■ Vietnam
Death law changes proposed
The police ministry has proposed abandoning firing squads in favor of lethal injections and cutting the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty, an official and media reports said on Friday. Most crimes that would no longer carry the death penalty were financial, but also included some political offences including "sabotage of peace and provoking a war of aggression" and "opposition to humanity," a report in Law newspaper said. "If approved, the reduction in the recourse to capital punishment will be in tune with the general tendency around the world, which Vietnam should follow," the ministry's judicial department deputy director, Dang Anh, said.
■ China
Gas leak in mine kills 12
A release of poison gas in a coal mine killed at least 12 miners and left three missing, the government said yesterday. The disaster occurred on Friday in the northern city of Dengfeng, in Henan Province, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Henan Provincial Coal Industry Bureau. A total of 56 miners were working in the Malingshan Coal Mine at the time of the accident, and 41 escaped, Xinhua said. It didn't give the cause of the disaster or other details.
■ China
`Divorce Club' launched
A support group called the "Divorce Club" will be launched on Valentine's Day in Shanghai, aiming to help divorcees celebrate the ending of their marriages, state media reported yesterday. Around 135 "wealthy men and women" have already joined the club which will provide counselling services and organize social gatherings as well as divorce celebrations, said the Shanghai-based Youth Daily's Web site. "Actually, to be released from a dead marriage is a happy occasion, so we chose Valentine's Day to launch the club," the Web site quoted the head of the club, Shu Xin, as saying.
■ China
Petitioning dissident freed
A high-profile rights activist said yesterday he had been freed by Chinese authorities after being detained for trying to hand in a petition at Beijing's leadership compound near Tiananmen Square. Yang Maodong, known by his pen name Guo Feixiong (郭飛雄), said he was taken away by police on Wednesday as soon he arrived at the gate of the Zhongnanhai compound, the political center of China. After holding him at a Beijing police station for a day, police escorted him by train back to Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province, where he lives, and released him on Friday he said. Yang's letter had condemned the communist regime's continuous crackdown on activists and scholars who helped farmers protect themselves against forced land requisition, as well as criticizing escalating suppression of media freedoms.
■ Pakistan
Court permits kite flying
The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a ban on kite flying, allowing people all over the country, especially in the central Punjab Province, to celebrate a traditional festival that marks the advent of the spring season. The apex court's bench in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, allowed the festivities -- called Basant -- from Feb. 25 to March 10. But it said violation of the ban thereafter should be dealt with strictly. It proposed a three-year jail term for those found involved in flying kites with metal wire. The court last year imposed the ban after dozens of enthusiasts lost their lives in kite-flying or kite-chasing frenzy.
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