Sun, Jul 06, 2008 page7

• World News Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ Thailand

  Shootings kill seven

  Seven people were killed in four separate shooting incidents in the nation’s troubled southern states, police said yesterday. In a drive-by shooting early yesterday, witnesses said at least five militants in a pick-up truck opened fire on a tea shop in Yala Province’s Raman District, killing four villagers and wounding four others. Nearby, in the Bannang Sata District of Yala, a 56-year-old Thai Buddhist man was shot dead and beheaded before his body was set on fire Friday, while his 28-year-old son was seriously wounded. A 41-year-old Thai Muslim man was shot dead in his pick-up truck in a drive-by shooting in the same area shortly afterwards. In the neighboring province of Pattani, a 56-year-old retired teacher was shot dead on Friday evening in the Meung District after leaving a mosque. More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004 in the south.

  ■ CHINA

  Skimpy outfits barred

  The government has told discos, karaoke bars and other entertainment venues to install windows in private rooms and ensure staff dress modestly from Oct. 1 as part of an effort to crack down on prostitution and drugs. Rules released on the Ministry of Public Security’s Web site state that entertainment venues must install transparent partitions between rooms that ensure “the whole environment of the consumer’s entertainment area in the room can be seen.” “When open for business, the transparent part of rooms and windows to rooms at singing and dancing entertainment venues must not be obstructed,” the rules say. Discos, karaokes and other bars in the country frequently have private rooms for hire and are a favorite places for businessmen to entertain guests.

  ■ Sri Lanka

  Thirty-five rebels killed

  Government forces attacked Tamil Tiger rebels along the country’s northern front lines, triggering a series of gunbattles that killed 35 rebels and one soldier, the military said yesterday. The latest fighting broke out in the Jaffna, Vavuniya, Welioya and Mannar regions bordering the rebels’ de facto state in the north on Friday, a defense ministry official said on condition of anonymity because of government regulations. Troops captured a rebel bunker along the front lines in Vavuniya on Friday after a clash that killed two rebels and one soldier, the official said. Other battles in Vavuniya killed 18 rebels and wounded three soldiers. Fighting in Mannar, Jaffna and Welioya left 15 rebels dead and one soldier wounded, he said. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not immediately be reached for comment.

  ■ Hong KOng

  Drugs in schools on the rise

  Police were preparing yesterday to put more officers on duty in schools after a surge in the number of drug cases involving young teenagers. The wealthy city of 6.9 million has seen a 50 percent annual rise in drug-related arrests involving youths aged between 10 and 15 in the first four months of this year, police statistics show. Police commissioner Tang King-shing said more than 1,800 people aged under 21 were arrested last year over cases involving drugs, a 70 percent rise from 2006. Speaking on government-run radio station RTHK, Tang said the force would recruit 27 more school liaison officers who will visit schools regularly and try to identify the sources of the problem. Legislators have also been asked to consider allowing random drug testing of pupils in an effort to weed out the suppliers spreading drugs inside schools.

  ■ NETHERLANDS

  No nukes for Iran students

  The country will ban Iranian students from studying nuclear technology, a source of tension between Iran and world powers, at its universities, the government said on Friday. Some powers including the US suspect Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at producing energy to serve a growing population. Friday’s measure adds to a Dutch decree adopting international sanctions against Iran that were put in place last year. It bans Iranians notably from the nuclear reactor in Borssele in the southeastern Netherlands, and from a test reactor at the Delft University of Technology. The ministry said the ban does not cover undergraduate studies up to bachelor’s degree level, which are considered not to be specialized, and that it will consider requests for exceptions to be made.

  ■ ARGENTINA

  Glacier ruptures in winter

  Park officials say one of Argentina’s most famous glaciers has begun a rare winter rupture. Carlos Corvalan is director of the country’s Glacier National Park. He says there is no record of such an ice break during the southern hemisphere’s winter months, June through August. Breaks during summer melts happen regularly. The break began on Friday morning, officials said. Corvalan said the rupture could be caused by global warming. The Perito Moreno glacier cuts Lake Argentino in two. Water flows beneath the ice when the level on one side of the lake rises higher than the other. The rushing water erodes the ice and sometimes causes it to collapse.

  ■ UKRAINE

  Judge outlaws statue

  A judge on Friday ruled illegal a move by Russia to put up a statue of its former Empress Catherine II in Sevastopol, a flashpoint of tensions between the country and its ex-Soviet master. Judge Viktor Alsufiyev read out a ruling ordering that the city authorities’ decision to place the bronze and marble statue in the southern port — home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet — be “recognized as illegal.” He did not explain the legal grounds for his ruling on the statue of the 18th century empress, under whose rule Russia invaded the Crimea region where Sevastopol lies. Alsufiyev said a legal motion to have the monument demolished could be lodged at the court. The 6m statue was inaugurated last month by supporters of Moscow.

  ■ UNITED KINGDOM

  Sex ed for four-year-olds

  Two leading sexual health charities are calling for children as young as four to be given compulsory sex education. Brook and the Family Planning Association argue that teaching children about sex from a young age would help cut abortion rates and sexually transmitted infections when adolescents. The charities said children should be taught the names of body parts and about sex and relationships. The Brook chief executive, Simon Blake, said: “If we get high-quality sex and relationships education in every primary and secondary school across the UK all the evidence shows teenage pregnancy rates will continue to fall and will improve young people’s sexual health. “While sex and relationships education continues to be patchy, another generation of children and young people do not get the education they need to form healthy relationships and protect their sexual health.” He wants every primary and secondary school to be legally required to provide sex and relationships education and secondary schools to ensure young people have access to free confidential contraceptive and sexual health services.

  ■ UNITED STATES

  Man fakes heart attack

  A 52-year-old Milwaukee-area man has been accused of faking heart attacks to avoid paying restaurant bills and cab fares. Police say the Waukesha, Wisconsin, man took a cab to a mall on Monday and pretended to have a heart attack. The cab driver left unpaid. Authorities say the man then ran up a US$23 bill when he had a steak dinner at a restaurant. He again pretended to have a heart attack. This time the fire department took him to a hospital. A doctor there recognized the man as having pulled the same stunt in the past few weeks.

  ■ UNITED STATES

  Cheese at Times Square

  A sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence made from a 1-tonne block of cheddar cheese glistened on the sidewalk of Times Square in New York on Thursday as an artist’s tribute to the Fourth of July. “It’s very patriotic, using the signing of the Declaration of Independence, bringing Americans together for the Fourth,” said Troy Landwehr, who carved the sculpture for cracker company Cheez-It to celebrate Independence Day. He worked eight hours a day for a week in a 4.4˚C cooler carving the block of Wisconsin cheddar.

  ■ UNITED STATES

  Man fires into crowd

  At least one person fired a gun into a crowd in a street in Milwaukee early on Friday, killing four people and sending panicked revelers running for cover, police said. Two women and two men were killed at about 2:30am, police spokeswoman Anne Schwartz said. Two people were injured, including Sylvia Ware, who was returning home from celebrating her 35th birthday at a nightclub. She pulled up in front of her house and saw 10 to 20 people outside. She heard gunshots and ducked in her car. The window shattered and she felt something hit her upper back. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God. My back is burning. I’m hit! I’m hit!’” she said.

  ■ UNITED STATES

  Teens pelted with rocks

  Two teenagers who drove to Oniontown, New York, after a series of YouTube videos portrayed the hamlet as a run-down, backwoods dump were pelted with rocks by an angry group of young residents, authorities said. The two 17-year-olds from Mahopac, about 48km south of Oniontown, suffered head and face injuries. Troopers arrested a 17-year-old from Oniontown on Thursday and charged him with criminal mischief. Additional arrests were expected, police said. State police investigator Eric Schaefer said it was not the first time out-of-towners were attacked by local residents. “The biggest recommendation at this point is for everybody to stay out of there,” Schaefer said.

  ■ CANADA

  Poutine offends group

  The US embassy in Ottawa apologized on Thursday for a party invitation that featured a prominent figure in Canadian history brandishing a large plate of French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. The dish — known as poutine — is often looked down on as a kind of staple fast food in the French-speaking province of Quebec, where some nationalists are quick to take offense at what they see as unfair treatment by the country’s English-speaking majority. The e-mailed invitation to a Canada Day party on Friday showed Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who founded Quebec City on July 3, 1608, holding a plate of poutine.
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