■ Nepal
10 rebels killed in clashes
Government security forces killed at least 10 communist rebels in two separate clashes in Nepal yesterday, a day after a temporary truce ended, police said. Soldiers killed at least six rebels near Phoolkahachowk village, about 400km southeast of Katmandu, yesterday morning, police officials said on condition of anonymity. Separately, four more rebels were gunned down in Taplejung, about 600km northeast of the capital, the officials said. It was not clear whether there were any casualties on the government side, and there was no immediate comment from the rebels.
■ Bangladesh
Electricity kills elephants
Bangladeshi authorities have cut off electricity to several villages after two elephants died touching live wires placed along paddy fields by farmers, officials said yesterday. The farmers in northern Sherpur district placed the wires to stop elephants, an endangered species in Bangladesh, from trampling their fields. "Herds of up to 70 elephants often strayed into Sherpur villages, apparently in search of food, and destroyed crops awaiting to be harvested soon," said Mohsena Ferdousi, Deputy Commissioner of the district. "Villagers laid electric traps to scare away the wild elephants but two of them reportedly died after touching live wires," she said by telephone.
■ Australia
Drug dealer gets tax break
A drug dealer who dug up hundreds of thousands of dollars from his backyard to buy heroin but had the money stolen in the deal can claim a tax deduction for his losses, an Australian court has ruled. Under Australian law, income earned from illegal activity can be subjected to income tax. The High Court of Australia ruled this week that if illegal income is subjected to tax, then losses should be deductible. The ruling ended a 10-year battle between convicted drug dealer Francesco Dominico La Rosa and the Australian Tax Office, which argued the tax deduction was against good public policy.
■ China
Internet cafes shut down
The country has closed 1,600 Internet cafes and fined operators a total of 100 million yuan (US$12 million) for letting children play violent games and for other violations, the government said yesterday. The announcement came amid a campaign launched in March to reduce or eliminate sex and violence in Web sites, video games and other material that Communist leaders consider harmful to public morality. Investigators have inspected 1.8 million Internet cafes looking for unlicensed operations or those that let children play violent games meant for adults, the Ministry of Culture said. China encourages Internet use for education and business but bans sexually oriented content on Chinese Web sites and tries to block access to foreign sites deemed pornographic or subversive.
■ India
Police arrest man in coma
A court order has placed the police in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the difficult position of having to arrest a comatose 107-year-old man, reports said yesterday. Nanku Prasad Mishra was served a non-bailable warrant by India's apex Supreme Court earlier this week in a 20-year-old murder case, the Times of India reported. To avoid the task of arresting a dying man, the district police officials and prison authorities in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh have moved Mishra to hospital for treatment.
■ Botswana
Voting begins in elections
Former President Sir Ketumile Masire was first in line to cast his ballot as polls opened yesterday, saying he was confident Botswanans would turn out in numbers for national elections. President Festus Mogae was expected to easily win a second and final term and his Botswana Democratic Party to maintain its firm majority in the country's 57-seat parliament. Some Botswanans said they feared they could lose government AIDS treatment programs if the ruling party were voted out. Botswana has one of the world highest HIV infection rates; about 37 percent of its 1.7 million people has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
■ United Kingdom
Princess Alice dies at 102
Princess Alice, aunt to Queen Elizabeth II and the longest-living member of the royal family, died on Friday at the age of 102, Buckingham Palace announced yesterday. Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, was the widow of Prince Henry, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. The young Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret were bridesmaids at her wedding in 1935. Born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott on Christmas Day 1901, she was the third daughter of the seventh Duke of Buccleuch, who served in the navy with George V before he became king.
■ Sweden
Intern's cake drugs workers
Thirteen employees of a botanical garden in Stockholm ended up in the hospital with symptoms of drug poisoning Friday after a departing intern served them cake as a goodbye gesture, police said. A 27-year-old intern at the Bergianska traedgaard in Stockholm had baked a cake for his colleagues on his last day of work. After eating the cake with their morning coffee, "five people became ill. They showed signs of having been drugged. Later on, more people got sick," Stockholm police spokesman Bjoern Pihlblad said. In all 13 people, including a 15-year-old boy, were sent to the hospital after reportedly experiencing dizziness, seeing hallucinations and having trouble breathing.
■ Croatia
Court to see sex movie
A Croatian pop star asked a Zagreb court on Friday to watch a private movie in which she enjoys a sex romp to see whether her copyright was violated by a Web site that showed it to the public. Severina Vuckovic, 32, sued the www.index.hr web portal for publishing shots of her having sex with a wealthy Bosnian Croat businessman who is married with children. Her lawyers demanded the video be shown in court, state news agency Hina said. In a separate motion, the defendants asked that a court-appointed sex expert determine if Vuckovic had "demonstrated anything not previously seen in the porn industry," which could qualify for copyright, Hina said.
■ United Kingdom
Dead man's ticket stamped
A British train conductor stamped and carefully returned the ticket of a slumbering passenger without realizing the man was dead. Shortly afterwards the train pulled into York station in northern England and rail staff alerted paramedics when they realized the man was not breathing. "The conductor needn't have been so careful, as it turned out that the passenger had expired, long before his ticket ever did," said a report in the British Transport Police's magazine.
■ Colombia
Two dead after bomb attack
Two people died and two were injured late Friday in a bomb blast on a roadway in southern Bogota, local police chief General Hector Garcia said. A device exploded on a major artery of Bogota's Transmilenio bus rapid transit system, killing the driver and a passenger of a taxi passing nearby, and injuring two other passengers in the vehicle, police said. The explosion damaged about 30 houses in the area, according to Garcia, who said authorities had launched an investigation into the incident.
■ Peru
Bus plunges 500m
A passenger bus plunged 500 meters off an isolated mountain highway in the Andes on Friday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 26, officials said.The accident occurred just after dusk near the town of Chuquibambilla, 510km south of Lima, Dr. Jose Altamirano Rojas, a health official from the town of Abancay, told Radioprogramas radio. Rojas said three ambulances sent to the crash site had not yet returned and that details were still sketchy. The death toll could rise, he added. Police were not immediately available to comment. Bus crashes are common in Peru, where drivers frequently speed and pass vehicles along blind mountain curves.
■ Mexico
Hitman arrested
The alleged leader of a ruthless band of drug cartel hitmen was arrested in Mexico on Friday after a shootout with police on the border with the United States, the Mexican government said. Attorney General Rafael Macedo said a federal agent and two members of the "Zetas" drug gang were killed during the firefight early on Friday in Mexico's border city of Matamoros. Rogelio Gonzalez Pizana was wounded in the shootout and was arrested along with dozens of other suspects. He allegedly led the Zetas group that was formed by former army commanders and operates as a hit squad for the"Gulf Cartel" of cocaine smugglers. The Zetas have been blamed for dozens of murders in turf battles with rival cartels.
■ United States
Book gets the boot
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, is not selling comedian George Carlin's best-selling new book, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops, in its stores because its cover makes fun of the Last Supper, a spokesman for Carlin said. Jeff Abraham said Wal-Mart did not like the book's cover that shows the comedian in the setting of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper sitting next to an empty chair where Jesus sits in the painting. He added "George attacks everything in this book but it does not have any nude photos. He said he thought the title would offend everyone."
■ Canada
Sorry for the dunking
Canada's mission in Sri Lanka yesterday said it may have caused "unintended offence" in dealing with an anthrax scare that led to the disrobing and dunking of three Buddhist monks. "The High Commission deeply regrets that responsible measures taken to ensure the health and safety of all those involved in a potentially hazardous situation may have caused unintended offence," a statement said. The anthrax scare was sparked following the discovery of powder in a passport of a Buddhist monk who went to the mission Monday in the company of two other monks.
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
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