■ China
Kindergarten kid murdered
A five-year-old Beijing boy was killed and stuffed in a washing machine in the latest in a series of grizzly attacks on kindergarten children in China, state media reported yesterday. The alleged murderer, a 31-year-old man also suspected of killing the child's teacher, was arrested over the weekend and has confessed to the crime, the China Daily said. It appears that the suspect had been discovered by his two victims while trying to commit theft at the Beixin Kindergarten, the paper said. Post-mortems showed the teacher suffered a severe blow to her head, and might have been raped. The boy did not seem to have any apparent injuries and how he was killed was unclear.
■ Hong Kong
Police ambush robbers
Tourists and office workers ran for cover yesterday as police ambushed a gang of armed robbers and fired two shots in one of Hong Kong's busiest downtown shopping areas. The drama unfolded as police, acting on a tip-off, lay in wait for the three robbers who planned to hold up a security van carrying watch parts in the city's Tsimshatsui district. The robbers drew revolvers when police officers surrounded
them then laid down their weapons when two warning shots were fired, a police spokesman said. Pedestrians ran for cover as the three suspects were arrested in Tsimshatsui's Kimberley Road yesterday morning and bundled away in a police van.
■ Australia
Hailstorm pounds town
Hail stones the size of baseballs battered a rural town north of Sydney, as storms lashed Australia's east coast, emergency services said yesterday. Muswellbrook, about 70km north of Sydney, was worst hit by the Sunday storm, with hail smashing roofs and stripping leaves off winemakers' grape vines. State Emergency Service spokesman Phil Campbell said crews were still cleaning up and putting tarps on damaged houses yesterday after being inundated with calls for help late on Sunday. Eastern Australia has been in the grip of a two-year drought, but in the last week large areas of the east coast have been hit by torrential rain.
■ Japan
Typhoon toll climbs to 83
The death toll from Japan's deadliest typhoon in more than a decade rose to 83 as four more bodies were found over the weekend, police said yesterday. Eight people were still missing. Typhoon Tokage -- the record eighth typhoon to hit Japan this year -- ripped through the country last week, triggering mudslides, demolishing homes and flooding large areas in western Japan. Nearly 300 people were injured in the storm. In Hyogo, western Japan, a 57-year-old woman was found dead in a field on Sunday when the flooding subsided. In nearby Kyoto, the body of a 29-year-old woman washed up on the rocky shore after her car was gobbled up by high waves on Wednesday.
■ Thailand
Police shoot to warn crowd
Thai police fired warning shots to disperse 500 angry villagers who surrounded a police station and blocked roads yesterday in the country's restive Muslim-dominated south. Police at the Tak Bai station in Narathiwat province fired at least one volley over the heads of the crowd protesting against the arrest of six village defense volunteers last
week. "About 500 villagers, most of them Muslims, are surrounding Tak Bai police station," Police Colonel Sommai Buddhathakul said. He said 300 police and soldiers were guarding the station.
■ Italy
Pollution at danger mark
Air pollution in Italy's cities has reached alarmingly high levels, with one study comparing the effects of a one-day stroll around Rome or Florence to smoking half a dozen cigarettes. Accord-ing to experts at the Sesto San Giovanni hospital in Milan, breathing in the fumes of exhaust pipes, heating systems and indus-try is as unhealthy as inhal-ing tobacco smoke. Of the 2,800 plus polluting agents present in the atmosphere, one of the most dangerous is benzene, or benzol, a carcinogenic colorless liquid hydrocarbon. Ben-zene levels are highest in Milan -- where a one-day stroll means smoking the equivalent of 15 cigarettes - followed by Palermo, Triest and Naples. The cleanest cities include Padua, Taran-to, Parma and Bologna.
■ Zambia
President offers AIDS help
President Levy Mwanawasa has pledged to make good on a promise to extend anti-retroviral drug treatment to 100,000 AIDS sufferers by the end of next year, up vastly from the current 12,000, despite a health-care system crippled by moun-ting financial problems. In a national address on Satur-day, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of indepen-dence, Mwanawasa said a growing population and recent economic problems had "reduced the capacity for the government to maintain quality health services" even as AIDS-related sicknesses were on the rise.
■ United States
Medical errors big killer
The fifth leading cause of death in the US is avoidable medical errors, not disease, according to a scientist studying the issue. A study showed that as many as 98,000 hospital patients die annually as a result of accidental drug overdoses, mismatched blood types or wrong treatments, William Hammond of Duke Univer-sity told a science con-ference in Singapore. He said that such such errors were found in hospitals around the world, not just the US. If deaths caused by lack of treatment were included, the US figure would be much higher, Hammond said. Family physicians often do nothing when tests show abnormal results, Hammond said.
■ Tunisia
Ben Ali wins re-election
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali won re-election by an overwhelming margin in balloting marred by a boycott by an opposition party which called the vote a sham. Ben Ali was elected to a fourth term with 95 percent of the vote, accord-ing to complete results published early yesterday by the Interior Ministry. The ministry did not release turnout figures for the 4.6 million eligible voters. Ben Ali has ruled Tunisia for 17 years since taking power in a 1987 bloodless palace coup. He has consistently won landslide electoral victories tainted by charges of fraud.
■ United States
Male bass producing eggs
Male freshwater bass are producing eggs in the South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia, a possible sign of environ-mental pollution. Although the waters of the South Branch were described as "clear as bottled water" by the Washington Post, the paper quoted scientists as saying the water could actually be highly polluted through poultry manure or other sources. Scientists discovered the eggs by accident after responding to reports that fish were developing lesions, and dying in large groups.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
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