■ Thailand
Buddhist decapitated
An elderly Buddhist man was found decapitated in troubled southern Thailand yesterday and his attackers left a note suggesting the murder was linked to recent unrest, police said. Residents found the head of a murdered rubber worker lying on a road two hours before dawn, said police Lieutenant Suwit Phusathit. "His killer or killers left a note saying `If you still arrest innocent Malays, we will also kill innocent Buddhists,'" the officer said. The body of the 67-year-old man was left in a rubber plantation about 60m away. Suwit said police were investigating to decide if the gruesome murder stemmed from recent violence in the Muslim south.
■ Australia
Accused killer refused bail
A Singaporean accused of bludgeoning to death two fellow students from the city-state in a Sydney apartment they shared was refused bail when he appeared in court yesterday. Ram Puneet Tiwary, 25, made a brief appearance in the Parramatta Bail Court in Sydney charged with two counts of murder. Tiwary, who did not have a lawyer, was ordered to appear next in Sydney Central Local Court tomorrow. Police arrested Tiwary Friday for the murders of Singaporeans Chow Lyang Tay and Poh Chuan Tan, both aged 26, whose bodies were found in their apartment in eastern Sydney on Sept. 15.
■ China
Computer game banned
China has banned a Swedish-made computer game accused of "distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty," by showing Manchuria, Tibet and Xinjiang as independent nations, state press said yesterday. The computer game, Hearts of Iron, made by the Stockholm-based games developer Paradox Entertainment, also showed Taiwan as a part of Japan, Xinhua news agency said, citing a censorship committee under the Ministry of Culture. "All these severely distort historical facts and violate China's gaming and Internet service regulations," the ministry said.
■ Myanmar
Cyclone finally reported
One week after a deadly cyclone swept through northwestern Myanmar, the state media reported it for the first time yesterday, saying 1,350 families were left homeless. But it made no mention of the 140 deaths reported earlier by a UN agency. The reports of the May 19 storm in Myanmar's western Rakhine State came a day after foreign shortwave radio stations, widely listened to in military-ruled Myanmar, broadcast news of the tragedy based on information from UN humanitarian agencies. The Myanmar-language daily Kyemon reported yesterday that the storm hit the coastal towns of Sittway, Kyaukpyu, Myebon and Pauktaw.
■ China
Charity flight ends in death
The body of a South African on a round-the-world trip to mark 10 years of democracy in South Africa was pulled from a lake in central China on Friday after his plane crashed, officials and state media said. The pilot, who was accompanied by another flyer in a separate microlight, ditched in Lake Dongting in Hunan province after being refused permission to land at Changsha airport in the province's capital because of bad weather, an aviation official said. Xinhua news agency cited airport authorities saying the pilot was one of two South Africans flying two light planes on a global charity mission "to mark the 10th anniversary of South Africa's independence."
■ Russia
Explosive hits train
A passenger train traveling from Moscow to a provincial capital in southern Russia was hit by an explosion early yesterday but no one was killed, according to preliminary information, officials said. The train bound for Vladikavkaz, the capital of the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, was hit by an explosive near the village of Elkhotovo, said Alan Doyev, a spokesman for the regional police. According to preliminary data, there were no victims, Doyev said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the explosive had been placed on the track or on one of the train's cars, he said.
■ Italy
Threats to Bush visit
The Italian authorities on Friday warned of "serious threats" to a smooth visit by US President George W. Bush to Rome next week when groups plan to stage mass demonstrations against US policy in Iraq. "Serious threats, which worry us but do not frighten us, are emerging for ... Bush's visit," Pisanu told the party congress of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative Forza Italia. "You have only to scan the Internet, let alone other signals, to get an idea of how the threats to security and public order are piling up," he said. An alliance of anti-globalization groups along with the Greens and the Communists said earlier this month that they planned mass demonstrations to greet Bush when he comes to Rome.
■ United States
Verdict in child death
A woman was convicted in the death of her 10-year-old daughter, who was killed in a house fire last year because she was chained to a bed by her ankles. After convicting Teresa Dick, 31, of manslaughter and false imprisonment, the jury recommended a seven-year sentence for each count. The body of Molly Holt was found in her bedroom after the Nov. 10 fire. Investigators also found a chain and padlock that they determined had secured the girl to her bed. Authorities say the fire the fire was accidental. Dick told jurors Friday that Molly had to be chained to the bed at night because she threatened to harm the other children while they slept.
■ United States
`Buffy' scholars meet
It's tough for scholars to be taken seriously when their subject is a TV show about a California blonde fighting evil in a high school built on a gateway to hell. Particularly when the title is as campy as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But enough professors and writers study the comedic drama to hold a deadly serious academic conference here this weekend attracting more than 325 people. Buffyologists from as far away as Singapore were presenting 190 papers on topics ranging from "slayer slang" to "postmodern reflections on the culture of consumption."
■ Norway
Piano shuts power plant
One of the Nordic region's biggest power stations shut on Friday to let an expert tune a grand piano for a concert undisturbed by the hum of huge hydroelectric generators. "When you put a big piano in there, you also need to tune it, and that is very difficult if the machines are running," said Tron Engebrethsen, senior vice president at Norwegian power company Statkraft. The generators will be switched back on after Friday evening's concert, which is being staged in an enormous underground hall at the plant.
■ United States
EU backs air-security plan
The EU has agreed to send US authorities additional private data on passengers aboard US-bound flights, the Homeland Security Department said on Friday. US-bound flights have for years radioed their passenger lists to the US. Now, European airlines radio ahead 32 types of information, consisting of the airlines' files on passengers, from credit card numbers to dates of birth to telephone numbers, rental cars and even e-mail addresses, department officials said. Airlines create the file from travel agents and agents at the airport counter, an official said. Authorities may keep the data for up to three-and-a-half years for use only in cases of terrorism, international organized crime or to locate escapees and fugitives.
■ United States
Toddler drowns, recovers
A hospital worker preparing a drowned toddler for a funeral home noticed the boy was breathing -- more than an hour after he had been pronounced dead. Logan Pinto, who is 22 months old, apparently wandered away from his baby sitter on Thursday and fell into a canal near his home in Rexburg, 440km east of Boise, Idaho. He was submerged for nearly 30 minutes before police found him 1km downstream, said Rexburg police Captain Randy Lewis. Though an officer tried to resuscitate him and emergency workers did everything they could to revive him, Lewis said, the boy was pronounced dead.
■ United States
Man executed in S Carolina
A man convicted of killing two women while looking for money 12 years ago was executed in South Carolina's electric chair. James Neil Tucker, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:11pm on Friday. He was the first person to die by electrocution in more than a year. Tucker was remorseful in a final statement read to witnesses by his attorney. He was convicted of killing Rosa Lee "Dolly" Oakley, 54, in her home in June 1992. He stole US$14 from Oakley, then shot her twice in the head. Tucker was convicted of killing Shannon Mellon, 21, six days after killing Oakley. Her hands and legs had been bound and she was shot three times in the head. He took her car and US$20.
■ Iran
Quake kills 20 people
A powerful earthquake struck the Alborz mountain chain in northern Iran, killing at least 20 people and damaging scores of villages, officials said. The quake, which the US Geological Survey said measured 6.2 on the Richter scale, also shook the capital Tehran on Friday, sending some startled residents running into the streets. Some windows were broken. Details on casualties and damage were thin, but officials in the quake-prone Islamic Republic played down fears of a heavy death toll in the lush region on the Caspian Sea coast that is famed for its exports of caviar.
■ Colombia
Rebels hit power supply
Two soldiers and a civilian were killed and several electricity towers bombed in a series of attacks by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to mark their 40th anniversary this week, authorities said on Friday. The attacks on the towers occurred in Narino and Huila states, left 36 towns and tens of thousands of people without electricity and forced Colombia to buy electricity from Ecuador. In the town of Carmen de Bolivar, to the north, two soldiers, a civilian and several rebels were killed in clashes between FARC and the Colombian army.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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