■Cambodia
Official killed by grenade
A member of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and his daughter were killed after a hand-grenade was lobbed into their home in western Pursat province, police said yesterday. Deputy provincial police chief Sarun Chanthy said the killings were not politically motivated or linked to the July 27 national elections but were due to a "personal dispute." He said the attack occurred last Thursday in Kra Hal village 190km west of Phnom Penh and investigations were ongoing. No arrests have been made. Cheng Saroeun, 41, and his daughter Roeun Theara, 8, died instantly. Phan Lim, the 33-year-old wife and mother, was seriously injured.
■ India
Residents flee flood water
At least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes in northeastern India to escape flood waters caused by monsoon rains, officials said yesterday. The floods that hit the state of Assam washed away roads, bridges and rail tracks and left houses knee-deep in water, state water resources minister Nurjamal Sarkar said. Three districts, Dhemaji, Karimganj and Hailakandi, were affected after heavy monsoon rains in the past week caused rivers to overflow their banks, he said. "Most of the displaced people have taken shelter in makeshift camps along highways and on other higher ground," Sarkar said.
■ Indonesia
Journalist fears for safety
An American journalist has demanded that the Indonesian government and military guarantee him safe passage out of the country after he ignored a deadline to leave a rebel stronghold in Aceh, a newspaper reported yesterday. The government set a Saturday deadline for William Nessen, a freelance reporter and photographer, to report to a military post in Aceh, where troops are battling separatist rebels. After that, officials said they could not ensure his safety. But Nessen told The Jakarta Post by telephone that he would not leave the rebel hideout in northern Aceh until "the [military] and the Indonesian government guarantee that I can leave the country without being arrested, interrogated or stopped."
■ Malaysia
Lightning kills picnickers
A beach picnic for a Malaysian family turned into tragedy when a woman and her granddaughter were killed by lightning, police said yesterday. The victims and 12 other family members were relaxing Saturday evening by the sea in northeastern Pasir Puteh town when a thunderstorm broke,a district police spokesman said on condition of anonymity. The family had taken refuge under nearby trees when lightning suddenly struck the two victims, causing severe burns that killed them instantly, the spokesman said.
■ The Philippines
Pain pushes man to death
A 68-year-old man jumped to his death from a government hospital in the Philippines, unable to bear the pain of his ulcers, a police report said yesterday. The patient, Armando Sedilla, had been confined at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila for one week for tests and treatment. Investigators said Sedilla was being escorted by hospital personnel to the laboratory for a test when he ran to a room on the sixth floor. "The personnel left the room to report Sedilla's actions to their superior," the report said. "At that point, Sedilla jumped off the window." Sedilla died while being treated for broken bones. His relatives told policemen that there had been times when Sedilla would say he wanted to die.
■Saudi Arabia
Mecca arrest turns deadly
Ten people, including five members of the security services, were killed in an overnight clash between police and suspected terrorists in the holy city of Mecca, western Saudi Arabia, the daily Okaz reported Sunday. Five other security officers were injured in the fighting in Mecca's Khaldiya district and seven people on the authorities' wanted list were arrested, the paper said. The London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, citing "diverse sources" in Saudi Arabia, said that eight security officers and three civilians were killed in the clash. Okaz said the shootout occurred after a group of men aboard a vehicle ignored police orders to stop. Police evacuated the building and stormed the apartment. Inside they found a large quantity of weapons and explosives, while one of those arrested was wearing an suicide bomber's belt.
■ Spain
ETA bomb defused
Police on Saturday defused a powerful car bomb allegedly planted by the armed Basque separatist group ETA, authorities said. About 30kg of explosives were packed inside a pressure cooker in a car parked near Bilbao's San Mames soccer stadium, a finance ministry building and the offices of the Antena 3 television network, police said. Police in this northern Spanish city said they were alerted by the newspaper Gara, which said it had received the warning from a person claiming to represent ETA. Officials declined to say what the target of the bomb was. The bomb threat came as local governments were being sworn in around northeastern Spain's Basque region.
■ United States
USCDC warns of diabetes
One in three US children born in 2000 will become diabetic unless many more people start eating less and exercising more, a scientist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) warns. The odds are worse for black and Hispanic children -- nearly half of them are likely to develop the disease, said Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, a diabetes epidemiologist at the CDC. "I think the fact that the diabetes epidemic has been raging has been well known to us for several years. But looking at the risk in these terms was very shocking to us," Narayan said.
■ Germany
Berlin doles to 2.3m
Germany's unemployment figure could top five million this winter, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned Saturday. "The biggest problem that we face, and the most dangerous, is that we are heading for an unemployment figure of five million this winter, because we have a structural problem and a cyclical problem which are linked," Fischer told an extraordinary meeting of his Green party in the eastern town of Cottbus. The Federal Labor Office in Nuremberg calculated that 4.342 million people were claiming dole in Germany in May, equivalent to 10.4 percent of the working population.
■ Russia
Russians pine for EU
An overwhelming majority of Russians say they would like to see their country one day join the EU, a trend that has increased sharply over the past month, according to an opinion poll published Sunday. Seventy-three percent of those questioned by the Public Opinion Foundation said they would like to see Russia as an EU member, with 10 percent expressing the contrary view, the Interfax news agency reported the poll as saying.
■Iraq
Top officer captured
Coalition forces said on Saturday they had captured former Iraqi air force commander Hamid Raja Shalah al-Tikriti, who was No. 17 on the US Central Command's most-wanted list. A brief US military statement gave no other details about the arrest. The former commander, who is in his late 50s, is from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and was close to the ousted Iraqi president's family. He was one of the Iraqi military commanders seen meeting regularly with Saddam before the US-led war started March 20.
■ Ireland
Newspapers must improve
The newspaper industry must improve the quality of editorial content to rise above television if it is to halt a general decline in readership, the annual conference of the World Association of Newspapers heard in Dublin this week. Newspapers, for 200 years a reference point for news, analysis and comment, must avoid "contagion" by the quick, slick ways of television, the former chairman of Agence France-Presse, Henri Pigeat, told the conference. He was addressing the 56th annual gathering of the association, which drew more than 1,200 participants from 85 countries to debate the future of newspapers.
■ United States
Officer romances dozens
Through his lawyer, an army officer accused of proposing to dozens of women has apologized for his behavior, but at least one of his alleged victims say that's not enough. Colonel Kassem Saleh, stationed at Fort Bragg, is under investigation by the army over allegations that he simultaneously romanced dozens of women on the Internet and by phone and proposed to them. "He is sincerely apologetic," his lawyer told The New York Times Saturday. Robin Solod of New York, one of the women allegedly duped by Saleh, said of his apology: "It's too little too late. That's definitely not sufficient for the betrayal, the deceit. He stole my heart."
■ United States
Shootout at the saloon
In a scene reminiscent of the Wild West, a ranch hand shot seven people, killing one, outside the Silver Dollar Saloon, then wounded a sheriff's deputy and led other officers on a 160kph chase in a running gunfight before being captured, police said. Madison County Attorney Robert Zenker identified the suspect as George H. Davis, 44, and said the shootings began about 2:15am, shortly after Davis was asked to leave the Silver Dollar Saloon in Ennis. "He allegedly was intoxicated and acting obnoxious," Zenker said.
■ United States
Stop sex classes!
Federal health officials have warned an HIV/AIDS prevention program that its federal funding will be cut if it does not stop offering classes that "encourage or promote sexual activity." The US federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifically criticized the nonprofit Stop AIDS Project for a workshop that offers guidelines on "safe and friendly relations" with male prostitutes, another that discusses oral sex and a third entitled "Bootylicious" that provides tips for successful anal intercourse. Friday's warning came four months after the agency cleared Stop AIDS following a review prompted by complaints from Republican Representative Mark Souder about the sexually explicit nature of the program.
Agencies
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
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