■ Indonesia
Tsunami killed more women
Up to four times as many women than men died in the Dec. 26 tsunami, according to a report published today by the aid agency Oxfam International. In four villages surveyed by the agency in the badly hit district of North Aceh in Indonesia, an average of 77 percent of the fatalities were women. In the worst affected village, Kuala Cangkoy, the proportion rose to 80 percent. Data collected from Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu state in southern India produced a figure of 73 percent female fatalities. In Sri Lanka, information was hard to confirm but anecdotal evidence suggested about two thirds of those who died were women.
■ Australia
Activists clash with police
Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in riot gear outside a remote immigration detention center in southern Australia yesterday, police and local media reported. About 400 protesters converged on the Baxter Immigration Detention Center near the southern city of Port Augusta on Friday, part of a weekend-long demonstration against Australia's mandatory detention policy that requires asylum seekers to be detained while their cases are processed. Yesterday, the protesters -- who were camped about 5km away from the center -- marched to the facility, where about 120 of them clashed with about 200 police, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported on its Web site.
■ Australia
`Global dimming' found
Scientists said they have discovered a phenomenon called global dimming, which is reducing the sun's glare by 3 percent every 10 years. They said billions of particles of soot and ash suspended in the air have reflected sunlight away, in effect shading the planet's surface, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday. And the world's drive to use cleaner fuels and energy might pose a new threat, said chief researcher Graham Farquhar, a biologist at the Australian National University in Canberra. Farquhar found that pollution has protected the world from the full effects of global warming, the so-called greenhouse effect, in which heat is trapped in the atmosphere because of emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides.
■ Hong Kong
Greater democracy urged
The outspoken bishop of Hong Kong's Roman Catholic Church yesterday urged the territory's next leader to tell Beijing that people want greater democracy in the former British colony. "I hope the chief executive will be brave enough to reflect people's voices to the central government, to tell Beijing that Hong Kongers' wish for more democracy and direct elections is not antagonistic," said Bishop Joseph Zen (陳日君). Zen has been an ardent critic of the Hong Kong and Beijing governments. He denounced China's decision last year to delay direct elections for the territory's leader.
■ India
Progress made in dispute
India and China are expected to sign an agreement that moves toward resolving their decades-old border dispute when the Chinese premier visits New Delhi next month, a news report said yesterday. China could give up its claim to most of the Tawang tract and India could do the same with a significant portion of Aksai Chin -- the two most contentious areas in the disputed boundary that straddles India's state of Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet, the newspaper Hindustan Times said.
■ Colombia
Drug submarine found
Police discovered what they called an ingenious drug trafficking tool, a fiberglass submarine capable of transporting up to 10 tons of cocaine. The vessel was nearly seaworthy and lacked only communications equipment when it was found close to a Pacific Ocean inlet in western Colombia. Eduardo Fernandez, a head of Colombia's secret police, said said the submarine could have been used to ferry cocaine offshore to speed boats, which would then take the drugs to Central America or Mexico, and eventually the US. Fernandez said no arrests have been made. The investigation began six months ago after authorities were tipped off to the shipment of fiberglass and other materials to the construction site.
■ Canada
SARS found in the air
New research suggests the SARS virus may spread through the air, and not just through human contact, making it more dangerous than previously thought. The SARS virus was discovered in the air in a patient's room in Toronto, according to a Canadian study. A second study, based in Hong Kong, found that patients in hospital bays near a SARS patient had a much higher infection rate than those further away -- consistent with the pattern of airborne transmission of disease. The Infectious Diseases Society of America said the Toronto findings are "the first experimental confirmation of the presence of the SARS virus in the air of an infected patient's hospital room." Previously, it was thought that SARS was spread through direct contamination by infected water droplets produced when a person coughs or sneezes.
■ United States
`Walking' octopus studied
Two little species of Indian Ocean octopus can tuck up six of their arms while running on the other two, US researchers reported on Thursday. They can use their other six arms to disguise themselves from predators, either as rolling coconuts or clumps of floating algae, the team at the University of California, Berkeley and Universitas Sam Ratulangi in North Sulawesi, Indonesia found.
■ Belarus
Police attack protesters
Belarussian police used dogs to disperse an opposition demonstration Friday that was calling for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, and arrested 30 people, police said. The demonstration by 300 people took place outside the presidential building and was dispersed by police and special forces police using dogs. Lukashenko has earned stinging criticism from the West for suppressing media freedoms and political opponents during his 10 years at the helm of this former Soviet republic. Belarussian's opposition has taken heart from the the recent popular revolts in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Georgia.
■ United States
Aniston, Pitt file for divorce
Jennifer Aniston filed for divorce from Brad Pitt, court papers showed. The petition filed Friday in Superior Court seeks dissolution of the actors' marriage based on irreconcilable differences. A long-rumored split between the two was confirmed in January when they released a joint statement saying they were formally separating. The couple married in 2000 and have no children. In her divorce petition, Aniston asked that her maiden name be restored. The actress took Pitt's name legally when they married but continued to use Aniston professionally. The two remain co-owners of the Plan B production company.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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