RALEIGH, North Carolina, May 17 — An ailing 81-year-old North Carolina man who escaped from a Maryland prison 43 years ago was taken into custody yesterday to face extradition, a move his attorneys decried as a waste of time because he is ill and ageing.

Willie Parker, who suffers from several health problems, only served about a quarter of his sentence for robbery with a deadly weapon before escaping in 1965. He was tracked down in February as part of a Maryland effort to clear outstanding warrants.

Parker, who has been living in North Carolina, was unexpectedly arrested during a court hearing yesterday, said defence attorney Andrew Jackson. He said Parker was held for about an hour before extradition documents arrived from Gov. Mike Easley's office.

TOKYO, May 17 — Japanese could face a future eating only rice and potatoes with no meat because of growing global food shortages and an alarmingly low rate of food self-sufficiency, a government report said yesterday.

About 60 per cent of food consumed in Japan is imported from countries such as the United States, China, Australia and Canada.

If the global food crisis intensifies and results in a lower availability of food imports, Japanese would see a dramatic shift in their diets, the Agriculture Ministry white paper warned.

Compounding the problem, Japan's food self-sufficiency rate has now fallen to only 39 per cent, the report said.

BEICHUAN, China, May 17 — Piles of broken concrete rise seven storeys high, and a few buildings stand askew, knocked at odd angles. People cry out the names of missing relatives and rescue workers shout, "Is anyone there? Is anyone there?"

Yesterday, amid the little that is left of the town of Beichuan, the answers came in faint taps on concrete or muffled cries.

In response to one such muffled call, five volunteers dug with their hands and shovels for more than four hours, freeing a middle-aged woman from a crumpled apartment building.

CANOVANAS, Puerto Rico, May 17 — For thoroughbreds in this US Caribbean territory, being fast enough to win, place or show is a matter of life and death — losers often don't even make it off the racetrack grounds alive. More than 400 horses, many in perfect health, are killed each year by injection at a clinic behind the Hipodromo Camarero racetrack, said chief veterinarian Jose Garcia.

The Associated Press yesterday examined clinic log books that confirmed Garcia's account.

The handwritten logs list the names of the horses, the trainers, the date of execution and the dosages of lethal drugs. Garcia allowed an AP reporter to view the logs but prohibited him from taking notes or photographing the pages.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, May 17 — Back in the day of chain gangs, Alabama passed a law that gave sheriffs US$1.75 a day to feed each prisoner in their jails, and the sheriffs got to pocket anything that was left over. More than 80 years later, most Alabama counties still operate under this system, with the same US$1.75-a-day allowance, and some sheriffs are actually making money on top of their salaries.

But exactly how much is something of a mystery because state auditors do not have access to sheriffs' private accounts.

How could anyone turn a profit feeding men and women for an entire day on less than the price of a Coke and a bag of Fritos? Sheriffs practice Depression-style frugality and rely on such things as day-old bread, cut-rate vegetables and cheap inmate labour.

RIYADH, May 17 — US President Bush failed to win the help he sought from Saudi Arabia to relieve skyrocketing American gas prices yesterday, a setback for the former Texas oilman who took office predicting he would jawbone oil-producing nations to help the US.

Bush got a red-carpet welcome to this desert kingdom, home to the world's largest oil reserves, and promised to ask King Abdullah to increase production to reduce pressure on prices, which soared past US$127 for the first time yesterday. But Saudi officials said they already were meeting the needs of their customers worldwide and there was no need to pump more.

Their answer recalled Bush's trip to Saudi Arabia in January when he urged an increase in production but was rebuffed.