■ Nepal
Bombing injures 38 people
A bomb tore through a government office in the Nepali capital yesterday, wounding at least 38 people in an attack police suspect was carried out by Maoist rebels. Three men walked into the office of the Employees Provident Fund and left a bomb on the first floor, a police officer said. It exploded moments after they left and most of those wounded were laborers working in the high-rise building. "The mode of operation is the same as used by the Maoists," the officer said. But there was no comment from the guerrillas who are fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy.
■ Vietnam
Drug traffickers sentenced
Two Canadians were given a total of 31 years in prison for selling ecstasy in southern Vietnam, a court official said yesterday. Randy James Sachs, 27, and Nguyen Van Hai, a Canadian of Vietnam-ese origin, were convicted to 15 and 16 years respectively, after being caught with around 1,000 ecstasy tablets in May in Ho Chi Minh City, said Ly Ngoc Hai yesterday. The two men told police they intended to sell the drugs in night spots in the city formerly known as Saigon, the court official said. The sentences were handed down after a one-day trial in the southern economic hub on Monday. Vietnam has some of the harshest anti-narcotics laws in the region.
■ Australia
Oil slick threatening wildlife
An oil slick up to 12km long is polluting a World Heritage-listed stretch of the west Australian coast that includes an important nesting site for threatened loggerhead turtles, a state government said yesterday. The slick in the Shark Bay area of Western Australia state's north coast includes a turtle habitat on Dirk Hartog Island. It was reported to the state government on Monday, state Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan said. Authorities have not yet determined the source, she said. It was not immediately clear whether any wildlife had been affected by the slick. "The members of our environment protection unit will be assessing the nature and extent of the spill to determine what action needs to be taken," MacTiernan said in a statement.
■ China
Traffic deaths blamed on fog
Heavy fog shrouding Shanghai was blamed for a pair of traffic accidents that killed 12 and injured 32, newspapers and the city government said yesterday. Ten people died early Monday when a speeding van smashed head-on into a truck carrying elderly women workers heading to a highway landscaping project, the reports said. The truck overturned, throwing the women from the open cargo bed where they were sitting. Newspaper pictures showed the truck's front end and wheels twisted, and farm tools, burlap sacks and pools of blood strewn across the road. The van's driver and 14 passengers were injured.
■ Australia
Ban on sheep-cutting urged
Farmers said yesterday they are investigating alternatives to slicing flesh from live sheep to prevent them from becoming infested with flies, after animal advocates urged a boycott of Australian wool to protest the "grossly inhumane" practice. Sheep ranchers have for weeks been under attack from the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, for carrying out "mulesing" on sheep. The process -- performed without anesthetic -- involves cutting away wool and skin from the animal's hindquarters to prevent them from becoming infested with blowflies.
■ United States
Inmate killed by cell door
An inmate was killed accidentally when his head was crushed in a closing cell door, officials said Monday. John Gardner, 27, was peering out his cell at Utah State Prison on Thursday when an officer about 45m away activated the mechanism that closed the cell doors on the block, the sheriff's department said. The officer was standing behind a wall, where the door mechanism is located, and could not see that Gardner was not completely inside the cell, prison spokesman Jack Ford said. Ford said when the cell doors are about to be shut, the guard shouts out his intentions and the doors begin closing 10 to 15 seconds later.
■ United States
Reynolds in abuse shocker
Burt Reynolds sued a former girlfriend, alleging that she was threatening to falsely accuse him of abuse if he didn't pay millions of dollars in extortion. The lawsuit, filed Monday, says Pamela Seals falsely accused Reynolds of yelling at her and stomping on her toes. Seals told the actor she would publicize her allegations if he didn't agree to a hefty settlement that included support for Seals and her mother, half of Reynolds' Jupiter, Florida home and other compen-sation. Reynolds' lawyer, Bob Montgomery, called Seals' threats blackmail, saying the actor offered to settle the matter for US$1 million but Seals refused.
■ United States
Rap label official arrested
A bookkeeper for the hip-hop label Murder Inc was arrested Monday on charges of laundering drug money and hiding some of the label's earnings from the Internal Revenue Service, according to an indictment in a US District Court in Brooklyn. The bookkeeper, Cynthia Brent, pleaded not guilty Monday and was released on bail. The indictment comes almost two years after federal agents raided Murder Inc's New York offices as part of an investigation into ties between its founder, Irv Gotti, and a Queens drug dealer, Kenneth McGriff. The two were childhood friends, and investigators are trying to determine if McGriff used his drug profits to help Gotti start Murder Inc, law enforcement sources have said.
■ United States
Lawyer shoots lawyer
Prosecutors charged a lawyer in Seattle with attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of a rival attorney who had sought a contempt citation against him. The prosecutors said William Joice, 50, shot Kevin Jung in the back of the head last Wednesday morning as Jung sat in a car outside his office. A hearing on the contempt request had been scheduled later in the day. A witness scribbled down the license plate of Joice's rented car as it squealed away from the scene, and police tracked him down through the rental company. Jung, a 44-year-old married father of two, remained in critical condition Monday.
■ Mexico
Town backs Padre Pistolas
Angry parishioners chained shut a church in central Mexico on Friday in protest at the firing of their priest, whose habit of tucking a gun under his robes has earned him fame and the nickname "Padre Pistolas." Hundreds of people from the town of Chucandiro demonstrated outside the cathedral in the city of Morelia after Catholic church leaders there defrocked their gunslinging priest, Alfredo Gallegos, local media reported. "We have closed the church with chains and that's how it will stay until Father Alfredo comes back," Gilberto Moron was quoting as saying, adding that locals would accept no other priest.
Heavy rain and strong winds yesterday disrupted flights, trains and ferries, forcing the closure of roads across large parts of New Zealand’s North Island, while snapping power links to tens of thousands. Domestic media reported a few flights had resumed operating by afternoon from the airport in Wellington, the capital, although cancelations were still widespread after airport authorities said most morning flights were disrupted. Air New Zealand said it hoped to resume services when conditions ease later yesterday, after it paused operations at Wellington, Napier and Palmerston North airports. Online images showed flooded semi-rural neighborhoods, inundated homes, trees fallen on vehicles and collapsed
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
POST-UPRISING: Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmakers were yesterday expected to formally elect Tarique Rahman as their leader and new head of government Bangladesh’s prime minister-to-be Tarique Rahman and lawmakers were yesterday sworn into parliament, becoming the first elected representatives since a deadly 2024 uprising. Rahman is set to take over from an interim government that has steered the country of 170 million people for 18 months since the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina was overthrown. The lawmakers, who promised loyalty to Bangladesh, were sworn in by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmakers are expected to formally elect Rahman as their leader, with President Mohammed Shahabuddin then to administer the oath of office to the prime minister and his ministers
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
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