■ ThailandBuddhist decapitated
An elderly Buddhist man was found decapitated in troubled southern Thailand yesterday and his attackers left a note suggesting the murder was linked to recent unrest, police said. Residents found the head of a murdered rubber worker lying on a road two hours before dawn, said police Lieutenant Suwit Phusathit. "His killer or killers left a note saying `If you still arrest innocent Malays, we will also kill innocent Buddhists,'" the officer said. The body of the 67-year-old man was left in a rubber plantation about 60m away. Suwit said police were investigating to decide if the gruesome murder stemmed from recent violence in the Muslim south.
■ Australia
Accused killer refused bail
A Singaporean accused of bludgeoning to death two fellow students from the city-state in a Sydney apartment they shared was refused bail when he appeared in court yesterday. Ram Puneet Tiwary, 25, made a brief appearance in the Parramatta Bail Court in Sydney charged with two counts of murder. Tiwary, who did not have a lawyer, was ordered to appear next in Sydney Central Local Court tomorrow. Police arrested Tiwary Friday for the murders of Singaporeans Chow Lyang Tay and Poh Chuan Tan, both aged 26, whose bodies were found in their apartment in eastern Sydney on Sept. 15.
■ China
Computer game banned
China has banned a Swedish-made computer game accused of "distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty," by showing Manchuria, Tibet and Xinjiang as independent nations, state press said yesterday. The computer game, Hearts of Iron, made by the Stockholm-based games developer Paradox Entertainment, also showed Taiwan as a part of Japan, Xinhua news agency said, citing a censorship committee under the Ministry of Culture. "All these severely distort historical facts and violate China's gaming and Internet service regulations," the ministry said.
■ Myanmar
Cyclone finally reported
One week after a deadly cyclone swept through northwestern Myanmar, the state media reported it for the first time yesterday, saying 1,350 families were left homeless. But it made no mention of the 140 deaths reported earlier by a UN agency. The reports of the May 19 storm in Myanmar's western Rakhine State came a day after foreign shortwave radio stations, widely listened to in military-ruled Myanmar, broadcast news of the tragedy based on information from UN humanitarian agencies. The Myanmar-language daily Kyemon reported yesterday that the storm hit the coastal towns of Sittway, Kyaukpyu, Myebon and Pauktaw.
■ China
Charity flight ends in death
The body of a South African on a round-the-world trip to mark 10 years of democracy in South Africa was pulled from a lake in central China on Friday after his plane crashed, officials and state media said. The pilot, who was accompanied by another flyer in a separate microlight, ditched in Lake Dongting in Hunan province after being refused permission to land at Changsha airport in the province's capital because of bad weather, an aviation official said. Xinhua news agency cited airport authorities saying the pilot was one of two South Africans flying two light planes on a global charity mission "to mark the 10th anniversary of South Africa's independence."
■ RussiaExplosive hits train
A passenger train traveling from Moscow to a provincial capital in southern Russia was hit by an explosion early yesterday but no one was killed, according to preliminary information, officials said. The train bound for Vladikavkaz, the capital of the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, was hit by an explosive near the village of Elkhotovo, said Alan Doyev, a spokesman for the regional police. According to preliminary data, there were no victims, Doyev said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the explosive had been placed on the track or on one of the train's cars, he said.
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