■ Japan
Rocket launch successful
Yesterday a rocket was successfully launched carrying X-ray telescopes into Earth's orbit to examine black holes and galaxies. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, staged a live Web telecast of the M-5 rocket being shot into a cloudy sky from Uchinoura. The Astro-EII satellite reached its target orbit about 560km above the planet's surface. Astro-EII, draws power from solar panels. JAXA scientists will study the structure and movement of black holes and the collapse of gigantic galaxies, or clusters of stars and gas held together by gravity. They hope the research will reveal clues about the evolution of the universe.
■ New Zealand
Mosque vandals condemned
At least six Islamic centers in New Zealand have been vandalized with smashed windows and their walls painted with the message "Londoners RIP" in black paint, police said yesterday following Thursday's bombings in London. Muslim leaders and political leaders condemned the attacks. Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff, one of four government MPs to attend a mosque gathering, said the politicians had come to "express solidarity with you in the face of this mindless and stupid vandalism." Prime Minister Helen Clark was also quick to condemn the attacks, saying it was wrong to target the Muslim community in New Zealand in retaliation for the terrorist attacks in London.
■ Thailand
Bovine marriage feted
Farmer Amphol Wangboon was hesitant to give up his beloved Thong Khaow for marriage until he found her the perfect match and a dowry he couldn't refuse: truckloads of fresh grass, hay, maize and 100,000 baht (US$2,400). Thong Khaow and her new mate, Thong Kham -- a pair of rare dwarf Brahman cattle -- were married yesterday morning in a traditional Thai ceremony featuring processions and a banquet for more than 2,000 human guests at a cattle market in central Sa Kaew province. The animals wore silk outfits and jasmine garlands. Other beasts attended the wedding. Amphol, a village headman, said, "I wasn't going to sell her -- she's a special find -- but [Thong Kham's owner] said he would take care of her and wanted to display the couple in front of his restaurant."
■ Thailand
Permission to explore denied
Divers in Thailand have sought US approval to explore the purported wreck of a US submarine sunk during World War II, but a US official said that the vessel is a war grave that must remain undisturbed. The wreck, thought to be of the USS Lagarto, was discovered in May by divers now trying to obtain Pentagon permission to film and conduct research on the submarine, Jamie MacLeod, a 43-year-old professional shipwreck diver from England, said. Eighty-six sailors perished when the Lagarto sank in May 1945 -- reportedly after being hit by mines laid by an enemy Japanese ship.
■ China
Floods kill 18 more
At least 18 people died, eight were missing and an estimated 150,000 were evacuated after floods swept through Dazhou city in southwestern China. Water and electricity supplies were suspended in many parts of the city. At least 5,400 people were injured as the floods damaged nearly 14,000 homes in the area. The agency and other national media showed paramilitary police wading through chest-high water in Dazhou and using boats to evacuate local residents.
■ Chechnya
Gunmen wound 10 officers
Gunmen fired on two police cars in the Chechen capital of Grozny, wounding 10 officers, Russian news reports said yesterday. The attackers fired automatic weapons and lobbed grenades in the Saturday evening attack, which left the Interior Ministry troops hospitalized with various wounds, RIA-Novosti said. The ITAR-Tass news agency reported one of the soldiers had been killed. Six years after Russian forces re-entered Chechnya, the Caucasus region remains wracked by persistent violence, with separatist fighters staging small hit-and-run attacks on federal forces and allied paramilitaries. Abductions of civilians are also rampant.
■ Greece
Police arrest anarchists
Greek police raided a central Athens apartment block on Friday following the arrests of two suspected anarchists, and seized a number of guns. Officers found four 9mm guns in a basement flat, police said. Media reports said residents were not allowed out of their apartments as police sealed off the area and searched the home of one of the suspects. Police said the firearms will now be examined by forensic experts but a link with past terrorist incidents in Greece is considered unlikely as guns of this type have not been associated with such attacks. The two suspects, who are 26 and 40 years old, were arrested on Thursday night in Patissia -- the same area where the police search took place.
■ Spain
Pamplona bulls injure 52
Two men were recovering from non-life-threatening emergency surgery after being gored by bulls during the annual bull runs in Pamplona, emergency services reported. A total of four people were seriously injured during the runs in the northern Spanish city on Saturday. The most seriously injured, one of those operated on, was a 24-year-old Spaniard who was gored in the upper thigh and buttocks. The Red Cross counted 52 injuries, but they were mostly cuts and bruises. The bull runs are particularly dangerous at the weekend as there were more people taking part, blocking the narrow streets of the old city and preventing some from dodging the 600kg bulls. The first two days of the bull runs on Thursday and Friday passed off relatively without incident.
■ United States
Space shuttle ready to go
The seven astronauts who will make the first space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster arrived early at the launch site on Saturday, beating Hurricane Dennis by a day. Commander Eileen Collins and her crew flew in by NASA corporate jet in the evening and were greeted by the Kennedy Space Center's director and nearly 100 journalists. Less than 7km away stood space shuttle Discovery, being prepped for a Wednesday liftoff. The crew's exuberance was apparent.
■ Iraq
Anti-terror meeting called
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has called for a meeting of Arab interior ministers to devise a unified position against terrorism, a statement said yesterday. Talabani made the proposal Saturday night in a phone call to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the statement quoted Kamran Qaradaghi, Talabani's office manager, as saying. Mubarak supported the idea, it added. Such a meeting could discuss effective ways to confront terrorism, a problem facing most countries in the region.
■ Isreal
Pullout plan coordinated
Israeli and Palestinian officials have agreed on plans for the two sides to coordinate their military and security forces' operations for the evacuation of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, Haaretz reported yesterday. The paper said that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the Palestinian Minister for Internal Security, Nasir Yusuf, had met in Tel Aviv a few days ago to map out the plans to protect against possible attacks during the pullout. Among others, there is to be a buffer zone set up between the Palestinian town of Khan Yunis and Jewish settlement Gush Katif in the southern Gaza Strip to prevent attacks by militants during the evacuation, due to take place Aug. 17.
■ Mexico
Explosion cripples gas line
A series of explosions at a natural gas pipeline killed two people and injured more than a dozens as it set afire houses, cars and cattle in a rural community 620km east of Mexico City, authorities and witnesses said on Saturday. The explosions near Cunduacan, 40km northeast of Villahermosa, the Tabasco state capital, crippled a major natural gas pipeline that supplies the Gulf coast shipping station at Dos Bocas, said Carlos Morales, director of exploration and production for Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos. The Pemex pipeline carried 3.3 million cubic meters of natural gas a day, Morales said. Officials could not say when it would reopen.
■ Canada
Native fined for hate crime
A court in the province of Saskatchewan on Friday found a former Canadian indigenous leader guilty of fomenting hatred, over anti-Semitic comments he made to a reporter more than two years ago. David Ahenakew, 71, a former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, the largest indigenous organization in Canada, was fined C$1,000 (US$800). "The Jews damn near owned all of Germany prior to [World War II]," Ahenakew told a Saskatchewan newspaper in December 2002. "That's how Hitler came in. He was going to make damn sure that the Jews didn't take over Germany or Europe. That's why he fried six million of those guys, you know," he said.
■ United States
Monument gets a makeover
After more than 60 years of being exposed to the elements, the presidents of Mount Rushmore are getting a facial. Park rangers armed with hand-held power washers begin rappelling down the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on Saturday to blast away the dirt, grime and lichen that has collected on the granite surfaces. It's not purely cosmetic. Lichen eats away at granite and over time can cause cracks and pockmarks. If left for long enough, they could eventually cause the 18m statue to crumble. "This is the first time the faces have been washed," said Judy Olson, Mount Rushmore's chief interpreter.
■ Brazil
Minister takes party helm
The education minister is taking over leadership of the governing Workers Party, replacing a presidential ally who resigned amid allegations of vote buying in Congress. Jose Genoino, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's friend and the party's president for the past two and a half years, asked to be dismissed from his post on Saturday "so the party could move forward during this difficult moment."
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
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
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