■ South Korea
Talks on the back burner
South Korea's Foreign Ministry ruled out a summit yesterday between President Roh Moo-hyun and Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, only days after Koizumi called for such a meeting. "We don't have such a plan for now," Deputy Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said without elaborating. On Tuesday, Koizumi called for the summit to try to repair the relations strained by the latest standoff over a string of disputed islets -- known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.
■ China
Securing the Olympics
More than 40,000 police officers in Beijing are being trained to handle potential terrorist attacks ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the government said yesterday. The officers began the two-year program on Thursday with a hostage rescue demonstration, the official Xinhua news agency said. Training this year will focus on improving physical strength while next year's program will include simulated conditions, according to Zhao Yuan, director of training at the Beijing Police College, where the sessions are being held.
■ China
Belt your boss
Can't stand your boss, but can't afford to quit? Hire a stand-in to yell at instead. A pair of entrepreneurs in Shanghai are offering themselves as targets for verbal and -- within limits -- physical abuse, letting frustrated office workers vent without killing their careers. Zhang Li and Chen Jun, the founders of Wantong Ltd, said their own workplace frustrations inspired them to quit their jobs and form the company last month.
■ Bangladesh
Storm brews in Bay of Bengal
Coastguards and volunteers were put on alert yesterday as the powerful storm "Mala" gathered force in the Bay of Bengal. Weather officials said the storm was expected to hit land near Chittagong and Cox's Bazaar and could also affect India and Myanmar. Regional weather officials only recently started naming the severe storms that routinely lash south Asian countries. "Mala", the first to be named, means "a garland of flowers" in Bengali.
■ Afghanistan
Police chief survives blast
A senior police official escaped an assassination attempt but his two guards were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle yesterday, police said. Niaz Mohammed, the chief of Danan district, said he came under attack on a road about 25km east of the southern city of Kandahar. Mohammed blamed the Taliban for the attack, although he offered no evidence to back up his claim. More than four years since a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime, attacks led by militants are causing concern for thousands of NATO troops moving into volatile southern regions to take over from US forces.
■ Indonesia
Iran to invest in oil and gas
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will sign US$600 million in investments in Indonesia's gas and oil sector during a state visit next month, a foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday. "Iran wants to invest US$200 million to fix offshore refinery platforms in Indonesia and also to invest US$400 million in building a gas pipeline from South Sumatra to Batam," Yuri Thamrin said at a press briefing. Indonesia is the sole Southeast Asian member of OPEC, but it was a net oil importer last year. Its oil industry has suffered and foreign investors have been scared away amid perceptions of corruption, poor infrastructure and judicial unpredictability.
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