Malaysia
Police search for bombers
Malaysia tightened entry points yesterday to keep watch for two long-sought Malaysian Islamic militants who are believed to have built the car bomb that exploded outside Australia's embassy in Indonesia. Azahari Husin, a British-trained engineer, and Noordin Mohammed Top disappeared from Malaysia three years ago during a crackdown against the al-Qaeda-allied Jemaah Islamiyah terror group. They have since been linked to blasts on Bali that killed 202 people in October 2002, and to last year's suicide bombing that killed 12 at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
Nepal
Rebels bomb checkpoint
Maoist rebels detonated a bomb at a checkpoint in southern Nepal yesterday, killing two policemen and injuring eight civilians. The explosion at the checkpoint near the town of Bhirahawa, about 280km southwest of Kathmandu, killed the two policeman on the spot. The eight injured were passengers inside a bus that was waiting for a security check, police officials said. They've been taken to a hospital and are in stable condition. A local rebel leader called reporters in the town and claimed responsibility for the blast.
China
Trio executed for car thefts
Three people were executed after being convicted of stealing six luxury vehicles and strangling their drivers, state press said yesterday. Li Xiaoping, Wang Qinghai and Cheng Long were executed on Thursday after being found guilty of stealing five Mercedes Benzs and one Audi and murdering the drivers in a spree that began in July 2001, the Beijing Daily Messenger reported. Li, 41 was identified as the ringleader in the sales of the cars, valued at over 5.9 million yuan (US$712,000), the paper said. The group would wait outside the gates of upscale apartment blocks in Beijing or just tail the cars before hijacking them and killing the drivers, it said.
Thailand
Smuggled pangolins saved
Customs officials yesterday saved 300 pangolins from being eaten after tracking a smuggled shipment of the animals hidden in a rubber plantation near the Thai-Malaysian border. Acting on a tip-off, customs officials and police raided a rubber plantation in Badang Besar, a Thai-Malaysian border pass 760km south of Bangkok. They discovered 300 live pangolins packed in boxes, said customs official Ittiwat Thipthat. "There has been a big increase in pangolin smuggling," Ittiwat said. "There must be big orders coming in from restaurants specializing in jungle meats or for re-export to other countries."
agencies
Hong Kong
Man jailed for maid rape
A bus driver who pleaded guilty to trying to rape his Filipino maid has been jailed for three years and nine months, a newspaper reported yesterday. The High Court heard that Chan Lam-kin, 47, entered the bedroom of the 28-year-old victim on Sept. 26 last year. "I want you to be my wife," the South China Morning Post quoted him as saying before he attempted to rape the woman, who came to Hong Kong to work for Chan in July last year. She was not identified. Chan left the room after the attack and the victim -- who suffered bruises to her neck, back and shoulder as she struggled to fend him off -- called her cousin for help. Chan was later arrested and pleaded guilty to attempted rape.
Grenada
Hurricane bashes Grenada
Hurricane Ivan left Grenada a wasteland of flattened houses, twisted metal and splintered wood as it bore down on Jamaica with deadly winds and monstrous waves, prompting the Jamaican government to order a half million people to flee their homes. The death toll in the Caribbean stood at 23 and was expected to rise. Ivan, a Category IV hurricane with winds of 230kph, was forecast to make a direct hit on Jamaica yesterday afternoon. The hurricane devastated Grenada on Tuesday, tossing sailboats against shore, tearing apart buildings and setting off frenzies of looting. "The destruction is worse than I've ever seen," said Michael Steele, a 34-year-old resident whose home was completely destroyed. "We're left with nothing."
Yemen
Police kill anti-US cleric
Yemeni forces yesterday killed anti-US rebel cleric Hussein al-Houthi and some of his supporters, ending two months of clashes that have left over 200 rebels and troops dead, a government official said. "We can confirm that Houthi and tens of his supporters were killed today in morning fighting," the official said. "This is the end of the rebellion." The government accuses Houthi of setting up unlicensed religious centers and of forming an armed group which has staged violent protests against the US and Israel. Yemen had offered a US$54,000 reward for Houthi's capture.
South Africa
Runaway hippo sought
A young hippopotamus, bullied by his herd's dominant male, has escaped from a Cape Town nature reserve is on the run and could pose a threat to traffic, sailing dinghies and local people. The animal, who is 1.5m tall and could weigh up to a tonne, first fled to a sewage works after a fence was stolen and from there into the Zeekoevlei area, a network of waterways and grassland often used for water sports and recreation. "This weekend there is a massive regatta there," conservation officer Clifford Dorse said. "I would advise that people don't go into the water until it's located."
Germany
Tomato poses legal riddle
The mushy remains of a tomato thrown at a prominent member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats has posed a legal dilemma for authorities trying to assess how to punish the thrower. Police investigating the fruit, thrown by an unemployed protester at Brandenburg's premier, said on Thursday they have concluded it was a yellow tomato. Had it been a soft red one, the man would have faced a lesser charge of causing malicious damage. A harder, green tomato could carry a charge of bodily harm. A yellow one is somewhere in between.
Ukraine
Crimean war remembered
The opposing sides in the Crimean War began commemorations on Thursday of the 150th anniversary of the start of the gruelling two-year conflict that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Delegations from Britain, France, Italy, Turkey and Russia arrived in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea to remember a conflict that pitted Russia against other European countries. Yesterday, the foreign delegations were to unveil monuments for their dead from the war and also place wreaths on a monument named the "Stone of Reconciliation."
United States
Saudi link ignored, book says
US Senator Bob Graham, intelligence committee chairman in the run-up to the Iraq war, said on Sunday the Bush administration had "taken every step" to shield Saudi Arabia from links to the Sept. 11 attacks. The Florida Democrat in 2002 helped launch a joint inquiry with the House Intelligence Comm-ittee that produced a report on intelligence failures related to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He told NBC's Meet the Press that his new book, Intelli-gence Matters, makes the case on "the extent to which Saudi Arabia was a key part of making 9/11 happen."
United States
Resolution links 9/11 to Iraq
Mention of the war in Iraq clouded a House resolution marking the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and 16 lawmakers voted Thursday against the otherwise non-controversial measure. Repre-sentative Maurice Hinchey, of New York, a Democrat, one of 15 Democrats and one Republican to cast no votes, said linking the Sept. 11, 2001 acts of terrorism to the war in Iraq was "blatantly untrue" and had turned a resolution honoring the sacrifices of Sept. 11 victims into a political document. "Why are we putting together a resolution that convolutes the issue?'' asked Representative Barbara Lee, a Democrat who voted `no.' The vote was 406-16.
The Vatican
War on terror a `world war'
A leading Vatican cardinal said on Tuesday that terrorism was a new world war and fighting it may involve the loss of some civil liberties. "We have entered the Fourth World War," said Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, saying he believed that the Cold War was World War Three. "I believe that we are in the midst of another world war," he said in comments published in Italian media on Tuesday. "And it involves absolutely everyone because we don't know what will happen when we leave a hotel, when we get on a bus, when we go into a coffee bar. War itself is sitting down right next to each and every one of us," he said.
Philippines
Army on alert before Sept 11
The military went on heightened alert Wednesday ahead of the third anniver-sary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US, a spokes-man said. Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero said troops have been ordered to incr-ease security patrols and visibility in possible targets of attacks until today. While there has been no specific threats, Lucero said, "We are not putting our guard down. Remember in two days, we will be commemorating the third anniversary of 9/11," he said. Security experts have warned that the Philippines was a potential target of terrorists in the region.
Pakistan
Islamists plan demonstration
A coalition of radical Pakistani Islamic groups plans to stage rallies on the third anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US to condemn Washington for "creating anarchy" in the world, an official said Monday. "We want to con-vince people that peace is becoming difficult in the world because of American policies after the Sept. 11 attacks," said Shahid Shamsi, a spokesman for the Muta-hida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, opposition coalition. The rally was organized by an influential bloc of law-makers in Pakistan's Parliament. It opposed the war that ousted the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
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