■ SOUTH KOREA
Plane skids off runway
A passenger plane skidded off the runway at an airport in Busan, injuring at least four people yesterday, officials said. The Bombardier Q400, operated by budget domestic carrier Jeju Airlines, was coming in to land at Kimhae Airport when it veered off. "Four or five people were slightly injured when the plane skidded off the runway with 74 passengers aboard," one official said. Yonhap news agency said 10 people sustained "scratches and bruises." The body of the plane hit the ground as it skidded through a strong wind, it said, and one propeller was destroyed.
■ INDONESIA
Fish bombs kill three
Police have arrested the owner of a house in West Java Province after explosives -- believed to be intended for catching fish -- went off, killing three people, the provincial police chief said on yesterday. Herman Sumawiredja told a news conference that the blast which ripped through several houses in the coastal town of Pasuruan on Saturday did not appear to be a terrorist act. "Our preliminary conclusion is that the motive for making this bomb is to catch fish. There's no link to terrorism," Sumawiredja said. Using explosives to catch fish is common practice, even though it is illegal.
■ SRI LANKA
Explosion kills one
A bomb exploded near a military vehicle in restive northern Sri Lanka yesterday, killing one soldier and seriously wounding three others, the military said, blaming separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. The explosion took place in ethnic Tamil-majority northern Jaffna peninsula, an official at the Defense Ministry's information center said. One soldier was killed and three others seriously wounded in the blast, the official said. Tamils consider Jaffna as their cultural heartland and in 1995 the military ended five years of rebel control by seizing back the peninsula. A new wave of violence in the past 21 months has seen more than 5,000 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
■ INDIA
McDonald's blast kills one
A faulty air conditioner exploded yesterday at a McDonald's restaurant in Calcutta, killing one person and seriously injuring three others, police said. The explosion happened early in the morning before the restaurant opened, killing a passer-by, Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee said."Three others were admitted to hospital in serious condition," he said. Mukherjee said that there was no evidence of sabotage, and that initial investigations indicated that a faulty air conditioner exploded, possibly setting off gas canisters in the kitchen. The powerful blast ripped the front off the shop and shattered car windows on the busy street outside. The restaurant opened in March and was the first McDonald's in Calcutta.
■ INDIA
Fire at army depot rages on
A deadly fire at a major army ammunition depot in Kashmir raged for a second day yesterday, igniting shells and other ammunition that rained down on nearby villages, the army said. The fire, believed to be an accident, broke out on Saturday in southern Khandroo village, which houses one of the largest army ammunition depots in Kashmir. Two people were killed and more than 30 injured in connection with the blaze.
■ EGYPT
Circumcision kills girl
A 13-year-old girl has died during a circumcision operation, two months after the death of another girl prompted health officials to ban the widespread traditional procedure, local media said. The latest death was uncovered when Karima Rahim Massoud's father applied for a death certificate on Friday, insisting his daughter had died from natural causes, the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported yesterday. The father has been referred to the state prosecutor. The doctor involved also has been referred to the prosecutor and his clinic in rural Gharbiyah Province has been closed down, state-owned al-Gomhoria daily reported.
■ GUATEMALA
Illegal foster home found
Police found 46 children, some just three days old, in an illegal foster home in the tourist city of Antigua on Saturday, the latest scandal for the country's corruption-riddled adoption system. Carlos Azurdia, an official from the country's adoption regulator, said two women were arrested in the raid. "There are newborns and children up to three-year-olds," Azurdia said. "None of them had the proper paperwork to be given up for adoption." The country has the highest per capita adoption rate in the world, a lucrative business for private lawyers who run the trade and are sometimes accused of forging papers or paying mothers to sell their children. Close to 5,000 babies and children were adopted from the small Central American nation last year.
■ LITHUANIA
Metal cylinders investigated
Police said on Saturday they were investigating several metal cylinders found leaking an unidentified powder in a sensitive zone near the country's nuclear power plant. The cylinders were found in a forest about 7km from the Ignalina nuclear plant in northeast Lithuania. "It is not radioactive, but its origin is still unclear," said a police officer for the district of Zarasai, in whose territory the powder was found. "The samples are going to be examined at the laboratory of the environmental protection agency," he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Date costs teacher job
A high school art teacher who went on a date with a porn star after winning a radio contest has resigned. Jaison Biagini traveled to St Petersburg, Florida, last month after winning the date with porn star Akira on the Sirius satellite radio show Bubba the Love Sponge. Biagini said he entered the contest because he wanted to win the free trip and visit the Salvador Dali museum in St Petersburg. He described the date as being "all fake and staged." Biagini, who uses a wheelchair, told the Valley Independent newspaper in Monessen that he had been ridiculed for his disability.
■ UNITED STATES
Failed bank robber jailed
A woman who traveled in a limousine to a bank robbery attempt has been sentenced to three years in prison. Evonne Maurice, 22, tried to rob a Rhode Island bank with a limousine as her getaway car. Maurice hired a limo and told the driver she needed to visit a bank. Maurice exited the limousine, walked up to the drive-up window and handed the teller a note demanding money and saying there were bombs in the bank. But the teller triggered an alarm and Maurice got back in the limo and left without any money. Prosecutors say the driver was unaware of the plot.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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