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World News Quick Take

■AUSTRALIA

Bushfire threatens houses

Householders in Rockhampton on the east coast were yesterday warned to leave or prepare to fight the forest fires bearing down on them. Up to 200 houses are at risk as high winds drive the flames closer to outlying suburbs of the Queensland city. Queensland Fire and Rescue Service Assistant Commissioner Neil Gallant said fires, which have been raging for weeks, had arrived at the urban fringe. “If you live in those areas and your home backs on to forest areas, you need to be prepared now to enact your bushfire plan and you need to be ready to evacuate your home if the fire front arrives,” he said.



■AUSTRALIA

Tourist train derails

One of the most popular tourist trains, The Ghan, derailed after hitting a cow in the Outback, train company officials said yesterday. No passengers were hurt in the incident, which happened on Sunday night near the small town of Kulgera in the Northern Territory, said Sophie Dent, spokeswoman for Great Southern Rail, which operates The Ghan. The train was on its 2,979km run between the Northern Territory capital of Darwin and the South Australia state capital of Adelaide when it slammed into the cow. The locomotive ran off the tracks, but there was no damage to the train, Dent said. “It’s not uncommon to hit animals if they’re in front of the tracks,” Dent said. “We can’t stop suddenly.”



■PHILIPPINES

Storm toll climbs to 858

The death toll from two devastating storms that struck over the past month has risen to 858, with ensuing disease outbreaks killing 89 others, the government said yesterday. The latest National Disaster Coordinating Council toll is up from 818 on Sunday. It said Tropical Storm Ketsana left 420 dead and 37 missing when it flooded 80 percent of Manila on Sept. 26, a disaster the government said affected 4.35 million people. Some areas are still flooded three weeks later and 189,000 people remain in evacuation centers, it said. Typhoon Parma hit the northern Philippines on Oct. 3 and lingered as a tropical storm for a week, triggering landslides that killed 438 people and leaving 51 missing mostly in mountain communities.



■THAILAND

Bombs wound 24

Suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a bomb yesterday at an open-air market in the insurgency-plagued south, wounding 24 people, police said. The homemade explosive was hidden on a motorcycle parked in front of the fresh food market in downtown Yala, army spokesman Colonel Parinya Chaidilok said. Three soldiers patrolling the area were also wounded in the early morning blast, he said.



■HONG KONG

Electric cars pose problems

Switching to electric-powered vehicles to make the air cleaner may cause other problems, or economic opportunities, in the safe disposal of vehicle batteries, a news report said yesterday. The territory already sends batteries from mobile phones and laptops to South Korea or Japan for recycling because it has no suitable recycling facilities. The government estimated there would be about 200 electric vehicles in the city by next year, including 10 supplied by Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors that will be used by the police and other government departments. But that is expected to grow as vehicle makers and distributors import more vehicles including battery-powered goods’ vans from the UK that will arrive early next year.



■GUINEA

UN official discusses probe

A top UN official was in Guinea yesterday to discuss a probe into a massacre of opposition supporters as international pressure grew on the West African nation’s military regime. Security forces opened fire on an estimated 50,000 demonstrators at a stadium in the capital Conakry earlier this month, killing at least 157. The crowd was protesting against junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara’s rumored decision to run for president. Haile Menkerios, a diplomatic troubleshooter in the UN political affairs department, met Camara on Sunday and is also due to meet regional leaders. The African Union had given Camara until Saturday night to confirm that he would not be standing for president, as he initially promised after seizing power. Sanctions could now be slapped on the nation after he failed to do so.



■RUSSIA

Violence surges in Caucasus

Four militants were killed in two separate gun battles in North Caucasus while bombs went off in both the capital of a third region and under a gas pipeline, Russian news agencies reported yesterday. In Dagestan, three men were shot dead on Sunday night when they opened fire on security forces after their car was stopped in the Khasavyurt region, RIA news agency reported. Three guns, grenades and ammunition were found in the vehicle and the men were suspected members of a militant group RIA reports. A bomb also exploded as a man tried to plant a bomb under a gas pipeline in the same region earlier on Sunday night, which did not damage the pipeline, but did injure the bomber, ITAR-TASS news agency reported. “The bomb tore off his arms at the wrists,” Tass reported. In Chechnya, one militant was reported killed and two detained in a shoot-out with security officials early yesterday, RIA reported.



■IRAQ

Bomb blast kills five

A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded on Sunday near a popular cafe in a largely Sunni district of Baghdad killing five people, police said. The blast in Baghdad’s Azamiyah district also injured 16 civilians, an officer at the al-Risafa police station said. Officials at two hospitals that received the wounded said most of the injured were young men.



■ISRAEL

Entire family murdered

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “deep pain and shock” on Sunday over the “horrifying” murder of a family of six — two grandparents, two parents and two young children. The Oshrenko family was found early on Saturday morning, stabbed to death in a partially burned out apartment in the city of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv. The youngest victim was aged just three months. Police said it was the worst murder in the country for decades. The family had emigrated from Uzbekistan in 1990. They had gathered at the apartment on Friday night to celebrate the third birthday of the oldest child.



■SAUDI ARABIA

Nickname leads to divorce

A woman is suing for divorce after she found out that her husband had branded her “Guantanamo” on his cellphone, a report said on Sunday. The wife took a look at the phone when her husband of 17 years left it at home, only to discover that his phonebook entry for her came under the name of the US prison in Cuba, Al-Watan newspaper reported. Outraged, the woman, who was not identified, demanded divorce or, at the least, substantial damages, the newspaper said.



■UNITED STATES

Trial offers details of camp

The trial of a man convicted of plotting to help recruit for al-Qaeda has provided the fullest account yet of what went on a decade ago at a terrorism training camp in Oregon that never came to fruition. According to the trial record, Oussama Kassir was enraged after arriving at the Dog Cry Ranch near Bly, about 370km southeast of Portland, in December 1999, the Oregonian reported. He expected to be welcomed by Muslim recruits eager to learn the ways of war. Instead, he got an Islamic leader from Seattle, a mentally impaired 18-year-old and two women interested in canning jars. Kassir was recently sentenced to life in prison.



■UNITED STATES

Elvis’ hair auctioned

A clump of hair believed to have been trimmed from Elvis Presley’s head when he joined the Army in 1958 has sold for US$15,000 at a Chicago auction house. Also among the 200 Elvis-related items up for grabs at the Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago on Sunday was a shirt that once belonged to the King that sold for US$52,000. Other items on offer included scarves, photos from the reception of Presley’s 1967 wedding to Priscilla and lots of records. The items belonged to the late Gary Pepper, who ran a fan club and was a friend.



■PUERTO RICO

Eight killed in bar attack

An attack on a bar left eight people dead and 20 injured, media reported on Sunday. Two attackers opened fire in the La Tombola bar in Toa Baja on the north coast shortly before midnight on Saturday, the Nuevo Dia newspaper said. An eight-month pregnant woman was among those shot, killing the baby in her womb. The woman was in critical condition in hospital. The motive for the attack remained unclear, but media said it may have been drug-related, with the recent arrest of drug boss Angel Ayala Vazquez sparking a possible a gang war.



■UNITED STATES

Chimp dies at Ohio zoo

One of the oldest female chimpanzees in the North American zoo population has died at the zoo in Toledo, Ohio. Fifi, a 49-year-old chimp, died on Friday. Fifi came to the Toledo Zoo in 1963 at the age of three and was easily identified by a small white toy alligator she carried for nine years. The zoo said on Sunday that Fifi’s keepers noticed on Thursday morning that she seemed stiff and tired. After improving early on Friday, she appeared disoriented in the afternoon and then deteriorated rapidly until she died. A necropsy revealed possible blood vessel abnormalities in her brain.



■UNITED STATES

Producer Melnick passes on

Daniel Melnick, the producer who brought gutsy, smart movies like Straw Dogs, Network and Midnight Express to the big screen, has died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 77. His son, Peter, told the Los Angeles Times that Melnick died on Tuesday of multiple ailments. He had recently undergone surgery for lung cancer. Melnick was head of production at MGM and Columbia, where he helped develop the divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer and the nuclear suspense thriller The China Syndrome. Melnick also produced the 1960s spy-spoof television series Get Smart that starred Don Adams as bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart. In addition to his son, Melnick is survived by his daughter, Gabrielle Wilkerson-Melnick, and two grandchildren.
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