■ Singapore
Employers spy on maids
Singaporean employers are planting high-tech security cameras at home to spy on their foreign maids, a report said yesterday. Recent disturbing media coverage involving maids has prompted many homeowners to install domestic surveillance systems, some totalling as many as 10 cameras in a single apartment, the Sunday Times said. "It gives me peace of mind. Still, I'd rather not find anything," real estate agent Kent Tan was quoted as saying. He forked out S$7,000 (US$4,190) for the cameras and found his maid wearing his wife's clothes while at work. Security camera vendors told the newspaper that home queries had risen sharply in the past three years, with many customers opting for coin-sized cameras that can easily go unnoticed.
■ China
Archaeologists make find
Chinese archaeologists claim to have found one of the world's oldest observatories, dating back 4,100 years ago, state media reported yesterday. The observatory was uncovered at the Taosi relics site in Shanxi Province, He Nu, a research fellow with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said. The observatory "was not only used for observing astronomical phenomena but also for sacrificial rites", He said. The remains, in the shape of a semi-circle 40m in diameter in the main observation platform and 60m in diameter in the outer circle, were made of rammed earth, the report said. Archaeologists said 13 stone pillars, at least 4m tall, stood on the foundation of the first circle originally, forming 12 gaps between them. The Taosi relics site is believed to be a settlement from the "five legendary rulers" period.
■ India
Train wreck toll climbs
Army divers searched yesterday for survivors and the dead in the submerged cars of a train that derailed and plunged into a rain-swollen river in southern India, killing at least 110 people, officials said. The accident occurred before sunrise on Saturday in the town of Veligonda in Andhra Pradesh state after flash floods washed away a portion of the track. Ten more bodies were found downstream overnight, raising the death toll to 110, said state Home Minister K. Jana Reddy. Scores of passengers remained trapped inside the railcars, five of which lay on their sides, partially submerged. Soldiers were lowered onto the cars from a helicopter to cut through the top and retrieve passengers who spent the night hanging on to luggage racks and ceiling fans.
■ Hong Kong
Bird flu drill planned
Hong Kong will stage an emergency drill next month to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic, the territory's health secretary said. York Chow, secretary for health, welfare and food, said the exercise is needed because of public worries over recent bird flu outbreaks in the region and in Europe. It can also test Hong Kong's preparedness for a flu pandemic, he said. Yesterday, government workers distributed leaflets about bird flu prevention to people in several downtown districts.
■ Australia
Mother asks queen for help
The mother of an Australian drug smuggler who has been condemned to death in Singapore has written to Queen Elizabeth asking her to intervene, lawyers said yesterday. Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, of Vietnamese extraction, was sentenced to death after being arrested at Singapore's Changi airport three years ago with almost 400g of heroin. An appeal for clemency has already been dismissed. "You and I are mothers. You are our leader. You know a mother's love. Please help and intervene," a lawyer quoted the letter as saying. The lawyer said he expected the queen would respond.
■ Australia
Zoos to breed dingoes
A captive-breeding programme was announced yesterday to save Australia's iconic dingo from extinction. Biologists have been worried for some time that the survival of the wild dogs that crossed from Asia thousands of years ago is threatened by government-sponsored eradication programmes and from interbreeding with domestic animals that have escaped into the wild. Researchers at Melbourne's Monash University will collect and freeze sperm and ovaries from pure-bred dingoes at zoos and start up a captive-breeding programme. "So far as the pure dingo goes, there are very few left in the natural environment," researcher Ernest Healy said.
■ Myanmar
`Democracy' talks to resume
Myanmar's military rulers have decided to resume in December the next session of constitutional talks on their self-declared "road map" to democracy, which has been internationally condemned as a sham, state media said yesterday. The talks, the first of seven steps on the junta's "road map" to democracy, were suspended on March 31 after more than 1,000 delegates met for six weeks. Handpicked delegates at the National Convention have discussed drafting a new constitution on and off for more than a decade.
■ Ivory Coast
Military exercises staged
Loyalist security forces in Ivory Coast's main city made a rare public show of force on Saturday, blocking traffic to conduct military exercises across a lagoon a day before President Laurent Gbagbo's five-year mandate ends. Thousands of supporters cheered and a helicopter hovered overhead as camouflage speedboats raced through the water and Kalashnikov-wielding commandos crawled ashore on an imaginary mission to rescue officials taken hostage during a peace summit by opposition forces. "It's to deter all those who want to make trouble," said Cesar Etou, chief editor of the pro-Gbagbo Notre Voix newspaper. "It shows the army's strength, and reassures the population."
■ Saudi Arabia
Policeman killed in Mecca
Two gunmen shot and killed a policeman patrolling in the Islamic holy city of Mecca overnight, witnesses said yesterday. The incident took place in an area of the city, in western Saudi Arabia, where more than 1.5 million Muslim faithful were gathered to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. The two assailants opened fire on a police patrol which had flagged down their car for a routine check. One of the two officers in an all-terrain vehicle was shot in the head, the witnesses said. The victim was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his wounds. The other officer was unscathed but the attackers fled, they added. A police search for the killers was underway in the Um Al-Jud quarter.
■ France
Teen deaths enrage suburb
A Paris suburb endured a third night of arson and arrests sparked by the electrocution deaths of two teenagers. In the violence on Saturday night, 13 youths were arrested and 20 cars torched. Earlier Saturday an atmosphere of quiet rage hung over a peaceful procession of 500 people paying homage to the teenagers whose deaths sparked the rioting in the Paris suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois. Marchers laid flowers near the spot where the boys Ziad, aged 17, and Banou, 15, died when they scaled a wall of an electrical relay station while running away from police and fell against a transformer. According to a man who was with the two boys and survived, "they ran because other young people were running. They thought they were being chased but they were not."
■ Algeria
Deadly clash kills 9
Algerian forces killed nine suspected Islamic militants in separate raids in western Algeria that were part of a new security sweep. The violence was part of two days of deadly clashes across the north of the country that left a total of 12 people dead, including a soldier and two civilians. Algeria has been swept up in new violence since the start of the holy month of Ramadan on Oct. 5 that has left more than 60 people dead -- civilians, government forces and militants.
■ Germany
Dresden cathedral restored
More than 100,000 people were expected to gather to celebrate the dedication of Dresden's rebuilt 18th-century cathedral. The restoration of the baroque Frauenkirche 60 years after Allied bombers destroyed it during World War II cost US$215 million, and came from donations -- including a sizable amount from the US and Britain, whose forces destroyed many German cities in the defeat of the Nazis. It was a place where Bach and Richard Wagner had played and composed.
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