■ Philippines
Landslides kill five
Pounding rains triggered landslides and flooded six villages in the south over the weekend, killing at least five people and forcing 600 others into emergency shelters, officials said yesterday. Landslides and floodwaters damaged or blocked portions of a major road leading into the villages in Kapatagan town in Lanao del Norte Province, making it difficult for rescue workers to access the affected villages, police said. Water was so deep in some neighborhoods that residents were forced to climb on top of their shanties, where they waited for hours for rescue, officials said.
■ China
Top official in Tehran
A top official in charge of nuclear nonproliferation issues headed to Iran yesterday, state media said, amid international efforts to persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear program. The official Xinhua news agency said Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai (崔天凱) would discuss nuclear issues and other topics of mutual concern with Iranian officials. The brief report gave no other details. Iran vowed this month to expand uranium enrichment, defying a UN Security Council deadline for it to suspend its nuclear activities by Aug. 22 or face the threat of political and economic sanctions. Tehran has denounced the July 31 UN nuclear vote as illegal.
■ Malaysia
Horse patrols begin
Police have started using horses to patrol Kuala Lumpur's major shopping zone in a move to clamp down on petty thefts and robberies as well as encourage tourism, a news report said yesterday. The police horse unit, which had previously only been used during riots and for crowd control, was chosen for its maneuverability. "They will be able to cover more ground, especially in crowded areas and alleys," district police chief Kamal Pasha Jamal said.
■ China
Bills to help displaced
The state plans to hike electricity bills to help pay for a new compensation package for some 22 million people forced to relocate for dam and reservoir projects, state media said yesterday, amid rising public anger over graft. The official Xinhua news agency said the central government will pay those displaced people 600 yuan (US$75) a year over 20 years, with money transferred directly into their bank accounts to prevent local officials from skimming profits off the fund. The program, announced on Sunday by the State Development and Reform Commission, is meant to relieve poverty among displaced communities and help to restore social stability, Xinhua said.
■ New Zealand
Industry fails in flab fight
The food, media and advertising industries have failed to tackle a growing trend toward obesity, despite their voluntary accord two years ago to trim the nation's expanding waistline, a researcher said yesterday. Half of those aged 15 and over are overweight or obese and their numbers are increasing, according to recent government figures. But Janet Hoek, a marketing professor at Massey University, said that her review of results so far showed that stronger measures were needed, and that it was time for the government to step in. "Foods high in fat, salt and sugar are still regularly advertised and discounted, and consumers are rewarded with loyalty gifts and competition entries for purchasing them," she said.
■ Iran
Ahmadinejad launches blog
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched his own blog. The hardline leader's debut on the international blogosphere came in the form of a 2,300-word tract that asked readers to decide if the US and Israel were trying to start a new world war. Ahmadinejad, who has identified himself with Iran's army of poor people, also described his humble origins in an impoverished rural village. His entry into the mass ranks of bloggers marks the latest step in a concerted effort to communicate directly with ordinary Iranians over the heads of the elites.
■ Iran
Activist fasts in protest
One of the nation's most famous political dissidents has gone on hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. Ahmad Batebi, of the country's student pro-democracy movement, told his family he would fast after being arrested more than two weeks ago in a crackdown on political activists. Close relatives say he is in a section of Tehran's Evin prison for political prisoners run by the feared intelligence ministry. Batebi, 28, gained fame when he was photographed during a 1999 rally holding the bloodied T-shirt of a fellow protester.
■ Germany
Docs slam grubby Germans
The stereotype of German tidiness and cleanliness has received a blow from health experts who say that Germans are making themselves and others sick because they do not wash their hands or change their underwear often enough. "As a nation, we have become dangerously lax about the most fundamental behavior concerning personal hygiene and health safety," according to the report by the German Hygiene Council compiled by eight leading health experts. "On the contrary, it has become fashionable, even trendy to refuse to inoculate your children and to take the attitude that too much cleanliness is actually bad for you," says Martin Exner, managing director of the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Bonn.
■ France
Mystery feline on the loose
Scores of policemen, some armed with shotguns, are hunting a mysterious big black feline spotted in northern France, officers said. The operation was launched last Wednesday near the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer after several people first raised the alarm on seeing what they described as a "panther" about 1.2m long on a popular beach. Some 80 officers and a helicopter were immediately deployed on a search, but they failed to find their quarry. Belgian tourists and residents then reported seeing it on Friday, and on Saturday people out strolling saw it in the middle of a cornfield. Police finally spotted the feline through binoculars. One officer said it that it disappeared into forested areas, frustrating efforts to catch it or kill it.
■ United States
Protester mocks Islam
A protester staked out the home of a Muslim candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates, holding a sign and wearing a T-shirt that mocked Islam. Timothy Truett sat in a folding chair on Saturday on the street outside Saqib Ali's home in Gaithersburg with a sign reading "Islam sucks," and a shirt with the slogan, "This mind is an Allah-free zone." Montgomery County police sent a trespass notification form to Truett warning that he would be subject to arrest on trespassing charges if he steps onto Ali's property within the next year.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not