■ South KoreaRefugee plan uncovered
The government has prepared secret plans to take control of North Korea and to accommodate at least 200,000 refugees in the event of the sudden collapse of the communist regime, a news report said yesterday. The JoongAng Ilbo, a major Seoul daily, said that under the secret plans disclosed at a parliamentary audit on Monday Seoul's unification minister would take over as ruler of post-collapse North Korea. South Korea has also designated public facilities such as schools and stadiums nationwide to house more than 200,000 North Koreans expected to flood towards the south if the communist regime lurched towards collapse, the JoongAng reported said.
■ Thailand
Cult ritual leaves child dead
A 10-year-old girl died after her throat was allegedly repeatedly slashed by her mother, grandmother and two aunts in a ritual to rid her of an evil spirit, police said yesterday. Prapasorn Jiamcharoen was found dead in a pool of blood with multiple slash wounds to her neck as the women chanted upstairs to a Hindu goddess they had built a cult around, police said. "We suspected they committed the crime in a trance-like state without even knowing what they have done," Police Colonel Surachai Kuandechakupt told reporters. He said the women had used a meat cleaver to hack at Prapasorn's throat and hair -- which was ceremonially soaked in a bowl -- before burning the girl's clothes and mattress.
■ Thailand
Hundreds of dogs saved
More than 1,000 dogs destined to be butchered and eaten in Vietnam were seized by Thai police who discovered them crammed inside three trucks, police said yesterday. The 1,070 dogs, discovered in tiny cages in northeastern Thailand on Monday, were about to be taken through Laos to Vietnam, according to police. Four men were arrested for illegal trading since they had no license, according to Police Colonel Sunthorn Kongkraphan. If found guilty, the men would be fined but not jailed, he said. The discovery of the dogs in Sakon Nakhon province, who were put in quarantine, was the latest in a series of regular dog seizures in northeastern Thailand.
■ Vietnam
War era shell kills children
Two children were killed and two others seriously injured when a US-made shell left over from the Vietnam War exploded in central Vietnam, police said yesterday. The accident happened on Saturday while the four children were trying to smash open a M79 artillery shell they had discovered on a hill in the Van Canh district of Binh Dinh province. According to the US military, over 15 million tonnes of bombs, mines, artillery shells and other munitions were used during the Vietnam War. As much as 10 percent of the ordnance is estimated to have failed to explode.
■ Indonesia
Megawati touts democracy
An emotional President Megawati Sukarnoputri on yesterday urged Indonesia to accept the results of landmark polls which delivered a landslide victory to her former security minister, clearing his path to the presidency. Her speech, made to mark Indonesia's armed forces day, was the closest to conceding defeat Megawati has come since officials results released a day earlier declared Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono the victor of the elections. "All sides should be able to accept [this] well, uphold the values of democracy and mutually respect each other," Megawati said.
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