■ India
Five crude bombs found
Five crude bombs were found at a busy railway station in Patna, Bihar State, yesterday, officials said. One of the bombs went off but caused no damage; the others were defused by the police's bomb disposal squad, officials said. They ruled out a larger terror threat and said the bombs may have been left behind by criminals. "Crude country-made bombs such as these are routinely used by dacoits during robbery attempts on trains and houses," a senior police official told NDTV.
■ India
Beach water turns sweet
Hundreds of people thronged to a midtown city beach in Mumbai yesterday after word spread that seawater there had turned sweet, with many seeing the development as a divine sign. People started gathering late on Friday to collect the water off Mahim beach on the shores of the Arabian Sea. "This water is definitely sweet. We see it as a blessing from Baba [Holy Saint]," said Rafique, who uses a single name. Many others were seen drinking the muddy water or collecting it in plastic bottles and jars. Some bathed in it. The city government warned against drinking the water over health fears.
■ India
Actress accused of abuse
An Air India employee has complained to police that Bollywood actress Amisha Patel abused and threatened her for refusing to upgrade a friend on a flight to the US, an airline spokesman and newspaper said yesterday. Patel allegedly used foul language and threatened to have the employee sacked, they said. Patel told the Times of India she was shocked to hear about the complaint and that it had been done by the airline staff to save themselves.
■ China
Saomai deaths reach 436
China's death toll in the wake of Typhoon Saomai reached 436 people, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The count rose with confirmation on Friday of an additional 106 deaths in eastern Zhejiang Province, where 11 people remained missing, according to provincial flood control officials. Of the 193 people who died in Zhejiang, 144 were killed when homes and other buildings collapsed because of heavy rain and severe wind as Saomai raged through the province. The property destruction was estimated at 12.7 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) for damage to 39,000 houses. The worst-hit province, Fujian, had a death toll of 241 people.
■ Hong Kong
Predators on elderly busted
Three people were arrested after allegedly deceiving elderly people out of more than HK$1 million (US$129,000), police said yesterday. Police said one man, 49, was arrested yesterday after two other people -- a woman, 43, and a man, also 43 -- were detained on Friday and Thursday. Regional crime unit officers said several mobile phones, prepaid SIM cards and bank deposit slips were seized during the operation. It is believed the syndicate had been operating since May. Police said the group targeted elderly victims, telephoning them from untraceable mobile phone numbers to say their family members were in financial trouble. The victims were then persuaded to deposit large sums of money into bank accounts controlled by the syndicate.
■ China
AIDS vaccine `effective'
The government said yesterday that initial test results of its first AIDS vaccine showed it could protect people against the HIV virus. None of the participants in the first phase of the clinical trial showed any severe adverse reactions after 180 days and some showed they had developed immunity to the HIV-1 virus 15 days after receiving the vaccine, the State Food and Drug Administration said on its Web site. Researchers were still analyzing the outcome of the initial trial before deciding whether further tests would be carried out, it said.
■ Malaysia
Minister blasts milk makers
The government has threatened to "name and shame" eight multinational producers of infant milk formula for repeatedly violating a code of ethics, reports said yesterday. Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said the manufacturers had broken the code by giving samples to breast feeding mothers, advertising without permit and providing incentives to traders, the New Straits Times said. Chua said the eight would be barred from introducing new products for one year, but that as fines did not deter them from breaking the code their names may be released to the media.
■ China
Panty drug runner charged
A Chinese woman has appeared in court accused of transporting panties and long johns soaked in heroin, state media said on Friday. Wang Zhiqin, 42, from Wuhan, Hubei Province, was charged with transporting 1.44kg of heroin soaked into 15 items of underwear, the China Daily said. "Drug tests apparently detected heroin on them and Wang was arrested after a tip-off," it said. Wang pleaded innocent during her trial at a Shanghai court on Thursday, saying the tainted underwear had been planted in her luggage, a pink trunk.
■ South Africa
AIDS activist slams Mbeki
A South African AIDS campaigner has called on world leaders to speak out against the government of South African President Thabo Mbeki, which he claims is responsible for the continuing but unnecessary devastation wreaked in his country by AIDS. At the International AIDS Conference in Toronto on Thursday, he said there was "a terrible silence" from the world. "Bill Clinton can't get the words out of his mouth to criticize Thabo Mbeki. Kofi Annan can't criticize Thabo Mbeki ... The long-term consequences for South Africa are enormous."
■ United Kingdom
Bomb scare forces landing
A passenger plane carrying scores of British holidaymakers was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday after a note was found saying there was a bomb on board. The Boeing 767 en route from London Gatwick to Egypt was escorted into Brindisi airport in southern Italy by an Italian F16 fighter jet. The head of Brindisi police, Salvatore De Paulis, said the discovery of the note in a seat pocket by a passenger prompted the pilot to raise the alarm two hours into the flight. Anti-terrorist officers and emergency services met the plane after it touched down and all the passengers safely disembarked.
■ Netherlands
Boy hung up on bridge
A scooter rider escaped largely unscathed after spending more than two hours hanging from a bridge over a major river running through the port of Rotterdam in the early hours of Friday morning. A specialist fire brigade crew was able to free the 17-year-old, who was dangling by one arm from the Spijkenisse Bridge over the Oude Maas, the Dutch name for the Meuse. The boy slipped from his scooter as the bridge came down to close, falling over the edge with his arm caught luckily between part of the bridge and the road. He was freed by means of raising the bridge slightly.
■ Germany
Give up holidays: official
Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, just back from his summer vacation, urged fellow Germans on Thursday to give up their holidays and save the money for their retirement. Germans will face rising healthcare and pension costs in the coming decades, Steinbrueck, who spent his holiday in the country, told Hoerzu magazine. "That means if there is any doubt, we must abandon a holiday to provide for later," he said. The Tourism Association said Steinbrueck's call made no sense. "Perhaps [Steinbrueck] just needs a holiday, which would help him to recover and come back with better ideas," said Michael Buller, managing director of travel company lastminute.com.
■ United Kingdom
Strip poker match starts
Up to 200 strip poker players from 12 countries were to compete yesterday to see who would lose their shirts -- and more -- and who would scoop ?10,000 (US$18,840) by retaining their clothes and modesty. Organized by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, the inaugural World Strip Poker Championship was to take place at the prestigious Cafe Royal in central London with players battling it out in games of "No Limit Texas Hold 'em." "We are holding the competition because we got so much interest from our spoof April Fool this year about a strip poker competition that we thought, `why not? let's do it for real,'" Paddy Power's Darren Haines said on Friday.
■ United States
Man trapped in chocolate
A 21-year-old man was trapped in a tank of chocolate for about two hours early on Friday, police said. Captain Randy Berner said the worker said he got into the tank at the Debelis Corp to unplug it and became trapped waist-deep in the chocolate. "It was pretty thick. It was virtually like quicksand," Berner said, and co-workers, police and firefighters were not able to get him out until the chocolate could be thinned out. "It's the first time I've ever heard of anything like this," the police captain said. The worker said his ankles were sore after the incident, and he was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries, Berner said.
■ Mexico
Leftists blockade city
A coalition of leftists and striking teachers blockaded all four major highways into the colonial city of Oaxaca on Friday, the latest escalation of the nearly three-month-long protest aimed at ousting the state governor. Protesters have largely taken over the historical colonial city, while civic groups and the government have turned to Samuel Ruiz, a former Roman Catholic bishop and an outspoken defender of the poor in the southern state of Chiapas, to help mediate. Given the seriousness of the dispute, and the damage to the state's tourism industry and colonial downtown district, Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal agreed to meet with Ruiz and welcomed his decision to serve at the head of the mediation team.
■ Venezuela
Chavez slams Israel
President Hugo Chavez said the country is carrying out a nationwide fundraising drive to raise money for rebuilding Lebanon and for the Palestinian people. Chavez called the Lebanese and Palestinians "heroic people" and reiterated his criticisms of Israel over its military offensive in Lebanon. "I ask everyone in the country to give what we can for this fundraising campaign for the reconstruction of Lebanon -- destroyed by the genocidal and fascist hand of Israel, and its masters, the US empire," Chavez said. The Venezuelan president said on Aug. 3 that he was withdrawing his country's top diplomat to Israel to protest its attacks in Lebanon and its actions toward the Palestinians.
■ Ecuador
Volcano kills five
At least five people were dead and another 30 were missing on Friday from the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano 250km south of the capital Quito, Red Cross officials said. President Alfredo Palacio asked for help from the international community for the victims of the eruption, which broke out on Thursday. Food, medications, money and materials were needed for the residents of seven villages that were partially or fully destroyed by the 5,020m-high volcano, Palacio said. Palacio declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Tungurahua and Chimborazo on Thursday. To date, 4,000 people have been evacuated.
■ United States
Naked teacher resigns
A high school art teacher who faced termination after students saw her nude photos online has agreed to resign. Tamara Hoover had been on paid leave since May, when students saw the photos on Flickr.com and showed them to another art teacher at Austin High School. That teacher, who was feuding with Hoover over ceramics equipment, notified administrators, according to sworn affidavits. The photos were posted by Hoover's partner and depicted her in the shower, getting dressed and doing other routine activities.
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
DIVERSIFY: While Japan already has plentiful access to LNG, a pipeline from Alaska would help it move away from riskier sources such as Russia and the Middle East Japan is considering offering support for a US$44 billion gas pipeline in Alaska as it seeks to court US President Donald Trump and forestall potential trade friction, three officials familiar with the matter said. Officials in Tokyo said Trump might raise the project, which he has said is key for US prosperity and security, when he meets Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for the first time in Washington as soon as next week, the sources said. Japan has doubts about the viability of the proposed 1,287km pipeline — intended to link fields in Alaska’s north to a port in the south, where