■ South Korea
Police detain activists
Police detained 15 activists from an outlawed student organization after they protested against South Korea's decision to send more troops to Iraq, it was reported yesterday. Police said the sit-in protest by 400 students in central Seoul late Saturday was illegal, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. The protest was broken up by police after the demonstrators refused to leave. The report said police detained 15 of the students who were members of Hanchongryon -- South Korea's largest student group, outlawed because of its support of communist North Korea.
■ India
Runaway truck kills 10
A truck swerved off the road and crashed into at least two cars, killing 10 people and injuring eight others in northern India's Uttar Pradesh state, an official said yesterday. The accident occurred late Saturday night near the industrial city of Kanpur, 80km southwest of Lucknow, the state capital. The driver of the truck appeared to lose control of the vehicle, which rammed nearby cars. Four people were killed instantly while six others died on their way to hospital, said government official S.K. Dwivedi. The truck driver fled the scene and is being sought by authorities.
■ Malaysia
PM says no blackmail
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad upon his return from Papua New Guinea has called on Malaysians not to be blackmailed into deviating from the truth, a news report said yesterday. "The question is: Do we allow ourselves to be blackmailed or do we stand up for what is right," he was quoted as saying by the Sunday Star. "I don't think we should allow ourselves to be blackmailed by them," he added when asked to comment on calls made by the influential Jewish lobby group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, to boycott investments and tourism in Malaysia. The boycott call was made in response to remarks attributed to Mahathir that "the Jews ruled the world by proxy."
■ Pakistan
Al-Qaeda suspect arrested
Pakistani authorities have arrested a foreign al-Qaeda suspect in a raid in an industrial city on Saturday, a Pakistani intelligence official said. The Arab-speaking national is believed to be an important member of al-Qaeda with bounty on his head, the official said but gave no further details. The arrest took place in a raid in the city of Faisalabad on information gleaned from interrogation of three al-Qaeda suspects, two of them Yemeni nationals, arrested from the same city on Tuesday. The three had fled from a tribal area bordering Afghanistan after Pakistan's military swooped on al-Qaeda suspects on Oct. 2 killing at least eight suspected militants and arresting 18.
■ The Philippines
Old president sees mother
Detained former Philippine president Joseph Estrada had a tearful reunion with his ailing 98-year-old mother yesterday after a court trying him for economic plunder allowed him temporary liberty. Estrada's mother, Mary, burst into tears when her 66-year-old son arrived under heavy police escort and embraced her in the garden of her house in a Manila subdivision. A few journalists allowed in were barred from talking to Estrada, who has been in detention for two years and seven months accused of illegally amassing wealth while in office.
■ Switzerland
WHO sets SARS guidelines
A scientific panel convened by the World Health Organization recommended guidelines on Friday for doctors conducting clinical studies of SARS patients. The panel urged doctors to apply the guidelines in analyzing the mounds of potentially useful information about various therapies that were collected in this year's epidemic. Much of that information has not been published or analyzed. It "is a matter of urgency to get better analysis and review," said Simon Mardel, a WHO official who led the two-day meeting that ended on Friday. He said thousands of potential therapies and compounds had been tested so far as researchers try to determine treatments for SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. "We recognize that having no treatment for SARS is hindering our ability to control an epidemic in so many ways," Mardel said in a call from Geneva.
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