Taiwan has begun removing anti-ship barricades on its offshore island of Kinmen.
The local government of Kinmen has started extracting the barricades in a sign of easing political tensions between Taiwan and China which has claimed self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists left to Taiwan. China has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.
The barricades are rows of spikes rooted on cement bases, slanted at an angle to stop warships from landing troops ashore. Taiwan military officials agreed to remove them ahead of a mass swim across the Taiwan Strait in mid-August between the Chinese city of Xiamen and Kinmen. Cross-straits relations have been improving since Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou from the Nationalist Party, which once ruled the whole of China, took office in May 2008.
However, even though tensions have eased over the past year, Mr Ma remains concerned over China-related military issues.
Two injured in Pamplona bull run
Two men were seriously injured during the traditional Running of the Bulls in the Spanish city of Pamplona yesterday, one day after another runner was gored to death there for the first time since 2003.
Television showed one man being gored in the neck before he was trampled under the hooves of bulls charging through the city's narrow streets surrounded by dozens of runners.
A 44-year-old local man was caught by a bull after the animal became detached from others. The bull impaled him in the chest, before returning to toss the bloodied man into the air several times, despite efforts by other runners to distract the animal and pull it away by its tail.
"He has a very, very serious prognosis. We have to wait to see if his lung becomes infected," the doctor treating him told a news conference.
Bombs outside Iraq churches
Bombs exploded outside four Christian churches across Baghdad yesterday killing one person and wounding 20 others, Iraqi police said.
Bombs placed in cardboard boxes, went off near the gates of the churches in Ghadir and Karrada districts in Baghdad. In two of the attacks, no one was wounded. However a car bomb that exploded near a church killed one person and wounded 14 yesterday evening.
Iraq's Christians, believed to number around 750,000, are a small minority in a mainly Muslim country of around 28 million. Christians have been sporadically targeted for attacks, particularly in Baghdad and Mosul, leading many of them to flee abroad.
Cocaine king's hippo gunned down
Drug lord Pablo Escobar's hippo died the same way he did, hunted down and shot by the authorities for posing a danger to the public.
The African-born hippopotamus that escaped three years ago from a ranch once owned by Escobar was killed on orders of the government.
Cocaine king Escobar, who was gunned down by police in 1993, flew in hundreds of exotic animals, including kangaroos, flamingos, elephants, rhinos, and hippos. Many were given away to zoos after his death. But two dozen hippos continued to live and mate on his former estate in northern Colombia.
A male and a female escaped in 2006 and even reproduced in the wild. They were rarely seen and became something of a local legend until two journalists found them grazing 100 kilometres away from the ranch last month. Colombia's environmental agency or-dered the animals killed, saying they were carriers of disease and posed a risk to local communities.
Bucharest's high-rise protest
Thousands of Roman Catholics and supporters marched in Bucharest yesterday to protest against the construction of a high-rise building they say threatens to damage a 19th century cathedral nearby.
Police said some 6,000 people took part in the protest, held after a local court in June lifted an injunction to freeze construction following concerns from the Vatican, members of the European Parliament and US State Department.
Activists say the case illustrates the pitfalls of a free-for-all real estate boom in Romania, a new EU member, that endangers historical and architectural landmarks of Bucharest.