■ Australia
Asylum plea rejected
A Chinese dissident said Australia rejected her application for political asylum yesterday, leaving her facing a lengthy jail term if she is forced back to her homeland. Zhao Jing said she was "deeply disappointed" by the decision, which her supporters in Australia suggested was a result of Canberra caving in to pressure from Beijing. "If I go back to China, there is political persecution waiting for me," she said. Zhao said she had 28 days to appeal the rejection and called on Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to reverse the decision. Zhao travelled to Australia as part of a tour group on July 21 and applied for asylum over four politically-sensitive books.
■ Indonesia
Separatists die in clashes
Indonesian troops shot dead three separatist rebels and captured 13 others in the latest violence in the restive province of Aceh, the military said yesterday. The three were killed on Saturday during clashes between government troops and separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas, Aceh military spokesman Asep Sapari said, according to the state Antara news agency. Thirteen other rebels were captured in four raids Saturday, he said. Military and police figures show about 2,200 rebels have been killed, and human rights groups say many of the dead are civilians.
■ India
Poor offered circumcisions
Charity workers plan to circumcise thousands of Muslim boys in India, saying that many of them are foregoing the ritual surgery due to financial constraints or displacement, a report said yesterday. The Royal Education Society, a Muslim-led private group in Bombay, plans to circumcise 3,000 boys in a low-income area. "A number of parents do not circumcise their children because of financial crises or lack of knowledge," the Society's Rehana Undre told the Asian Age newspaper. "Since circumcision is compulsory among Muslims, I thought we should take the initiative," she said.
■ Hong Kong
Pro-China pol has cancer
The leader of a major political party announced yesterday that he has colon cancer but will continue to campaign for re-election in legislative council polls. Ma Lik, head of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance since its previous leader resigned last year following a slump in ratings, broke the news of his cancer diagnosis in a public announcement. He said he had only recently had the cancer confirmed and that it was in its early stages. "I spoke to my colleagues and they said I should have treatment as soon as possible," he said.
■ Nepal
Maoists protest pageant
Supporters of Maoist rebels fighting to turn Nepal into a secular republic joined forces with Hindu activists to picket the kingdom's premier beauty pageant. The activists, mostly women, tore down a ceremonial archway leading to a Kathmandu convention center where Miss Nepal was to be crowned, but police sealed off the area before the pageant opened Saturday evening. "Down with the exploitation of women and Nepalese culture!" hundreds of pro-Maoist and Hindu demonstrators chanted under close watch of police. Payal Shakya, 18, was crowned Miss Nepal after competing against 17 other candidates and will represent the Himalayan state at the next Miss World and Miss Asia-Pacific pageants.
■ South Africa
Ostriches contract bird flu
South Africa will tomorrow begin a cull of some 30,000 ostriches in the Eastern Cape following an outbreak of bird flu that prompted the government to halt all poultry exports, the agriculture ministry said. Traces of the mild H5N2 strain of bird flu were found in samples taken last week from two ostrich farms in the Somerset East area, north of the city of Port Elizabeth, said agriculture ministry official Segoati Mahlangu. The cull will target the ostriches at the two affected farms and those from an additional 15 farms located within a 30km radius, he said. "The effect will be quite minimal" on the ostrich industry in South Africa, Mahlangu said, adding that the cull represented a small percentage of South Africa's total exports of 300,000 ostriches per year.
■ Mexico
Criminals found in jail
Two Mexicans from a "most wanted" list released to great fanfare by the government last week have already been tracked down -- in jail. Alfredo Cervantes Ramirez, also known as "The Bullet-swallower," and Alvaro Dario de Leon Valdes were withdrawn from the list after officials discovered they were already in prison, the Mexico City prosecutor's office said on Saturday. The state prosecutor's office put out a statement saying it "recognizes and values the unmatched cooperation of the citizens and authorities of the country ... which allowed us to locate these two dangerous evil-doers, who are already in jail."
■ United States
Church bus crash kills three
A church bus filled with teenagers was hit by a sport utility vehicle and ran off the road, plunging into a canal and killing three people, police said. One person was missing. Florida Highway Patrol Lieutenant Roger Reyes said the bus carrying 25 people from First Baptist Church at Hillsboro in Coconut Creek was returning late Saturday from an Orlando-area theme park when the accident happened. Reyes said a Ford Explorer had a blowout and hit the bus, running it off the road and through a fence into a canal at about 10pm. The bus was completely submerged in about 5m of water, and divers were still in the water early yesterday searching for the missing person, he said.
■ United Kingdom
Prozac found in water
Britain's environment watchdog has found the country's drinking water contains measurable amounts of the antidepressant Prozac, the Observer Sunday newspaper reported. Environmentalists were demanding an urgent probe, referring to the phenomenon as "hidden mass medication", the newspaper said. The Environment Agency has revealed that Prozac is building up both in river systems and groundwater used for drinking supplies.
■ United Kingdom
Atlantic rowers rescued
Four Britons trying to break a world Atlantic rowing record were rescued yesterday after storms split their boat in two off the coast of Britain. A Scandinavian vessel picked up the Pink Lady crew who had been clinging to a liferaft about 480km west of the Scilly Islands, Britain's coastguard said. The rowers had set off from Newfoundland, Canada, at the end of June, aiming to make the 3,380km Atlantic crossing to Britain in 35 to 40 days and beat the current 55-day record.
■ Colombia
Rebels kills 5 soldiers
Marxist rebels killed five Colombian soldiers and wounded two others in a battle in an oil-rich eastern province on Saturday as security forces braced for attacks to mark President Alvaro Uribe's second anniversary in office, the army said. The battle with members of the Revolu-tionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym FARC, took place near the notor-iously violent town of Saravena. "There was a battle in the morning between troops and FARC members. Unfortunately the result was five dead soldiers and two wounded, plus casualties on the other side but we don't know how many," an army spokesman said.
■ United States
Planes collide
Two small planes collided in New Jersey, killing both pilots and sending one aircraft plunging into the back yard of a home, authorities said. Luke Schiada of the National Transportation Safety Board said that the pilots were the only people in the planes. No one on the ground was injured, he said. A Piper PA-28 that had taken off Saturday morning from an airport in Lincoln Park collided with a Cessna 150 that had left an airport in Caldwell, Schiada said. He said it was not immediately clear where the planes were heading, and that there was no information about whether the pilots had communicated with each other before the crash.
■ United States
Dolphins euthanized
Thirty dolphins stranded on a Florida beach were euthanized after experts and volunteers spent hours trying to get them to swim back to the ocean. The roughtooth dolphins were among a group of 36 dolphins that beached themselves Friday on Hutchinson Island, north of Palm Beach. With limited space at the area's lone dolphin-care facility, experts decided they could nurse only six of the animals back to health. The remaining 30 dolphins, including four calves, were given lethal injections on Saturday. "It was a very painful, very emotional and very difficult decision to make," said Steve McCulloch of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce.
■ Great Britain
Cockle pickers rescued
Emergency crews rescued more than 100 Scottish and Chinese shellfish hunters stranded in treacherous sands in an English bay after two tractors collided. Liver-pool Coastguard said it received an emergency call shortly before 10am local time on Saturday reporting that the tractors had collided 6.4km offshore at Morecambe Bay and were stuck in a deep gully. Liverpool Coastguard spokesman Paul Parkes said hovercraft, helicopters and boats were used to complete the rescue of 144 Scottish and Chinese cockle pickers before the afternoon high tide. Parkes said nobody was injured. Cumbria Police spokesman Mike Head said police were investigating the incident to see if any criminal offenses had been committed.
■ The Vatican
Pope to visit France
Pope John Paul II makes the 104th foreign visit of his papacy when he flies to the Marian shrine of Lourdes in the French Pyrenees next weekend. It will be his eighth visit to France. So far, his visits have taken in 129 of the world's 191 independent states, many of them more than once. Among the significant states he has not visited are Russia and China.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
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