■CHINA
Coal mine blast kills 11
An explosion at a coal mine in Ningxia killed 11 workers, injured seven and left three missing, the State Work Safety Administration said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The incident occurred late on Wednesday at the Dafeng mine in the town of Shizuishan, it said. Workers were using dynamite to blast through rock when the accident occurred, Xinhua news agency reported. Only one person escaped unharmed, it said. An investigation was under way, the agency said, adding that the mine was owned by Shenhua Group, one of the nation’s mining giants.
■HONG KONG
Diet pill dangerous
Health officials issued a warning on Wednesday after a teenage girl became mentally ill after taking slimming pills she bought online. The 17-year-old became paranoid, began hallucinating and having suicidal thoughts after taking the pills named “Show Party,” they said. She was admitted to hospital after she began harming herself, the Department of Health said. Her mental state was said to be unstable. Tests showed the pills to contain a banned ingredient called phenolphthalein, which was once used for treating constipation but has been banned for its cancer-causing effects. The pills also contained a substance called sibutramine, an appetite suppressant that can lead to high blood pressure, psychosis and convulsions.
■CHINA
Senior general to visit US
US defense department spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters on Wednesday that General Xu Caihou (徐才厚), China’s second-highest ranking officer, will visit the US and meet Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Oct. 26. Xu is vice chairman of the People’s Liberation Army Central Military Commission. Morrell said Xu would visit military installations and organizations around the US, including the Naval Academy and the US Pacific Command. Morrell said that the more talks China and the US have, the less “chance there is for a misunderstanding between two very formidable powers on the world’s stage.”
■INDONESIA
Porn star loses role
An Indonesian film production company has canceled a planned visit by a Japanese porn star to Jakarta for the shooting of a comedy after protests from hardline Islamic groups, its producer said. Maria Ozawa was due to arrive on Wednesday for the filming of Kidnapping Miyabi, but members of the Islamic Defenders’ Front threatened to throng the Jakarta airport to force her to return to Japan. Acting Tourism Minister Muhammad Nuh later issued a letter requesting the production company, Maxima Pictures, to cancel Ozawa’s visit. “We’ve decided to cancel the visit because the situation isn’t favorable,” said Oddi Mulya Hidayat, the producer of the film.
■HONG KONG
Man fined for sneak shots
A senior immigration officer claimed that stress from working at the airport had led him to take sneak photographs with his mobile phone up a woman’s skirt, a court report said yesterday. Anthony Lo, 41, was chased and captured by security guards after he was spotted filming under the mini-skirt of a 20-year-old girl at one of the city’s train station exits. Police found four film clips of different women taken the same day with his phone in December. Lo, a married man who has worked in the immigration department for 20 years, appeared in court on Wednesday charged with behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place and was fined HK$4,000 (US$516).
■UNITED KINGDOM
Singer punched at signing
A man punched singer Leona Lewis in the head at a book signing session in central London on Wednesday, her spokesman said. Stuart Bell said Lewis, 24, had been meeting members of the public at a book store in central London for about 90 minutes when a man from the line came up and hit her. He was immediately led away by security guards and later arrested by police. Bell said Lewis, who was launching her autobiography, was shaken up by the incident and went to see a doctor as a precaution. Lewis shot to fame after winning the X Factor reality show in 2006. Police said a 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and is being held in custody.
■ICELAND
‘Lost Symbol’ translation lost
Police are looking for someone who might be reading the Icelandic translation of Dan Brown’s new novel, The Lost Symbol. A burglar who broke into the offices of the Bjartur publishing house on Tuesday got away with the first proof copy of the translation. “Possibly the burglar gave up on his English copy of the long novel and in his desperation decided to get a copy of the Icelandic translation before anyone else,” Gudrun Vilmundardottir, chief of publishing for Bjartur, said on Wednesday. The burglar apparently fled after being disturbed by a photographer arriving for work, she said. Vilmundardottir said another copy of the translation was sent to the proofreader, and she wasn’t worried about the translation leaking out on the Internet or some other form. “Although you have to wonder a little, seeing as the burglar did take a computer scanner as well,” she said.
■GERMANY
Sweet sorrow for boy
An eight-year-old boy swiped nearly 2,000 euros (US$3,000) from his parents but was caught out when he tried to spend some of his ill-gotten gains on candy, police said on Wednesday. The boy asked for 15 euros’ worth of candy, prompting the suspicious kiosk owner to ask him whether he had enough money. The boy then pulled out a wad of notes totalling 1,680 euros. Police were called and the parents came to pick up their sweet-toothed son. The boy said he had stolen the money from his parents’ drawer, police in the town of Viersen said.
■IRAQ
University classes suspended
Classes were suspended and political activities banned at one of Baghdad’s leading universities following student protests on campus, a government spokesman said on Wednesday. The student union was also banned at Mustansiriyah University. The government maintains the school was falling under the sway of religious Shiite groups. Studies at the university were suspended for one week, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
■SWITZERLAND
No regrets for shoe thrower
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former US president George W. Bush said on Wednesday he had no regrets and would carry out his protest again, even if it cost him his life. Muntadhar al-Zeidi told a Swiss television station that, after being mistreated in Iraqi custody for two days following his outburst last Dec. 14, a judge asked him whether he regretted the gesture. “I told the judge only one thing: if the hands of the clock could go back I would do the same act even if it cost my life,” al-Zeidi said, speaking through a translator. “I knew I was doing something that would put my life in danger, and I was sure of that, but I wasn’t afraid,” he said.
■UNITED STATES
Church to burn Bibles
A North Carolina pastor says his church plans to burn Bibles and books by Christian authors on Halloween to light a fire under true believers. Pastor Marc Grizzard told Asheville TV station WLOS that the King James version of the Bible is the only one his small western North Carolina church follows. He says all other versions, such as the Living Bible, are “satanic” and “perversions” of God’s word. On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church will also burn music and books by Christian authors, such as Billy Graham and Rick Warren.
■MEXICO
Adults swearing a lot
Caramba! A new survey says adults curse an average of 20 times a day, serving up about 1.3 billion swear words daily. The survey of 1,000 adults by the Consulta Mitofsky polling firm says one in 10 Mexicans say they don’t curse at all. Upper class citizens report swearing more than the poor, while people in the heavily Indian southern part of the country curse less than northerners. The poll published on Wednesday has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. Poll respondents used their own judgment as to what constituted swear words, but almost all were harsher than “caramba,” roughly the equivalent of “gosh!” Mexico has 65 million adults above the age of 18 out of a population of 107 million.
■CANADA
Terror measure overturned
A court on Wednesday overturned a special counter-terrorism procedure against a Montreal man of Moroccan origin who the government said was an al-Qaeda sympathizer. Arrested in May 2003, Adil Charkaoui spent close to two years in prison under the terms of a “security certificate,” a controversial procedure adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that allows detention without trial and the deportation of foreigners considered security risks. Ottawa decided to impose the measure on Charkaoui on the basis of information from the intelligence services.
■PARAGUAY
Abuse ledgers accessed
Human rights activists gained access on Wednesday to a dictatorship-era military archive that appears to contain long-held secrets about the country’s persecution of opponents during Alfredo Stroessner’s 1954-1989 rule. The basement archive in the Ministry of Defense appears to hold some records about Operation Condor, a coordinated campaign by South American military governments against leftists during the 1970s and 1980s, rights activist Martin Almada said. The discovery was announced hours after Almada gained access to the rows of boxes and yellowed ledgers on Wednesday morning.
■UNITED STATES
‘Godfather’ singer dies
Singer Al Martino, who played the Frank Sinatra-type role of Johnny Fontane in The Godfather and recorded hits including Spanish Eyes and the Italian ballad Volare in a 50-year musical career, died on Tuesday. He was 82. Martino died at his childhood home in the Philadelphia suburb of Springfield, in Delaware County, said publicist Sandy Friedman, of the Rogers and Cowan public relations firm. Friedman did not cite a cause of death. Starting in 1952, Martino was known for hit songs including Here in My Heart and Can’t Help Falling in Love.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter US-led threats in comments reported yesterday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since US president-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory on Oct. 6. At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the US for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region. Kim also criticized the US over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion.
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
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