■ China
Police blog hooks surfers
Crime stories, personal anecdotes and action snaps have propelled "China's first police blog" firmly into the mainstream, state media reported yesterday. The blog, posted by police in Hebei Province, has generated 860,000 hits and leapt into the top 500 most popular blogs on major Web portal sina.com, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said. "Apart from Jackie Chan movies, we also have our own police stories, and they're absolutely real," the paper quoted a police official from Hebei's Public Security Bureau as saying.
■ Thailand
Betting on the king
Lottery gamblers are taking a royal punt on auspicious numbers linked to last week's 60th anniversary on the throne of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a report said yesterday. The best-selling combinations have been 960 and 60, the English-language Nation newspaper said. The nine refers to the monarch's title of Rama the Ninth of the Chakri Dynasty. The next most popular digits were 992, the number of the king's car license plate, then 2470, the king's year of birth according to the Buddhist calendar, the newspaper said.
■ China
US withdraws terror threat
The US has withdrawn a warning about possible terror threats in China just one week after issuing the alert, following discussions with the Chinese government, the embassy said yesterday. "After further investigation and coordination with the Chinese authorities, the United States Government has determined that the information provided on June 9 no longer warrants a heightened level of concern," it said in an e-mailed statement.
■ Thailand
South endures six attacks
Suspected Islamic militants launched six more bomb attacks yesterday in Thailand's insurgency-torn south, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, police said. The bombs went off in garbage bins and restrooms at railways stations in the southern provinces of Yala and Narathiwat, police said, adding that the explosions caused no significant damage. The attacks followed dozens of coordinated bomb blasts that killed two people and injured 21 on Thursday in the southern states bordering Malaysia. More than 1,300 people have been killed since an insurgency broke out in January 2004 in the mainly Muslim and ethnic Malay south, a region also troubled by organized crime and police corruption.
■ Vietnam
Schoolgirl blackmails firm
Police in Hanoi investigating a blackmail plot and bomb threat found the culprit to be a 16-year-old schoolgirl, an official said yesterday. The girl, identified only as "L," admitted she sent a three-page handwritten letter to Hien Le-van, director of the Tanh Linh Petroleum Co, demanding that he pay 10 million dong (US$625) and giving a cellphone number to call to arrange a drop, police said. If Hien did not pay within three days, the letter said, one of the company's five petrol stations would be blown up, explained Minh Nguyen-van, a police investigator in central Binh Thuan province. Hien gave the letter to police. But after the security guard who received the letter told investigators it had been delivered by two young girls on a motorbike, police suspected an amateur.
■ Vietnam
Hero worship `encouraged'
Vietnam's prime minister has decided to impose heavy fines on journalists who criticize national "heroes" and institutions, state media said yesterday. The English daily Vietnam News said a fine of up to 30 million dong (US$1,850) would be levied "to punish violators of culture and information regulations." "Crimes such as denying revolutionary achievements, defaming the nation, great persons and national heroes, slandering and wounding the prestige of agencies and organizations" would now be punished. The decision by Prime Minister Khai Phan-van will come into effect on July 1. "The decision will contribute to maintain order and build a clean culture environment," the Lao Dong daily said, quoting deputy minister of culture and information Doan Do-quy. Any picture or headline which is not in accordance with an article's content "making readers misunderstand about the content of the information" will be fined up to a maximum of 1.5 million dong (US$825).
■ United Kingdom
Woman sent hoax packages
A 72-year-old woman has been charged with sending hoax packages containing sugar and weed killer to Prime Minister Tony Blair, his wife and eldest son, police said on Thursday. Shirley Rita Freed is due to appear in court in Brighton on June 29, London's Metropolitan Police said. Freed is accused of sending the white-colored products in a bid to make the Blairs believe they were some sort of noxious substance, contrary to anti-terrorist laws.
■ Brazil
Millions march for Jesus
About 3 million evangelical Protestants staged a huge rally on Thursday in Sao Paulo, demonstrating their growing influence in the world's largest Roman Catholic country. Crowding next to sound trucks blasting religious music, marchers wore T-shirts in the green and yellow colors of Brazil's flag advertising their annual "March for Jesus." The evangelicals walked to Avenida Paulista, Brazil's version of Wall Street, then gathered around a stage to hear bands play. Evangelical churches have seen their flocks grow rapidly in recent decades, with millions in the country of more than 180 million attracted by their dynamic services and promises that divine intervention will improve their lives.
■ France
Bomb blasts rock Corsica
Three overnight explosions hit resort towns in Corsica, damaging two vacation homes and a bar but causing no casualties, police said on Friday. The first blast nearly destroyed a two-story house in Piana on the Mediterranean island's western coast, soon after midnight. An hour later, another explosion lightly damaged a house in Viggianello to the south, according to the regional police headquarters. At 4am a third blast tore through a bar in the beach resort of Porticcio causing serious damage. The bar was closed at the time. No one claimed responsibility for the blasts. They were similar to bombings sporadically carried out by Corsican nationalists in a long-running campaign for greater autonomy.
■ United States
Conjoined twins separated
Doctors remained cautious on Thursday after successfully separating 10-month-old conjoined twins. A team of 80 US doctors successfully separated the twins after a delicate 21-hour operation. The girls, Renata and Regina Salinas Fierros, had been joined at the lower chest through the pelvis, facing one other. They were separated at the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, where they remained in serious condition with stable vital signs, hospital officials said. The girls are a rare type of conjoined twins known as ischiopagus tetrapus.
■ El Salvador
`Social cleansing' growing
A spike in the number of murders of gang members and criminals is raising concern that resurgent death squads are carrying out "social cleansing," the Catholic Church said on Thursday. Last year, 3,812 people were murdered, up from 2,993 killed in 2004. Church lawyers said in a report that the killings "systematically" targeted criminals. "The systematic nature of the cases leads one to believe that they have been committed to sow terror and carry out social cleansing," the report said. The Church did not say who might be responsible for the killings, but in the past members of the security forces have been blamed.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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