■ Bangladesh
Bomb blast wounds four
A bomb in an abandoned shopping bag exploded at a market in central Bangladesh yesterday, wounding four people, a news report said. Police were investigating the early morning blast in Gazipur, a town 32km north of the capital Dhaka, United News of Bangladesh said. The wounded were taken to the hospital, UNB said. One was released after getting medical treatment. The explosion comes after a grenade attack killed 20 people and injured about 300 at an opposition political rally in Dhaka on Aug. 21. That attack triggered nationwide protests and clashes between police and demonstrators, leaving hundreds injured.
■ Thailand
Unsafe at any speed
Bangkok transport officials posted notices on some of the city's buses yesterday urging young passengers not to have sex while riding in the vehicles. The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority came under fire from commuters this week after a study revealed that scores of colleges students were engaging in intercourse, usually in the rear seats of the darkened buses during the evening commute from classes. Cloth curtains on bus windows along Route 12 -- an air-conditioned route that has seen an especially high number of trysts -- have been removed because some lovers were using them to cover themselves. Notices on all the Route 12 buses now advise: "Thai women should preserve old culture about sexual behavior."
■ Thailand
One man's money troubles
Doctors in northern Thailand surgically removed more than 2kg of coins from a man who was operated on after complaining of severe stomach pains, media reports said on yesterday. Sanguan Pongsuwan, 37, was admitted to Phayao hospital, 580km north of Bangkok, Tuesday night, suffering from a stomach ache, ITV reported. Petch, Sanguan's mother, said her son has been suffering mental illness and was undergoing treatment. "When I gave him money, particularly coins, he always disappeared to the toilet" she recalled.
■ Australia
Bank robbers escape
Heavily armed police blocked five lanes of traffic on one of Sydney's busiest streets for more than three hours yesterday in a failed attempt to catch two bank robbers. At least two men escaped the bank undetected after an extended siege involving a police helicopter, specialist negotiators and several heavily armed police officers prowling an upscale harbor-side suburb. Police were called to the scene early yesterday morning after an employee arrived at the bank to find a security door open and two men inside. The woman was grabbed by one of the robbers as she tried to leave the premises, but managed to wrestle free before alerting police.
■ Cambodia
`Dog kitten' dies
The owner of a dog which he claimed had miraculously given birth to a kitten confirmed yesterday that the kitten had died four days after it was born. He denied reports that its canine mother had contributed to the death by biting the strange offspring. Owner Te Huot said the kitten died last Saturday of natural causes after he fed it a bowl of cow's milk, but that visitors and worshippers were still welcome since he had embalmed the creature and it was now on display in a jar of alcohol, taking pride of place atop a specially constructed shrine. He said the kitten's alleged mother, a ten-year-old bitch called Knou, was devastated by the "miracle kitten's" death.
■ United Kingdom
Radical cleric `de-arrested'
A radical Muslim cleric who was arrested last week on suspicion of being involved in terrorist offenses has been "de-arrested," police said yesterday. Abu Hamza al-Masri was arrested last Thursday at Belmarsh Prison in southeast London where he was already was being held on a US arrest warrant for terrorism charges. Metropolitan Police said he had been returned to that prison following questioning at a London police station and his subsequent de-arrest. The British action had threatened to delay US attempts to extradite Al-Masri, 47, on 11 charges relating to terrorism, including allegedly trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
■ United Kingdom
Thatcher to post son's bail
Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has agreed to post bail of ?350,000 (US$628,747) to free her son Mark from house arrest in South Africa, the Times newspaper reported yesterday. Sir Mark Thatcher, a 51-year-old businessman, was arrested in Cape Town a week ago on suspicion of helping to finance an alleged coup bid in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. He denies the allegation. The Times said Baroness Thatcher, 78, had agreed to help her son after a phone conversation on her return to Britain from a holiday in the US on Aug. 27.
■ Senegal
Troops to fight locusts
The leaders of twelve West African countries have agreed to use their armed forces to fight locusts which have wreaked havoc in the region during recent weeks, news reports said yesterday. After talks late Tuesday in the Senegalese capital Dakar, ministers agreed to coordinate crop-spraying operations from five bases in Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad, the BBC reported. Senegal's President Abdolaye Wade said that only the mobilization of military forces could stop the locust infestation from spreading further. The infestations of the desert locust are the most widespread and damaging in 15 years.
■ Sweden
Ticket no good for thief
The old saying that crime doesn't pay seems especially true for a teenager who allegedly stole a lottery ticket but was forced to hand it over after discovering it contained the jackpot win. The 15-year-old boy shoplifted the ticket from a grocery store outside the northeastern Swedish town of Oernskoeldsvik last week, local media reported Tuesday. When he went home and scratched the ticket, he discovered it contained a winning combin-ation worth up to 7.5 million kronor (US$1 million). Store manager Patrik Nygren, however, recognized the teenager on surveillance tapes, and went to the boy's house to reclaim it. Nygren then handed the winning ticket to police and reported the theft.
■ United Kingdom
DNA test awaits spitters
Been spit on? Get even. British bus drivers will wipe away the insult of feeling a stranger's spittle running down their cheek with new DNA tests that can help track down the offender, police said yesterday. With "Operation Gobstopper," London drivers will receive 2,500 special kits of sterile swabs, gloves and an evidence bag to preserve the spittle of angry or abusive passengers, they said. Police and transport chiefs believe spitting attacks on drivers are much more common than records show, since the crime is considered both humiliating and almost impossible to punish.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered