CHINA
Gas explosion kills 203 in coal mine
SHANGHAI — A gas explosion in a coal mine in China’s northeast killed at least 203 miners yesterday, the government said, in the deadliest such disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.
The explosion at the Sunjiawan mine in Liaoning Province also injured 22 miners and trapped 13 underground, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The cause of the blast, which occurred 794 feet underground, was under investigation, the agency said.
China has endured a string of deadly mining disasters in recent months despite a nationwide safety crackdown.
ZIMBABWE
Mugabe criticizes South African groups
HARARE — President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party has accused some nongovernmental organizations, labor associations and South Africa’s main opposition of plotting to unseat his government with the help of the United States and Britain.
In its manifesto released at the weekend for the March 31 parliamentary vote, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front said Western “sponsored phony nongovernmental organizations have been campaigning for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.”
The manifesto said the NGOs, “using their pseudo-humanitarian face and the abundant resources made available to them through organizations like the British Westminster Foundation,” had campaigned “to penetrate, inveigle and subvert communities into supporting the opposition.”
SRI LANKA
Baby’s parents pegged by DNA
KALMUNAI — The 4-month-old boy dubbed “Baby 81” now has a name — Abilass — and a birth date, Oct. 19, after a judge’s announcement yesterday that a DNA test showed the child dug out of tsunami debris belongs to the couple who waged an agonizing court battle to claim him.
But the parents, Jenita and Murugupillai Jeyarajah, have to wait two more days for a formal court hearing that will return custody of their son.
“But we have known that the child will be with us, even after months or years,” said the boy’s father. Eight other couples also tried to claim the boy in the days immediately following the Dec. 26 tsunami.
ISRAEL
U.S. mulls lifting travel warning
JERUSALEM — The United States is weighing lifting a more than four-year-old travel warning to Israel as a result of a steep drop in violence after Israel and the Palestinians declared a de facto cease-fire, a U.S. official said yesterday.
Israel’s Tourism Ministry says the U.S. warning helped push the economy into a recession. Before the uprising, tourism reaped over $4 billion a year.
The United States issued a warning against travel to Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip shortly after a Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.
JAPAN
Teenager with knife kills teacher, wounds 2
TOKYO — A 17-year-old boy armed with a knife burst into a public elementary school in western Japan yesterday, fatally stabbing one teacher and slashing two others, police said.
No students were hurt in the attack in Neyagawa City outside Osaka, said Isoo Noda, spokesman for the Neyagawa City police, but the stabbings came as the latest in a series of rampages in Japan involving knives and children.
Police arrested a teenage boy who was a former student at the school in the faculty room, saying he used an 8-inch kitchen knife to stab two teachers and a school nutritionist.They found him smoking a cigarette in the room as frightened teachers looked on, Mr. Noda said.
From wire dispatches and staff reports
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