■ Sri Lanka
Stewardess hoaxer fired
An airline stewardess called in a bomb threat because she wanted a day off, a newspaper reported yesterday. Investigators traced the call and found that it was made from a mobile phone belonging to the stewardess' boyfriend, Colombo's Sunday Times weekly reported. "The inquiry reveals that the stewardess had given the false alarm because she did not want to fly that day," it said. The stewardess was fired, it reported. Sri Lankan Airlines spokeswoman Ruvini Jayasinghe declined to deny the report and referred the call to senior officials. In recent months, two bomb threats forced aircraft to return to the ground in Sri Lanka.
■ India
Boat accident kills dozens
An overcrowded boat capsized in the Ganges River, leaving at least 22 people dead and about 60 missing, a government official said yesterday. The 50-seat boat was carrying about 100 people when it sank on Saturday night, said Anil Kumar, a government administrator in Balia district of Uttar Pradesh state, where the accident occurred. Some 20 people swam safely to shore, while the others were feared dead, Kumar said. Police divers had recovered 22 bodies and were searching for the others, he said. Some survivors were injured and were being treated at hospital, Kumar said. Boat accidents are common in Uttar Pradesh, an impoverished state with poor infrastructure.
■ Thailand
Monk slaughtered in temple
Suspected Muslim militants killed a Buddhist monk in the restive Muslim south, police said yesterday. The militants attacked a Buddhist temple in the southern Pattani province late on Saturday, slit the 76-year-old monk's throat, killed two teenage boys and set fire to the temple, according to a police report. The charred bodies of the two teenagers were found in the temple, said the report which did not give details. On Saturday, militants also killed a Buddhist villager in Pattani, a Muslim village defense volunteer in the nearby Narathiwat province and a Muslim village official in Yala province, police said.
■ Philippines
Three killed in rebel attack
Three soldiers were killed when communist rebels attacked their detachment in a central Philippine village, a military report said yesterday. The guerrillas, numbering around 50, swooped down on the army detachment in the hinterland village of Solon, Asturias town in Cebu province, 560km south of Manila, late Saturday. The military report said soldiers fought back, but were outnumbered by the guerrillas resulting in the death of three troopers. Some of the troops assigned at the detachment were on civic duty when the attack occurred, the report added. Additional troops have been dispatched to hunt down the rebels.
■ India
Russians offer military help
Russia's defense minister said yesterday his country is willing to provide India with the latest weaponry and conclude new defense agreements, a news report said. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov is on a three-day visit to India to observe joint Indian-Russian army and naval maneuvers. The two countries plan to collaborate on advanced fighter aircraft, warships and submarines, Ivanov said. India, a key ally of Moscow during the Cold War, has bought more than US$30 billion worth of Russian arms since 1960, and in recent years has closely followed China as the second-largest overseas customer of Russia's weapons industries.
■ Croatia
Driver kills 2, then himself
A bus driver who killed two people in a traffic accident hanged himself in his vehicle shortly afterwards in remorse while police waited to question him. According to police in the eastern town of Osijek the driver first hit parked cars then collided with a car driving in the opposite direction, killing its two occupants. When police arrived they asked the driver, 56, who had been drinking, to await questioning in his bus. "He hanged himself in the bus before we questioned him," an investigating magistrate said, adding that there were no passengers aboard at the time.
■ United Kingdom
Controversial book blocked
The Foreign Office has effectively killed the publication of a controversial fly-on-the-wall memoir of the Iraq war by one of Britain's most senior diplomats. In a move that brought accusations of censorship from its author, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's ambassador to the UN during the preparations for war in 2003, has been blocked in his efforts to reveal "certain truths" about the conflict. Publishers were set to pull the plug on the book after the Foreign Office demanded drastic cuts. Extracts show that Greenstock saw the conflict as "politically illegitimate." Publishing sources said the book was highly unlikely to see the light of day while Tony Blair was still Prime Minister.
■ Russia
Skinheads beat Muslims
A top Muslim authority said that a group of skinheads had attacked a Muslim prayer house and beat a local Muslim leader in a town near Moscow. The Council of Muftis of Russia said that the incident happened on Friday in the town of Sergiyev Posad, 70km northeast of Moscow. "Violating security of Muslim believers, a group of skinheads armed with bars and spades broke into a prayer house and assaulted its visitors, shouting `Russia for Russians!' and `There is no place for Muslims in Russia!''' the council said in a statement. It urged law enforcement to track down and punish the culprits.
■ Malawi
President pleads for aid
A worsening food crisis threatening millions of people in Malawi prompted the president to plead for international aid and declare a state of disaster in the poor southern African nation. President Bingu wa Mutharika said the crisis was threatening 5 million of the country's 11 million people, as drought has slashed the production of maize, a staple. High rates of HIV infection have also contributed to the crisis, with many farmers too sick with AIDS to plant or tend their crops. Many in Malawi's opposition and civil society, however, said the president's call for help was coming too late, and accused him of ignoring calls to declare a national disaster.
■ United Kingdom
New rape charges mulled
Men who pay for sex with women who have been trafficked into the sex trade could be prosecuted for rape. "Whenever a man knowingly has sex with a woman against her will, that is rape," junior Home Office minister Tony McNulty told the Observer. "For example, if a trafficked woman told a man who had paid to have sex with her that she was engaged in prostitution under duress, then he could not reasonably believe she was freely consenting. To go ahead regardless would be rape." The remarks did not suggest Britain would change its laws, but could indicate a change in the way they are interpreted.
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