■PHILIPPINES
Bus crash kills fifteen
Fifteen people were killed after the brakes on a speeding bus packed with passengers failed and the vehicle slammed into a concrete barrier in Cebu Province. Another 48 people were injured, police said yesterday. The bus carrying mostly homebound factory workers was traveling at high speed on Saturday when it lost its brakes while maneuvering a downhill curve. The driver crashed the vehicle into the cement barrier to avoid hitting a throng of pedestrians, police official Erson Digal said. Most victims were killed inside the bus, but five others died after being thrown from the vehicle on impact.
■CHINA
Urban populations soar
The country’s urban population is expected to surpass 700 million in the next five years, exceeding the number of rural dwellers for the first time, the country’s top population policy official was cited as saying in a report yesterday. The shift has major implications for the government at a time when cities are already struggling to cope with overcrowding, overloaded infrastructure and a widening rich-poor gap. Li Bin, director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, also said the country’s population — already the world’s largest at 1.3 billion — is expected to reach 1.4 billion in 2015, the China Daily newspaper reported.
■AUSTRALIA
Father runs over son
Former rugby hooker Brendan Cannon accidentally reversed a car over his baby son in the family driveway, leaving the toddler in critical condition, reports said yesterday. The Sunday Telegraph said Cannon’s 15-month-old boy, Samuel, was on life support with two broken legs and internal injuries after being run over by the four-wheel drive. Doctors said it was a miracle that Samuel survived, according to the Telegraph.
■INDIA
Kashmir curfew relaxed
Authorities relaxed a curfew in most parts of Indian Kashmir as street clashes between troops and anti-India protesters ebbed in the troubled Himalayan region. Demonstrations against Indian rule have grown increasingly strident in recent weeks and government forces have been accused of killing at least 11 people during the protests. An eight-day curfew was lifted on Saturday in Sopore, one of the worst-hit towns in the recent street violence, said Farooq Ahmed, a senior police officer. The curfew was imposed on June 25 when violence broke out after two people were killed when troops opened fire on a crowd that had gathered to remove the bodies of two suspected rebels killed in fighting with government forces.
■MALAYSIA
Total betting ban sought
Activists on Saturday launched a campaign to ban all forms of gambling in the country, after the government canceled plans to legalize sports betting. More than 500 mostly Malay Muslim supporters launched the movement with a demonstration at the capital’s national mosque on Saturday, chanting “We hate gambling” and “Gambling is for the weak.” The campaign follows Prime Minister Najib Razak’s announcement last week that his government had dropped a proposal to allow sports betting amid protests by groups who fear it would create more social ills. Malaysia bans its majority Muslims from gambling but allows betting at a casino in Genting Highlands, on horse-racing and the national lottery.
■POLAND
Voting begins in run-off
People began voting yesterday in a presidential election run-off that will help decide the speed and scale of economic reforms and set the tone for the country’s ties with its EU partners and with Russia. Billed as the strangest election since the fall of communism in 1989, it was called after the death of president Lech Kaczynski and many other top officials in a plane crash in Russia on April 10. The election pits Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw, the combative euroskeptic leader of the main right-wing opposition party, against Bronislaw Komorowski, candidate of the ruling pro-business Civic Platform. Most opinion polls have predicted a Komorowski victory but usually underestimate the amount of support for Kaczynski, who has been narrowing the gap in recent weeks.
■GREAT BRITAIN
Gunman shoots policeman
A gunman on the run after a double shooting in the north in which one man died is believed to have shot a traffic policeman yesterday, police said. Northumbria Police said the officer suffered serious but not life-threatening wounds in the shooting at a roundabout in East Denton, Newcastle. Raoul Thomas Moat, 37, released from prison last week after serving a sentence for assault, is also suspected of shooting a man and a woman a few kilometers away in Gateshead on Saturday. The male victim was declared dead at the scene. The woman is in hospital in a critical condition.
■IRAN
Authorities hang two
Authorities hanged yesterday two men convicted of “waging war against God” after they were found guilty of drug trafficking, armed robbery and abduction, a report said. The two, Amanollah Pourian and Younes Rahmani, were hanged in the southeastern city of Zahedan, Fars news agency reported quoting a local judiciary statement. The report said the two were found guilty of moharebeh, a crime punishable by death under Shariah law, as they were charged with selling opium, armed robbery, abduction and crisscrossing the border illegally, the report added.
■SYRIA
Munich mastermind dies
The Palestinian militant who masterminded the deadly assault on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics died on Saturday, Palestinian officials said. Mohammed Daoud Odeh, 73, also known as Abu Daoud, died in Damascus after suffering kidney failure. A former leader of the Black September Palestinian guerrilla group, Abu Daoud said he planned the Munich hostage-taking in which 11 Israelis died. However, Abu Daoud, who did not take part in the attack, said he was not directly responsible for the deaths. “I didn’t kill anybody and I didn’t order anybody’s killing,” he said in 1999 after publishing memoirs in which he boasted of planning the abduction.
■ITALY
Caravaggio on display
Remains attributed to Caravaggio are going on display in the Tuscan coast town where the great painter died 400 years ago. Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole in 1610 at age 39. His death was shrouded in mystery and his remains never found. After a yearlong project, Italian researchers recently announced that they had identified Caravaggio’s remains. They admitted, however, they could never be 100 percent certain. The bones, kept in a case, arrived in Porto Ercole on Saturday. Starting yesterday and for two weeks, they were to be displayed in a 16th-century fortress called Forte Stella, said Silvano Vinceti, the project’s leader.
■COLOMBIA
Police seize cocaine trophy
Fans worldwide have fashioned replicas of the World Cup trophy out of everything from papier-mache to plastic. However, a lawbreaker in gets top prize for most original material: cocaine. Airports anti-drug chief Colonel Jose Piedrahita says that authorities found the unusual statue during a routine security check by anti-drug agents on Friday in a mail warehouse at Bogota’s international airport. The 36cm statue was inside a box headed for Madrid. The statue was painted gold with green stripes on the base. Laboratory tests confirmed the cup was made of 11kg of cocaine mixed with acetone or gasoline to make it moldable.
■ECUADOR
DEA discovers drug sub
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said on Saturday it has helped Ecuador seize a submarine capable of transporting tonnes of cocaine. DEA officials said that the diesel electric-powered submarine was built in a remote jungle and captured near a river close to the Ecuador-Colombia border. Ecuadorean authorities seized the sub before it could make its maiden voyage. The sophisticated camouflaged vessel has a conning tower, periscope and air-conditioning system. It measured about 3m high from the deck plates to the ceiling and stretched nearly 31m long. The DEA says it was built for trans-oceanic drug trafficking.
■UNITED STATES
Voice of ‘Cinderella’ dies
Ilene Woods, the voice of Cinderella in Disney’s animated classic, has died. She was 81. Woods died on Thursday of causes related to Alzheimer’s disease at a nursing home in Canoga Park, her husband, Ed Shaughnessy, told the Los Angeles Times. Woods was an 18-year-old radio singer in 1948 when she recorded a demo for an upcoming Disney feature. Two days later, Walt Disney himself auditioned her and she went on to voice the title character’s speaking and singing parts for the 1950s Cinderella, about a mistreated stepdaughter who finds her Prince Charming. Woods sang on the Perry Como and Arthur Godfrey shows in the 1950s before retiring from show business in the early 1970s.
■UNITED STATES
Shark bites fisherman
The Coast Guard says a boater who was fishing off New York’s Long Island was bitten by a shark that he caught as he was trying to remove the hook from its mouth. The incident happened on Saturday on a fishing boat about 40km south of Shinnecock Inlet. The fisherman was trying to remove a hook from the mouth of a captured blue shark when it bit him on his right bicep. A Coast Guard rescue crew escorted the man back to shore, where he was treated by paramedics.
■UNITED STATES
Couple take spitting honors
A husband and wife took top honors for the second straight year at the annual cherry pit spitting competition in Eau Claire, Michigan. Rick “Pellet Gun” Krause spit a pit 15.6m on Saturday for his 16th win at the International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship. Organizers say Krause entered on a motorcycle, dropped to his knees in the spitter’s box and ejected the winning pit. His wife, Marlene, took first place in the women’s contest, spitting a pit 10.6m. It was her seventh win. The Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm hosts the event. Orchard owner Herb Teichman launched the competition as a lark 37 years ago, but it now attracts competitors from the US and beyond.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the