BLIND EYE: Human rights groups and Western countries have accused China of ignoring bad governance and rights violations in its bid to access African energy
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) swept through Africa on a charm offensive, showering bounty and portraying Beijing as a benefactor of the world's poorest region, but the pitch has failed to silence critics.

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Propaganda shock troops armed with flags, banners and loudspeakers fanned out yesterday across Beijing on a mission to eradicate bad manners ahead of next year's Olympics.

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Richard Li (李澤楷), one of Hong Kong's top businessmen and the son of Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), has hit out at Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang's (曾蔭權) lack of policy on democracy, a report said yesterday.

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RISING FRUSTRATION: Comments by Japanese and Russian envoys to the six-nation talks pointed to North Korea's requests for energy aid as the heart of the disagreement
North Korean demands for large amounts of energy aid bedeviled negotiators trying to reach a deal on dismantling the North's nuclear programs, as plodding negotiations entered a fourth day yesterday.

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Turkmenistan's people, long under the omnipresent rule of the late president Saparmurat Niyazov, began voting yesterday for his replacement in an poll watched with great interest -- but mostly at a distance -- by Russia and the West.

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Malaysia's prime minister arrived in Thailand yesterday for meetings with his Thai counterpart on the violence that has wracked Thailand's southern provinces and left more than 2,000 dead.

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CLEAN UP: Fire trucks were deployed yesterday to spray disinfectant in the hardest hit areas and cleaning liquids were distributed to residents
Hospitals in Indonesia's flood-hit capital were grappling with an influx of children suffering from diarrhea, authorities said yesterday as they fanned out to devastated areas to disinfect against the spread of disease.

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INCENTIVE FURORE: The Khasis are worried about an influx of migrants, so the district council decided to offer the cash rewards to increase the population
Tribal leaders in India's remote northeast are offering cash rewards to women who bear more than a dozen children in a bid to keep from being outnumbered by settlers from elsewhere, a leader said yesterday.

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LITTLE RESPONSE: As Western governments have only given muted reactions to an agreement between Fatah and Hamas, officials traveled abroad to seek support
The Palestinians have begun a diplomatic blitz aimed at persuading reticent leaders in the US and Europe to accept their new power-sharing deal and lift painful economic sanctions.

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Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of ethnic Albanians who demonstrated in Pristina on Saturday against a UN proposal for Kosovo they said does not go far enough in granting the province independence.

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Mortar attacks in two areas of the Somali capital killed five people and injured 10 on Saturday, witnesses said, a day after a previously unknown pro-Islamist group warned it would step up violence.

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LURED: Police say girls were tricked into visiting an apartment where a gang raped them and killed any who refused to become prostitutes
For four years girls and young women disappeared from their homes in the drab industrial Russian town of Nizhny Tagil. Their parents called the police and pasted up posters.

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Portugal headed to the polls yesterday for a second referendum in less than a decade on its abortion law, one of Europe's strictest, with surveys indicating voters would back legalization.

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PULLING STRINGS: Controlling the `power of the purse,' the House and Senate plan to place limits on what the president can do, indirectly guiding the direction of the war
Even before they cast symbolic votes against the Iraq war, newly empowered congressional Democrats are clamoring for a chance to limit and eventually end US involvement in a conflict that has killed more than 3,000 troops.

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`NO QUARTER': Following the killing of seven law enforcement officials, President Felipe Calderon said that he will not quit until the `enemies of Mexico' are stopped
Mexican President Felipe Calderon said there will be "no truce and no quarter" in his war on drug gangs following the killing of seven law enforcement officials in an apparent attempt to intimidate the federal government.

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US Senator Barack Obama yesterday was to take to the campaign trail, a day after launching his 2008 White House bid with a vow to lead a generational drive to purge the cynicism from US politics.

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The names may have changed, but the grand tradition of American bank robbers like Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson is alive and well and enjoying a revival. Now meet the Paparazzi Bandit, Panama Jack and the Harry Caray Bandit, who robs banks dressed as a much-loved American sports announcer.

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Grant Stoddard is an unlikely sex god. The slightly built native of the county of Essex in England, arrived in New York virtually penniless in the late 1990s. While not technically a virgin, his sexual experiences were limited and he admits he was cripplingly shy around women.

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■ Pakistan
Red Cross office attacked
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