■ Vietnam
Heavy rains leave five dead
Torrential rains flooded northern Vietnam, leaving five people dead and more than 4,000 homes submerged, local officials said yesterday. The heavy downpour that began on Monday night hit the northern city of Yen Bai, causing a 2m-high wall to collapse onto a family of four while they were sleeping at home, said a local official with the Yen Bai City people's committee who identified herself as Huyen. The parents and their two sons were killed. A 63-year-old man was also swept away by floodwaters while he was working near his farm's pond, she said.
■ China
Oldest panda Meimei dies
The world's oldest panda held in captivity has died at a south China zoo at the age of 36 -- the equivalent of 108 in human years, the government said. Meimei passed away on Tuesday at the Guilin City Zoo, where she had been living for the past 20 years, the Xinhua News Agency said. Because of old age, Meimei had recently been suffering from eating difficulties and the gradual failure of various organs, Xinhua cited zoo officials as saying. Meimei used to live in the Wolong Natural Conservation Area in Sichuan Province before being transferred to the zoo in September 1985.
■ Japan
City to use disputed texts
The education board of one Japanese city has adopted controversial new junior high school textbooks that glorify the country's past military atrocities, local media reported. According to the Jiji Press, the city of Otawara became the first municipal government in the nation to adopt history and civics study textbooks compiled by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform and published by Fusosha Publishing Inc. China and South Korea see Fusosha's history textbook as distorting history, and was in part responsible for sparking recent anti-Japan protests in those countries. Twelve junior high schools with more than 2,000 students in the city will use the textbooks next school year which will begin in April.
■ Hong Kong
Maid jailed for robberies
A Hong Kong novelist's Filipino maid has been jailed for 14 months for stealing jewelry worth US$140,000 from her employer, a news report said yesterday. Romantic novelist Eunice Lam's jewelry, including designer watches, was sold to pawn shops by Maramba Diamante for just US$15,000, the South China Morning Post reported. The 35-year-old maid, who had worked for Lam since 2002, also stole US$1,300 in cash from her employer before her arrest earlier this year, the newspaper said. Diamante pleaded guilty to theft at a hearing in Hong Kong's District Court on Tuesday.
■ New Zealand
`Mr Ed' dish sparks outrage
Some customers say wild horses couldn't drag them to the table at a New Zealand restaurant that's offering a chargrilled horse meat dish called "Mr Ed is Dead." Restaurant owner David Kerr said yesterday that he received lots of complaints and abusive phone calls after he started serving horse steaks at his eatery in Hamilton, North Island, as part of an annual event during which restaurateurs compete to offer the best out-of-the-ordinary culinary delights to diners. The calls were "pretty lively and disgusting and not comforting for the staff," Kerr said, adding that "there was swearing, cursing, horrible language," compelling him to call the police.
■ United Nations
US opposes resolution
The US on Tuesday urged the UN General Assembly to reject a draft resolution submitted by Brazil, Germany, India and Japan seeking enlargement of the Security Council -- because it did not enjoy broad-based support. "We urge you to oppose this resolution and, should it come to a vote, to vote against it," Shirin Tahir-Kheli, a senior adviser to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told the assembly on the second day of a highly contentious debate. The US joined a number of countries, including Pakistan, Algeria, Argentina and Canada, in slamming the G4 text, which would enlarge the council from 15 members to 25.
■ Mexico
`Drug lord' sold cars
Police admitted their third major mistaken arrest in a month on Tuesday after a man they hoped was drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix turned out to be a car showroom employee with a similar name. Javier Arellano was picked up by two police officers in the northern border town of Mexicali for going through a red light, but he set alarm bells ringing when his name was radioed in to police headquarters, local authorities said. He was interrogated for some seven hours in an operation involving dozens of troops and prosecutors, but released once it became clear he was not the notorious "El Tigrillo" (The Wildcat) boss of the Arellano Felix drugs cartel.
■ Iraq
Zarqawi aide arrested
A key aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leading al-Qaeda operative in Iraq, has been captured by US forces in Iraq, in what the top US general described late on Tuesday as a "pretty good success." But Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers acknowledged that coalition troops in Iraq faced "a very dangerous insurgency" that is far from being on its death bed. He did not offer any details, and other defense officials were not immediately ready to talk about the circumstances of the capture. In a letter posted on an Islamic Web site earlier on Tuesday, Zarqawi made no mention of any military setbacks for his organization, choosing instead to slam Iraqi Shiites, accusing them of being "loyal to the Crusaders."
■ United States
Cop pinned by wheelchair
A 73-year-old man in Salt Lake City faces criminal charges for allegedly ramming a sheriff's deputy with his motorized wheelchair. On July 4, John Snyder was arguing with managers of a local K-Mart store who had banned him from entering the store. County Deputy Christopher Maez was asked to intervene. When Maez asked Snyder to go outside to discuss the complaint, Snyder allegedly drove his wheelchair into the deputy's legs and cursed at him. Maez told him to watch his language, and Snyder allegedly propelled his chair into the deputy's legs twice more, pinning him against a produce stand. Maez drew his weapon and told Snyder to back off, but Snyder stopped only after Maez used his stun gun on him several times, court papers said.
■ United Kingdom
Old bikers bump up road toll
Middle aged motorbikers trying to recapture their youth are responsible for a growing death toll on the highways and byways of major Western nations. In Britain, the situation has become so bad that legislation has been introduced to reduce casualties on the roads. "They have suddenly prospered a bit in their later age and they think they are 20 again," opposition party transport spokesman Lord Hanningfield told the House of Lords.
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‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
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