■ China
Sausage fails tests
A famed sausage in southern China that has been a delicacy for more than 1,000 years may be too unhealthy to pass more stringent new health standards, state press said yesterday. Cantonese-style sausage, a staple in homes throughout China, has been found to contain high acid and peroxide content that go beyond new hygiene standards, the China Daily reported. "The new standard is not directed exclusively at the Cantonese-style sausage but at all preserved meats," Liu Lishen, a senior food engineer at the Guangdong provincial association of food industry, was quoted as saying. In addition to pork, Cantonese-style sausages may also contain chicken, duck, mushrooms, seafood and vegetables. The sausages, which also have large lumps of fat, are cured and then dried -- guaranteeing a long shelf life that has helped them remain popular for more than a millennium.
■ China
15 miners killed
A gas explosion killed 15 miners in southwestern China, state media reported yesterday, the latest in an all-too-familiar series of accidents to strike the world's deadliest mining industry. Twenty-one miners were working underground when the accident happened late on Thursday in a new mine Renhuai, Guizhou province, Xinhua news agency said. Two workers escaped and four were rescued, Xinhua said, adding that the owner of the mine had fled. China relies on coal for more than two-thirds of its energy consumption and has the world's biggest and most dangerous mining industry, claiming 2,700 lives in the first half of 2005 alone.
■ Australia
Church leaders jailed
Three leaders of a Korean church in Sydney were given prison sentences yesterday for beating a woman because she did not regularly attend services. Junior assistant pastor Chi Yeong-yun, 37, and bible study teachers Tom Chae-yong Lee, 22, and James Kang, 21, from the Open Door Korean Church, pleaded guilty to assaulting 19-year-old Angela Kim in July last year. New South Wales District Court judge Joe Gibson gave Yun, described as the architect of the plan, a 12-month sentence term, while Lee and Kang were sentenced to up to six months. Prosecutors said that the three men kicked and punched Kim at a national park in northern Sydney, leaving her badly bruised.
■ Thailand
Would-be rapist bitten
A 16-year-old woman has identified a young man who she says tried to rape her but ran away after she bit off a chunk of his tongue, police said yesterday. The 17-year-old alleged rapist has been hospitalized, while a 3cm strip of his tongue found at the scene of the attempted rape is being kept on ice, police said. The young woman told police she was attacked by a man as she returned home from work on Wednesday. Police found the man in a hospital but he denied the accusations, reportedly telling a doctor that he was attacked by a gang of hooded men who tried to rob him and then cut off his tongue when they discovered he had no money.
■ Malaysia
Would-be cop jailed
A man who wanted to become a police officer just like his father ended up behind bars instead after he submitted forged paperwork in his application to the force, a report said. Azamazewan Zakaria, 26, gave police recruiters a fake certificate that indicated he had got a school credit in the Malay language, the Star newspaper said. The would-be cop copped a two-month sentence and a 2,000 ringgit (US$530) fine, but his father -- a police officer -- paid the fine and hauled his son out of jail after one day. In appealing for a lighter sentence, counsel Kuldeep Kumar said Azamazewan committed the offense because he was immature and did not think of the consequences.
■ Sri Lanka
Election on this year
The Supreme Court yesterday said the nation's presidential election must be held this year -- effectively ending President Chandrika Kumaratunga's final term a year earlier than she had hoped. Reading out a unanimous judgment, Chief Justice Sarath Silva said the date on which Kumaratunga's second term commenced was Dec. 22, 1999, indicating her six-year term ends this year. The decision is a win for the opposition, which disputed a claim by the president's party that she could stay in office until December next year.
■ Greece
MP decries bawdy tourists
An MP last night called for the extradition of British tourists caught on camera having sex in the bars and beaches of the Greek island of Zakynthos, Europe's latest party haven. Dimitrios Varvarigos told the Guardian that it was time to make an example of the scores of Britons committing "gross public indecency" in Greece. After pictures showing revellers performing oral sex on one another in the town of Laganas were splashed across the front page of an Athens newspaper, officials were trying to identify the tourists involved. "Unfortunately, young Britons have been shown in photographs engaging in acts that are not only low-life but, frankly, criminal," said Varvarigos, a socialist MP.
■ Israel
Netanyahu to run for office
Benjamin Netanyahu will announce next week that he intends to run against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in primary elections for the ruling Likud Party. Netanyahu, a former prime minister, would beat Sharon in Likud primaries, 42 percent to 35 percent, according to a poll published yesterday in the Yediot Ahronot. But Sharon remains more popular with the public, according to the poll. In elections, Sharon would beat Netanyahu 24 percent to 16 percent.
■ France
Vintner on the rack
The man credited with launching Beaujolais Nouveau faces a judicial inquiry after it emerged that 300,000 bottles of his supposedly top-quality wine had been topped up with a humble table wine. Georges Duboeuf, 72, the self-proclaimed King of Beaujolais, and one of his former production managers face up to two years in prison and a fine of US$46,200 if his company is found guilty of misrepresenting its own merchandise. Duboeuf denied any wrongdoing, saying the company halted production as soon as an inspection revealed the problem.
■ Germany
Cops seek explanation
Police in Hamburg yesterday published "wanted" photos of three men who were overheard saying this week at a city bus stop, "We'll stand before Allah as heroes tomorrow." The photos, which were taken Wednesday by closed-circuit security television, showed two clean-shaven young men and one with a thin beard and beret. Police vainly set up a citywide dragnet to catch the men, searching homes and watching crowds on public transport. The men's comments, were interpreted as a possible hint of a terrorist attack.Police appealed to the men to reveal themselves and explain if the remark had been innocent.
■ United Kingdom
Muslim makes the grade
A young British Muslim who sued her school -- and won -- over the right to wear full Islamic dress celebrated the end of junior high school with good passing grades in five subjects. Shabina Begum, now 16, completed three years of studies in just one year in Luton, after she was sent home from her old school for wearing the "head-to-toe" jilbab gown. She took her fight to the Court of Appeal, where judges ruled that Denbigh High School had unlawfully excluded her, denying her the right to practice her religion or provide her with an education. During two years of legal battles, Begum was kept away from school and only managed to sit her exams when she moved to her new school which allows the jilbab.
■ United States
Guard accused of spying
The California National Guard, already under investigation for allegedly spying on a Mother's Day peace rally, engaged in other surveillance activities involving citizens, a state senator said, citing a confidential Army report. Democratic Senator Joe Dunn accused the Guard's acting adjutant general of deliberately mischaracterizing the report when the general claimed last week that it cleared a Guard intelligence unit that was accused of spying on US citizens. Dunn said that the report refers to additional protests and demonstrations, and "labeled as questionable" Guard involvement. Dunn is leading an investigation into whether the Guard resorted to the same type of civilian monitoring that characterized Vietnam War-era protests.
■ Ecuador
Protesters, oil firms agree
Protesters, whose attacks shut down oil exports vital to the country's economy, struck a deal with energy companies on Thursday in which the firms agreed to invest more in the poor communities where they operate. The protesters agreed to call a permanent end to attacks they launched last week on oil wells in eastern Ecuador in return for the increased support. Negotiations had been bogged down since Wednesday over a demand by the militants they not be prosecuted for dynamiting pipelines and vandalizing pumping equipment last week.
■ United States
Sniper to be force-fed
A judge allowed corrections officials to forcibly feed convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad while he awaits trial in the county for six October 2002 killings. Muhammad had not eaten anything since being transferred to the Maryland, jail on Monday. He was apparently upset with the food he was being served and the handling of his legal material. Doctors concluded that Muhammad, 44, was at risk of serious injury or death if he continued his hunger strike. Judge James Ryan issued an order allowing officials at the county jail to forcibly feed and hydrate him.
■ United States
CIA report criticizes Tenet
An internal CIA report criticizes ex-CIA chief George Tenet and several other former and current CIA officials for not dealing effectively with Al-Qaeda before the September 11 attacks, the New York Times said yesterday. Tenet, who resigned in July 2004 after seven years at the top, was censured for failing to develop and carry out a strategic plan to take on al-Qaeda in the years before the attacks. The highly classified report, put together by CIA inspector general John Helgerson, described systemic problems at the CIA before the 2001 attacks. Besides Tenet, it was also critical of James Pavitt, former deputy director of operations, and Cofer Black, former director of the agency's counterterrorism center.
■ United States
Coffee spiked with urine
A postal worker has been charged with putting urine in the coffee of co-workers who set up a video camera in their break room after they became suspicious. Thomas Shaheen, 49, who works as a vehicle mechanic for the US Postal Service, was charged Aug. 5 with two misdemeanor counts of adulteration of food or placing harmful objects in food. Prosecutors said workers believed Shaheen poured urine into a coffee pot in a break room on July 5 and again July 6. Suspecting a problem, workers started their own investigation.
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The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday said it deployed aircraft to issue radio warnings to a Chinese research ship in a disputed area of the South China Sea “swarming” with vessels from Beijing’s so-called maritime militia. The research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 (向陽紅33), which is capable of supporting submersible craft, was operating near a reef in the contested Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The Chinese ship was deploying a service boat toward the Spratly’s Iroquois Reef on Wednesday when it was spotted by a coast guard plane, “confirming ongoing unauthorized [marine scientific research]
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