World Vignettes

Mobile8217; SOS

KUALA LUMPUR: Five Malaysian fishermen, who drifted at sea for three days after their boat stalled, were rescued after one of them used his mobile phone to call for help, a newspaper said today.

The men, from the northern island of Langkawi, went to sea on Monday on a routine fishing trip but got into difficulties when their vessel8217;s engine failed.

One of them managed to put a call through on his mobile phone to his family, who then contacted the marine police, The Sun reported. However, high seas and stormy weather prevented rescuers from finding them until their boat was spotted late on Wednesday about 20 nautical miles off Langkawi, which borders southern Thailand.

China wall

BEIJING: An earthquake that killed 50 people in north China earlier this month left many cracks in the Great Wall, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The magnitude 6.2-quake on January 10 left cracks in the wall in Shangyi, Zhangbei and Wanquan counties of Hebei province, Xinhua quoted yesterday He Yong, director of the Beijing Administration of Cultural Relics, as saying.

The wall in that area was mostly built during the Ming dynasty.