■ China
HIV-positive couple marry
China has permitted two HIV-positive people to wed for the first time since its marriage laws were amended, state press said yesterday. Under the previous Maternal and Infantile Health Law, introduced in 1995, couples planning to marry had to pass a series of medical tests. Those with sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis and AIDS, were barred from tieing the knot and violators would be punished, the law stated. The Beijing Morning Post reported that Cao Xueliang, 37, and Wang Daiying, 34, had become the first couple to marry since the legislation was eased earlier this year.
■ China
Fireworks factory explodes
Some 300 workers narrowly escaped when a huge explosion tore through a fireworks factory in China's eastern Zhejiang province, state press said yesterday. The workers had been given time off as temperatures soared in a heatwave crippling the area, and were not in the factory when a lightning bolt ignited 160kg of gunpowder in the storehouse of the Tonglu Fireworks factory in Eshan township, the Xinhua news agency reported. At least 10 villagers were however injured by flying glass. The near tragedy follows two other firework factory blasts in the past few days.
■ Pakistan
45 die in blast
Explosives used for road building blew up in a northern Pakistani village, killing 45 people and injuring 150 others, the Information Minister and local police said yesterday. The explosives were stored in the home of a local contractor, Waris Khan, who died in the early morning blast in Ghair, said Hussain Khan, a police official. The explosion, 300km east of Gilgit, was apparently accidental, caused by an electrical short circuit, he said. Villager Ghulam Sakhi said by phone that the home, made of wood, caught fire about midnight, and more than 200 neighbors, including women and children, rushed to help extinguish the blaze.
■ Singapore
Terrorists in new plots
Members of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror network "are actively plotting new acts of terrorism," said a Cabinet minister in this wealthy Southeast Asian city-state. "While we have detained most of Jemaah Islamiyah members in Singapore, the network has not been completely dismantled," said Lee Boon Yang, Singapore's Minister for Information, Tourism and the Arts. The announcement comes after Jemaah Islamiyah bomb expert Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi and two other high-profile terror suspects escaped from a Philippines prison last month. He is accused of purchasing more than a tonne of explosives in a plot to destroy the US Embassy, a US Navy facility and other Western targets in Singapore.
■ Indonesia
Journalist set free
An American freelance photojournalist departed Indonesia's war-torn province of Aceh yesterday after spending a day in jail on a 40-day sentence, of which 39 days were subtracted for time already spent in detention during his trial. The Banda Aceh District Court on Saturday found William Nessen, 46, guilty of immigration violations for misusing his visa. Nessen, however, was released yesterday because his 39 days in police detention during his trial will be counted against his sentence.
■ Afghanistan
Afghan refugees returning
Over 361,000 Afghan refugees have returned home since the start of this year, despite continuing insecurity along Afghanistan's southern and eastern borders and bouts of factional fighting in the north, the UN said yesterday. About 311,000 people were repatriated with help from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, while 50,000 others returned "spontaneously," said Mohammad Nader Farhad, a spokesman for the refugee agency in Kabul.
■ Finland
Sauna sitter wins title
Finland's Timo Kaukonen sweated his way to a world title Saturday when he won the sixth world sauna-sitting championships in Heinola, southern Finland. After a qualifying heat on Friday Kaukonen won a final described by cognoscenti as "the best ever seen" by beating his closest rival, three time world champion Leo Pusa. Finns normally like the perspiration to pour from their pores at a temperature of at least 80?C. But for these thicker-skinned contestants the thermostat was hoisted to a stifling 110C. Kaukonen stood the heat for 16 minutes and 15 seconds before getting out of the sauna. In the ladies' competition the prize went to Natallia Tryfanava of Belarus who steamed for exactly 13 minutes.
■ United States
Impostor prince caught
It's good to be the prince, but only if you're the real thing. A Michigan man who falsely claimed to be a Saudi prince worth US$480 million is accused of defrauding two upscale stores of US$29,000 worth of clothing, jewelry and perfume, according to a newspaper report. Officials of Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue in suburban Troy became suspicious in December of Anthony Gignac's claim to be Prince Khalid bin Al Saud of the Saudi royal family, so they called in authorities, who called the Saudi Embassy in Washington. The embassy knew all about Gignac, who allegedly had pulled similar scams in Florida and California, the Detroit Free Press reported.
■ United States
Japan talks faulter
The US and Japan have ended a 45-day negotiation period without resolving differences on how to treat US military personnel suspected of serious crimes, a senior Pentagon official said late Friday. The official said the Friday deadline passed without a deal on the rules of criminal jurisdiction and custody for members of the US military in the stage before they are charged with crimes. The two nations have a long-standing agreement that defines the rights and responsibilities of both nations under such circumstances. The US military is required to hand over service personnel suspected of crimes to local law-enforcement authorities in Japan only after they are charged.
■ Sri Lanka
New round of peace talks?
France could host a new round peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers rebels, a report said yesterday. The talks, which have been stalled since April 21 when the Tigers pulled out, are now likely to resume after behind the scenes efforts by Norwegian facilitators, the Sunday Times newspaper here said. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam suspended their participation in the talks saying the government had failed to deliver on promises.
■ Niger
US may have bullied Tandja
A former US assistant secretary of state for Africa has warned Niger to keep out of a row over disputed claims that Iraq sought to buy uranium from the west African state, the British newspaper Sunday Telegraph reported.
Quoting senior Niger government officials, the newspaper said Herman Cohen, a former US assistant secretary of state for Africa, called on Mamadou Tandja, Niger's president, in the capital Niamey last week to relay the message from Washington. One official told the Telegraph: "Let's say Mr Cohen put a friendly arm around the president ... but then squeezed his shoulder hard enough to convey the message, `Let's hear no more about this affair from your government.' Basically he was telling Niger to shut up."
■ Syria
US threatens Syria
Syria yesterday rebuffed renewed US threats, saying the US administration is merely echoing false Israeli claims against certain Arab countries. US Secretary of State Colin Powell recently warned Syria of regional isolation and exclusion from the Iraqi market if it did not meet US demands to crack down on militant groups. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Maariv, which was released by the State Department on Friday, Powell said Syria could not yet expect better relations and cooperation with Washington. They [the Syrians] will be increasingly isolated as the peace process moves forward without them, and as Iraq becomes a democratic state that does not wish to work with states that continue to sponsor terrorist activity," Powell said.
■ Portugal
Fires rage on
Portugal Saturday sought help from fellow EU members to battle devastating forest fires as blazes flared in neighboring Spain and in France exhausted firefighters prayed that a respite would last. Much of Europe has been suffering from low rainfall and high temperatures in recent weeks and flames have torn through parched forests and scrubland.
■ Iraq
Car blown up in road
A car was in flames yesterday morning on the main highway to Baghdad airport, a road where US troops regularly come under attack. The vehicle was hit by "a small explosive device or a rocket-propelled grenade" at 8:30am, said Sergeant Brent William, a public affairs officer. The driver, who managed to escape the car, was wounded in the blast and taken to the hospital, William said. Flames and a plume of black smoke shot into the sky, in what was probably a bomb, detonated by remote control, meant for a US vehicle. The wounded man's brother, Haider al-Ajam, 38, said his brother worked for the UN but had been driving his own four-door Mercedes Benz.
■ Israel
Prisoner committee meets
An Israeli Cabinet committee was to meet later yesterday to consider freeing hundreds more Palestinian detainees, in addition to 540 prisoners who have already been lined up for release, reports said. The committee, which is headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was expected to widen the criteria for lists drawn up by the Shin Beth security agency recom-mending which prisoners should be freed, public radio said. Shortly before Sharon's July 29 meeting with US President George W. Bush, Israel announced that it would free around 540 prisoners, including 210 members of Islamist groups.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
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