■ Myanmar
Official defects to US
A retired army officer attached to Myanmar's embassy in Washington has absconded with his family, and may be seeking political asylum, an official newspaper and political analysts said yesterday. "U Aung Lin Htut, a retired major, attached to the Myanmar embassy in Washington ... absconded with his wife Daw Tin Lay Nwe, one son, two daughters and a maid, in an act of betrayal to the state on April 1, 2005," state-owned the New Light of Myanmar reported yesterday. Political analysts said the official was a former major in the military intelligence unit of ousted Mynmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt.
■ Singapore
Cameras scare people away
Surveillance cameras installed in a red light district in Singapore have scared off prostitutes and affected legitimate business in the area, a report said yesterday. Shopkeepers in the Geylang district complained business had deteriorated since the cameras were put into operation last week, the Sunday Times reported. "The men are staying away because they're afraid of being misunderstood bytheir wives, while our women customers are staying away because they don't want to be mistaken as prostitutes," Joyce Low, who runs an acupuncture and foot reflexology business in the area, was quoted as saying.
■ Japan
Suspected spy arrested
Japanese police have raided the home of a former technical official with the Defense Agency on suspicion of stealing submarine documents for possible passage to China, reports said yesterday. The former official allegedly took out copies of technical documents on Japanese submarines several times without permission until he retired in March 2002, the Yomiuri Shimbun and other dailies said without naming sources. Police declined to comment on the reports. The former official, now 63, gave the copies to a long-time acquaintance who ran a food import company dealing with China, the reports said.
■ Philippines
Seven rebels killed
Seven Communist rebels were killed in separate clashes with government troops in the southern Philippines, the military said yesterday. Army Major General Samuel Bagasin said two rebels were killed Friday in a firefight with patrolling troops in Nasipit town in Agusan del Norte province, 810km south of Manila. "There was no casualty on the government side," he said. "Our troops also recovered two assault rifles, one landmine and other equipment left behind by the fleeing rebels." One day before, five rebels were killed in a clash with government troops in the southern city of Davao, according to a military report.
■ Nepal
Rebels blockade capitol
A Maoist rebel blockade paralysed the main entry point to Nepal's capitol yesterday with hundreds of trucks and buses stranded awaiting security checks and armed escorts, a police source said. Troops and police were escorting truck and bus convoys to and from the capital to guard against attacks from the rebels, who are fighting to topple the monarchy and set up a communist republic. "At least 500 vehicles are queuing up at Nagdhunga which will be allowed to move out of Kathmandu late Sunday morning escorted by security personnel," the police source said.
■ United Kingdom
FBI monitors rights activists
US special agents were so concerned about the activities of Britain's leading animal rights extremists that they tapped their phones and intercepted their e-mails over a six-month period as part of a covert surveillance operation. According to documents filed in a US court, between November 2002 and the following April the FBI made a series of applications to judges that allowed it to monitor conversations between the UK leaders of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, the group that campaigns to close the Cambridgeshire-based animal research firm Huntingdon Life Sciences, and their US counterparts.
RSS