■ India
Two girls burnt to death
Two girls were burnt to death in sectarian rioting between Hindus and Muslims sparked by the death of a youth in Uttar Pradesh, police said yesterday. "Over 100 houses were set ablaze in a Hindu-Muslim clash in which two girls were charred to death," Prem Prakash, a police official said. The incident in Pratapgarh, 200km southeast of the state capital Lucknow, came after a Hindu youth was gunned down by unidentified people in a village market on Sunday evening. "The murder triggered a communal flare up when Hindus armed with rods and sticks torched houses of Muslims," Prakash said. "Riot police have been sent to the village ... Over 100 people have been arrested," he said.
■ Cambodia
Bullets land in US embassy
The US embassy in Cambodia mistakenly received a shipment of 140,000 bullets instead of the delivery of artworks it had ordered to decorate a new office, the embassy said yesterday. The mix-up was apparently caused by Thai Airways, which mislabeled the cargo, the embassy said in a statement. It said the bullets were intended for a destination in Finland, and had no connection to the US government. Police said the rifle bullets did not include powder charges. Cambodia's national police chief, Hok Lundy, said police did not feel there was any cause for concern over the error. The cargo arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport on a June 7 flight from Thailand.
■ Hong Kong
Cable car launch in doubt
Urgent checks continued yesterday on a new 5.7km cable car ride to take tourists to Hong Kong's Big Buddha statue after 500 people were stranded during a test run. The cable car stopped for two hours last Saturday and for 45 minutes the day before during trial runs ahead of the scheduled opening of the attraction on Saturday. The launch was in doubt as an investigation into the breakdowns by the operator SkyRail-ITM and the government's Electrical and Mechanical Services Department continued yesterday. The cable car journey on Lantau Island is expected to attract 1.5 million tourists a year.
■ Singapore
SARS victims compensated
The government has awarded more than S$600,000 (US$375,624) to health workers who fell victim to SARS, a newspaper reported yesterday. Twenty-one nurses and hospital attendants who suffered permanent lung damage from the flu-like virus, as well as the families of two other health workers who died from the disease, will receive a total of S$662,300 in compensation, the Straits Times said. Singapore law says employees who perform manual work or who earn S$1,600 or less a month are entitled to compensation if they contract a disease while at work, the report said.
■ China
First moonwalk set for 2024
A top official in China's space program has set 2024 for the country's first moonwalk, the Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po reported yesterday, cementing its position as a new space power. The mission would kick off in earnest next year, when China launches an unmanned lunar satellite in March or April to orbit and survey the lunar surface, it said. "China now basically possesses the technology, materials and the economic strength" to put a man on the moon, the paper quoted the official as saying. In 2003, China became the third country, after the US and Soviet Union, to launch a man into space aboard its own rocket.
■ Afghanistan
Two convoys ambushed
Taliban fighters ambushed two convoys carrying members of the same family in southern Afghanistan, killing 30 people, relatives and officials said yesterday. The first convoy attack, initially reported on Sunday, was on vehicles carrying a former district chief in Helmand Province, leaving the ex-official and four of his bodyguards dead, said the governor's spokesman, Ghulam Mohiudin. The second ambush occurred several hours later when about 40 of the slain official's relatives went to collect his body, his brother Dad Mohammed Khan said yesterday. Khan, a member of parliament and former Helmand intelligence chief, said 25 people were killed, including the brother and nephew of the dead official, Jama Gul.
■ Spain
Catalans vote for autonomy
Voters in the northeastern region of Catalonia have voted to enhance powers of self-government in a referendum on greater autonomy from Madrid. With nearly all of Saturday's ballots counted, 73.9 percent of voters backed the new statute, while 20.8 percent voted "no," with voter turnout at about 49 percent, official results released by the regional government showed. The referendum asked people in the region, which includes the city of Barcelona, to decide on a text giving it greater control over raising taxes and judicial affairs. The text also promotes a wider usage of the Catalan language and gives the region increased say on foreign affairs.
■ China
Work safety needs boost
China intends to introduce harsher punishments for breaching work safety laws, state media reported yesterday, as the nation struggles to limit the thousands of occupational deaths each year. Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, said lax laws and regulations, as well as weak enforcement, have contributed to the country's bad work safety situation, the China Daily said. Companies which do not abide by national work safety standards can be fined a maximum of 200,000 yuan (US$25,000).
■ United States
Zoellick resigns
US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, the architect of US-China policy and Washington's pointman on Sudan, resigned yesterday to take up a position with Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. "It is time for me to step down," Zoellick told a news conference at the State Department, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by his side. Rice said, "Today, it is not without considerable sadness that I announce that Bob Zoellick will be leaving the department in coming weeks." There was no indication of who will succeed Zoellick.
■ Canada
Birds checked for flu
Canada is investigating a second backyard poultry flock for bird flu, although all birds remain healthy, authorities said on Sunday. "A quarantine has been instituted at that premise and it's because there's been contact either with live birds or through foot traffic and potential contamination with the original infected farm," said Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) veterinarian Jim Clark. The CFIA announced on Friday it had detected a case of H5 avian flu in a gosling from a backyard poultry flock after four goslings died in the eastern province of Prince Edward Island. Test results are expected today.
■ Brazil
Prison rebellions controlled
Authorities said they put down at least 11 weekend prison rebellions that killed three inmates and injured 20 guards and prisoners in the first outbreak of riots since inmates launched a wave of violence that shocked Sao Paulo last month. Alcides da Silva, head of the union of Sao Paulo state prison guards, said at least one rebellion was started by the First Capital Command, the same feared gang that initiated a week of street violence and prison uprisings last month that killed almost 200 people across Sao Paulo state.
■ Iran
Tehran might `limit' program
Iran is ready to limit its nuclear program but will not suspend uranium enrichment as a precondition for international talks, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing regime insiders. "Around 70 percent of senior people may be prepared, under pressure, to accept an eventual limit on the number of centrifuges [for enriching uranium]," one of the two anonymous sources was quoted as saying. The source added that Tehran would give the international community "objective guarantees" of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program. On Sunday UN chief Kofi Annan said the government of Iran is looking "seriously" at a new international offer of incentives for Tehran to give up uranium enrichment.
■ United States
Provenance row deepens
A scandal surrounding the looting of ancient artifacts deepened on Sunday when it emerged that 350 items worth US$100 million held by one of the US' leading museums are of dubious provenance. The items, identified by an internal review by the Getty Trust in Los Angeles, are in addition to 52 artifacts valued at more than US$48 million that the Italian government is demanding be returned. The Italian authorities claim those items were illegally excavated and exported. The newly identified objects include many of the most prestigious and striking exhibits at the trust's recently reopened Getty Villa, the only museum in the US dedicated to ancient art. Thirty-five of the museum's catalogue of 104 "masterpieces" feature on the new list of disputed artifacts.
■ United States
Wildfires rage across Arizona
A wildfire that quickly engulfed more than 400 hectares forced the evacuation of about 400 homes and businesses in central Arizona, officials said. Crews manning fire engines spread out throughout the area to defend the homes, fire officials said. There were no reports late on Sunday of any homes being damaged or destroyed but the potential existed for that. "It's going to be quite a fight not to lose them," said Kristy Bryner, a fire information officer. "This is very active fire behavior." The fire burned on Sunday on a mesa and crept into parts of Oak Creek Canyon, more than 145km north of Phoenix.
■ Norway
PM banks on deep-freeze
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg yesterday kicked off construction of a "doomsday vault," a vast top-security seed bank in a mountain near the North Pole to ensure food supplies in the event of environmental catastrophe or nuclear war. Built with Fort Knox-type security, the depository will preserve some 3 million seeds representing all known varieties of the world's crops at sub-zero temperatures. The seeds will be stored at a temperature of minus 18?C, which will ensure their survival for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
COMMUNITY CONFLICT: Concerns about disease spread from corpses has run up against friends and families’ desire to bury their dead as infection spreads in the area Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) attacked and burned a tent that was part of a health center where people are being treated for the virus, the staff there said Saturday. It was the second such attack in the region in a week. No one was hurt in the attack, according to reports but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are unaccounted for, a hospital director said. Angry residents arrived at the clinic in the
INSURGENT ACTION: A local independence movement in Balochistan, alleged by Pakistan’s government to be backed by India, claimed responsibility for the strike A suicide bomber detonated an vehicle-borne IED near a railway as a passenger train passed through the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta yesterday, killing at least 23 people and wounding over 70, officials said. The explosion caused two of the train cars to overturn and catch fire, according to footage shared online. The attack happened in an area where security forces are usually stationed, badly damaging several nearby buildings and smashing more than a dozen vehicles parked along the road, according to witnesses and images circulating on social media. Doctors at local hospitals said they had received the wounded, with 20 in critical
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