Sat, Aug 09, 2003 page5

• World News Quick Take

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  ■ New Zealand
  

  Officials say herd free of BSE

  Agriculture officials stressed yesterday that New Zealand's beef herd is free of mad cow disease, after a 26-year-old was hospitalized with a brain wasting condition that could be linked to the cattle disease. Even if the man has Creutzfeld Jakob disease "that would not reflect on the BSE-free status of New Zealand's livestock," said Derek Belton, director of animal biosecurity. BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is the scientific name for mad cow disease. "New Zealand is BSE free. We are recognized as such by the European Union," Belton said.

  ■ India

  Storm washes away camp

  A fierce thunderstorm near a Himalayan resort washed away the tents of workers building a mountain tunnel, killing at least 15 people, police said yesterday. At least 20 others were injured in the sudden gush of rainwater in the Solang Valley of northern Himachal Pradesh state, officer Shadi Lal said by telephone from the local police station. The site is located on the outskirts of Manali, one of India's most popular mountain resorts. Monsoon rains annually cause landslides in Himachal Pradesh, a lower Himalayan state bordering China. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the Solang Valley each year. The skiing and paragliding hub is near a revered Hindu temple and is the favorite summer retreat of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

  ■ China

  Body parts surprise police

  Police believed they had a mass murder on their hands when five human heads and an assortment of body parts were found by a farmer on a hillside in Hunan Province, a news report said yesterday. The grisly discovery was made in Youxian where the farmer stumbled across five boxes, each containing the severed limbs and torsos of five different bodies. The heads from each body were found in the grass. Police at first believed they were murder victims but later discovered the body parts had been dumped on the hillside by a medical school, according to the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily.

  ■ South Korea

  Train crash kills two

  Two passengers were killed and dozens injured in Taegu yesterday when a commuter train crashed into a cargo train, police said. Police in the southeastern city were still investigating the accident, which took place just before the morning rush hour, to find out the cause, a police official said. Local reports put the number of injuries at near 100 but the official said 48 people were being treated at hospitals. The cargo train was waiting for a signal to change when the commuter train hit it from behind at full speed, the police official said. He could not confirm how many passengers were aboard at the time.

  ■ Singapore

  Woman admits to splurge

  A woman blew a second chance at going straight after emerging from prison and embarking on a spree with her new boss' credit cards, a newspaper reported yesterday. Carey Tan, 29, was jailed for five years and three months after she admitted in district court to splurging more than S$42,000 (US$24,000), The Straits Times said. In all, Tan faced 103 charges of cheating and theft. She had been jailed for 18 months in 2001 for theft, but was offered a job in August last year as the secretary to Yeo Kee Huat, 47, the managing director of a boutique. Less than a month after working at the boutique, Tan could not resist cheating her employer, the court heard.

  ■Canada
  

  Lightning strikes fuel fires

  Wild thunderstorms delivered 1,500 lightning strikes to British Columbia forests over a 24-hour period that spanned into Thursday, sparking 218 new fires in the drought-ridden woods. Firefighters, soldiers and volunteers were wrestling with blazes on 1,000 fronts, The Globe and Mail reported online. Meteorologists were predicting further thunderstorms and hefty winds in the worst- hit southern parts of Canada's western-most province. The number of fires around the Rocky Mountain town of Kamloops climbed to 428. In neighboring Alberta Province, however, firefighters had brought some of the blaze under control.

  ■ United States

  Algebra predicts happiness

  A mathematician says he can predict with almost total accuracy which newly wed couples will enjoy a happy marriage -- using two lines of algebra. James Murray says the two formulas he devised have a 94 percent success rate when it comes to forecasting whether a couple will stay together, the Daily Telegraph said yesterday. The formulas were calculated during a 10-year study of 700 couples in the US conducted by Murray, a mathematics professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. The experiment involved observing the couples during a 15 minute conversation when they were newly married.

  ■ United States

  Malicious marine sentenced

  A Marine who admitted cutting parachute lines before a training jump was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison by a military judge. Lance Corporal Antoine Boykins admitted cutting suspension lines on 13 of the 22 parachutes that were to be used in the exercise Sept. 21. He said he knew someone could be killed or injured because reserve chutes fail nearly half the time they're used. Three Marines were injured in the jump's first wave, and the exercise was canceled. The judge, Colonel Alvin Keller, also cut Boykins' rank to private, stripped him of all future pay and allowances and said he would be dishonorably discharged.

  ■ United Nations

  UN pioneer honored

  The UN honored the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche, who helped create the world body, with a commemorative stamp on his 100th birthday and tributes to his commitment to peace. At a ceremony at UN headquarters, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the American diplomat a "towering figure in 20th century history" and "one of the heroes of my lifetime -- but one who is too little remembered these days." Bunche helped create the UN in San Francisco in 1945, was a co-author of the UN Charter and served as the world body's undersecretary-general.

  ■ United States

  Rats! It's a dog!

  A chihuahua out for a walk in the park suffered scratches and a talon puncture when it was attacked by a hawk trained in a New York City program to scare off pigeons and rodents. Galan, the offending bird of prey, was grounded after Wednesday's attack, and officials were considering whether to discontinue the program altogether. "I'm absolutely certain my bird mistook it for a rat," said Thomas Cullen, the falconer in charge of the four birds at Bryant Park said.

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