■ China
Police blog hooks surfers
Crime stories, personal anecdotes and action snaps have propelled "China's first police blog" firmly into the mainstream, state media reported yesterday. The blog, posted by police in Hebei Province, has generated 860,000 hits and leapt into the top 500 most popular blogs on major Web portal sina.com, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said. "Apart from Jackie Chan movies, we also have our own police stories, and they're absolutely real," the paper quoted a police official from Hebei's Public Security Bureau as saying.
■ Thailand
Betting on the king
Lottery gamblers are taking a royal punt on auspicious numbers linked to last week's 60th anniversary on the throne of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a report said yesterday. The best-selling combinations have been 960 and 60, the English-language Nation newspaper said. The nine refers to the monarch's title of Rama the Ninth of the Chakri Dynasty. The next most popular digits were 992, the number of the king's car license plate, then 2470, the king's year of birth according to the Buddhist calendar, the newspaper said.
■ China
US withdraws terror threat
The US has withdrawn a warning about possible terror threats in China just one week after issuing the alert, following discussions with the Chinese government, the embassy said yesterday. "After further investigation and coordination with the Chinese authorities, the United States Government has determined that the information provided on June 9 no longer warrants a heightened level of concern," it said in an e-mailed statement.
■ Thailand
South endures six attacks
Suspected Islamic militants launched six more bomb attacks yesterday in Thailand's insurgency-torn south, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, police said. The bombs went off in garbage bins and restrooms at railways stations in the southern provinces of Yala and Narathiwat, police said, adding that the explosions caused no significant damage. The attacks followed dozens of coordinated bomb blasts that killed two people and injured 21 on Thursday in the southern states bordering Malaysia. More than 1,300 people have been killed since an insurgency broke out in January 2004 in the mainly Muslim and ethnic Malay south, a region also troubled by organized crime and police corruption.
■ Vietnam
Schoolgirl blackmails firm
Police in Hanoi investigating a blackmail plot and bomb threat found the culprit to be a 16-year-old schoolgirl, an official said yesterday. The girl, identified only as "L," admitted she sent a three-page handwritten letter to Hien Le-van, director of the Tanh Linh Petroleum Co, demanding that he pay 10 million dong (US$625) and giving a cellphone number to call to arrange a drop, police said. If Hien did not pay within three days, the letter said, one of the company's five petrol stations would be blown up, explained Minh Nguyen-van, a police investigator in central Binh Thuan province. Hien gave the letter to police. But after the security guard who received the letter told investigators it had been delivered by two young girls on a motorbike, police suspected an amateur.
■ Vietnam
Hero worship `encouraged'
Vietnam's prime minister has decided to impose heavy fines on journalists who criticize national "heroes" and institutions, state media said yesterday. The English daily Vietnam News said a fine of up to 30 million dong (US$1,850) would be levied "to punish violators of culture and information regulations." "Crimes such as denying revolutionary achievements, defaming the nation, great persons and national heroes, slandering and wounding the prestige of agencies and organizations" would now be punished. The decision by Prime Minister Khai Phan-van will come into effect on July 1. "The decision will contribute to maintain order and build a clean culture environment," the Lao Dong daily said, quoting deputy minister of culture and information Doan Do-quy. Any picture or headline which is not in accordance with an article's content "making readers misunderstand about the content of the information" will be fined up to a maximum of 1.5 million dong (US$825).
■ United Kingdom
Woman sent hoax packages
A 72-year-old woman has been charged with sending hoax packages containing sugar and weed killer to Prime Minister Tony Blair, his wife and eldest son, police said on Thursday. Shirley Rita Freed is due to appear in court in Brighton on June 29, London's Metropolitan Police said. Freed is accused of sending the white-colored products in a bid to make the Blairs believe they were some sort of noxious substance, contrary to anti-terrorist laws.
■ Brazil
Millions march for Jesus
About 3 million evangelical Protestants staged a huge rally on Thursday in Sao Paulo, demonstrating their growing influence in the world's largest Roman Catholic country. Crowding next to sound trucks blasting religious music, marchers wore T-shirts in the green and yellow colors of Brazil's flag advertising their annual "March for Jesus." The evangelicals walked to Avenida Paulista, Brazil's version of Wall Street, then gathered around a stage to hear bands play. Evangelical churches have seen their flocks grow rapidly in recent decades, with millions in the country of more than 180 million attracted by their dynamic services and promises that divine intervention will improve their lives.
■ France
Bomb blasts rock Corsica
Three overnight explosions hit resort towns in Corsica, damaging two vacation homes and a bar but causing no casualties, police said on Friday. The first blast nearly destroyed a two-story house in Piana on the Mediterranean island's western coast, soon after midnight. An hour later, another explosion lightly damaged a house in Viggianello to the south, according to the regional police headquarters. At 4am a third blast tore through a bar in the beach resort of Porticcio causing serious damage. The bar was closed at the time. No one claimed responsibility for the blasts. They were similar to bombings sporadically carried out by Corsican nationalists in a long-running campaign for greater autonomy.
■ United States
Conjoined twins separated
Doctors remained cautious on Thursday after successfully separating 10-month-old conjoined twins. A team of 80 US doctors successfully separated the twins after a delicate 21-hour operation. The girls, Renata and Regina Salinas Fierros, had been joined at the lower chest through the pelvis, facing one other. They were separated at the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, where they remained in serious condition with stable vital signs, hospital officials said. The girls are a rare type of conjoined twins known as ischiopagus tetrapus.
■ El Salvador
`Social cleansing' growing
A spike in the number of murders of gang members and criminals is raising concern that resurgent death squads are carrying out "social cleansing," the Catholic Church said on Thursday. Last year, 3,812 people were murdered, up from 2,993 killed in 2004. Church lawyers said in a report that the killings "systematically" targeted criminals. "The systematic nature of the cases leads one to believe that they have been committed to sow terror and carry out social cleansing," the report said. The Church did not say who might be responsible for the killings, but in the past members of the security forces have been blamed.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests. Analysis by London-based think tank Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island (Jhongjian Island, 中建島) on the southwest corner of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), building what might be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery and sophisticated radar system. “By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send
HAVANA: Repeated blackouts have left residents of the Cuban capital concerned about food, water supply and the nation’s future, but so far, there have been few protests Maria Elena Cardenas, 76, lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana’s colonial old town. The building has an elegant past, but for the last few days Maria has been cooking with sticks she had found on the street. “You know, we Cubans manage the best we can,” she said. She lives in the shelter because her home collapsed, a regular occurrence in the poorest, oldest parts of the beautiful city. Cuba’s government has spent the last days attempting to get the island’s national grid functioning after repeated island-wide blackouts. Without power, sleep becomes difficult in the heat, food
Botswana is this week holding a presidential election energized by a campaign by one previous head-of-state to unseat his handpicked successor whose first term has seen rising discontent amid a downturn in the diamond-dependent economy. The charismatic Ian Khama dramatically returned from self-exile six weeks ago determined to undo what he has called a “mistake” in handing over in 2018 to Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who seeks re-election tomorrow. While he cannot run as president again having served two terms, Khama has worked his influence and standing to support the opposition in the southern African country of 2.6 million people. “The return of
SOUTH CHINA SEA TENSIONS: Beijing’s ‘pronounced aggressiveness’ and ‘misbehavior’ forced countries to band together, the Philippine defense chief said The Philippines is confident in the continuity of US policies in the Asia-Pacific region after the US presidential election, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said, underlining that bilateral relations would remain strong regardless of the outcome. The alliance between the two countries is anchored in shared security goals and a commitment to uphold international law, including in the contested waters of the South China Sea, Teodoro said. “Our support for initiatives, bilaterally and multilaterally ... is bipartisan, aside from the fact that we are operating together on institutional grounds, on foundational grounds,” Teodoro said in an interview. China’s “misbehavior” in the South