■ China
Grenade ends card game
Four people died in the northeast after a dispute over a game of cards ended in bloodshed when one of the players returned with a hand grenade which later exploded, state media said yesterday. The four were playing cards on Wednesday in Meihekou City in Jilin Province when a quarrel broke out, the Beijing Times said. One of the group later returned with a hand grenade and it went off during a scuffle. Three people died on the spot while the fourth died in hospital the next day, it said.
■ Japan
Euthanasia probe launched
Police have begun investigating the deaths of seven elderly patients on suspicion that a doctor carried out mercy killings, the Kyodo News Agency said. A surgeon at the Imizu City Hospital in Toyama, northwest of Tokyo, is suspected of removing respiratory tubes from the seven people to assist their deaths, it said. The head of the hospital suspected possible mercy killings after the surgeon asked permission to remove a respirator from one of the seven, a 78-year-old man, last October, it said.
■ Australia
Researchers test scramjet
Researchers conducted a test flight yesterday of a supersonic jet intended to travel at speeds of up to 8,000kph. The A$2 million (US$1.42 million) project was launched by researchers at the University of Queensland in Woomera. The so-called Supersonic Combustion Ramjet -- scramjet -- was attached to a rocket and launched to an altitude of 314km during its 10 minute flight, the university said. Program leader Allan Paul said it was too early to tell if the rocket had reached its target speed of up to 8,000kph.
■ United States
Confidentiality no more
The National Security Agency (NSA) has the authority to listen without warrants to conversations between lawyers and their clients and doctors and their patients if a connection to al-Qaeda is suspected, the Justice Department told Congress in a report released on Friday. The Justice Department's position on the question of privileged conversations came in its written responses to nearly 100 questions posed by Republicans and Democrats about the NSA's eavesdropping program, which has provoked fierce debate in Congress since it was disclosed last December.
■ United States
Stolen sandwich costs man
A stolen roast beef sandwich has landed a man in jail for a year and a half. Jason Elliot, 27, of Barrington, New Hampshire was arrested last April after a convenience store employee reported he had stolen a US$4 sandwich. When police caught up to Elliot, they found drug paraphernalia in his car, the Foster's Daily Democrat reported on Friday. The sandwich theft charge was elevated to a felony because Elliot had theft convictions. After pleading guilty, Elliot was sentenced recently to a year for stealing the sandwich and six months for drug possession.
■ United States
First lady backs Condi
US first lady Laura Bush thinks US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would make an "excellent" president -- but indicated Rice is a reluctant candidate. Her comments were made in an interview broadcast on Friday on CNN with talk show host Larry King. "She'd make an excellent president, but I don't think we can talk her into running," Bush said. "She'd be a great president." The names of Rice, a Republican, and Democratic Senator Hilary Clinton repeatedly surface in discussions about the 2008 presidential race. But Rice, a committed fan of American football, has made clear she'd much rather become commissioner of the National Football League.
■ United States
Judge restrains Hasselhoff
A judge has issued a temporary restraining order requiring that David Hasselhoff stay away from his estranged wife, according to court papers unsealed this week. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas signed the order on March 6 ordering the former Baywatch star to stay at least 100m from actress Pamela Bach except for "peaceful contacts related to court ordered visitation" of one their two teenage daughters. Bach, 42, has custody of one daughter while Hasselhoff, 53, has custody of the other. In her request for the order, Bach claimed instances of domestic violence in December and last month.
■ United States
Marines want pensioner
Sonia Goldstein was flattered by the recruiting letter asking her to consider becoming one of "the few, the proud." But at age 78, she believes she's just a little old to enlist in the US Marine Corps. "I couldn't believe it," Goldstein told KCAL-TV on Friday. "My girls were sitting here ... we were in hysterics, we laughed so hard." The letter told her the corps could use her unique language skills, but also warned that life as a Marine would test her physical and mental abilities "beyond anything you've ever known." "There I am with my walker. I can't maneuver from here to there without it," said Goldstein.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000
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