■ Malaysia
Entire state quarantined
Malaysia has declared an entire state to be under quarantine following the spread of the deadly bird flu virus at alarming rates, officials said yesterday. The quarantine, which is expected to last for 19 days, bans the movement of all poultry and birds across the borders of the northeastern Kelantan state, said Agriculture Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Fears that the deadly avian influenza was spreading outside isolated quarantine areas in the state were sparked when three new outbreaks were detected over the weekend. One of the areas was located outside the quarantine zone of the first village hit by the virus.
■ Japan
Police pursue al-Qaeda links
A Bosnian man convicted on terrorism-related charges lived briefly in Japan between 1999 and 2000 with a Frenchman who had suspected links to al-Qaeda, police said yesterday. The discovery is the second time this year that Japanese authorities have found indications of suspected terrorists infiltrating Japan in recent years. The man, whom officials refused to identify, lived in Japan for 10 months before being expelled for overstaying his visa in Feb. 2000, a National Police Agency spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
■ Nepal
Firms reopen after threat
Nepal's top firms re-opened for business yesterday, some for the first time in more than a month, after a trade union linked to Maoist rebels withdrew threats against them. The All Nepal Federation of Trade Unions had demanded that 12 of the country's leading firms close down last month, accusing them of unfair labor practices, a threat that was extended to another 35 firms last week. The trade union withdrew the threat against the firms late on Wednesday after the government agreed to free two of its jailed leaders and provide information about 22 others it says are missing, a mediator said.
■ Hong Kong
Mercy killer gets two years
The Hong Kong son who admitted pushing his wheelchair-bound father into the sea to end his suffering was sentenced yesterday to two years in jail for manslaughter. Judge Clare-Marie Beeson said euthanasia was not acceptable and the courts had a duty to protect the elderly and feeble. Yam Yuen-ming, 47, took his 84-year-old father Yam Wong out of the elderly home where he was living last September and pushed him off a pier on the busy Victoria Harbor waterfront in Tsim Sha Shui. Before pushing him in, he strapped him down and used plastic cuffs and ribbons to tie his arms and legs to keep him in the wheelchair underwater.
■ China
Cat man's house raided
A thriving "rent-a-tiger" business has come to an abrupt end in China after officials raided a private home and discovered that the owner had secretly reared seven of them, state media said yesterday. Bo Baokun, a resident of a village near the northeastern city of Shenyang, bought two tigers in 1993 and soon saw his sharp-toothed pets multiply as the young couple had five cubs, the Beijing Morning Post reported. He rented out several of the tigers to local safari parks, but eventually allowed two of the tigers to return to live in metal cages at his home. Neighbors grew increasingly jittery about living at such proximity with potential man-eaters and asked Bo to get rid of the animals, it said. Bo refused, forcing the neighbors to alert the authorities.
■ United States
Bush, Kerry resort to science
The battle for the US presidency entered new territory yesterday with both candidates turning to scientific journals to set out their election promises. US President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry outline their positions in interviews in yesterday's issue of Nature and today's Science. Bush told Nature he is "committed to pursuing stem cell research without crossing a fundamental moral line," while Kerry said he would lift the "ideologically driven" limits. Kerry said he would "end the pursuit of a new generation of nuclear weapons," and Bush said "the evolving security environment requires a flexible and responsive weapons-complex infrastructure."
■ United States
`Goofy' worker suspended
A Walt Disney World worker who was acquitted of charges he fondled a 13-year-old girl while dressed as Tigger has been suspended again, accused of shoving two people while in a Goofy costume. His lawyer said the man was just "goofing around because he was Goofy." Two photographers at Disney's Animal Kingdom said Michael Chartrand, a native of England, came up to them in his Goofy costume and shoved each in the chest, Orange County Sheriff's Capt. Bernie Presha said Wednesday. The photographers, a male and a female whose names were not released, work for Kodak at the park.
■ Peru
Protesters block mine
Newmont Mining Corp curtailed mining at its Yanacocha Mine in Peru Wednesday after thousands of protesters blocked a road to the mine for two weeks, worried that new drilling operations could endanger water supplies. Blasting and hauling of ore stopped as some 10,000 workers protested in Cajamarca, Peru, about 350km north of Lima, company spokesman Doug Hock said. Residents began blocking the road Sept. 2 after the company started exploratory drilling on the Cerro Quilish gold deposit, which sits in the same watershed as the village.
■ Canada
Healthcare aid pledged
Canada's federal government has agreed to pump extra billions into the ailing public healthcare system in return for a commitment by the country's provinces to cut waiting times for treatment, federal and provincial officials said early yesterday. The development capped three days of sometimes acrimonious negotiations between the two sides on how to reform the medicare system, which is funded jointly by Ottawa and the provinces but run solely by the latter. Ottawa will invest an extra C$18 billion (US$14 billion) in the system over the next six years and a total of C$41.2 billion over the next 10 years. "Canada's first ministers have agreed and just signed on a 10-year plan," Prime Minister Paul Martin said.
■ United States
Twin dies in surgery
One of the year-old conjoined twin girls who underwent surgery to separate their heads died shortly after the procedure was completed, a spokeswoman for the Johns Hopkins Children's Center said early yesterday. Lea and Tabea Block, from Lemgo, Germany, were successfully separated at 12:15am Thursday, but Tabea died later "after an exhaustive resuscitative effort," hospital spokeswoman Staci Vernick Goldberg said. Lea was in critical but stable condition and "doing well" in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, Goldberg said. "We extend our deepest sympathy to the parents and family of Tabea Block," Goldberg said.
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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