■ Indonesia
Corruption sentence upheld
The country's highest court yesterday upheld a 10-year-jail term handed down to the governor of tsunami-devastated Aceh Province for skimming off state funds. Abdullah Puteh was found guilty by a special anti-corruption court in April of stealing state money by padding the purchase price of a Russian-made Mi-2 helicopter for personal gain. The verdict was hailed as a key victory in Indonesia's war on corruption.
■ Nepal
Encephalitis kills over 200
The government said that Japanese encephalitis has killed more than 200 people in the country, but health workers fear the actual toll could be much higher, with many cases unreported. The mosquito-borne virus can be checked by vaccinations, but Assistant Health Minister Nikshya Sumshere Rana said they are short of vaccine and are trying to import it from China.
■ China
Police arrest 48 villagers
Guangdong police have arrested 48 mostly elderly villagers and seized important evidence in an ongoing dispute over corruption and land requisition. In Taishi village, police stormed the village on Monday and turned on high-pressure water hoses from fire trucks to flush out people inside a government building. Several elderly women were inside guarding around the clock the documents which would prove the village chief had illegally sold their land and pocketed the money, they said. "Several of them fainted at the scene. There were 1,000 police officers," a villager said. The villagers had been protesting for weeks and had gone on hunger strike to pressure the local government to dismiss the village chief.
■ China
Tibetan watchdog closes
The London-based Tibetan Information Network (TIN) said yesterday it was closing because of a lack of funds, silencing an independent monitor of Beijing's policies in the Himalayan region. Since its founding in the late 1980s, TIN produced hundreds of detailed reports examining China's often heavy-handed efforts to bring the deeply Buddhist territory under its control.
■ Pakistan
Madrassas vow to defy law
A coalition of Islamic schools vowed to defy a registration requirement unless Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf withdraws amendments that toughened an existing law. The warning came from an umbrella organization representing some 13,000 seminaries from five different Islamic schools of thought. Islamic schools, known as madrassas, face a deadline to register with the religion ministry by year's end or face being closed down. Musharraf has also demanded that the schools modernize and begin teaching subjects such as English, Urdu, mathematics and computer science. He also ordered Islamic schools to expel their 1,400 foreign students.
■ Japan
Record number of old folks
The number of Japanese aged 100 or older at the end of this month is projected to reach a record 25,606, with women comprising 85 percent of the total. The figure is up from the previous record of 23,038 set last year, the Health Ministry said. Japan's population of centenarians has doubled in just five years, lending urgency to government efforts to shore up its overburdened public pension system as the country's population rapidly grays. Japan is expected to have nearly 1 million people aged 100 and over by 2050 -- the highest number in the world, according to the UN.
■ Japan
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