■ PAKISTAN
Blast kills girl, wounds 10
A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded yesterday outside a bank in Quetta, capital of gas-rich Baluchistan Province, killing a girl and wounding 10 people, police said. There was no claim of responsibility but separatist insurgents in the western province of Baluchistan have been fighting for control of its gas resources for years. “The girl was a beggar, she succumbed to her wounds during surgery in hospital,” said city police chief Mohammad Akbar. Baluchistan is the country’s poorest province and many of its people say they do not get a fair share of the profits from its resources. Nationalist rebels have waged a low-level insurgency for decades.
■MYANMAR
Dozens die in ferry mishap
At least 38 people died when their ferry sank in a river in the country’s cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta, official newspapers reported yesterday. Another 44 passengers were rescued on Tuesday morning when the vessel sank in the Yway River near Myaungmya, one of the delta towns worst hit by Cyclone Nargis in early May. Boat accidents are common in the impoverished army-ruled country where several sinkings or collisions involving overloaded vessels occur each year.
■NEPAL
UN soldiers asked to stay
The government has decided to ask the UN to continue a peacekeeping mission in the country for another six months, an official said yesterday. All major political parties agreed to seek the UN extension but a formal request to the world body has yet to be made, Transport Minister Ramesh Lekhak said. The UN’s peace mission was established in January last year for one year and extended for six months earlier this year after Nepal’s communist rebels gave up their armed revolt and joined mainstream politics. Lekhak said with the peace process going smoothly, the government would ask for a smaller UN mission to stay in the country for the next six months.
■VIETNAM
Gold mining ring arrested
Fifteen people were arrested for their alleged involvement in a ring that used explosives for illegal gold mining in central parts of the country, an official said yesterday. Authorities also confiscated 46kg of explosives and about 300 detonators in a raid last week, said Pham Ngoc Hai of the provincial border guard command in Quang Nam province. The men told police they bought the explosives, mostly leftover ordnance from the Vietnam War, from scavengers and used it for gold mining, he said. Since late last year, some 400 people have rushed to Nam Giang District in the province to look for gold, he said.
■JAPAN
US$50m set for food crisis
The government plans to provide an additional US$50 million worth of food aid by October to help ease the food crisis in developing nations, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said yesterday. With yesterday’s announcement, the country’s total amount of contribution in food aid and agricultural assistance came to US$1 billion since January. The government has already decided to contribute US$200 million to developing nations to tackle the global food crisis. Soaring food prices, which have caused food crises in developing nations, would be high on the agenda at the upcoming G8 summit meeting to open on Monday in Japan’s northern city of Toyako.
■ FRANCE
Heart care ranks released
Luxembourg and France topped a European survey on Thursday that ranks countries by the quality of cardiovascular care. Romania and Bulgaria came last, highlighting the fact that money counts when it comes to heart care. Health Consumer Powerhouse, a private company, said its survey showed that a comprehensive prevention program — such as screening for cardiovascular risks and helping smokers quit — paid dividends for both governments and patients.
■JORDAN
Teen charged in killing
A 16-year-old boy was charged with murder on Thursday after his 23-year-old sister was stabbed to death in an apparent “honor killing,” a judicial official said. The unnamed suspect allegedly stabbed his sister 10 times in the heart on Wednesday in a village in the northeastern governorate of Mafraq, the official said. “He has confessed to murdering his sister because she disappeared from home for a month with a boyfriend,” the official added.
■GERMANY
eBay baby back at home
A baby boy removed from his parents’ custody after they offered to sell him on eBay for just 1 euro (US$1.50) is back at home, a prosecutor said on Thursday. “The child has been returned to his parents,” prosecutor Johannes Kreuzpointer said. The parents maintained that the posting was just a joke gone awry and investigators agreed, dropping their probe into possible child trafficking. The 23-year-old mother and 24-year-old-father were not identified. “Offering my nearly new baby for sale, as it has gotten too loud,” read the original ad that ran on May 24.
■SLOVENIA
Boats sink, mayor missing
The death toll after two boats capsized on the River Savav rose to six yesterday, police said. “At least six are dead while one person survived the accident,” police spokesman Robert Perc said. Another seven people are still missing after Thursday’s accident. The two boats, with 14 people aboard, overturned in strong currents near the Blanca hydropower plant, which is under construction 100km southeast of the capital Ljubljana. Slovenian media said one of the missing was Kristijan Janc, a member of parliament and mayor of the city of Sevnica.
■GEORGIA
Shelling kills one
Georgian forces shelled several towns in the breakaway province of South Ossetia, killing one person and wounding nine others, separatist officials said yesterday. The shelling of the region’s main city, Tskhinvali, and several nearby villages went on for several hours overnight, said Irina Gagloyeva, a spokeswoman for South Ossetia’s separatist government. South Ossetian forces returned fire and the regional government announced a full mobilization, she said by telephone from Tskhinvali.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Teens face murder charges
Three teenagers were to appear in court yesterday charged with the murder of Ben Kinsella, the 16-year-old stabbed to death in north London last weekend, police said. Juress Kika, 18, Michael Alleyne, 18, and Jade Braithwaite, 19, all from Islington, were due before Highbury Corner Magistrates Court. Kinsella was the 17th teenager to die violently in the capital this year. He was stabbed to death after being chased down a street following a fight he was not involved in at the Shillibeers nightclub early on Sunday.
■UNITED STATES
Shotgun hidden in stroller
Police said a woman out for a walk with her baby and another child was packing more than diapers in her stroller. Stephanie Wilson allegedly pulled a knife and a sawed-off shotgun out of the stroller to threaten another woman in an ongoing argument over money. Wilson is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon. The 29-year-old was being held in jail in Utica, New York, pending a court appearance. Her baby was turned over to social workers.
■UNITED STATES
ebay joke not so funny
A college student claimed it was all a joke when he put his vote in November’s presidential election up for sale on the eBay Web site, but prosecutors didn’t see the humor. University of Minnesota student Max Sanders, 19, was charged with a felony on Thursday after allegedly asking for a minimum of US$10 in exchange for voting for the bidder’s preferred candidate. Sanders was charged with one count of bribery, treating and soliciting under an 1893 state law that makes it a crime to offer to buy or sell a vote. Investigators sent a subpoena to eBay and got information that led to Sanders. The charge carries up to five years’ imprisonment and a US$10,000 fine.
■UNITED STATES
DNA testing frees US man
A district court judge has recommended overturning the conviction of a Dallas man sent to prison more than 15 years ago. Patrick Waller walked out of court a free man on Thursday. He has been behind bars since late 1992 on convictions for aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping stemming from the abduction of a Dallas couple. But DNA testing conducted late last year proved Waller was innocent. Prosecutors say the DNA profile matched another man, who is free on parole. Waller is the 19th man in Dallas County since 2001 shown by DNA evidence to be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. The Innocence Project in New York says that’s a national high.
■UNITED STATES
Bozo the Clown passes on
Larry Harmon, the man who turned Bozo the Clown into one the most enduring characters in US media, died on Thursday aged 83 from heart failure, a press release from his publicist said. Larry Harmon bought the rights to the clown icon in 1956 from its originator and trained hundreds of others to appear as Bozo in shows throughout the US. Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances. In the 1980s and 1990s shows featuring the character were a staple of kids entertainment countrywide. Harmon once estimated that the icon had been associated with more than 5,000 commercial products and generated over 10,000 hours of TV shows.
■UNITED STATES
Pregnant man gives birth
A transsexual who became known as the “pregnant man” has given birth to a baby girl, US broadcaster ABC News reported on Thursday. The natural birth took place at a hospital in Bend, Oregon, on Sunday, the broadcaster said quoting an unnamed source. Thomas Beatie, 34, was born female, but underwent a hormonal sex change and had his breasts removed several years ago. He had been living as a man with his wife, Nancy. The couple decided that Beatie should give birth to their child because Nancy was unable to conceive and he had retained his female sexual organs. “She’s really cute, really pretty,” the source told ABC News of the newborn.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
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