■China
Infection rate falls
China yesterday announced two SARS fatalities and three new cases -- the lowest daily number of infections reported so far. Beijing accounted for all the new cases and one death, the Health Ministry said. The other fatality occurred in the northern province of Hebei. The new figures bring the total number of deaths from SARS to 327 and the number of infections to 5,325, the ministry said.
■ Australia
Two stabbed during flight
Two Qantas flight attendants were stabbed on board a domestic flight to the southern island of Tasmania, Sky News reported yesterday. The plane departed Melbourne for a flight to the Tasmanian city of Launceston when a fight broke out and two flight attendants were stabbed by a passenger, Sky News reported, adding that two passengers also were injured. The plane turned around and landed at Melbourne in southeastern Australia where police and emergency services rushed to the scene. A Qantas spokeswoman said that the national carrier could not make any statement until it had more information.
■ India
Soldiers kill 15 guerrillas
Indian army soldiers killed 15 suspected Islamic guerrillas in a fierce gunfight in India's northern Jammu-Kashmir state, a news agency said yesterday. The gun battle was continuing in a forest near Lachchipora, a village in Anantnag district, 55km south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir, according to the independent news agency, Press Trust of India said. Police said they began a search of Lachchipora after receiving a tip that guerrillas were hiding in the village. No other details were immediately available, and the army's claim could not be independently verified. Yesterday's gun battle came despite recent peace overtures by India and Pakistan which have raised hopes that violence could abate in Kashmir.
■ Singapore
Security meet starts today
Asia's biggest gathering of defense ministers and armed forces chiefs will focus on terrorism and the North Korean nuclear crisis this weekend, while host Singapore assured no threats to security or health from SARS. The second annual Asia Security Conference marks the region's first major gathering tackling the issue since the end of the war on Iraq. It also encompasses the largest contingent of high-level officials to gather in the city-state since the outbreak of SARS. The event organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies kicks off late today with a speech from Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding father.
■ Indonesia
Elephants to battle loggers
Forest rangers are trying to protect timber with tusks. They've trained a band of elephants to charge at illegal loggers responsible for much of the country's rampant deforestation, a newspaper said yesterday. The 28 elephants recruited by the Nature Conservation Agency of North Bengkulu on the island of Sumatra have been trained to charge when they hear the sound of the loggers' chain saws, the Jakarta Post reported. "Most of the time, illegal loggers run away when they see an elephant coming straight at them," the paper said, paraphrasing comments by agency head Agus Priambidu. The paper said the trial program started last year and has yielded good results, with illegal logging activities declining.
■United States
Tax cut is now law
US President George W. Bush signed the third-biggest tax cut in history on Wednesday and said it would provide relief to millions of taxpayers within weeks, but that job growth would come more gradually. Bush initially ridiculed the tax bill's US$350 billion size as "little bitty" after Congress cut his proposal in half. But in signing it into law, Bush embraced the smaller package as a "bold" compromise, which aides hoped would boost the economy and his re-election chances. Unemployment stands at 6 percent and Democrats say the economy has shed more than 2.7 million private-sector jobs since Bush took office.
■ United Kingdom
Fast liver delivery checked
Police chiefs who decided to prosecute a medical transplant driver in Britain for speeding at 167kph defended the move as a way of ending legal anomalies over the public health service's vital organ-ferrying service. Senior officers of the Lincolnshire force, who charged ambulance driver Mike Ferguson, of Bradford, in northern England, believe the case ultimately could give the service the same immunity as emergency vehicles. Ferguson was clocked twice on the A1 major road in the middle of the night as he ferried a liver from Leeds to an emergency transplant at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge.
■ Morocco
Bombings planner dies
The man who allegedly organized suicide bombings that killed 43 in Casablanca 12 days ago has died in police custody. The death of Abdelhaq Moulsabbat was blamed on heart and liver problems. "His health condition did not allow investigators unfortunately to complete all the elements of the investigation," a prosecutor, Moulay Abdellah Alaoui Belghiti, told Morocco's state television. He described him as the "general coordinator" and "emir" behind the May 16 attacks by a dozen young suicide bombers on five Casablanca locations where foreigners or Jews gathered to gamble or drink alcohol.
■ Belarus
Lone president speaks
The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has cemented his totalitarian reputation by decreeing a ban on the heads of companies, unions and other Belarussian organisations calling themselves "president", limiting the use of the title to himself. Lukashenko's new law takes a leaf out of the book of the former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin who decreed during his rule from 1971 to 1979 that the title president should be for his exclusive use. There was no indication of an officially preferred alternative. It is not clear whether the law will also ban the use of president with a lower case p.
■ Congo
UN force on its way
Mindful of continuing bloodshed that has killed or maimed hundreds of civilians in northeastern Congo, members of the UN Security Council rallied on Wednesday around a French proposal to send a multinational force to the city of Bunia to prevent further massacres. The resolution is expected to come to a vote by week's end, and the advance guard of the force should arrive in Bunia next week to begin repairing the airport runway. This would allow larger aircraft to transport the troops, and also medical supplies and other aid to the remnants of the city's population who are seeking shelter at a UN compound.
Agencies
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
The US will help bolster the Philippines’ arsenal and step up joint military exercises, Manila’s defense chief said, as tensions between Washington and China escalate. The longtime US ally is expecting a sustained US$500 million in annual defense funding from Washington through 2029 to boost its military capabilities and deter China’s “aggression” in the region, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an interview in Manila on Thursday. “It is a no-brainer for anybody, because of the aggressive behavior of China,” Teodoro said on close military ties with the US under President Donald Trump. “The efforts for deterrence, for joint resilience
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