"The Palestinian Authority said it would crack down on militants only if Israel halted military action in Palestinian areas, brushing aside United States' demands and putting the onus on Washington to save a peace plan. After Cabinet talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Friday, the authority called for the US to send monitors to help get the peace road map back on track after a ceasefire was smashed by a new spiral of violence," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Jewish pressure groups are calling on a publisher to withdraw a children's book about a Palestinian boy growing up amid the intifada on the West Bank. A Little Piece of Ground, by the multi-award-winning author Elizabeth Laird, is a fictional account of how a 12-year-old called Karim – whose family's olive groves have been seized by settlers – copes when his father is stripped and humiliated by Israeli troops. As the boy is swept up in the protest against the occupation and his friends make a fake bomb, he dreams of developing an acid formula to dissolve the steel in Israeli tanks," reported the Guardian.
"Responding to the pressure, Elizabeth Laird said [she] did expect comeback but to say that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic is doing Israel a disservice. This is an important story that should be told. It shows a child under military occupation. It's terrible for the occupiers and terrible for the occupied. There is already a great deal of understanding of Israel. All Western people have felt sympathetic to Israel, for good reason often and I don't think that should stop. The voice of the Palestinian child, on the other hand, has not been heard," reported the Guardian."An estimated 30,000 people found themselves exiled from their homes yesterday by a wildfire so hot that at times it caused houses to explode. Nearly a third of this western Canadian vacation city's residents have evacuated because of the Okanagan Mountain fire, and thousands more remained on high alert in case the flames reached further into residential areas," reported the Reuters news agency.
"After weeks of crippling droughts and record temperatures across Europe, the people of Berlin are witnessing a new sign of climatic disruption after the river Spree began flowing the wrong way. With the flow completely cut off, water in some areas lower down the river has begun flowing upstream," reported the AFP news service.
"Some 30 Russian and Chechen activists and cultural figures have called on President Vladimir Putin to launch peace talks with Chechen rebel president Aslan Maskhadov, to put an end to the fighting in Chechnya and to address a few other thorny issues," reported the AFP news service.
"All people aboard a missing Russian helicopter that carried the governor of the oil-rich Sakhalin Island are believed to be dead, according to a search team that found the wreck yesterday," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A pre-dawn fire apparently aimed at sport utility vehicles, vilified as gas guzzlers and polluters, engulfed an auto dealership on Friday in California, the state known for its love affair with the car. The Earth Liberation Front, a radical underground group that targets land development and other issues it deems harmful to the environment, said on its website that spray-painted messages at the dealership indicated the group was responsible," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A top Chinese media official lashed out on Friday at Western coverage of his country – arguing that broadcasters such as CNN and the BBC focused too much on the negatives instead of the flowers that we plant," reported the AFP news service.
"Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder held talks yesterday aimed at turning the page on a diplomatic spat between Rome and Berlin this summer, which led Schroeder to cancel a planned Italian holiday," reported the AFP news service.
"Police arrested 19 men last week in a case that, according to court documents obtained by a newspaper, has eerie parallels to the preparations for the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Michele Paradis confirmed the arrests but declined to offer details," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The general in charge of the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wants to send home three boys under 16 whose detention provoked an outcry from human rights groups. Amnesty International questioned that statement in the light of Maj Gen Miller's recommendation to release them. With this long overdue release, it's quite clear that these guys aren't a threat, said Amnesty spokesman Alistair Hodgett. Are you sure that you're not wrong about everybody else there?," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A rocket exploded on its launch pad while undergoing final pre-launch tests, killing at least 21 people, Brazilian military officials said. At least 20 others were injured. The blast on Friday at the remote base in northeastern Brazil killed mostly civilian technicians and destroyed two research satellites, Defence Minster Jose Veigas Filho said. Some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition," reported the AP news agency.
"Eight-year-old Arran Fernandez has become the youngest ever child to achieve a top grade in British exams usually reserved for children twice his age. Arran's A-star in Maths is the highest possible grade for GCSE exams – which are usually taken by 16-year-olds," reported the AFP news service.
"Alabama's chief justice was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse. Roy Moore was automatically suspended on Friday with pay when the nine-member Judicial Inquiry Commission referred an ethics complaint against him to the Court of the Judiciary, which holds trial-like proceedings and can discipline and remove judges," reported the AP news agency.
"A high-spending headmistress who used school money on trips, gifts and luxury goods failed to appear in court on Friday for sentencing, but was later found at home. Paramedics were called to the home of Colleen McCabe hours after she failed to appear at Southwark Crown Court. Judge Christopher Elwen had issued a warrant for the arrest of McCabe, who had been warned she faced a lengthy jail term after being convicted last month of theft and deception," reported the AP news agency.
"A former intelligence analyst for Australia's government lashed out at Washington yesterday over the Iraq war, calling US President George W. Bush stupid and dangerous. Andrew Wilkie resigned from a key Australian intelligence agency in March to protest Canberra's backing of the US-led Iraq war. He claims his government lied about Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction to justify sending 2,000 Australian troops to the war. Wilkie said yesterday the US administration had exploited or tapped into Americans' feelings after the Sept 11 terror attacks to rationalise the war," reported the AP news agency.
"It was tapped – not so much by Bush, because I think he is a stupid and dangerous man – it was tapped by the highly intelligent and dangerous men who surround him, Wilkie said at a conference held in Sydney by groups opposed to Australia's support for the war," reported the AP news agency.
"Three British soldiers were killed yesterday by unknown gunmen here, further destabilising the country even as the United Nations returned to work for the first time since the devastating bombing of its Baghdad headquarters," reported the AFP news service.
"US authorities in Iraq have quietly begun recruiting members of Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services to help track down perpetrators of attacks on US forces and other targets in the country. The new tactic reflects growing awareness that US military forces alone cannot prevent increasingly sophisticated attacks such as the suicide bombing at the UN headquarters that killed at least 23 people last week," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The family of a dead British weapons scientist at the centre of a row over the case for war in Iraq demanded to know why the government appeared to be smearing his reputation, an inquiry into his death has revealed. The widow and daughters of David Kelly asked government lawyers on whose authority anonymous leaks to the press were being made, including comments calling the late arms expert a Walter Mitty figure," reported the AFP news service.
"Public support for right-wing Australian politician Pauline Hanson has rocketed to 21% in her home state of Queensland after she was jailed for electoral fraud," reported the Reuters news agency.
"German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will run for re-election in 2006 despite his previous insistence that he would only serve two terms," reported the AFP news service.
"A growing number of Americans don't want to see US President George W. Bush re-elected, and fear US troops were being drawn into a long, costly occupation of Iraq, according to a Newsweek poll released on Saturday. For the first time a Newsweek poll has found that more registered voters – 49% – would not want Bush to return for a second term in office if the elections were now, than those – 44% – who would," reported the AFP news service.
"Thousands of civilians fled the sound of fresh fighting near Liberia's second city of Buchanan on Saturday as caretaker President Moses Blah sought to cement a peace deal to end 14 years of bloodshed. The reports of fresh fighting in two areas underlined the fragility of the peace deal signed by Blah's government and two rebel groups, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and a smaller faction known as Model," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Defrocked priest John Geoghan, a central figure in the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal, was killed on Saturday by a fellow inmate in the prison where he was serving a sentence for child rape," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Germany paid a ransom as high as £15mil to kidnappers of 14 European hostages, released from nearly six months' captivity in the Sahara Desert," reported the AFP news service.
"The culprit behind the fast-spreading Sobig.F virus is expected to try again in coming weeks to create a vast network of zombie computers to carry out Internet attacks," reported the AFP news service.
"Several thousand people gathered on Saturday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the civil rights march on Washington where Martin Luther King delivered his have a dream speech. Busloads from around the country turned out in the capital for the event organisers hoped would force Republican administration policy changes and get minorities and working class Americans out to vote in the 2004 presidential election. Speaking to the crowd, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson chanted 2004, Bush no more," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Republican businessman Bill Simon dropped out of the race for California governor on Saturday, boosting the campaign of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the state's October recall vote. His departure leaves three main Republican challengers in the unusual political contest – Schwarzenegger, a party moderate, and Senator Tom McClintock and former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who are both more conservative," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Six Germans were killed on Saturday when two small aircraft collided in clear skies over the southern German state of Bavaria. The crash involved a one-man glider and a Cessna plane with a pilot and four passengers who were planning to do tandem parachute jumps. The wreckage of the two aircraft landed in a cornfield just outside the rural town of Lechsend near Donauwoerth, north of Munich," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Sho Yano, a 12-year-old medical student at the University of Chicago, studies for an anatomy test in his room near the university campus Aug. 4, 2003. The first-year medical school student is the youngest ever to attend one of the university's professional schools," reported the AP news agency.
"Intel Corp., the world's largest computer chip maker said Tuesday it was investing US$40 million to expand its operations in Malaysia. The new investment would include building a center to design and develop technology for the semiconductor giant's products worldwide," reported the AP news agency.
"Had everything gone according to plan, Monday would have marked the day Brazil became the first Latin American nation to put a rocket into space. Instead, it was a day of mourning as technicians in blue hard hats and white lab coats poked through wreckage, trying to piece together what caused Friday's fiery rocket explosion that killed 21 people," reported the AP news agency.
"A Coca-Cola executive accused in a whistleblower lawsuit of sham accounting and rigging a Burger King marketing test stepped down Monday. Tom Moore, president of foodservice and hospitality at the world's largest beverage maker, will remain at the company to train his successor, Chris Lowe. The company did not say how long Moore's transition job would last or whether he'd stay with Coke after Lowe takes over," reported the AP news agency.
"A Haitian airliner crashed shortly after takeoff from the airport in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, killing the 19 passengers and two crew members onboard, police said. The Czech-made twin-engine turboprop plane, operated by Tropical Airways, crashed into a sugar-cane field on Sunday afternoon and caught fire. According to local radio reports, the cause of the crash was a door on the aircraft that had not been shut properly and opened after takeoff," reported the AFP news service.
"After a three-week interval the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic resumed yesterday with the prosecution focusing on some of the worst atrocities during Bosnia's three-year war. Since the trial started on Feb 12, 2001, prosecutors are trying to prove the former Serb strongman was involved in and partly responsible for the three wars that tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s – the 1991-95 war in Croatia, the Bosnian war 1992-95 and the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo," reported the AFP news service.
"France's state secretary for the elderly, Hubert Falco, yesterday hit out at the relatives of hundreds of victims of a devastating heat wave whose bodies have not been claimed from Paris morgues," reported the AFP news service.
"Australia will revisit its oldest political mystery with a coroner's inquiry into the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt, who went swimming nearly 36 years ago and was never seen again. His disappearance became Australia's whodunit equivalent to the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy," reported the Reuters news agency.
"French authorities foiled a plot to destabilise Ivory Coast, arresting 10 people, including a former coup leader, officials said yesterday. Nine of the men were arrested on Saturday, while the 10th was taken into custody yesterday judicial officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity," reported the AP news agency.
"Hurricane Ignacio pounded Mexico's Baja California yesterday with powerful 140kph winds that knocked down trees and power posts in the semi-desert peninsula while heavy rains flooded roads," reported the AP news agency.
"Nasa successfully launched into orbit yesterday a new infrared space telescope on a mission to peek into dusty corners of the universe and unveil objects that have eluded existing observatories, officials said. Separation of the launch vehicle and telescope went off without a hitch, and cheers erupted at the Kennedy Space Centre when Nasa tracking stations began receiving signals from the telescope at 2.41am," reported the AFP news service.
"Police were expecting around one million revellers to turn out for the annual Notting Hill Carnival on the August Bank Holiday yesterday. Around 10,000 officers were on duty to patrol the streets of west London. The carnival, which has its roots in the city's Caribbean population and claims to be Europe's largest street party, is celebrating its 38th year," reported the dpa news agency.
"Five children were released from an Australian detention centre yesterday after a court decision that defied the conservative government's tough stand against illegal immigration. The decision overturned a ruling in June which found it was illegal to hold children indefinitely in detention centres but that releasing the five and separating them from their parents was not in their best interest," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Incumbent Paul Kagame declared victory in Rwanda's first serious presidential elections early Tuesday after taking a decisive lead, as thousands of his supporters gathered in the capital to celebrate," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The top US general on Sunday admitted US forces are stretched thin but could find more troops for Iraq if needed, as the US administration touted the country as a frontline in its war on terrorism. Amid mounting calls for more troops in Iraq, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld is seeking to boost the fighting strength of the US military without increasing its size, in part by outsourcing some jobs and moving more soldiers to combat units," reported the AFP news service.
"Prime Minister Tony Blair sought to have Iraq's nuclear threat boosted in a dossier released last September to make the case for war, the press here reported yesterday, citing documents published as part of an ongoing enquiry," reported the AFP news service.
"Large contingents of military and riot police were deployed at a pro-democracy shrine Wednesday to prevent possible anti-government protests that could worsen the peso's slide, officials said. The troops, deployed late Tuesday, closed off traffic in a lane fronting the EDSA Shrine, along Manila's busiest highway, said Reynaldo Velasco, police chief for the capital," reported the AP news agency.
"One of New Zealand's top tourist attractions, the World Heritage-listed Fiordland National Park, has been hit by more than 200 landslides following last week's 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Spread over a 75-kilometer (47-mile) radius, many of the land and rock slides stripped bush and soil cover from the park's mountainous slopes, leaving bare rock faces, said scientists from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences," reported the AP news agency.
"A government search-and-rescue helicopter crashed into a hill near Hong Kong airport, killing the two crewmembers aboard. The crash took place Tuesday night after the helicopter departed the airport on a mission to airlift a sick person from an outlying island to a hospital," reported the AP news agency.
"The destruction of space shuttle Columbia and the death of its seven astronauts were caused by a culture at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration driven by schedule, starved for funds and burdened with an eroded, insufficient safety program," reported the AP news agency.
"The virus, described as the fastest spreading ever on the Internet, appeared to be contained by Monday but experts were expecting a new version that could be more damaging. Security specialists said the SoBig.F virus, which was sent to millions of computers worldwide, is programmed to deactivate on Sept 10, leading to speculation that a new version could appear sometime around Sept 11," reported the AFP news service.
"Just six weeks away from California's recall, film star and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger has bumped into an unlikely obstacle: short, bald Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, a new poll said. The pudgy Bustamante has something the Austrian-born Terminator star may lack: appeal to Latino voters," reported the AFP news service.
"US President George W. Bush will seek to bolster support for his policies in Iraq amid a mounting US death toll and public doubts. The president, who is in the last week of an August vacation at his Texas ranch, will travel to St Louis to make the case for sustained involvement in Iraq despite calls to either pull out or reinforce US forces, and for continued engagement in the Middle East despite new violence that has stalled the peace process," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Chefs to the world's heads of state gathered in Paris on Monday, with US President George W. Bush's chef revealing that French fries never came off the White House menu. A diplomatic spat between the United States and France in the run-up to the war led to French fries being renamed freedom fries in many US restaurants, including that of Washington's House of Representatives. At the time, a White House spokesman declined to comment on what kind of fries Bush was eating," reported the AFP news service.
"Heather Fields, 28, was arrested on Friday outside a liquor store where she allegedly arranged to exchange her son for the cash and a 1999 Ford Explorer. She is accused of trying to sell the boy to his father, who lives in Massachusetts and had been granted temporary custody," reported the AP news agency.
"Israeli helicopter gunships killed at least one person and injured 20 in a Gaza Strip refugee camp yesterday, keeping up the pressure on Palestinian militant strongholds after the collapse of a ceasefire. Witnesses said helicopters fired three or four missiles at a car in the Jabalya refugee camp carrying a member of Hamas's military wing, who survived the air strike," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Rwanda's electoral commission said yesterday President Paul Kagame had won the first presidential elections since the country's 1994 genocide but the main opposition candidate rejected the result. The main opposition candidate Faustin Twagiramungu said he could not accept provisional results giving Kagame 94.3% of the vote," reported the Reuters news agency.
"John Scarlett, a former chief of the British intelligence service's Moscow station, told the inquiry that Blair's team did not inflate intelligence about banned Iraqi weapons to make a case for war which most Britons opposed," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Supporters of the Alabama judge who defied a federal order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building filed suit on Monday to try to keep the granite block where it is," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Terrorism and a fresh wave of illegal migrants fleeing war-torn Aceh were at the top the agenda for talks Thursday in Malaysia between Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri," reported the AP news agency.
"A Sydney magistrate Thursday ordered a Filipino student to stand trial for the stabbing murders of his wealthy parents and sister. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted," reported the AP news agency.
"Taiwan's coast guard found 31 Chinese and three Russian illegal migrants hidden inside a truck Thursday, coast guard officials said. The migrants, all young women, had traveled to the island by boat from China, officials said. The women told interrogators they had arrived near the east coast town of Hualien before being transferred by truck to the capital, Taipei," reported the AP news agency.
"The UN Security Council voted unanimously to protect humanitarian aid workers in war zones, despite some US misgivings over the wording of the resolution. Mexico's draft version had referred to the International Criminal Court, before the United States demanded that the phrase be dropped. The United States objected to the original language that would have made any attack on humanitarian personnel a war crime, including acts committed in what it called the fog of war. The US ambassador also recalled that other international conventions allow the oc-cupying powers to restrict freedom of movement of aid workers in areas they control," reported the AFP news service.
"Researchers at the University of California studied the results of a national survey of 3,563 children and their parents. The study claims that children who do their share of the cleaning alongside their fathers are likely to be better adjusted and more socially aware because they learn democratic values at an early age. Children benefit from seeing their fathers help around the house and women find men more attractive if they pick up a duster," reported the Daily Telegraph.
"An Australian computer whiz who hacked into his former employer's database awarded himself 11 million frequent-flier points. Former Qantas staffer Ferri Sutan Malik claimed 230 free flights in two years," reported the dpa news agency.
"Israel vowed to continue assassinating members of radical Palestinian groups yesterday despite a failed air strike as Palestinian premier Mahmud Abbas' cabinet was to discuss how to take on the militants. The attack was condemned by an angry Abbas who said that Israel must understand that there is no military solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This brutal Israeli government policy will only take us back to the vicious circle of violence," reported the AFP news service.
"US forces launched a series of raids to hunt down bandits, gangsters and Saddam Hussein loyalists, capturing at least 24, on a day when the number of American troops killed in postwar Iraq surpassed the toll of those killed in major combat. On Tuesday, the US death toll in Iraq reached 238 with the deaths of a soldier in a roadside bombing and another in a traffic accident," reported the AP news agency.
"A fateful decision to thrust Britain's top Iraq weapons expert into the limelight days before he killed himself was taken with Prime Minister Tony Blair's approval, according to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon. Hoon told the inquiry he believed that shielding Kelly from the limelight was not an option after the scientist admitted briefing a BBC reporter who had accused the government of sexing up a dossier on Iraqi weapons," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Blair's government hoped that by putting Kelly forward it could undermine the BBC report. But ministers also feared that Kelly, a world expert on chemical and biological weapons, would cast doubt on a key claim in the dossier that Iraq could launch banned weapons at just 45 minutes' notice," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The macabre and painstaking task of tallying a death toll from the heat wave is overwhelming doctors, police and bureaucrats, who must determine if thousands of elderly victims succumbed to record temperatures or illness and old age. The estimates are staggering and the facts are few. What is known is most of the victims from the two weeks of scorching heat this month were elderly and many died alone, their bodies left to decompose in intense heat. France's largest undertaker has estimated 10,000 deaths. The government initially said that figure was probably correct but then called recent estimates unreliable," reported the Reuters news agency.
"A moving crew rolled a massive Ten Commandments monument out of the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building yesterday to comply with a federal court order. About 100 pro-monument supporters who have been on a weeklong vigil on the building's front plaza were urged to remain calm and not rush the glass doors. Some yelled, but the crowd was restrained," reported the AP news agency.
"India and Pakistan began talking about resuming air links Wednesday despite heightened tension after twin car bombs killed 51 people in India's financial capital," reported the Reuters news agency.
"At least 39 people were killed and over 100 injured yesterday in a stampede by Hindu worshippers rushing to bathe in one of western India's holiest rivers at a festival held every three years," reported the AFP news service.
"Indonesia's radical Muslim cleric Abubakar Ba'asyir yesterday accused the US Central Intelligence Agency of plotting the Bali and J.W. Marriott Hotel bombings in an attempt to discredit Islam. Abubakar argued the prosecutor's 15-year imprisonment demand aims to please the US government and its allies. He described the charges and the prosecution request as a sinful act, while accusing prosecutors of committing slander," reported the dpa news agency.
"The United States and North Korea made their first direct contact in four months yesterday, huddling on the sidelines of a multinational summit to work through a stalemate over Pyongyang's nuclear programme. China, South Korea, Japan and Russia joined them in formal discussions, eager to apply delicate diplomacy to East Asia's most alarming security problem," reported the AP news agency.
"Japan's unemployment rate stood unchanged at 5.3 percent in July as the economy continued to struggle toward recovery amid falling prices and corporate restructuring. The stagnant jobless rate came in spite of a rebound in corporate profits as many companies pay down debt rather than add new workers," reported the AP news agency.
"MTV kicked off its 20th annual Video Music Awards on by reaching into its past, as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera paid tribute to Madonna's writhing performance from the inaugural awards in a performance that was just as racy," reported the AP news agency.
"A World Trade Organization group agreed Thursday to allow poor nations access to inexpensive copies of drugs to fight such diseases as AIDS and malaria, after the United States dropped its objections. To satisfy the concerns of the United States and its pharmaceutical research industry, the document sets out conditions for the use of the measure. But the aid group Oxfam said the deal would be a disaster. The text contains so much red tape and so many obstacles that if it were accepted developing countries would still struggle to get access to cheap medicines and thousands of people would continue to die unnecessarily," reported the AP news agency.
"British Prime Minister Tony Blair vigorously defended his government's controversial September 2002 dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, saying he would have quit if it really had been sexed up. Testifying at a judicial inquiry into the apparent suicide of weapons scientist David Kelly, Blair said the allegation levelled in a hotly disputed BBC report was extremely serious and an attack on my integrity," reported the AFP news service.
"Power went out in parts of the capital and southeast England yesterday, causing serious disruptions on the London Underground and some train lines. It was not immediately clear how widespread the outages were. London Electricity said power appeared to have gone out in parts of south London and Kent, a county southeast of the city," reported the AP news agency.
"The United States administration is now open to the possibility of establishing a UN-endorsed multinational force in Iraq if it is headed by a US commander. But initial soundings by administration officials suggested minimal support for that approach, taking into account continuing resentment among many Security Council members about the US decision in March to go to war in Iraq without UN endorsement," reported the news Agencies.
"One of Leonardo da Vinci's most emblematic Madonna paintings was stolen on Wednesday from a rich art collection in a Scottish castle. The painting was the jewel of a collection that also included works by Rembrandt and Holbein," reported the AFP news service.
"In Brisbane, a woman suffering from a mental disorder was jailed for seven years yesterday for torturing three of her children by convincing doctors to perform dangerous and unnecessary medical procedures on them. The woman showed no emotion in court as she was sentenced," reported the AP news agency.
"Health authorities were on high alert in New Zealand last night following the sudden deaths of three people suffering pneumonia-like symptoms in the southern city of Dunedin," reported the AFP news service.
"American babies understand words in Mandarin if they are taught to, according to a study that examined the perceptive powers of babies aged nine months. Washington State University neuroscientist Patricia Kuhl concluded that babies need to learn to talk by personally being talked to and that they are capable of adjusting their tongue movements to sounds of a language if they have direct contact with people speaking that language," reported the dpa news agency.
"A man shot dead six former co-workers in a Chicago warehouse on Wednesday before he died in a shootout with police in the latest in a string of multiple killings by disgruntled employees," reported the AFP news service.
"A year and a half after hundreds of bodies were found stashed away at a crematory, a grand jury indicted the facility's operator on charges he discarded the corpses instead of cremating them. In Lafayette, Georgia, Ray Brent Marsh, 29, faces multiple counts of burial service fraud, making false statements, abuse of a dead body and theft under the indictment issued on Wednesday," reported the AP news agency.
"France's biggest chain of undertakers stood by its estimate yesterday that 13,000 more people than usual died across the country this month, supporting reports that many thousands were killed by a heat wave in the first half of the month," reported the AFP news service.
"The Islamic radical group Hamas rejected yesterday an appeal by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to call a new halt to its attacks on Israel as diplomatic efforts to salvage the troubled Middle East peace roadmap gathered pace," reported the AFP news service.
"Japan's unemployment rate stood unchanged at 5.3 percent in July as the economy continued to struggle toward recovery amid falling prices and corporate restructuring. The stagnant jobless rate came in spite of a rebound in corporate profits as many companies pay down debt rather than add new workers," reported the AP news agency.
"MTV kicked off its 20th annual Video Music Awards on by reaching into its past, as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera paid tribute to Madonna's writhing performance from the inaugural awards in a performance that was just as racy," reported the AP news agency.
"A World Trade Organization group agreed Thursday to allow poor nations access to inexpensive copies of drugs to fight such diseases as AIDS and malaria, after the United States dropped its objections. To satisfy the concerns of the United States and its pharmaceutical research industry, the document sets out conditions for the use of the measure. But the aid group Oxfam said the deal would be a disaster. The text contains so much red tape and so many obstacles that if it were accepted developing countries would still struggle to get access to cheap medicines and thousands of people would continue to die unnecessarily," reported the AP news agency.
"A car bombing killed 75 Iraqis, including a top Shi'ite Muslim leader, yesterday in an apparent assassination that dealt a grave blow to the US occupation and left carnage at the holiest shrine of Shi'ism. The blast tore through worshippers as they streamed away from Friday prayers in the Imam Ali Mosque in the holy city of Najaf. It was by far the worst such atrocity in Iraq since the US-led war toppled Saddam Hussein in April," reported the Reuters news agency.
"America's top military man in Iraq said yesterday he wanted more Muslim peacekeepers and better intelligence rather than US troop reinforcements to tackle the hit-and-run attacks still plaguing coalition forces. John Abizaid's comments came after a British soldier was killed in southern Iraq and more US troops wounded as resistance to the US-led occupation continued unabated five months after the fall of Saddam Hussein," reported the AFP news service.
"Tony Blair's top aide and pugnacious media handler Alastair Campbell announced his resignation yesterday in a shock decision that comes amid the worst crisis of the British premier's six-year rule. Campbell, 46, had been widely expected to quit later this year but the timing of his announcement, while both he and Blair are enmeshed in a high-stakes inquiry into the government case for war in Iraq, caught political observers short," reported the Reuters news agency.
"British trust in Prime Minister Tony Blair has plunged over the suicide of a weapons expert tragically caught up in a bitter dispute between the BBC and the government over war in Iraq, an opinion poll showed yesterday. And British voters were not alone in pouring scorn on an embattled government which has been put under a harsh spotlight by a judicial inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said in comments aired yesterday that Iran had shopped for nuclear components on the international black market and called on Teheran to be more proactive and transparent Although he was not certain of the countries that made the equipment Iran had acquired on the black market, El-Baradei said he had a pretty good idea which ones they were," reported the Reuters news agency.
"The Health Ministry estimated yesterday that there were 11,435 more deaths in France during a heat wave in the first two weeks of this month than during the same period in recent years. The provisional estimate did not directly link the increased death toll to the heat wave, which led to massive backlogs at morgues and hospitals across France," reported the AP news agency.
"The lights came back on here late on Thursday after a major blackout during rush hour stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters, snarled up traffic and shut down most of the public transport system. Power was fully restored some two-and-a-half hours after the blackout, said a spokesman for the National Grid, which operates the electricity system throughout the country. Most areas hit had power restored within 30 minutes," reported the AFP news service.
"WTO members yesterday failed to pin down an accord on ensuring patent rules do not bar access to cheap medicines for poor countries after problems prevented a deal at the eleventh hour. Although the 146 World Trade Organisation countries earlier agreed to pass on a proposed compromise for approval by the body's ruling general council, it failed to win overall backing," reported the AFP news service.
"The FBI has identified a teenager as the author of a damaging virus-like infection unleashed on the Internet and planned to arrest. The 18-year-old, whose name and hometown was not immediately available, was accused of writing one version of the damaging Blaster infection, which spread quickly across the Internet weeks ago, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity," reported the AP news agency.
"An out-of-court settlement has been reached in the case of a North Texas man who woke up from bladder surgery only to find that doctors had amputated his penis without permission, lawyers said on Thursday. Hurshell Ralls, 67, contends that doctors removed Ralls' penis after they mistakenly thought the cancer had spread to the male sex organ. He charged the doctors John S. Dryden and Farid Khoury with not seeking consent for the penis amputation and negligence," reported the Reuters news agency.
"Frantic calls for help, horrified accounts of falling bodies and the desperate efforts of rescue services cover 2,000 pages of transcripts released on Thursday of emergency calls from the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre. The Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Centre site and was responsible for security, released the transcripts after the New York Times filed a freedom of information lawsuit demanding access to the documents. The agency had sought to block their release, citing privacy concerns and sensitivity to the victims' families, but was left with little option after a state superior court ruled in favour of the Times last week," reported the AFP news service.
