■China
Great Wall visits restricted
Tourists will be banned from exploring undeveloped sections of the Great Wall beginning Friday to protect the ancient monument from damage, state media and officials said yesterday. Visitors will be barred from stepping off paths to overgrown and crumbling parts of the wall, said an official at the Beijing Tourism Administration said. He would only give his surname, Tu. Violators face fines of between 200 yuan (US$24) and 30,000 yuan (US$3,600,) the official Xinhua News Agency said.
■ Singapore
Churches shun gay policy
Singapore's influential council of churches yesterday asked the government to stop its new policy to allow the hiring of homosexuals for the civil service, claiming such a lifestyle was "sinful and unacceptable." The National Council of Churches, which represent Anglicans, Methodists and Presbyterians, urged the government to maintain legislation banning homosexual acts and refrain from the promotion of "homosexual lifestyle and activities." Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said earlier this month his government would begin hiring openly gay people.
■ New Zealand
Asians excel in baking
Asian immigrants are forming the upper crust of pie bakers in New Zealand. A Cambodian immigrant was honored yesterday for baking New Zealand's best pie -- a staple served up everywhere from family tables to sports grounds. Patrick Lam and his wife Lyn Ho won the award, beating off pie-makers from more than 180 other New Zealand bakeries, Supreme Pie Award organizers said. As well as taking the top prize at the awards, the Cambodian-born bakers' steak, mince and cheese pies were also judged the best in their category, the biggest in the annual competition.
■ Hong Kong
High-profile rapist jailed
A serial rapist who targeted school and college girls and videotaped his assaults has been jailed for life in Hong Kong, a news report said yesterday. Cheung Lai-man, 35, started building up a collection of rape videos by filming his attacks on three girls aged 12, 20 and 21, all while they were on their way to school or university. He dragged two of the victims into bushes and videotaped his attacks and on the third occasion set up a makeshift hillside shelter especially to rape his victim, the South China Morning Post reported. The attacks were carried out from 1997 to last year.
■ Solomon Islands
Rebel leader to give up arms
A key Solomon Islands rebel leader yesterday agreed to surrender weapons to an Australian led intervention force, an Australian official said here. The Solomon Islands has suffered a four-year-long civil war which an Australian led intervention force is seeking to end while restoring law and order. Rebels from Malaita island and Guadalcanal have been fighting with several militant groups. Intervention coordinator Nick Warner flew to Auki, the capital of Malaita, yesterday and met Malaita Eagle Force leader Jimmy Rasta, who was reported to have announced he would round up his weapons and present them to the force on Aug. 15. "We will destroy the weapons on the spot at the ceremony," Warner told reporters here.
■United Kingdom
No rest for the homeless
Managers at a multi-storey parking lot in the industrial city of Stoke-on-Trent are to play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony continuously to drive away homeless people who sleep rough there once the cars have gone, the city council announced Tuesday. The passionate masterpiece will run on a loop 24 hours a day at the John Street car park for a two-month trial period. The council also claims the symphony will also help "lighten the mood" for stressed-out workers and visiting shoppers and says that if successful, the idea will be extended to other areas.
■ United states
Hundreds flee fires
Hundreds of people have fled their homes in the face of a massive fire burning out of control in Glacier National Park, according to US reports on Tuesday. Nationwide, US fire officials raised preparedness to "Level 5" -- the highest alert status -- because of adverse conditions, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre. The Montana evacuations began late Monday as high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds frustrated efforts by firefighters to contain the blaze. Two other fires are also burning in the park, consuming a total of more than 14,000 hectares. About 2,000 firefighters are battling the blazes.
■ Afghanistan
US troops to stay for now
US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers said yesterday that coalition forces will remain in Afghanistan until stability is achieved, but would not give a time frame. Speaking at Bagram Airbase, 50km north of the capital, Kabul, Myers said a recent spate of attacks against US-led forces in Afghanistan was the work of small pockets, not large bands, of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. "There's not large numbers of al-Qaeda or Taliban threatening US forces right now," Myers said, adding the attacks involved groups of two or three militants. "The threat situation is better than it is in Iraq," he said. There are 10,000 US troops deployed in Afghanistan.
■ Chechnya
Oldest person discovered
The world's oldest person, 124-year-old Zabani Khachukayeva, has been discovered in the war-torn separatist republic of Chechnya. Khachukayeva is 11 years older than the 113-year-old Japanese silkworm breeder Yukichi Chuganji, declared the world's oldest person last year by Guinness, according to the republic's Deputy Minister of Health Sultan Alimkhadzhiyev. Doctors believe Khachukayeva may be even older than the age on her passport, but is in comparatively good health despite impaired hearing. She remains energetic, and has 24 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.
■ United states
Stop, or else it's rape
A new rape law in Illinois attempts to clarify the issue of consent by emphasizing that people can change their mind while having sex. Under the law, if someone says "no" at any time the other person must stop or it becomes rape. The National Crime Victim Law Institute said it believed the law is the first of its kind in the country. Lyn Schollett, general counsel for the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said the law was important to make it clear to victims, offenders, prosecutors and juries that people have the right to halt sexual activity at any time.
■Germany
Hostage dies in desert
A German woman among 15 European tourists held hostage for nearly 5 months by Algerian Islamic extremists in the Sahara desert has died of heatstroke, German television network ARD reported Tuesday. Relatives of the woman, a mother of two children, were notified by the German foreign ministry earlier Tuesday. The woman was identified by her former husband as 45-year-old Michaela Spitzer, a mother of two children from the southern city of Augsburg. She is believed to have succumbed to the scorching temperatures in Algeria weeks ago, ARD said. The hostage-takers likely buried her body in the desert.
■ Italy
PM investigated
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was humiliated on Tuesday when his government dropped an attempt to block an investigation into his business dealings. At the center of the affair is an investigation into an alleged US$91 million tax fraud by Berlusconi's companies. Last week Justice Minister Roberto Castelli, a member of the Northern League, told prosecutors he had intercepted their request for evidence from the US. It was argued that, since the prime minister was covered by the immunity law, the request might be illegal. The alleged fraud was after Berlusconi gave up running his business empire, but the prosecutors claim he knew of it.
■ United States
New terror warning issued
The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department issued public warnings on Tuesday of possible terrorist attacks against US citizens, including the possibility of suicide hijackings of passenger planes. Bush administration officials said the advisories were prompted in part by interrogations of captured terrorists of al-Qaeda. The Homeland Security Department said on Tuesday that intelligence agencies had "received information that al-Qaeda continues to be interested in using the commercial aviation system" and that the nation's airlines were warned last weekend. "We continue to investigate the credibility of this intelligence," the department said.
■ United States
Cigarettes `boosted'
A study found that some brands of cigarettes deliver a much more powerful nicotine "kick" than others, adding to suspicions that manufacturers deliberately blend tobacco to boost the addictive effect. Smoke from 11 brands of cigarettes was analyzed for a specific form of nicotine called "free base" that passes quickly into the bloodstream.. American Spirit, a brand owned by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, topped the list. It was followed by the French brand Gauloises Brunes, according to the study by Oregon Health & Science University chemist James Pankow.
■ United States
AIDS cases increase
AIDS cases are on the rise again in the US for the first time in a decade, federal health officials have warned, according to news reports on Tuesday. Cases of the killer-disease rose by 2.2 percent last year, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Washington Post reported. Safe-sex campaigns and powerful anti-viral drugs had helped stabilize the spread of the epidemic for a decade, and the cause of the apparent US increase was unclear, said the report.
Agencies
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
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