■CHINA
Fu River bursts its banks
The Fu River in Jiangxi Province burst through a protective embankment late on Monday, threatening the nearby city of Fuzhou and 145,000 people. Officials scrambled to plug the breach and move residents living near the Changkai Dyke, Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials. About 68,000 people were shifted to safer ground and 1,200 were rescued from the inundation, Xinhua reported. Nobody died because of the breach. More than 10,000 people, including troops and police officers, were attempting to staunch the breach with sandbags and other material, Xinhua added. Heavy rain across much of the south over the last week has killed at least 199 people, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
■PAKISTAN
Al-Qaeda suspect detained
A suspected German al-Qaeda member wearing a woman’s burqa was arrested on Monday at a check post in Bannu District, which borders North Waziristanon, security officials said. The 27-year-old man is allegedly an expert in making suicide vests, intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. He was traveling with a fake Pakistani passport, they said.
■AUSTRALIA
Suspected gunman arrested
A 19-year-old gunman who allegedly forced the lockdown of the famed Melbourne Cricket Ground was captured yesterday in a massive operation in which three schools were shut down. David Rowntree was found in a field in the town of Whittlesea, after more than 24 hours on the run. Rowntree allegedly stole a car and committed an armed robbery on a gas station before abandoning the vehicle, robbing a house and stealing a car parked in its driveway.
■TURKEY
Bus blast kills three
An explosion rocked a bus carrying military personnel in Istanbul yesterday, killing three people a day after the military stepped up operations against Kurdish separatists. The explosion occurred near a military housing complex in the district of Halkali, and two of those killed were soldiers. Nine were wounded in the blast, broadcaster NTV reported. The military forces began a major deployment of troops and elite forces along the border with Iraq on Monday, as fighting has intensified between military forces and militants of the illegal Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
■FRANCE
Two dead in gang attack
A gangland killing in a usually quiet neighborhood of Paris left two dead and three wounded, police said yesterday, adding that such violence was a rarity in the capital. The two men died from gunshot wounds overnight after being “sprayed by automatic gunfire” on a street in the Gobelins district, or 13th arrondissement, on the Left Bank, a police spokesman said. Three others were wounded. Police later found a charred car in a Paris suburb that they believe may have been the attackers’ getaway vehicle.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Child porn charges for killer
Prosecutors said on Monday that a man convicted of murdering a toddler in 1993, when he himself was just 10 years old, has been charged with child pornography offenses. Jon Venables, 27, has been charged with downloading and distributing indecent photographs of children. Prosecution lawyer Gavin Millar read the charges out for the record at London’s Central Criminal Court. He said Venables is accused of downloading onto his computer 57 indecent photographs of minors between February last year and February this year, and of distributing seven indecent images of children over the Internet between Feb. 1 and Feb. 23 this year.
■RUSSIA
Banker bids for ‘Le Monde’
A billionaire banker has entered a bid to take over debt-ridden French broadsheet Le Monde, a Russian newspaper reported yesterday. Gleb Fetisov, the owner of Moi Bank banking group, told Kommersant daily that he had made a bid for a controlling stake in Le Monde. “For me, this deal is first of all a business project. I intend to develop the newspaper and remain the owner of a controlling share,” Fetisov told Kommersant. Fetisov came No. 42 in Forbes magazine’s list of Russia’s wealthiest this year, with a fortune of US$1.6 billion. Le Monde, which is currently owned by its journalists, announced plans to sell earlier this month, amid debts of 100 million euros (US$120 million).
■INDONESIA
Singer surrenders to police
A rock star surrendered to police yesterday after two homemade sex videos of himself with his celebrity girlfriends appeared online, sparking a raging debate about Internet porn. Singer Nazril Ariel, 28, has been at the center of the “Peterporn” scandal, named after his band Peterpan, since the grainy but explicit videos went viral on Indonesian Web sites earlier this month. “Ariel surrendered today at 3am after police named him a suspect for breaching the anti-pornography law. If he hadn’t surrendered we would have arrested him,” police deputy spokesman Zainuri Lubis said.
■BRAZIL
Alagoas death toll to rise
More than 1,000 people are missing after days of heavy rain and flooding, Alagoas Governor Teotonio Vilela Filho said on Monday, voicing fear that the death toll of 35 could skyrocket. “Up until the early afternoon we had 22 confirmed dead in Alagoas [state] and more than 1,000 people missing,” the official Agencia Brasil news agency quoted him as saying. “We are praying for the missing to be found alive. But we are very worried because bodies are starting to turn up on beaches and on riverbanks.”
■PERU
Politician draws panties
Charles Zevallos, a candidate for mayor in the province of Maynas, often wins kisses from female supporters, but things have moved to a whole new level as women at his rallies have started throwing their underwear at him. Zevallos has made a tradition of giving female fans watches or soccer balls at his rallies in exchange for kisses. In the past few days, however, some supporters have taken off their underpants and tossed them to him during rallies for his progressive party, 1000 Movimiento Integracion Loretana. Commentators in Lima said the underwear throwing was proof that politics had reached a new low. “It was spontaneous, I didn’t ask for them, but then I saw a pair of yellow ones, and then another woman threw another pair at me,” Zevallos said, adding, “I don’t know if this will stop, it’s really crazy here right now. The people love me.”
■CANADA
Blast labeled ‘suspicious’
A massive explosion that leveled several homes and killed four people in Edmonton is being considered “suspicious,” police said on Monday. The investigation has found no trace of explosive materials in the blackened crater left by Sunday’s blast that also heavily damaged two neighboring houses, Edmonton police spokesman Dean Parthenis said, and the case has been assigned to the homicide squad. The victims — three men and a woman — were not identified by police. Some 40 people had to be evacuated from 28 nearby suburban homes that were also damaged by the blast that shattered windows up to a block away.
■UNITED STATES
Town favors migrant ban
Voters in the small Nebraska town of Fremont voted on Monday to ban the hiring or renting of property to illegal immigrants. An estimated 57 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of the ban, according to unofficial results of the referendum in the town of about 25,000 people. Potential renters would need to apply for a license, and through the application process Fremont officials could check to see if the prospective renters had legal status. The ordinance would also require businesses to verify employees have legal status to work. The American Civil Liberties Union has promised to file a lawsuit to block enforcement of the proposal.
■UNITED STATES
OMB chief Orszag leaving
White House budget director Peter Orszag is leaving the administration, a senior US official said late on Monday, in a move that would mark the first departure from President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. The official said Orszag would be stepping down next month, although Office of Management and Budget (OMB) communications director Kenneth Baer said late on Monday: “I can’t confirm anything.” Orszag has headed the OMB since Obama’s inauguration in January last year, and has been a pivotal player on the president’s economic team.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
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