■ Afghanistan
Election staff kidnapped
International aid workers were in a virtual lockdown yesterday after a brazen daylight kidnapping of three foreign UN election staff in Kabul that heightened fears of Iraq-style threats to outsiders helping to rebuild this
war-shattered nation. Investigators reported no progress in the hunt for the three foreigners, abducted from a marked UN vehicle around midday on Thursday, and no demands for their release were made public. Two of the victims were women: one with joint British-Irish nationality and another from Kosovo. The third was
a male diplomat from the Philippines. All work for a joint UN-Afghan commission overseeing landmark presidential elections.
■ East Timor
Robbers kill eight people
Masked robbers with machetes stormed a packed minibus in East Timor early yesterday, fatally stabbing
the driver and causing
an accident that killed an additional seven people, police said. Police arrested one of the attackers hours after the 2am robbery in Baucau about 120km east of the capital Dili, police said. Police were searching for at least six others who took part. The detained suspect said the group's motive was robbery. The group had blocked the road with tree branches to stop the bus, and stabbed the driver to death as he tried
to speed away. The bus then crashed into a ravine, killing seven passengers including four women and a boy, police said.
■ China
A big dose of bad medicine
Some 190,000 people are killed annually and 2.5 million are hospitalized from the improper use of medicine in China where the market is plagued by bad regulation
and fake and poor quality products, state press said yesterday. The high number
of fatalities is partially a result
of the sophistication of new drugs and a tradition in China for consumers to administer them themselves, the China Youth Daily said. According to the Straits Consumer News, prescription drugs are available without prescription in many pharmacies.
■ India
Muslim woman gang-raped
Two Indian soldiers, a policeman and three civilians have been arrested over the alleged gang-rape of a Muslim woman in Indian Kashmir, police said yesterday. The
six were arrested from a
guest house guarded by paramilitary personnel in the Raj Bagh locality of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, a police officer
said. He said police had
found the 20-year-old
woman unconscious in the guesthouse on Thursday after being alerted by security guards. She was taken
to hospital, where staff confirmed the woman was raped by more than one person and that her body bore signs of torture.
■ Norway
Bill settled after 24 years
A man has finally settled a hotel bill he skipped out on in 1980. The Clarion Hotel Ernst in Kristiansand received a handwritten anonymous letter of apology with a 500 kroner note (US$80) hotel director Kay Johnsen said on Thursday. The note said the sender had stayed at the hotel in the autumn of 1980, had some sandwiches and drinks on his room bill, and then left without paying for anything. "I have thought a lot about this incident afterward,'' the writer said, adding that he wanted to apologize as well as settle up. Johnsen said the hotel will give the cash to the Salvation Army.
■ Ukraine
Bridge theft strands villages
Thieves have stolen a 12m steel pontoon bridge leaving hundreds of villagers without means to cross the Mayachka River, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday .The floating span connected the villages of Sofievka and Yasna Poliana. Emergency workers built the bridge last spring after heavy flooding. Work on a permanent bridge was scheduled to begin later this year. Police apprehended six men in a truck loaded with portions of the bridge and welding equip-ment. The suspects had intended to sell the span as scrap metal, an official said. The remainder of the bridge is still missing.
RSS