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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian authorities are carrying out night patrols near endangered Hawksbill turtle nesting sites after 4,000 eggs were stolen, reports said Sunday. State fisheries officials have begun the patrols near the turtle hatcheries in southern Malacca state amid fears of more thefts during the nesting period between May and September, the Star daily reported. Chief Minister Mohammad Ali Rustam said he would investigate how the eggs, worth 10,000 ringgit ($3,089), could have been stolen over a month-long period from 30 turtle nesting sites along the coastline.
-- AFP
MADRID: Three people were slightly injured as a bomb exploded in Spain's northern port city of Zarautz early Sunday, the Interior Ministry said. The bomb went off outside the construction company Construcciones Amenabar in Zarautz, a port city 55km from the French border in the Basque Country at around 2:30 a.m. local time, the ministry said. Three people, including a civilian and two policemen, suffered minor injuries in the blast, it added. No individuals or groups have claimed responsibility for the explosion, the ministry said. But it added a road assistance service had got an anonymous call saying a bomb would explode in the area at that time about an hour earlier.
-- Xinhua
BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej warned Sunday that antigovernment protesters blocking a Bangkok thoroughfare would have to leave, but backed away from threats to forcibly break up the rally. Samak on Saturday told the nation that he had prepared police and military forces and would bring an end to the weeklong antigovernment protest. About 1,200 police, many with shields and batons, gathered in the capital's historic district near the regional United Nations headquarters. But the tense face-off with about 6,500 protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy ended as night fell with Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobumrung saying there would be no crackdown.
-- AFP
BEIJING: Rescuers airlifted two injured miners who had been stranded in the mountains of Sichuan province for 19 days after the May 12 earthquake Sunday. Mi Chengfu and Liu Hongkun, aged 51 and 45 respectively, had been airlifted by a helicopter with the Hong Kong Government Flying Service at around 10 a.m. Sunday morning to Guanghan city, 25 kilometers north of the provincial capital Chengdu, and were taken to local hospitals. The two miners were found on May 31 with their ribs and limbs injured in the mountains near Mianzhu's Qingping town after their colleagues were rescued and told authorities their whereabouts on May 28. They had sufficient access to rice and water and thus survived, local sources said.
-- Xinhua
BAGHDAD: Nineteen US soldiers were killed in Iraq in May, the lowest monthly toll since the US-led invasion of 2003, figures maintained by the independent icasualties.org showed Sunday. The month which saw the highest US losses was November 2004, when 137 American troops were killed, according to the website. The previous low was in February 2004 when 20 soldiers were killed. There was no immediate word from the US military in Baghdad. Since the invasion, a total of 4,084 US troops have been killed in Iraq. The US military said last week that the overall level of violence across Iraq had hit a four-year low.
-- AFP
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