■ Hong Kong
Bus wreck kills child
A 36-year-old passenger died and an eight-year-old boy was critically injured after they were thrown from the top deck of a double-decker bus in a collision in Hong Kong, police said yesterday. Siu Man-tin died on Monday, hours after the front of the bus was ripped off in the collision near Hong Kong's container port. Two other adult passengers were seriously injured, a police spokesman said. The 25-year-old driver of the bus -- run by Hong Kong's biggest bus company, KMB -- was suspended after the accident, a company spokesman said.
■ China
Bilis death toll rises to 188
The death toll in southern China from Tropical Storm Bilis has jumped by 10 to 188 after torrential rains swept away houses and triggered devastating mudslides, the government's main news agency said yesterday. Hunan Province was hardest hit, with at least 92 people killed after Bilis roared ashore last Friday, the official Xinhua news agency said. Elsewhere, 43 people were killed in Fujian Province and 44 died in neighboring Guangdong, the report said.
■ Singapore
Bird flu drill this week
Singapore will hold a two-day exercise this week to test the city-state's readiness for a flu pandemic. The drill, to be conducted on Friday and Saturday, is based on a scenario in which a human case of bird flu infection escalates into a pandemic, the Ministry of Health said in a statement posted on its Web site. No cases of bird flu have been reported in Singapore, but authorities remain on high alert for the H5N1 strain. The exercise will involve 1,000 staff members and volunteers.
■ Japan
Wrestler's temper earns ban
Russian sumo wrestler Roho became the latest foreign import to land himself in trouble after smashing a window and hitting two photographers in a fit of pique. The wrestler was given an unprecedented three-day ban on Sunday for throwing a tantrum after a defeat the previous day in Nagoya. Roho, nicknamed the "Russian bear," chased opponent Chiyotaikai into a bathroom after an explosive bout where both men broke several of sumo's strict rules of engagement. After exchanging angry words with Chiyotaikai, Roho punched through a window of a bathroom door, showering his conqueror with broken glass.
■ Nepal
King loses more power
The government has scrapped more laws and appointments made by King Gyanendra before he was forced to give up his authoritarian rule, officials said yesterday. The Cabinet decided on Monday to rescind 16 laws which gave the king power to make official appointments, designated him chancellor of several universities, and appointed royal family members to head key religious and conservation trusts, the government said in a statement. The Cabinet also appointed several heads of government-run agencies to replace people selected by the king during his nearly 15 months of direct rule, the statement said.
■ Sri Lanka
Roadside bomb kills one
A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded six others, including four government soldiers yesterday, the army said. Tamil Tiger rebels triggered the roadside bomb, which targeted a group of soldiers who were on foot patrol in northern Jaffna Peninsula, an official of the Media Center for National Security said on condition of anonymity in accordance with policy. The victim who died and two of the wounded were civilians caught in the blast, he said. There was no immediate comment from the rebels on the attack in Jaffna, 300km north of Colombo. Separately, Tamil Tigers fired at a police patrol, wounding one policeman in eastern Ampara, about 220km east of Colombo, the military said on its Web site. Rebels fled the area when police retaliated, it said.
■ Pakistan
Two wounded in bombing
A homemade bomb exploded near a police officer's home in southwestern Baluchistan early yesterday, wounding the officer's wife and a daughter, an official said. The police wireless control officer, whose home was targeted by the bomb, escaped unhurt in the explosion in Mastung, a town about 50km south of Baluchistan's capital of Quetta, a spokesman said. The explosion toppled the gate of the policeman's home and his wife and a nine-year-old daughter were wounded by debris and shrapnel from the bomb. There was no word on the condition of the victims. Authorities have blamed renegade Baluch tribesmen for the bombing.
■ Malaysia
Frigate building planned
The government wants to cooperate with a British firm to build two new frigates to bolster its defense capabilities, a news report said. Talks are under way with BAE Systems to use a Malaysian shipyard to construct the frigates, which could be completed within five years, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told Malaysian journalists during a visit to London on Monday. The project's cost hasn't been determined, but it would double the Royal Malaysian Navy's number of frigates to four, Najib was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama.
■ Ireland
Two guys miss the boat
Two men who stole a fishing trawler after missing their ferry had to be rescued off the British coast where they were going in circles because they did not know how to sail. After hours at sea, the men called what they thought was the Irish coast guard for help. "They thought they were just off the coast of Ireland," said Ray Steadman, press officer of the Holyhead lifeboat in north Wales, about 106km east of Ireland. In fact, the two were just 19km north of where they started in Holyhead, Steadman told Irish broadcaster RTE on Monday. Lifeboats and a helicopter were sent out to rescue the men, who were detained by British police before being released.
■ South Africa
Ringtone raises alarm
A cellphone ringtone describing violence against black people is spreading from phone to phone in the country via wireless technology. The Cape Argus newspaper said the new ringtone featured a song about tying a black person to the back of a truck and setting dogs on him. Lionel Louw, chief of staff for the Office of the Premier in the Western Cape, told the paper the ringtone should be condemned as out of step with the country's mutliracial democracy.
■ France
Black anchor makes news
The evening TV news was making its own news on Monday, the first day on the job for Harry Roselmack, a black anchorman appointed to bring diversity to the country's almost all-white TV news scene. Roselmack, 33, of Martiniquese origin but born in France, replaces TF1's star anchorman Patrick Poivre d'Arvor until the end of next month, presenting the much watched 8pm news. Only the second news anchor of color, Roselmack was named after last fall's riots in the country's poor suburbs revealed the extent of discrimination in France. President Jacques Chirac then asked news outlets to "better reflect the reality of France today."
■ United Kingdom
Lady Godiva rides again
Lady Godiva rode naked on a white horse through the streets of Coventry to persuade her husband, the earl, to lower taxes, according to legend, and the eye-popping sight was repeated -- three times -- on Monday by a striking young woman. Phoebe Thomas stripped off and saddled up in Oxford City under the close scrutiny of a film crew shooting a modern movie re-telling of the old tale, making her do it three times, just to be sure they got it right. Legend has it that only the lady's long hair covered her modesty, but Thomas' locks provided scant protection against the nippy air at 4:30am. However, thanks to advances in fabric tehcnology, she was able to get away with slipping into a flesh-colored thong and tights.
■ Ethiopia
Police foil rare bank holdup
The police said on Saturday that they shot dead one of four armed robbers who tried to hold up a state-owned bank in Addis Ababa -- an extremely rare crime for the capital. Residents said a daylight bank robbery has not been attempted in recent memory in the heavily policed city. "Four robbers who entered the bank posing as customers shot and wounded a security guard and threatened employees at gunpoint to hand over cash," a police report said of the Friday incident. Officers who responded to the alarm at a branch of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia shot one suspect dead, and captured two others while the fourth escaped, police said.
■ Argentina
Jews demand justice
Members of the World Jewish Council (WJC), a leading pro-Jewish lobbying group, demanded justice on Monday for the 1994 bombing of a community center ahead of yesterday's anniversary of the attack. Eighty-five people were killed and 300 people were injured in the bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association, which was blamed on Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah. "Hezbollah participated in the attack [in Argentina] and is again attacking the state of Israel," said Jorge Kirszenbaum, president of a leading Jewish-Argentine community group and a WJC member. Members of the US-based WJC, including chairman Israel Singer and president Edgar Bronfman, were to meet President Nestor Kirchner after the commemoration ceremony yesterday and seek to pressure him for advances in the case.
■ Brazil
Dengue kills again in Rio
A man died of dengue fever near Rio de Janeiro, the third victim of the deadly hemorrhagic form of the disease this year, but authorities said on Monday the outbreak had fizzled out. "The case surprised us, but the epidemic is over, the number of cases in Rio de Janeiro state has been falling sharply after the peak in February and March," said Aloysio Ribeiro, head of Rio state Epidemiology Vigilance Center. The number of dengue cases between January and mid-July, mainly in the tourist city of Rio de Janeiro and resort towns of Angra and Parati, soared more than 10 times from the same period a year earlier to over 26,700, raising fears of a repeat of the 2002 dengue epidemic which killed more than 100.
■ United States
Mickey Spillane dies
Mickey Spillane, the creator of Mike Hammer, the heroic but frequently sadistic private detective who blasted his way through some of the most violent novels of the 1940s and 1950s, died on Monday at his home in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. He was 88 and had homes in South Carolina and New York City. His death was confirmed by Brian Edgerton of Goldfinch Funeral Home in Murrells Inlet, a village south of Myrtle Beach. Other details were not immediately available. Scorned by many critics for his artless plots, his reliance on unlikely coincidence and a simplistic understanding of the law, Spillane nevertheless achieved instant success with his first novel, I, the Jury, published in 1947. He cemented his popularity over the next few years with books like Vengeance Is Mine, My Gun Is Quick, The Big Kill and Kiss Me, Deadly, which became the best of the several movies based on his books, in 1955, with Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer.
■ United States
New Yorkers complain
What are you complaining about? If you're a New Yorker, it's often about noise and trash and occasionally about politics or morals. Those are some of the concerns expressed over the past 300 years by citizens writing to their mayor, as unearthed by an artist who mined the city's archives to create The New York City Museum of Complaint. The museum is actually a tabloid newspaper reproducing 31 letters from 1751 to 1973, currently being distributed in city parks. Some letters are elegantly handwritten, others typed, and all of them complain about something. "Some of them are on the verge of paranoia, others are on the verge of genius," said Matthew Bakkom, the artist who created the project. "I tried to find letters that had a genuine voice of their own somehow. It's a bit like being a DJ, I suppose."
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
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