■ CAMBODIA
Singer has a blast
A drunk man accidentally detonated an old grenade that he was using as a pretend microphone, killing himself and three other men and wounding three women, police said yesterday. The rocket-propelled grenade exploded on Sunday near a small gathering in Pursat Province in western Cambodia, local police chief Pich Sopheap said. “The explosion occurred after a drunken man used an unexploded B-40 grenade as a microphone while he was singing and later hit it against a wooden stick,” Pich Sopheap said. The blast killed the 30-year-old man and three male farmers instantly, and critically injured three women who were chatting nearby, he said.
■ NEW ZEALAND
‘Aryan’ plate not racist
Officials have allowed a motorist to keep her license plate “ARYAN 1” because it was intended as a gesture of affection toward her former partner, not a statement of white supremacy, it was reported yesterday. The Transport Agency investigated the plate after a member of the public complained that the term “Aryan,” used by the Nazis to describe the so-called “master race,” was offensive, the Dominion Post newspaper reported. The plate’s owner, Lisa Marie Thompson of Wellington, said the plate simply comprised the initial and surname of her former boyfriend, Andrew Ryan, and had no racial overtones. The agency said banning the plate would impinge on her right to free speech. Thompson said she had no idea about the connotations of the word “Aryan” when she bought the plate four years ago and still did not see why displaying it on her car could be considered offensive. “It would be no different to having ‘Maori Pride,’” she said. The newspaper said examples of license plates the agency had banned included “DRGDLR” and “TAMPON.”
■GREECE
Minks coat landscape
Police say break-ins at two fur farms have set more than 50,000 minks on the loose. A statement from local police says the break-ins occurred on Friday and Saturday near the city of Kastoria, which is the center of Greece’s fur industry. Regional TV channels showed farm employees chasing the animals with fishing nets on Monday. The National Fur Breeders’ Association says most of the released animals are likely to die in the late-August heat. It says the cost to the farm owners could pass 1 million euros (US$1.27 million). No group has claimed responsibility for the incident but an animal rights group, calling itself the “Hawks of Reprisal,” said it was responsible for a similar break-in last year.
■ UNITED STATES
Cannonballs blown up
Authorities say they destroyed a pair of Civil War-era cannon balls on display at a Georgia college after officials realized they were live. Kennesaw State University spokeswoman Tammy DeMel says a bomb squad removed the relics on Monday from the third floor of the social sciences building after authorities became concerned they posed a danger. The building was evacuated as a precaution and students were let back in later. Cobb County Sergeant Dana Pierce says the bombs had been detonated and that it would be hard to know if they could have gone off on their own. According to a school press release, the cannon balls have been in a display case in a room of the social sciences building for three years at the college just north of Atlanta.
■SUDAN
Russian air crew freed: army
Three Russian helicopter crew members have been freed a day after they were abducted in Darfur, a Sudanese army spokesman said yesterday. “The three Russian pilots were freed last night [Monday],” following negotiations with the abductors, army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad said. However, state media said the trio were freed after clashes between security forces and the abductors. “The specialized services in the South Darfur state succeeded in liberating the three Russian pilots who were abducted two days ago in Nyala after clashes with the abductors,” the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) reported. SMC suggested there were casualties in the clashes saying “the toll [from the fighting] has not yet been announced.” The Russians, who worked for a private aviation company were abducted on Sunday by gunmen in Nyala, capital of South Darfur. The Kremlin special envoy on Sudan, Mikhail Margelov, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as identifying the three as the captain of a helicopter and two crew members. “The helicopter was carrying food and other civilian supplies for the United Nations mission to Darfur,” he said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Walking could cut cancers
Cancer researchers say around 10,000 cases of breast and bowel cancer could be avoided every year in Britain if people walked more. Physical activity is believed to reduce cancer risk in ways such as impacting hormone levels. A World Cancer Research Fund statement yesterday said that its scientists estimated about 4,600 bowel cancer cases and 5,000 breast cancer cases could be prevented in the United Kingdom if people were more active, such as by walking. In Europe, being obese or overweight accounts for about 8 percent of cancers.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
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