■India
Rain hampers rescue
Heavy rains in northern India forced rescuers yesterday to suspend a search for victims of a torrential downpour believed to have killed more than 40 people. Officials said they had found 18 bodies so far and about two dozen people were still missing after the downpour on Wednesday swept away a colony of laborers in the hilly Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh, about 500km north of the capital, New Delhi. Kishore Shankar, a government official heading rescue efforts, said teams had resumed their search early yesterday but had to abandon it soon afterward due to more heavy rain coming down.
■ Vietnam
Prison term reduced
Vietnam reduced the prison term of a dissident Catholic priest by five years, a court official said yesterday in the latest sign the communist country is seeking to quell criticism of its religious and political suppression. But Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, 57, will still serve 10 years in prison for "undermining national unity" by writing to the US Congress about religious oppression. A court in northern Vietnam reduced his sentence from 15 years on Wednesday because of his "good behavior," according to state-run media.
■ Australia
Doctor pays for baby
A court ruling that a doctor must pay the costs of raising a child born after a failed sterilization procedure sparked outrage yesterday within the medical profession in Australia. It was the first time damages for child-rearing had been awarded and is certain to further raise the sky-high medical indemnity premiums doctors must already pay. The Queensland Supreme Court upheld a lower court's award of US$137,000 in damages to Brisbane couple Kerry and Craig Melchior over the birth of their third child, Jordan, in 1997. They sued the doctor for the cost of bringing up Jordan, a child they said they didn't want and should not have had.
■ Sri Lanka
Bid to revive peace process
Norway's special envoy Jon Westborg yesterday left to Tamil rebel-held northern Sri Lanka with a Sri Lankan government proposal for a "provisional administration" for the northeast of the country in a bid to revive the stalled peace process, a cabinet minister said. Constitutional affairs minister, G.L. Peiris, said the proposals were a "basis for further discussions" with the rebels. Rebels have been demanding an interim administration for the north and eastern provinces before they return to the Norwegian-backed peace process, which led to talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
■ China
SARS hospital draws tourists
A Beijing hospital that treated hundreds of SARS patients has been turned into a tourist attraction with 1,000 people a day flocking to see the wards where victims lay, a news report said yesterday. Xiaotangshan, a makeshift hospital built in eight days to treat most of the Chinese capital's SARS cases, has been included on a 28 yuan (US$3.40) tour of suburban Beijing, according to the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily. Last Saturday alone, more than 1,000 people toured the hospital where they were told of health workers' brave battles against SARS, and shown the wards where patients were treated and where many died.
■ United States
Salsa singing legend dies
Legendary salsa singer Celia Cruz, the winner of five Grammy Awards and known for wearing brightly colored costumes and ever-changing hairstyles, has died, reports said Wednesday. The Cuban-born singer died after a long battle with cancer at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the reports said. Doctors discovered Cruz had a brain tumor last year. Her age was believed to be 77 or 78. In her more than 50-year career Cruz made more than 70 albums and acted in numerous films. Cruz grew up poor in Havana and left Cuba for the US in 1960. She became famous in the US as the "Queen of Salsa."
■ Israel
Suspected IRA man leaves
A Northern Ireland man arrested by the Israelis on suspicion of aiding Palestinian militants left Israel after being released from detention on Wednesday, the government said. The government statement said "former IRA activist John Morgan" had returned to Ireland after being freed by the security services, but did not say whether he had been deported. Israeli police said Sunday they had arrested a suspected Irish Republican Army dissident, reported to be training Palestinian militants in the use of explosives. Family and employers in Belfast say the man is Sean O Muireagain, a 40-year-old journalist with no links to paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland.
■ Iran
Journalist died after beating
An Iranian-Canadian journalist died of a brain hemorrhage caused by a beating after she was arrested while taking photographs during anti-government protests last month, Iran's vice president said Wednesday. It was the first admission from an Iranian official that Zahra Kazemi, who died Friday, was beaten. Earlier, Iranian officials maintained Kazemi, a freelance photographer, died of a stroke, contrary to her family's contention that she was beaten to death by Iranian security agents who detained her as she covered the student-led protests. "She has died of a brain hemorrhage resulting from blows inflicted on her," Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
■ United States
Worst writing honored
A rambling 70-word sentence that compares a lovers' embrace to a piece of supermarket string cheese has won the dubious honor of first place in the 22nd annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, aimed at finding the worst possible opening for an imaginary novel. "They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white ... Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain American, as it really doesn't taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently," wrote Mariann Simms of Alabama, who won a US$250 prize Wednesday for her efforts. The contest, sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University, is named after the British novelist Edward George Bulwer- Lytton, whose 1830 novel Paul Clifford began with the notorious line, "It was a dark and stormy night." The department received thousands of entries from around the world and posted the full list of winners and "dishonorable mentions" on the Web site www.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2003.htm.
■United States
Coast Guard picks up Cubans
The US Coast Guard boarded a 10.8m Cuban boat Wednesday and took 15 people into custody, a day after the vessel was taken from the island and chased by Cuban authorities. The Coast Guard had been tracking the vessel before boarding it on Wednesday in international waters in the Straits of Florida, Coast Guard spokeswoman Danielle DeMarino said. Cuba's government said its coast guard chased the vessel into Bahamian waters on Tuesday. The Bahamian government said that the vessel emerged back into international waters on Wednesday.
■ United Kingdom
Robot too scary for children
Morgui, the new robot constructed at the University of Reading, west of London, has been deemed so scary it has been banned from interacting with anyone aged under 18. The x-rated robot is a disembodied head with five senses and big bright eyes and is able to follow people around the room. But the university's ethics and research committee took one look at Morgui and decided it might be just a bit too scary. This is ironic. Morgui, which is Mandarin Chinese for Magic Ghost, cannot experience emotions -- it is an experiment in how people react to robots.
■ United States
Judge moves sniper's trial
The trial of John Allen Muhammad, the older man charged in the sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington metropolitan region last fall, will be moved from Manassas, Virginia, near Washington, to Virginia Beach, 257km to the southeast. Two weeks ago, a judge in Fairfax, Virginia, moved the trial of the younger man charged in the shootings, Lee Boyd Malvo, to Chesapeake, Virginia, which abuts Virginia Beach. In granting Muhammad's motion to move the trial, Judge LeRoy Millette Jr., of Prince William County Circuit Court, wrote that "good cause has clearly been shown that such change of venue is necessary to ensure a fair and impartial trial."
■ Colombia
Uribe optimistic about talks
A promise by outlawed right-wing militias to disarm by the end of 2005 marks an important step toward peace, President Alvaro Uribe said. "I believe that this can contribute to the country laying down the foundation for peace," Uribe said Wednesday during an 8km jog around an army base where the seat of government was transferred for three days. Colombia is torn by nearly four decades of civil war, with leftist rebels battling the government and the right-wing paramilitary groups for control of the mountains, plains and steamy jungles of this South American nation. Uribe temporarily transferred the capital to the violence-ridden city of Arauca to prove the government is in control.
■ United States
Moose trashes Italian's car
An Italian tourist faced both a language barrier and an incredulous state trooper in explaining how his rental car was damaged this week. On Monday, Ippolito Gallovich, 51, was parked on the shoulder of the Parks Highway near the turnoff to Talkeetna watching a moose when the animal decided to jump over his car. The ungulate misjudged the distance. Instead of clearing the 2003 Lincoln Town Car, the moose landed on the windshield, breaking it. The animal then scrambled back to the pavement and disappeared into the woods. Trooper John Ostoj responded to the report of the damaged car. Gallovich doesn't speak much English.
Agencies
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
COMMUNITY CONFLICT: Concerns about disease spread from corpses has run up against friends and families’ desire to bury their dead as infection spreads in the area Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) attacked and burned a tent that was part of a health center where people are being treated for the virus, the staff there said Saturday. It was the second such attack in the region in a week. No one was hurt in the attack, according to reports but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are unaccounted for, a hospital director said. Angry residents arrived at the clinic in the
INSURGENT ACTION: A local independence movement in Balochistan, alleged by Pakistan’s government to be backed by India, claimed responsibility for the strike A suicide bomber detonated an vehicle-borne IED near a railway as a passenger train passed through the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta yesterday, killing at least 23 people and wounding over 70, officials said. The explosion caused two of the train cars to overturn and catch fire, according to footage shared online. The attack happened in an area where security forces are usually stationed, badly damaging several nearby buildings and smashing more than a dozen vehicles parked along the road, according to witnesses and images circulating on social media. Doctors at local hospitals said they had received the wounded, with 20 in critical
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