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World News Quick Take

■AUSTRALIA

Vet dies from rare virus

A veterinarian has died from a rare viral disease after treating an infected horse, becoming the fourth known fatality from the illness since it was discovered in 1994, a health official said yesterday. Queensland state Health Minister Paul Lucas said Alister Rodgers died overnight in a hospital after treating a foal in July that was infected with the virus. The foal originally was thought to have died from a snake bite but Hendra was later confirmed in horses at a Queensland nursery that was subsequently quarantined. Four other people who came into contact with the infected horses have tested negative for Hendra.



■CHINA

Dissent gets 13 years in jail

A dissident who tried to organize a national meeting of the banned China Democracy Party has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for subverting state power, his lawyer said yesterday. Xie Changfa (謝長發), 57, was tried in April and sentenced on Tuesday by the Changsha Municipal Intermediate Court in Hunan Province, his lawyer Ma Gangquan (馬綱權) said in a telephone interview. He plans to appeal, Ma said. The country allows a small number of officially recognized alternative parties, although they serve as advisers rather than competitors to the Chinese Communist Party.



■JAPAN

Teen pays teen for sex

A 14-year-old schoolboy is suspected of paying for sex with a schoolgirl aged 13 after meeting her through an online dating service, a police spokesman said yesterday. The Kanagawa Police Department sent the boy’s case to prosecutors on Tuesday on charges of violating the child prostitution law, the spokesman said, adding that it may be turned over to a family court handling juvenile crimes. The junior high school boy met the girl in March after he sent a message to a dating service Web site, saying: “I’m a man of 18 with a lot of money,” the police spokesman said. The boy then had sex with the girl at a public bathroom near a railway station in Kagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture, west of Tokyo, and paid her ¥60,000 (US$646), the spokesman said.



■INDIA

Bush crash kills 23

At least 23 people were killed and eight injured when a passenger bus plunged into a gorge in the northern mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, police said yesterday. The bus carrying 31 passengers fell into a 91m-deep gorge near the Sundernagar area some 115km northwest of state capital Shimla on Tuesday night. “Most of the passengers were killed on the scene. The injured are being treated at a district hospital,” police officer Santosh Kumar said in a telephone interview. “The driver was unable to negotiate a bend which led to the vehicle falling into the gorge,” he said. The WHO says more people die in road crashes in this country than anywhere else in the world.



■INDIA

Militants killed in attack

At least five suspected Muslim militants were killed yesterday as Indian security forces foiled an infiltration attempt in the India-administered region, Indian officials said. A defense spokesman said combat erupted early yesterday after soldiers saw a group of militants in Gurez sector, 123km north of Srinagar. “The militants were trying to cross the Line of Control when they were challenged by the soldiers,” an Indian Army spokesman said late yesterday morning. “In the heavy exchange of fire, five militants were killed. The operation is under way in the remote area, and the firing is continuing.”



■SOUTH AFRICA

Police escort public buses

Extra police vehicles were deployed in Johannesburg yesterday to accompany the city’s new commuter buses after occupants of a rival minibus taxi opened fire on one of the vehicles, injuring two, police said. The attack occured on Tuesday evening in Soweto township on the third day of the new system’s operation. One passenger and a police officer that was riding in the bus to provide security were injured in the attack. Further such attacks would potentially undermine the confidence of commuters in the system, which has been welcomed as a huge improvement on the notorious 15-seat private minibus taxis.



■ABKHAZIA

Sukhumi threatens ships

The leader of the pro-Russia breakaway Georgian region said yesterday he had ordered its military to destroy any Georgian ship violating its de facto sea borders. “I have given the order to our naval forces to destroy Georgian ships infringing the sea border of Abkhazia,” Sergei Bagapsh said. There have been increased tensions over Georgia’s bid to enforce a naval blockade of Abkhazia after it seized a Turkish ship carrying fuel from Turkey to the capital Sukhumi last month.



■GERMANY

Jacko hoax fools Netizens

A hoax video purportedly showing Michael Jackson emerging from a coroner’s van was an experiment aimed at showing how quickly misinformation and conspiracy theories can race across the Internet, German broadcaster RTL said on Tuesday. The video was posted on YouTube for a single day a week ago and received 880,000 hits. “We wanted to show how easily users can be manipulated on the Internet with hoax videos,” spokeswoman Heike Schultz of Cologne-based RTL said. Jackson died June 25 in Los Angeles. The video shows a coroner’s van entering what seems like a parking garage and the King of Pop getting out of the back with another person. “Unfortunately, many people believed it was true,” Schultz said.



■ITALY

Minister pans alcohol law

Should two glasses of wine disqualify someone from getting behind the wheel? The agricultural minister says no. Luca Zaia told car magazine Quattroruote this week that attempts to completely ban drinking and driving were “criminalizing” the national drink — wine — and damaging one of its most lucrative industries. “We have to stop considering drunk someone who drinks two glasses,” Zaia said. “There is an ongoing criminalization that is killing one of the most important ‘made in Italy’ sectors.” Zaia said authorities should instead focus on road accidents caused by those who take tranquilizers and other drugs that can cause drivers to fall asleep. Italian law allows a maximum of 0.5g of alcohol per liter in the blood of drivers. Two glasses of wine can put a person above that limit, depending on one’s weight and factors like food.



■UNITED STATES

Missile system still possible

Washington is assuring Poland that it has not made a decision on the future of a European missile defense system, but will keep Warsaw informed. National Security Adviser James Jones gave the message on Tuesday to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in Gdansk, where the two officials are attending World War II remembrance ceremonies. The White House later issued a statement on the meeting. It said that Jones conveyed “the United States’ firm and unwavering commitment to Poland’s security and defense.”



■UNITED STATES

Pit bull deflates cop’s tires

Some dogs chase cars. One dog in Hope Mills, North Carolina, tried to eat one. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said a pit bull deflated all four tires of a deputy’s cruiser on Sunday. Spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said the deputy parked his car in a woman’s driveway while responding to her complaint about another dog. When Deputy Lynn Lavallis went to speak with Gloria Bass, the dog chomped into the tires. The dog didn’t attack the deputy. The dog’s owner, Bass’ next-door neighbor, will be billed US$500 for a new set of wheels.



■MEXICO

Soldiers shoot police officer

Authorities said soldiers shot a police officer in the leg on Monday after he and other police tried to free a detained colleague. Nuevo Leon state security chief Aldo Fasci said three municipal police cars intercepted the military convoy carrying the detained officer in an attempt to free him. He said the police drove away when the soldiers refused. But one officer tried to escape on foot and was shot in the leg when he ignored warnings to stop. Fasci said the detained officer tried to escape when soldiers demanded he pull over at a military checkpoint. After forcing the officer to stop, soldiers found a cache of weapons in his pickup truck.



■MEXICO

Teachers seize offices

Teachers enraged by the shooting death of a colleague seized government offices and blocked roads on Tuesday in Oaxaca, the site of months of violent demonstrations by teachers three years ago. Leftist groups that battled with authorities for five months in 2006 were working with the educators in this latest strike, using hijacked trucks and buses to block intersections. The unrest was sparked by Thursday’s shooting of Antonio Norberto Camacho during a union clash at an elementary school. By Tuesday, teachers and their supporters were taking over public offices including courts and civil service centers. Teachers said 13,000 schools serving 1.3 million students would be closed this week. They are demanding a fair investigation into the shooting.



■BRAZIL

Phallus restored in painting

An art restorer has discovered a new layer hidden in a centuries-old painting by French artist Nicolas Poussin of the Greek god of fertility, Priapus — the deity’s erect penis. “They hid the phallus of Priapus. It’s what we call adjustment for modesty,” said Regina Pinto Moreira, quoted in Tuesday’s edition of the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. She said the change was likely made in Spain in the 18th century. Moreira and two other experts spent eight months restoring the 1634-1638 painting, Hymenaios Disguised as a Woman During an Offering to Priapus.



■CANADA

Ex-attorney general charged

A former attorney general of Ontario province was charged on Tuesday in the death of a cyclist who clung to his convertible after an altercation. Michael Bryant faces charges of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing a fatality, police said. An altercation between a cyclist and the driver on Monday evening on a downtown Toronto street ended in “a minor collision.” The cyclist approached the driver and grabbed onto the vehicle. The driver drove off with the cyclist attached to the side of the car. Witnesses said the vehicle swerved back and forth, brushing up against trees and mailboxes to brush off the cyclist. The cyclist later died of his injuries in hospital.
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