. “Firefighting ground forces remain on location to watch out for possible areas of resurgence.” Waterbombers were diverted to Mount Kithaironas, west of Athens, and to Karystos on the island of Evia to tackle fires in both places that did not, however, pose a threat to inhabited areas.



■NETHERLANDS

Sailor’s parents on trial

The parents of a Dutch teenager may see their parental rights restricted after they decided to support their daughter’s plans to sail around the world on her own. On Monday, a court in Utrecht was set to hear the case brought by the youth protection services seeking to stop the solo sailing plans of 13-year-old Laura Dekker. They argue it would not be responsible to let her sail around the world on her own and that she would not be capable to assess the risks of the journey. In emergency action, the youth protection services filed a court suit seeking to suspend the parent’s custodial rights. A legal custodian should be appointed, they argue, and any future decision Laura’s parents take about their daughter should be made in agreement with the girl’s custodian.



■UNITED KINGDOM

ATMs sling Cockney slang

Would you Adam and Eve it? Cash machines in east London are offering customers the option of using the local Cockney rhyming slang to get their hands on their sausage, so to speak. Five ATMs in the East End were set to go Cockney for three months starting on Monday. While cash machines with several language options are commonplace in some countries, the chance to use rhyming slang could leave those unfamiliar with the east London lingo in a right load of Barney Rubble. Anyone opting for Cockney rhyming slang will be asked to enter their Huckleberry Finn (PIN) before chosing how much sausage and mash (cash) they want. Those wanting to withdraw £10 will have to ask for a speckled hen, while the machine may inform users that it is contacting their rattle and tank, rather than bank. “Whilst we expect some residents will visit the machine to just have a butcher’s [hook, look], most will be genuinely pleased as this is the first time a financial services provider will have recognized the Cockney language in such a manner,” said Ron Delnevo, managing director of operators Bank Machine.



■ETHIOPIA

Africa may demand US$67m

African leaders are mulling a proposal to demand an annual US$67 billion in compensation from developed nations for the effects of climate change being wrought on the continent. Ministers met at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa on Monday to discuss the proposal, which if approved could be set on the table at the UN’s climate-change summit in Copenhagen in December. The draft resolution calls for the compensation to reach US$67 billion by 2020. As many as 250 million Africans could be facing water shortages by this point, the UN Environment Program has said. Studies have shown that Africa is bearing the brunt of climate change despite the continent itself being responsible for only a fraction of worldwide emissions.



■UNITED STATES

AIDS adviser named

AIDS expert Helene Gayle, president and chief executive of the charity CARE USA, has been named to chair the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, the US government said on Monday. Gayle, former head of AIDS research at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will advise US President Barack Obama on fighting the virus, which has infected an estimated 1 million Americans and 33 million people globally.



■UNITED STATES

Crypt sells for US$4.6m

A widow sold her husband’s burial crypt directly above film legend Marilyn Monroe’s final resting place for US$4.6 million on Monday, through online auctioneer eBay Inc. Elsie Poncher has said she was selling the crypt in a small, celebrity-heavy cemetery in Los Angeles to pay off her mortgage. The auction opened earlier this month at US$500,000 and attracted 21 bids before closing on Monday. Poncher’s husband, Richard Poncher, bought the crypt from baseball star Joe DiMaggio, Monroe’s ex-husband, as the famous couple divorced in 1954. Monroe died at age 36 in 1962. Richard Poncher died in 1986 at age 81. Elsie Poncher said her husband’s body was positioned “face down” to allow him to “look” at Monroe. She plans to move his remains over one spot to a crypt that had been intended for her. She will be cremated when she dies.



■UNITED STATES

Girl accused in milk killing

A prosecutor plans to upgrade the charge against a 14-year-old Milwaukee girl accused of fatally stabbing her step-grandfather in the neck after he poured her milk down the drain. Assistant district attorney Kevin Shomin said on Monday he plans to change the charge against Labrina Brown from first-degree reckless homicide to first-degree intentional homicide. Prosecutors say Brown killed Robert Moon, 48, on Aug. 8. Brown’s attorney said there was a history of domestic issues and the case is about more than spilled milk.



■PERU

Live turkeys carry cocaine

Police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden in a crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the drug surgically implanted inside the birds. Acting on a tip, officers stopped a Turismo Ejecutivo SRL bus outside the city of Tarapoto in the central jungle state of San Martin, officials said on Monday. Police were puzzled when they found the turkeys, but no cocaine, said anti-drug police chief, Otero Gonzalez. They then noticed the two turkeys were bloated. “Lifting up the feathers of the bird, in the chest area, police detected a handmade seam,” he said. A veterinarian extracted 11 plastic capsules containing 1.9kg of cocaine from one turkey and 17 capsules with 2.9kg from the other, he said. Both turkeys survived the ordeal.



■UNITED STATES

Philip Morris ordered to pay

A jury has decided that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA should pay US$13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned the verdict on Monday, more than eight years after the smoker, Betty Bullock, sued the company for fraud and product liability. The panel voted nine-to-three in favor of Bullock’s daughter Jodie Bullock, who is now the plaintiff in the case. Betty Bullock died of lung cancer in February 2003. Philip Morris argued Betty Bullock could have stopped smoking at anytime and the harmful effects of cigarettes were known to smokers.
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