■ Australia
E Timor Peacekeepers leave
The last of Australia's peacekeeping forces departed East Timor yesterday, ending a six-year operation in which up to 5,000 soldiers were deployed to the newly independent nation. The troops were sent as part of a UN peacekeeping force after East Timor voted to break free from Indonesia in 1999, triggering a wave of violence by Indonesian troops and their proxy militias in which about 1,500 people were killed and 300,000 left homeless. East Timorese government officials bid farewell to the remaining 14 Australian troops, who boarded a UN flight in Dili early yesterday. Australia's national commander for East Timor said it was now time for East Timor to turn its focus to nation-building.
■ India
Police, rebels in gun battle
Security forces fought rebels in a fierce, all-night gunbattle ending yesterday near India's border with Nepal, leaving 21 dead in the first coordinated attack involving both Indian and Nepalese communist militants. The gunbattle was triggered when some 400 suspected Maoist rebels attacked a police station and two state-run banks in Bihar state's Madhuban village on Thursday. Surprise assaults are a favorite mode of attack of Nepal's Maoist rebels, who are known to often use villagers as human shields.
■ India
Dancing girls win ban delay
Tens of thousands of dancing girls in India's financial and film capital of Mumbai have won a delay against a government decision to close down bars where they work. The state governor has refused to approve the move for now. The state government wants to close the bars because it says they corrupt local youth and are a front for prostitution and organized crime. About 75,000 women work in the bars, along with another 75,000 waiters, bouncers, cooks and cleaners. The women wear relatively modest saris as they dance to Bollywood hits and customers give them cash. Men are not allowed to touch the dancers. Thousands of dancers and other bar workers took to the streets against the ban, saying they couldn't find other jobs, and have launched a court challenge.
■ Thailand
Energy cutbacks urged
Thai television and radio stations have been asked to stop broadcasting at midnight as part of a series of government-urged energy-saving measures to combat soaring oil prices, rising inflation and falling economic output. Government offices should raise the temperature at which the air conditioning kicks in to 25?C and turn the systems off between 4pm and 9am and for an hour at lunchtime; employees should take jackets off at work; golf courses should switch off unnecessary lights; and people should use their cars less at weekends.
■ Romania
Priest, four nuns defrocked
A priest and four nuns accused of the crucifixion murder of a nun because she was "a spy of the devil" were placed in police custody on Thursday and banished by their religious order. The court of Vaslui issued arrest warrants on Thursday for priest Daniel Corogeanu, 29, and four nuns, who had been detained on Wednesday. The prosecutor told the court the four nuns had claimed full responsibility for the death of Maricica Irina Cornici, 23, and said they had acted of their own free will and without the knowledge of Corogeanu. The five face charges of illegal confinement and murder.
■ Egypt
Police called over exam
An algebra question on the year-end exam for Egyptian secondary students proved so difficult for one Cairo student that his father submitted a complaint against the minister of education to police, a newspaper reported on Thursday. The father contended that the question was outside the curriculum and was posed incorrectly, thereby harming his son's psychological state during the test, said a report published by Al-Gomhouriya. Submitting complaints to police against officials is a common practice in Egypt. Although such complaints are rarely followed up, the channel remains a popular one for people to vent frustration at the government.
RSS