ROME – The devastating earthquake in China last month caused about $6 billion in damage for farmers in Sichuan province and killed millions of farm animals, a U.N. agency said yesterday.
An estimated 30 million people in rural communities were affected, many losing most of their assets, the Food and Agriculture Organization said. It will take three to five years to rebuild the agriculture sector in the southwest Chinese province, the agency said. Rome-based FAO traveled to Sichuan to assess damage from the 7.9-magnitude quake May 12, which killed 70,000 people.
Associated Press
Philippines sentences
killer of American
MANILA, Philippines – A woodcarver was convicted yesterday of killing a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer who disappeared while hiking in the northern Philippines' mountainside rice terraces.
Juan Duntugan, 27, wept after a regional trial court in northern Ifugao province – about 160 miles north of Manila – found him guilty of murdering Julia Campbell in April 2007. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison without parole. Duntugan had confessed to bludgeoning Campbell, 40, with a rock and a stick in a fit of rage when she accidentally bumped into him on a narrow trail. Campbell, a former journalist, came to the Philippines in March 2005 and was known for her humanitarian efforts.
Associated Press
Explosion kills eight
at militant compound
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – An explosion wrecked a militant compound yesterday, killing as many as eight people while Pakistani paramilitary forces pushed deeper into a border region where extremists threaten the city of Peshawar. Pro-Taliban militants targeted by the offensive in the Khyber tribal area claimed a missile was fired from nearby Afghanistan, but a Pentagon official said he knew of no cross-border attack and a Pakistani officer said stored explosives blew up.
Associated Press
Ex-general in Chile
guilty of two killings
SANTIAGO, Chile – A Chilean judge sentenced the country's former intelligence chief, retired Gen. Manuel Contreras, 79, to two life prison sentences yesterday for masterminding the 1974 assassinations of former army chief Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife. Prats had opposed dictator Augusto Pinochet's 1973 coup against an elected government.
MCT News Service
12 million honey bees
released in crash
ST. LEONARD, New Brunswick – Some 12 million honey bees were released along Canada's largest highway yesterday after a truck carrying 330 crates of bees overturned, police said. A downpour of rain helped to contain the bees in and around the truck, police said.
Associated Press
Dutch circus animals
escape, then caught
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Amsterdam police say 15 camels, two zebras and an undetermined number of llamas and potbellied swine briefly escaped from a traveling Dutch circus after a giraffe kicked a hole in their cage, police said.
The animals were rounded up a few hours later yesterday by police and circus workers.
Associated Press
