■ Indonesia
Bali bomb suspects named
Two men arrested earlier this month, including a close aide to the country's most wanted militant, were named as suspects yesterday for involvement in last year's restaurant bombings on Bali, a police spokesman said. Police last week accused four other male suspects in the same case of helping hide accused militant mastermind Noordin M. Top during and after the bombings that killed 20 people. Police have been conducting a nationwide manhunt for Top, a senior member of Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy militant group seen as the Southeast Asian arm of al-Qaeda.
■ Malaysia
Obese to lose weight on TV
It will be twice the pleasure for 12 obese Malaysians: They will shed weight and gain stardom. Some 500 people weighing at least 100kg auditioned on Sunday for a weight-loss reality TV show that will select 12 contestants to lose weight under weekly scrutiny by a Malaysian audience, the New Straits Times newspaper reported. The contestants will undergo a full fitness and nutrition regime during the course of the show, Diet Down, Cheer Up, on state-owned TV 2, it said.
■ Malaysia
Panel to ban strip searches
A five-member panel of experts has recommended a ban on strip searches by police after an uproar over a secret video of a naked woman being forced to perform squats in police custody, the Utusan Malaysia newspaper said yesterday. The panel suggested that police stations be equipped with body scanners. It said no prisoner should be stripped completely naked by officers, and searches should be limited to pat searches, conditional strip searches and intimate searches.
■ Australia
Granny survives snake bite
A great-grandmother who was bitten twice by a deadly snake while she sat on her sofa knitting and watching tennis has been offered free tickets to the Australian Open. Val Makin was watching the grand slam tournament on television on Sunday at home in Werribee, near Melbourne, when she was surprised by the meter-long brown snake. "I got such a fright," the 78-year-old told Australian television, before adding that she hadn't dropped a stitch. Makin was treated in hospital overnight and released. She said the snake's fangs had scratched her forearm but none of its deadly venom had entered her bloodstream.
■ China
Engineer wants to lift Bund
A Chinese engineer wants to give Shanghai's historic riverfront bank district a lift. Literally. Raymond Shaw says using hydraulic jacks to raise the stone edifices of the famed Bund would create valuable commercial space while preserving the 100-year-old neighborhood's original look. "It's totally technically achievable," Shaw was quoted as saying by yesterday's Shanghai Daily newspaper. Shaw has done this sort of thing before. He gained instant notoriety in 2003 by leading a team that shifted the city's historic concert hall more than 66m to make way for new road construction. However, Shaw said he didn't see the Bund project being taken up right away given its "extremely huge scale."
■ China
Emergency plan approved
The nation's leaders have approved a plan for coping with major disasters ranging from railway accidents to nuclear catastrophes, state media reported yesterday. The plan is aimed at preventing unrest, improving efficiency and increasing "competence" in dealing with such emergencies, the state-run China Daily and other reports said. The report said the plan was issued by the State Council on Jan. 8, and that it includes guidelines for dealing with natural disasters, accidents, public health issues and "social safety incidents." The government will set up an office to handle emergency response management that will collect information and provide coordination, it said.
■ PHILIPPINES
China ties not a threat
China's security cooperation with the Philippines poses no threat to the Asia-Pacific region, Beijing's ambassador to Manila said yesterday after giving equipment to the Philippines to help fight Communist rebels. Li Jinjun (李進軍) said China was not expecting any extra political or diplomatic concessions from the Philippines in exchange for some US$1.2 million worth of bulldozers and graders donated yesterday. "The defense and military cooperation between us will not ... pose any threat to a third country," Li said at an army camp in Manila. "China has consistently adhered to a national defense policy that is defensive in nature," he said.
■ INDIA
Criminals cast in new film
A director is giving his latest film on the underworld an air of authenticity by casting his actors based on their criminal background, the Times of India reported yesterday. Film director Nabh Kumar Raju of Bombay claims to have auditioned 700 people for his film Hitlist, asking the wannabe actors only one question,"Have you ever attempted any crime?" The six successful auditioners, all replied in the affirmative and were signed for the film, it said. Raju boasted that all the lead actors in his film either have a criminal background or were associated with unlawful activity in some way.
■ Poland
Cold claims more lives
At least 21 people died from exposure over the weekend as an Arctic front drove temperatures down to minus 32oC, reports said yesterday. The deaths bring to 144 the number of fatalities due to exposure in Poland since Oct. 1 last year, according to police stati. Homeless persons continued to be most vulnerable and alcohol played a lethal role in some 90 percent of the cases. Daytime temperatures yesterday were expected to range between minus 11oC to minus 20oC, increasing the grim likelihood of more cold-weather related fatalities.
■ United States
Mountain hikers rescued
Four stranded hikers, including a woman with a broken back, were plucked off a Utah mountain by helicopter on Sunday morning after spending the night with a rescue team. Four women and three men had set off early on Saturday for a day snowshoe hike on 2,751m Mount Olympus. They were making their way down the mountain when one woman lost traction and fell 18 to 27m, knocking others down with her and stranding the group on a steep, icy slope, sheriff's Lieutenant. Jon Fassett said. They dug out a snow ledge for safety, he said. Three of the hikers were guided off the mountain by foot overnight, but injuries kept at least three of the other four from walking, Fassett said.
■ Vatican
Papal copyright row erupts
A row has broken out in Rome about whether the speeches and writings of Pope Benedict should be freely available to everyone or subject to copyright. The dispute was prompted by revelations that a publishing house in Milan had to pay US$18,000 to reprint 30 lines from the first speech by the Pope following his election in April, after the Vatican transferred copyright on papal texts to its own publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The Vatican also plans to charge rights on any papal texts of the past 50 years. "I am perplexed," said Vittorio Messori, who has co-authored two books with two popes. "The Church is an organization that exists to spread the word of God and levying a duty on those words, putting a smell of money on it, seems to me to be a very negative thing."
■ United Kingdom
TV shows British `spies'
The British government yesterday expressed "concern and surprise" at a report on Russian state television showing video footage of what it claims are British diplomats spying in Moscow. In the program, people claiming to be Russian intelligence officers say British agents planted a transmitter in an imitation rock on a Moscow street. The officers say British embassy officials then walked past downloading data from the "rock's" transmitter.
■ Sudan
Five AU states speak out
Five African leaders have asked Sudan to withdraw its bid to head the African Union (AU) because, if named, it could sink the Darfur peace talks and dent the group's credibility, an AU official said yesterday. Sudan has nominated itself to chair the 53-member AU, based on a tradition that the host becomes the next head. Sudan, which is under fire for rights abuses, wants to take over from Nigeria at the two-day summit which opened in Khartoum yesterday. The official said that five heads of state had told Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Sunday that he should withdraw.
■ Kuwait
Emir vote requested
The Cabinet has asked parliament to hold a special session today to vote on whether the new emir, who is largely incapacitated by illness, is fit to rule, a lawmaker said yesterday. The request deepens a dispute within the ruling family over whether Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah, who took over on Jan. 15, should assume leadership of the US ally and Gulf Arab oil producer. He is due to take the oath of office before parliament today.
■ Ivory Coast
Peace talks resume
The ruling party is resuming its participation in the West African country's UN-backed peace process, reversing an earlier decision to pull out, its president said yesterday. The Ivorian Popular Front party (FPI) had said last week it was abandoning a UN peace plan in protest against a recommendation by foreign mediators that the country's national assembly be dissolved. The assembly is dominated by supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo and the call by the mediators triggered four days of rioting last week by young Gbagbo loyalists.
■ Belgium
Journalist deaths announced
The loss of dozens of journalists in an Iranian plane crash and relentless targeting of the press in Iraq pushed the total number of media professionals killed around the world to a record 150 last year, the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said in a report yesterday. Deliberate attacks, often by criminals, political extremists or paramilitary groups, accounted for over half the deaths said the IFJ. The organization's annual report said last year saw a trend toward ``targeted assassination of editorial staff'' with 89 ``killed in the line of duty, singled out for their professional work.'' The rest died in accidents or natural disasters while at work, including the 48 Iranians killed in the Dec. 6 plane crash in Tehran.
■ United States
Pantless pranksters detained
From the waist up, they looked like perfectly normal commuters. That wasn't good enough for police. Eight pranksters who dropped their pants and showed their underwear on the subway on Sunday were taken into custody and issued summonses for disorderly conduct. All were ultimately released, said Improv Everywhere, the group that organized the stunt. The group said more than 160 riders participated in the fifth annual No Pants Subway Ride before police halted their No. 6 train about 5pm. Charlie Todd, who founded Improv Everywhere in 2001, said it's not his group's intent to offend. He said he wants to create scenes of chaos and joy in public places around New York.
■ Turkey
Case against author dropped
A court dropped a controversial case against best-selling author Orhan Pamuk for insulting Turkish identity after the justice ministry said it had no authority to try him, CNN Turk TV said on Sunday. Ruling on a case that has been condemned by the EU, the justice ministry told Istanbul's Sisli court it had had no authority under the revised penal code to pursue the trial. Pamuk was charged under article 301 of the new penal code, which forbids insulting the Turkish identity, after he said in a Swiss newspaper interview that no one dared discuss the massacre of a million Armenians in Turkey during World War I.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not