■ Indonesia
Boy dies from bird flu
A young boy died from bird flu yesterday, bringing the country's death toll to 56, while a woman infected with the H5N1 virus was being treated in hospital, the health ministry said. The two patients lived in different towns on the outskirts of Jakarta and had not been in contact with each other, said a staffer at the health ministry's bird flu information center. The two-and-a-half-year-old boy who died was admitted to hospital on Sunday, said the staffer, who declined to give her name, citing ministry rules.
■ Vietnam
US citizen deported
A Vietnamese-born US citizen who was convicted last week on charges of plotting against the government was deported from the country yesterday, officials said. They said Nguyen Thuong Cuc, 58, whose 14-month detention drew attention in the US ahead of this week's visit by US President George W. Bush, had her sentence reduced. "I can confirm that [Nguyen] has left Vietnam," said a spokeswoman at the US consulate-general in Ho Chi Minh City. On Friday, a People's Court sentenced Cuc and two other Vietnamese-born US citizens to 15 months imprisonment, including time served, and ordered them expelled within 10 days of finishing their prison terms.
■ Australia
Air guitar shirt rocks
Australian scientists have invented a T-shirt that allows air guitarists to play actual music as they strum the air. The T-shirt, created by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, is called a "wearable instrument shirt." The shirt has sensors in each elbow and sleeves to detect and interpret the air guitarist's arm movements -- one arm chooses chords and the other strums imaginary strings. The gestures are then connected wirelessly to guitar audio samples to generate the music. "It's an easy to use, virtual instrument that allows real time music making, even by players without significant musical or computing skills," Richard Helmer, an engineer at the organization, said in a statement yesterday.
■ Afghanistan
Al-Qaeda operative captured
US forces have captured an al-Qaeda operative who had escaped from the main US military prison last year, a Pakistani newspaper reported yesterday. The man, identified as Abu Nasir al-Qahtani, was captured recently in the southeastern province of Khost, the News newspaper said, citing Taliban supporters in the Pakistani border region of North Waziristan. Al-Qahtani has been referred to in some news reports as Mohammad Jafar Jamal al-Kahtani. The US military said on Nov. 6 a "known al-Qaeda operative and five other extremists" had been captured during an operation near Khost town early that day.
■ China
Mine blast kills 24
A colliery explosion killed at least 24 miners yesterday, state media said. The early morning gas blast happened at the Nanshan Colliery in Lingshi County, Shanxi Province, which Xinhua news agency blamed on the improper use of explosives at the village-run mine. "The mine, whose safety license has expired, had already been ordered to halt production," CCTV state television said, adding there were at least 34 miners underground at the time of the explosion. The blast came just a week after an explosion killed dozens of miners in another part of Shanxi and prompted authorities to launch a coal mine safety overhaul in the province.
■ United States
Man dies in parking spat
A man was shot to death during a fight over a parking space, police said. The fight, which broke out early on Saturday in a Brooklyn neighborhood, may have involved as many as a dozen people. After the attack, police said, the suspects piled into a couple of sport utility vehicles and raced from the scene, leaving Dallas Gilchrist, 34, on the ground and clinging to life. Gilchrist, shot five times with a .32-caliber handgun, died about an hour later at Brooklyn Hospital Center. There were no arrests as of Sunday, police said.
■ United Kingdom
Tanzania deal probed
Britain's military police and Serious Fraud Office are conducting an investigation into the sale of a military air traffic control system to Tanzania, the Ministry of Defence in London said yesterday. The inquiry is looking at the role of BAE Systems over the £27 million (US$52 million) deal, which was approved by Prime Minister Tony Blair. The ministry's confirmation comes after the Times newspaper said yesterday that the probe, which was launched six months ago, centers on allegations that the defense firm paid "backhanders" to the Tanzanian government.
■ Iran
Web video sparks outrage
Google has provoked the wrath of Iranian authorities by appearing to question the country's sovereignty over the province of Azerbaijan in an entry on its Google Video Web site. The site claims the Azeri provincial capital, Tabriz, is located "in southern Azerbaijan, currently in the territory of Iran". To add insult to injury, the city is listed as being in Azerbaijan, rather than Iran. Tabriz and southern Azerbaijan have belonged to Iran for more than 4,000 years. The text of a tourist film on the site has drawn accusations that the US-owned search engine is deliberately trying to undermine Iran's territorial integrity by fomenting separatist sentiment.
■ Austria
Sexist urinals sold online
Four urinals shaped like a woman's mouth have been auctioned online for more than 5,500 euros (US$7,070). The urinals, formerly located in a public toilet near Vienna's national opera, feature thick, lipsticked lips, a set of teeth and a bright red tongue. Last month, politicians demanded their removal, calling them sexist and inappropriate. In an online auction on eBay, the used urinals went to two bidders for a total of 5,583 euros, the Austria Press Agency (APA) reported. The identities of the new owners have not been disclosed, but APA reported that all four urinals will stay in Austria.
■ South Africa
Nineteen die in train wreck
Nineteen farm workers were killed yesterday when their truck collided with a commuter train at a railway crossing in South Africa, officials said. "Casualties included 19 people, including the truck driver, who died at the scene," Leonard Ramatlakane, acting premier for the Western Cape Province, said at a press conference yesterday afternoon. The accident, which injured 12 others, occurred when the truck carrying the workers was crossing the tracks near the Eerste River station outside Faure, about 25km east of Cape Town. The force of the collision pushed the truck hundreds of metres down the line and flung occupants into the air, according to Peter Hodkinson, a doctor who helped treat the injured at the crash site.
■ United States
Ford now oldest president
Gerald Ford has surpassed Ronald Reagan to become the longest-living US president. Ford, who turned 93 on July 14, became the oldest president on Sunday by living to 93 years and 121 days. "The length of one's days matters less than the love of one's family and friends," Ford said in a statement this week. "I thank God for the gift of every sunrise and, even more, for all the years he has blessed me with Betty and the children, with our extended family and the friends of a lifetime," he added. Ford was president from Aug. 9, 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal, until January 1977.
■ Colombia
Traffickers blamed for deaths
Six people were shot to death and six others were injured by a roadside bomb this weekend in the port city of Buenaventura, officials said on Sunday. The execution-style murders that included a six-year-old child on Saturday and the bomb on Sunday that injured four soldiers, a police officer and a civilian were blamed by police on drug traffickers, who have turned Buenaventura into a major shipping point for cocaine. The killings bring the death toll this year to 305, said Mayor Saulo Quinones, giving Buenaventura the chilling murder rate of 100 per 100,000 inhabitants.
■ United States
Deer kills owner
A deer being kept in a pen attacked and killed his owner, state police said. The buck that killed Ronald Donah, 43, was among about a half dozen deer penned up on his property in Ellenburg, New York, about 290km north of Albany, said state Trooper Joseph House. Details of Donah's injuries and what may have prompted the attack were not available. Maureen Wren, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said Donah had a license to keep the white tail deer on his property but did not know why he was doing so. She said deer attacks, at least in the wild, are extremely rare.
■ Mexico
Youths target McDonald's
Masked youths tossed gasoline bombs at a McDonald's restaurant in the conflict-torn city of Oaxaca, the latest violence in the southern state capital that has been besieged by protesters calling for the governor's ouster. Four youths attacked the restaurant before dawn on Sunday, damaging the store's windows, seats and play area, police said. The restaurant is near a university where leftist protesters set up their headquarters last month after police drove them out of the city's main plaza, which they had occupied since May in a bid to force Oaxaca's state governor to resign. Leaders of the movement, known as the Oaxaca People's Assembly, denied their members were responsible for Sunday's attack.
■ United Kingdom
Radio increases emissions
Digital broadcasting is increasing the threat of global warming by pumping massive amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, official figures suggest. The millions of Britons who listen to the radio through their digital televisions and computers together release an extra 190,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. According to the recently published Stern review of the economics of climate change, that amount of carbon pollution will cause £8.5 million (US$16.2 million) in damage to the planet.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
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