■ China
Typhoon death toll climbs
Typhoon Rananim's death toll in eastern China rose to 164 on yesterday, with another 24 people missing, many in landslides sparked by the most powerful storm to hit the country in 46 years. The missing included 18 people feared stuck beneath mud and rock in the mountainous outskirts of Yueqing city in Zhejiang Province, where 29 people have already been confirmed dead, the government's China Central Television reported. With power and transport links cut, villagers have been digging through rocks and mud with their hands and farm tools. Rananim ground into Zhejiang on Thursday, causing an estimated 16.4 billion yuan (US$2 billion) in economic losses.
■ Bangladesh
Couple forced to marry
Two Bangladeshi lovers found themselves frogmarched down the aisle by police after pretending to be married when they checked into a hotel, a report said yesterday. Acting on a tip-off, officers raided the hotel and arrested engineer Mominur Rahman Chouwdury and his university student girlfriend Shefali Khatun Shelley, the Independent daily said. The pair, who were not engaged, were taken to a police station where the officer in charge called both their parents and told Chowdhury to marry Shelley or face a rape charge. Mixed-sex couples are expected to be married when checking into hotels in Bangladesh.
■ Indonesia
Bombers' sentences cut
Six convicted Indonesian militants linked to the deadly blasts in Bali in 2002 have received a two month reduction of their jail sentences by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, a prison warden said yesterday. The six convicted men are serving jail terms ranging from three to six years after being found guilty of hiding one of the bombers responsible for the blasts that ripped through two Bali nightclubs in October 2002, killing 202 people.
■ Thailand
Olympics aid escape
Two Thai prisoners sneaked out of their jail cell at a Bangkok police station while their guards watched the Olympic Games, media reports said yesterday. One escapee, Ekkapong Thongkham, facing charges of attempting to murder a policeman, was re-arrested on Monday but the second, suspected thief Somchai Techapan, is still at large, reported The Nation. The escape occurred Sunday during the live broadcast from Athens of Thai weightlifter Aree Wiratthawan, who won the country's first gold medal.
■ Australia
Mice, maggots, mouthwash
A remorseful man was shocked to learn he had bitten the tail off a live mouse while drunk to win a pub competition, a court was told yesterday. Apprentice chef Tony McGee, 22, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court to being cruel to an animal and was fined A$750 (US$540). During the pub challenge, McGee also set off a mouse trap with his tongue, ate a cup of maggots, drank a pint of anchovies and another pint of mouthwash, defense lawyer Ben Power told the court. Competition organizers gave McGee an A$100 (US$72) voucher before the competition started, and he downed bourbon and beer for six hours before competing. "He would like to stress that he is very sorry about what has occurred," Power told the court. McGee had no recollection of chewing the mouse, only of having a mouse "in his possession" at some point, Power said.
■ Georgia
Ossetia cease-fire fails
At least one Georgian soldier was killed and three were wounded in overnight clashes in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili told Rustavi 2 television early yesterday. Shooting and shelling between Georgian and South Ossetian forces resumed late Monday, leaving a four-day old cease-fire in tatters, the Russian defense ministry said. A spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry said on Monday two Georgian soldiers had died after coming under mortar and automatic weapons fire from irregular forces from the pro-Russian South Ossetian territory. The spokesman also claimed that 15 Ossetian fighters were killed.
■ West Bank
Sharon approves homes<
Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon unfroze bids
for construction of 1,000
new homes in the West
Bank, which earlier had
been shelved under US
pressure to cool down his government's settlement drive, an official said yesterday. "These bids will be published after the new housing minister has made the necessary inspections on the location of these homes," a Cabinet official said. He said the publication of
the bid for new settlement homes had nothing to do with today's convention of Sharon's Likud party, though the Yediot Aharonot paper asserted otherwise.
■ Germany
Protests target Schroeder
Opponents of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's drive to trim social programs have staged demonstrations across Germany, billed by organizers as the most widespread yet in a
summer of discontent. More
than 60,000 took part in demonstrations on Monday, including 20,000 in the eastern city of Leipzig, twice as many as in the last protest a week earlier, authorities said. Rallies were also held in Berlin, Magdeburg and dozens of other cities.
■ United Kingdom
Beenie Man lyrics probed
One of Jamaica's most popular reggae music
stars could face criminal prosecution in Britain
for lyrics which appear
to incite violence against homosexuals, a report said yesterday. Police, state prosecutors and a leading lawyer were due to meet later in the day to discuss whether charges should be pressed against Beenie Man, the Guardian newspaper said. Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald has taken personal responsibility
for the case, an indication
of how sensitively it was viewed, the report said. The lyrics include an apparent call to hang lesbians and
to kill homosexuals with a bazooka.
■ United Kingdom
Flash flood hits Cornwall
Rescue workers combed
a coastal village in north Cornwall yesterday, searching for any victims after a devastating flash flood sent a wall of
water tearing through the picturesque tourist spot
the day before. Dozens of villagers were plucked to safety from rooftops and stranded cars in Boscastle, southwest England, by seven military rescue helicopters that rushed to the scene after flood waters hit on Monday. Three people had been reported missing as families were left separated in the chaos, but they were later accounted for. No deaths were reported. Police confirmed that 108 people had been evacuated from the flooding.
■ United States
Officer a suspected pedophile
A 16-year veteran of the New York Police Department, who supposedly called himself a "boy hunter" in an online profile, was arrested on Monday after Westchester district attorney Jeanine Pirro said he tried to have a sexual rendezvous with an investigator from her office who had posed on the Internet as a 14-year-old boy. The arrest followed a six-month investigation that began in February, when the defendant, Michael Lapine, 37, a detective, entered a Yahoo chat room geared toward young teenagers and struck up a conversation with the undercover investigator, Pirro said.
■ United States
Changes to airport screening
Domestic security officials said Monday that they planned to begin screening airline passengers against a list of potential terror suspects, taking over a responsibility now carried out by the airlines. Advocates for tougher screening requirements and civil libertarians have criticized the current system, under which airline employees check passenger names against government watch lists. The system has been described as ineffective because the government does not provide the airlines with a comprehensive set of lists, in part because some of that information is classified.
■ United States
Oprah called for jury duty
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has reported to jury duty at Cook County Criminal Court in Chicago on Monday, reported E!Online. Winfrey, 50, who was ushered in through a back door to avoid crowds, was among 300 prospective jurors scheduled to be interviewed for an upcoming murder trial. She told reporters that she didn't expect to be picked because she's too opinionated and busy. "I'm just hoping it doesn't take longer than a week because I've got shows to do," she said.
■ United States
Passengers evacuated
A United Airlines flight en route to Vancouver, Canada, was evacuated after experiencing engine trouble at O'Hare International Airport. Flight 1035 was taxiing to a runway Monday night when a pilot in a plane behind it reported seeing sparks from the engine, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. The Airbus 319's 69 passengers and five crew members evacuated using slides, United spokeswoman Jenna Obluk said. A flight attendant and a passenger were taken to a hospital for minor injuries, she said. Another passenger with minor scrapes and bruises was treated at the scene.
■ United states
Arnie ponders jail weights
California's bodybuilder-turned-governor is thinking about giving weightlifting equipment back to inmates, who have been barred from using weights since 1997. "We talked about that several times," Arnold Schwarzenegger said in Ione, California, on Monday after touring his first prison since becoming governor last fall. One argument was that bulked-up inmates posed too great a danger to guards or citizens if they escaped or were released from prison, Schwarzenegger said. "I don't want to put weight training in here if that's not really what everyone wants and if they think it's counterproductive, only because I believe in weight training ... There's a lot of things that I believed [as a citizen], but now I'm working with the professionals," he said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS