● <B>HUNAN. Rain, hail storms kill at least seven. </B>Four days of rain and hail storms triggered mountain torrents and landslides in China’s central province of Hunan, killing at least seven people, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Seven cities and 21 counties suffered the worst of the downpours which started on Thursday and subsided early yesterday, the provincial civil affairs department was quoted as saying. Flood waters and landslides destroyed 87,500 hectares (338 square miles) of farmland and brought down 3,500 houses, causing direct economic damage of 443 million yuan ($55.30 million). “The disasters affected the normal life of 1.42 million people in the province, among whom 14,100 were relocated,” the department was quoted as saying. China is hit by droughts, floods, typhoons and blizzards each year, with the death toll from natural disasters in 2005 almost 2,500, according to government statistics.

● <B> JAPAN. Envoy meets Sri Lanka President, charges fly. </B>A top Japanese envoy met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday to try and salvage the island’s battered peace process, as Tamil Tiger rebels accused the army of killing civilians. A vicious spike of suspected rebel attacks, ethnic riots, land and sea clashes, government air strikes and unsolved killings of civilians have killed more than 200 in the last month, raising fears of a return to civil war. On Sunday, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Web site accused the army of killing eight Hindu temple workers near the northern ethnic Tamil town of Jaffna, while the military said there had been several rebel attacks overnight. The army said a curfew had been ordered in Jaffna and crossing points to rebel territory closed for unspecified “security reasons”, but that it was only a temporary measure. One military source said it was to stop Tiger-backed demonstrations due to take place in northern government territory. A military spokesman said the army had nothing to do with any temple killings, and that reports that eight bodies had been found could not be substantiated. Nordic monitors observing the fragile 2002 ceasefire said they had also not seen any bodies. Diplomats say Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi will deliver a strong message to both sides and warn the Tigers, when he visits them today, that further attacks and failure to attend talks might lead to a global crackdown on their fundraising and see them listed as terrorists by the European Union. Analysts say neither side wants to be blamed for a new round of the island’s two decade civil war, and both are eager to attract international sympathy.

● <B>SINGAPORE. Opposition politician freed but barred from leaving the country. </B>An opposition candidate detained after Singapore’s weekend election has been released but police seized his passport while investigating a criminal complaint filed by poll officials against him. “I was told I cannot leave the country and they have impounded my passport,” James Gomez, who ran unsuccessfully for the opposition Workers’ Party in Saturday’s parliamentary election, said. The ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which won by a landslide, earlier accused Gomez of trying to undermine the election’s credibility. Gomez said he was released shortly after midnight after about seven hours of questioning at a police complex where he was brought Sunday after being stopped at Changi Airport before he was to fly to Sweden. Gomez, 40, is a British-educated political scientist working with the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

● <B>CHINA. Most Chinese graduates will not find jobs. </B>Sixty percent of Chinese college leavers looking for work in the final half of 2006 will be unable to find a job, a government report has revealed. China is expected to face serious employment difficulties during this period, according to a report published by the National Development and Reform Commission, the official Xinhua news agency said. The number of graduates will increase by 22 percent over the previous year to reach 4.13 million while the job market can only soak up 1.66 million new graduates, down 22 percent on the previous year, the report said. “It is hard to create new jobs in large numbers due to surplus production capacity, more trade frictions and the revaluation of the yuan. As a result, it will be less easy to tackle employment pressure,” Zhang Xiaojian, vice minister of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, was quoted as saying. According to the report, due to stable economic growth, the first quarter saw a healthy employment situation with a registered urban unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, 2.52 million newly-added urban laborers and 1.03 million laid-off workers reemployed. China’s unemployment rate does not take into consideration people living in the countryside who are idle laborers or surplus labor seeking employment. The level of surplus labor this year would reach 14 million, around one million more than last year, the report said. The Commission said in March it was expecting 25 million new people to seek jobs in the cities this year but only 11 million urban jobs to be created.

● <B>THAILAND. Court says April poll “unconstitutional”. </B>Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that the inconclusive April 2 general election was unconstitutional and a new poll should be held. “The Constitutional Court voted 8 to 6 that the elections were unconstitutional and voted 9 to 5 to hold a new election,” Judge Ura Wangomklang told reporters immediately after the court met. A court spokesman later confirmed the ruling and said it was up to the government to set the date for a new election. Earlier, another judge said the decision would resolve the political crisis, although a clear way out of what revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej has described as a “mess” does not appear to be imminent. The impasse was brought about by an opposition boycott of the snap poll that left empty seats in parliament and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra unable to form a government.

<B>UN evacuates Darfur camp after attack.</B>

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, aid workers and journalists were forced to evacuate a refugee camp in Darfur yesterday after a demonstration spun out of control and an aid worker was attacked. The melee at the Kalma Camp in South Darfur occurred after thousands of Darfuris were protesting to demand international troops be posted there to protect them.

<B>UK’s Blair refuses to give departure time. </B>

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday he would not give a timetable for his departure now as it would paralyse the government. “To state a timetable now would simple paralyse the proper working of government, put at risk the necessary changes we are making for Britain and therefore damage the country,” he told his monthly news conference. “It wouldn’t end this distraction but take it to a new level.”

<B>Baghdad bombing wounds seventeen.</B>

Seventeen people, including several policemen, were wounded yesterday in a twin bomb attack in eastern Baghdad, police sources said. A roadside bomb detonated, wounding two civilians, and when a police patrol rushed to the scene on Palestine Street a car bomb went off, wounding four of the officers and 11 others. Two car bombs in the capital on Sunday killed nine people and a suicide car bomber in the Shi’ite city of Kerbala blasted a crowded street. Senior officials disputed the death toll of 21 given by police and medics who dealt with the casualties.

<B>Fires force hundreds to evacuate homes.</B>

Smoldering bush fires kept about 1,000 people from their homes early yesterday, and the heavy smoke shut down parts of Interstate 95 between Daytona Beach and the Cape Canaveral area. At least one home was destroyed and about 1,000 acres scorched by the fires that began Friday and flared up through the weekend, officials said. “Our problem is no rain, dry conditions and strong winds”, said Greg Dunn, a spokesman for the Division of Forestry.