■ China
Bus crash kills 17
An overcrowded long-distance bus crashed in southern China yesterday, killing 17 people and injuring more than 30, Xinhua news agency said. The bus, licensed to hold 49 passengers but carrying 63, was on its way from Shenzhen heading north when it hit a fence in Changsha, Hunan Province. China has the highest annual road death toll in the world, with accidents claiming nearly 107,000 lives last year.
■ Australia
Sex gets teacher jail
Australian physical education teacher was imprisoned for a minimum of two years yesterday for having sex with a student during a school-sponsored trip. Travis Glenn Robertson, was 23 and in his first teaching job at Templestowe College in the southern city of Melbourne when he began a relationship with his victim, a girl who was 15 at the time. Robertson later had group sex with the victim and a former female student on a trip to Turkey, and again in a Melbourne hotel.
■ Sri Lanka
Bombing condemned
Paris-based media freedom group Reporters Without Borders yesterday condemned a bomb attack on a Sri Lankan Tamil-language newspaper that killed a security guard and wounded two others. Attackers on a bicycle hurled grenades at the Sudar Oli newspaper, allegedly linked to the country's Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday evening. The attack came eight days after two bombs were thrown at another branch office of the newspaper in Colombo. No one was injured since the bombs did not explode.
■ Malaysia
Traffic police offer discount
Traffic police are offering a half off discount on millions of unpaid tickets to mark the National Day, and will set up counters at major shopping malls to clear the backlog. Malaysia will celebrate National Day today -- the 48th anniversary of independence from British rule. Traffic police chief Gingkoi Seman Pancras said officers were hoping to collect fines from motorists who have defaulted on 3.4 million summonses since 1999. "I call on all Malaysians to take up this offer to pay up or face action," Gingkoi said.
■ China
Internet nudity raises fears
A researcher has warned of a new threat to public health and morality -- naked Internet chatting. Up to 20,000 Chinese log on to chat rooms each night in various states of undress and communicate using webcams, Shanghai Daily said yesterday. "At first, we thought it was merely a game for a few mentally abnormal people," China Youth Association researcher Liu Gang said. "But as our research continued, we found the problem was much larger than expected." Liu gathered data on 10 site participants, eight of whom were single men aged 25-35 without steady jobs.
■ China
Language school favors men
Prestigious Peking University has deliberately favored applications to its language school from men this year, just a week after China trumpeted women's progress in gender equality. The school had tipped the scale towards males students, despite lower admission test scores, to bring down the proportion of women from around 80 percent to 70 percent. "If you come to our school, you feel like you have stumbled on a beauty pageant," an unnamed school official was cited in the China Daily yesterday. "Having so many girls around certainly makes for a lovely scene, but it does not lead to gender balance in the student body."
■ Japan
Pilot held for selling manuals
An airline pilot was arrested yesterday on suspicion of stealing jumbo jet flight operation manuals and flight crew uniforms that were later offered for sale on the Internet. The allegation came amid heightened security in Japan in the wake of warnings that al-Qaeda could be preparing to attack an Asian city. Kosuke Yasue, 42, a pilot at All Nippon Airlines Co(ANA), Japan's second-ranked carrier, is suspected of taking six flight operation manuals, including one for Boeing B747-400s, from a study room used by ANA staff at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in January. Yasue sold the manuals, along with uniforms for a pilot and co-pilot, to an aircraft goods shop for ?500,000 (US$4,515). He told police he needed the money.
■ Hong Kong
Hunt for lucky rice goes awry
A stampede by a crowd of 10,000 for free rice handed out as part of an ancient Chinese festival left 11 mostly elderly people injured yesterday. Nine women and two men were trampled on or bruised in the crush for so-called "fortune rice," given out to the poor during the Yue Laan, or Hungry Ghosts festival. Under scorching 31?C heat, up to 10,000 people waited for hours at a playground in Kowloon for volunteers to dole out the large sacks of rice. Elderly women and men at the front of the crowd fell to the ground as they surged for the opening playground gates. The annual rice handout during Yue Laan is thought to bring peace and good fortune to recipients and stave off mythical spirits that are believed to be released from hell during the festival.
■ Canada
Ontario bans pitbulls
The central province of Ontario banned pitbulls Monday after the pet dogs were involved in several attacks. The measure prohibits people from breeding or obtaining pitbulls in Canada's most populous province. Current pitbull owners can keep their pets as long as they are kept on a leash and muzzled in public places. Owners also have two months to sterilize their dogs. Violators face a 10,000 dollar (US$8,500) fine and their dogs could be put down. The ban was immediately challenged in court by animal rights group.
■ France
Eleven hurt in Paris blaze
A fire in an apartment block in the center of Paris injured 11 people on Monday, the fire brigade said. The spokesman said he did not know what had caused the fire in the block, which mostly housed people of African origin. The blaze came just three days after 17 people were killed, at least six of them children, when fire tore through another apartment block housing African immigrants in the city. Monday's fire broke out around 10pm and was brought under control about an hour later. Three people have been seriously injured and eight people suffered light injuries, including two firefighters.
■ United States
Dorothy's slippers stolen
A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and insured for US$1 million is missing from a museum. Police Chief Leigh Serfling said the slippers were stolen late Saturday or early Sunday. Someone entered the museum through a window and broke into the small display case holding the slippers. "We're hoping that someone in the community has seen something," Serfling said. Children's Discovery Museum director John Kelsch said the slippers belong to a Los Angeles man who loaned them to the museum for several weeks.
■ United States
Pair sentenced in coke bust
A Colombian man and the ex-girlfriend of a Saudi prince were each sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for drug conspiracy, after Florida prosecutors said they used the prince's Boeing 727 to transport 1.82 tonnes of cocaine from Venezuela to Paris. Doris Mangeri Salazar, a real estate agent, was sentenced on Monday to 24 years and four months. Ivan Lopez Vanegas was sentenced to 23 years and four months. The pair were convicted in May of conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and ordered to pay US$25,000 in fines. Mangeri was also convicted of acting as a broker in a transaction between Colombian drug traffickers and Nayef bin Sultan bin Fawwaz al-Shaalan, a Swiss banker who married into the royal Saudi family. She had been the prince's girlfriend at the University of Miami.
■ United Kingdom
Dead man walking around
Mourners who paid their last respects to a the 80-year-old World War II veteran were stunned to see him strolling through the town of Darlington shortly after the funeral. In a bizzare mix-up, the dead man being cremated had the same name and age as the 80-year-old veteran and also lived in Darlington. Hughes said, "One of them came flying across to me, saying, `Frank, Frank, Frank, I can't believe it' ... I'm going to have to tell my wife straight away, she's been absolutely devastated.'" Hugh said he was getting sick of people stopping him on the street to tell him "that I'm still alive."
■ United States
Scientists clear up fogging
Scientists have cracked a problem that popular opinion suggests they suffer from most: steamed-up spectacles. The solution, they found, lies in nanotechnology. By applying an ultra-thin coating of particles to sheets of glass and other transparent surfaces, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology made them permanently fog-proof. Glasses steam up and car windscreens fog over when they are cold and meet warm, moist air, producing a misty, blurred effect. Two car manufacturers and the US military have expressed a strong interest in the coating.
■ United States
Judge rules on Gitmo IDs
A judge ordered the US Department of Defense to ask Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base detainees whether they want their names to be made public. US District Judge Jed Rakoff on Monday directed the government to create a one-page document to ask each detainee whether he wanted identifying personal information to be released. A news organization filed a lawsuit in April asking for transcripts of 558 tribunals last year to give detainees a chance to challenge their incarceration. The judge noted that the government argued the identities should be kept secret to protect the privacy of the detainees. "One might well wonder whether the detainees share the view that keeping their identities secret is in their own best interests," he said.
■ United Kingdom
Extreme porn attacked
Britain was to announce new measures yesterday to combat extreme Internet pornography, newspapers said. Under proposals to be published by the Home Office, it will be an offence punishable by up to three years in prison to possess images of extreme obscenity or serious sexual violence. It is currently illegal to import, sell or publish such material in Britain but not to possess it. "By extreme, we mean material which is violent and abusive, featuring activities which are illegal in themselves and where, in some cases, the participants may have been the victims of criminal offences," Paul Goggins, Home Office minister with responsibility for Internet crime and sex offences, said on Monday.
■ United States
Pot policy reconsidered
In a turnaround, the California Highway Patrol says it is taking a hands-off approach to the possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes. The new policy, issued last week, states that an "individual is to be released and the marijuana is not to be seized" if the person qualifies under state law to possess marijuana for medicinal purposes. It also says that officers "shall not conduct traffic enforcement stops for the primary purpose of drug interdiction" involving the authorized use of medical marijuana. Medical marijuana advocates say the highway patrol had been responsible for more arrests of patients than any other agency in the state.
■ Germany
Police stop illegal race
A group of British sportscar drivers were arrested by German police after clocking up speeds of up to 272kph in an illegal race across Europe, police said on Monday. The group of 12 cars was stopped on a motorway near Nuremberg on their way from Austria to Frankfurt. All of the drivers had been charged with endangering the safety of other motorists. Four of the drivers were found to be under the effects of drugs. The group had left London in the middle of last week on a trip which had included a night in Amsterdam.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants with tuberculosis (TB) that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas, to Pakistani sweets. The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000kg elephants. However, it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they
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