World News Quick Take

■ Indonesia
Bali bombing verdict upheld
The Jakarta High Court has upheld a guilty verdict and two and a half year sentence handed to Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for involvement in the 2002 Bali blasts that killed 202 people, an official said yesterday. "In their ruling, the panel of judges upheld the verdict made by the South Jakarta district court [on March 3]," Hussein Kasim, the court spokesman told reporters. He said the decision was made in a closed session last week.

■ Bangladesh
100 feared dead in accident
Authorities yesterday they feared at least 100 people drowned after a ferry capsized in a remote southern area as strong currents and heavy winds hampered efforts to locate the sunken ship. Six people were confirmed dead, but officials fear many more bodies were washed away in stormy weather or were still trapped in the sunken ferry. The ferry, carrying villagers to a weekly market, had a capacity of 80 people, but was likely to have had at least double that number on board, officials said. The ferry went down on Sunday morning in high winds and strong currents on the Char Kazal river near Galachipa, about 250km south of Dhaka.

■ Singapore
Foreign activist barred
Singapore a foreign activist from entering the country indefinitely after he was deemed to be interfering in Singapore's domestic politics, authorities said yesterday. The Home Affairs Ministry said Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, an activist with Washington-based Nonviolence International, was refused entry on Friday. He was to have conducted a democracy workshop organized by an opposition party. The ban comes a month after the government denied an official from rights group Amnesty International a permit to speak at a forum on the death penalty.

■ Indonesia
Attackers kill five police
Gunmen killed five police officers from an elite unit in a pre-dawn attack on a village in the strife-torn Moluccas islands, police said. Moluccas police spokesman Endro Prasetyo said one unidentified attacker died in the raid on a security post. Prasetyo said about six attackers raided the post on Seram island, where 14 members of the mobile brigade were sleeping. Police said they had no idea who was behind the attack. "We are having difficulties in identifying them. We don't know the motive yet. We found an old rifle, bullet shells and homemade bombs. I think there is a party who wants to provoke a situation that is not conducive [to stability]," Prasetyo said.

■ Hong Kong
Tsang to run for top post
Acting Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) is expected to announce his bid next week to become the city's next chief executive, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Citing an unnamed source close to Tsang, the newspaper said an announcement would come soon after May 25, the day a change to the chief executive's tenure is due to be passed into law. China's parliament ruled last month that the term of Hong Kong's next leader would be limited to two years, following the unexpected resignation of Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) in March. A bill seeking to limit the term of the new chief executive is scheduled to be put to a vote in the Legislative Council on May 25. Currently attending the Fortune Global Forum in Beijing, Tsang was scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤)late yesterday along with other officials.

■ Kuwait
Female suffrage on the way
Parliament agreed to discuss a bill that would grant women the right to vote and stand in elections, after pressure from the pro-Western Gulf Arab state's government. Analysts said the government, which hopes for success on the controversial issue before a likely trip by the prime minister to Washington next month, tempted lawmakers with a concession on a bill on salary hikes for most public and private employees. "They are facing strong American pressure. Kuwait's leaders have promised the United States that they back women's rights," political analyst Jassem al-Saadoun said. After the Cabinet yesterday agreed to discuss the pay rises, a majority of parliament members agreed to debate the women's suffrage bill.

■ Italy
Hash cake sickens 13
A potent hashish-laden "space cake" landed 13 people, aged 24 to 34, in a Florence hospital suffering from stomach pains and vomiting. The group was forced to call the police after they all became sick from eating the cake on Saturday. They got the recipe on the Internet, which said to put 100g of hashish in the cake. Police said they would not charge the group, which said it had bought the illegal drugs from a foreign dealer.

■ Libya
African migrants drown
At least 14 African migrants trying to reach Italy drowned when their boat sank off the coast of Libya, and three other passengers were missing. The boat had aboard 23 illegal migrants -- from North and Sub-Sahara Africa countries -- when it sank off An Noukat al Khams area, a few hours after it left Libya for Italy on Sunday. Security forces recovered 14 bodies, rescued six people and were still searching for three missing illegal migrants.

■ Japan
Abbas promises poll
Palestinian Mahmud Abbas said yesterday that summer elections would go ahead as scheduled after talk of a delay amid fears the Islamist group Hamas would post gains. Abbas made his comments in Japan, where he is seeking to cement financial backing for a future Palestinian state. An Abbas aide last week openly mulled the idea of postponing a July legislative election amid fears in the Palestinians' ruling Fatah party that Hamas could capitalize on recent local poll successes. "July 17 parliamentary elections will go ahead as planned," Abbas said. He called for Hamas, which has violently opposed the peace process with Israel, to become engaged in mainstream politics. "It's possible they could become a political organization in the future," Abbas said.

■ France
Government plan ignored
Less two weeks before a referendum on the EU constitution, the French government faced a major test to its authority yesterday as half the country ignored its decision to scrap a national holiday in order to raise money for the elderly. Instead, millions determined to take their traditional Pentecost holiday in spite of official urgings. Pentecost, which has been a holiday for French workers since the late 19th century, was designated an annual "day of solidarity" following a heat wave in 2003 which killed an estimated 15,000 mainly old people. But polls showed that more than two-thirds opposed the abolition of the holiday and unions took advantage of the mood of contention to call for a day of strikes and stoppages.