■ China
Pilgrims die in accident
A truck loaded with Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims overturned on a mountain road in western China, killing at least 54 people and injuring 41, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. The accident happened around noon on Monday as the truck was traveling through the Qinghai region while making its way back from Tibet's capital Lhasa, Xinhua said. The injured were sent to hospital where 29 of them were in serious condition, the report said. Most of the passengers were from Ganzi and Aba, ethnic Tibetan regions of Sichuan Province, Xinhua said. It said they had been on a pilgrimage to Lhasa, the traditional home of the Dalai Lama, Buddhism's highest figure. Road accidents killed about 100,000 people in China last year, most of them blamed on disregard for safety and unsafe or overloaded vehicles.
■ Nepal
Four feared dead in crash
A helicopter belonging to Dynasty Air crashed yesterday morning near Mt. Everest and all on board were feared to have been killed, a Civil Aviation official said. The site of the crash has been located and a search is on for survivors, he said. The helicopter, piloted by Pemba Sherpa, was carrying two passengers, he said. Unofficial sources said there were four people in the chopper. According to Kathmandu airport officials, the helicopter took off at 7:45am for Lukla to ferry back passengers including tourists stranded there for the past two days due to bad weather conditions.
■ Australia
Tsunami `hero' arrested
An Australian hailed as a hero for allegedly rescuing more than a dozen tsunami victims in Thailand was arrested on Monday as he returned home by police who recognized him as a suspected burglar. Thomas Connell was arrested by police after stepping off the plane at Brisbane Internation-al Airport. Police said they recognized Connell, whom they had been seeking for two years, after he gave a TV interview from Thailand that aired in Australia last week. Connell is wanted on assault and burglary charges. The 32-year-old businessman was dubbed by local media as "the good samaritan of Patong Beach" for his role in allegedly saving as many as 20 people.
■ India
`Hugging saint' pledges cash
An Indian religious leader known as "the hugging saint" -- because she uses hugs as a gesture of blessing -- has pledged 1 billion rupees (US$22 million) to help survivors of last month's devastating tsunami. Money donated by Mata Amritanandamayi will be used to build homes for tsunami victims in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Amritanandamayi's native village of Parayakadavu in Kerala was among those hit by the Dec. 26 disaster. Amritanandamayi, known by her followers as "Amma," which means ``mother'' in several Indian languages, has devotees throughout India and in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.
■ Hong Kong
Seafood worries grow
The Hong Kong government yesterday urged market vendors to temporarily stop importing seafood from South Asian countries hit by tsunamis because of contamination concerns. Authorities feared that the fish may have eaten heavy metals and other pollutants stirred up by the seismic movements in the seabed, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Assistant Director Thomas Chung said.
■ Algeria
Top rebels arrested, killed
Algerian security forces arrested the No.1 leader of the Armed Islamic Group, the radical insurgency movement responsible for brutal village massacres several years ago, and then killed his replacement, the interior ministry announced. In a sweep that began in early November, soldiers and security forces also seized gold stolen from homes during the massacres, as well as weapons and vehicles used by the group, the statement said on Monday. The arrest of Nourredine Boudiafi and the killing of Chaabane Younes all but dismantled the already seriously weakened organization, the statement said.
■ Somalia
Clan rivals in fierce battle
Gunmen from rival wings of a Somali clan fought using rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns and assault rifles in central Somalia on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding several others, witnesses said. It is unclear what sparked the battle between the Sa'ad and Suleiman wings of the Habargidir clan, said Muse Ali Kalgaal, a businessman who witnessed the clashes. Fighting broke out before dawn and escalated during the day, with both sides rushing in dozens of fighters in the Mudug region of central Somalia, Muse said. Clashes between the same groups killed more than 100 people last month.
■ Burundi
Rebels join new army
Burundi's President Domitien Ndayizeye has signed two laws setting up a new army and a police force which will include the central African country's former rebels, his office announced on Monday. The creation of new security forces is part of a political and military process under way to implement agree-ments on peace and a new administration to end a decade-long civil war which claimed more than 300,000 lives. "Theoretically, all armed fighters in this country are henceforth the responsibility of the government," presidential spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye said.
■ Kenya
`City of rats' cleaned up
Sanitation officers have cleared 6,000 rats from the biggest fruit and vegetable Kenyan market in Nairobi, where they shared food with human beings for the past decade, Local Government Minister Musikari Kombo said on Monday. "We cleared about 6,000 rats, 757 tonnes of garbage and 38 tonnes of human waste from the market," Kombo said. "That means nobody has cared to look after this market for years and years," he said. "This is a city of rats," he added. The market, the biggest of its kind in the east African nation, was closed last month after government health officers warned that an outbreak of diseases could emerge from the mountain of waste inside.
■ Italy
Dusty tourists sully David
Custodians of Michelangelo's David are thinking of blasting air at dusty, sweaty tourists to stop them sullying the Renaissance sex symbol. Months after a painstaking and costly clean-up of the 500-year-old nude statue, experts at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia found dust and humidity brought in by streams of tourists had begun to tarnish their top crowd-puller again. "The tourists carry in heaps of dust from outside. Dust may sound innocent, but the city grime contains lots of chemicals. They also bring in humidity when it's raining," museum director Franca Falletti said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not