■ Kazakhstan
Media control law passed
The upper house passed new media legislation yesterday despite criticism from the US and others that the changes represented a setback to press freedom. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has to sign the amendments for the new law to come into effect. If approved, the amendments would put reporters under tighter state control and make registration harder for news outlets. News organizations need official registration in order to operate.
■ Singapore
Briton jailed for murders
British businessman Michael McCrea was sentenced to 24 years in prison yesterday for killing his Singaporean chauffer and the driver's Chinese girlfriend. McCrea, 48, was sentenced to the maximum 10 years each for two counts of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. He received an additional four years for causing evidence to disappear in relation to a murder, his lawyer Kelvin Lim said. McCrea admitted on Monday to strangling his driver Koh Nai Guan, 46, and using a plastic bag to suffocate Lan Ya Ming, 29. The court was told that McCrea had a fight with Koh who had used the word "slut" to describe McCrea's Singaporean girlfriend, while Ming was killed because she was a witness.
■ Thailand
British fugitive nabbed
Christopher Alan Caunter, 34, who is wanted in the UK on murder and drug charges, was arrested by Thai police late on Wednesday in the beach resort of Cha Am. Caunter is accused of killing his fiance, Deborah Jane Townsend, 35, by pushing her out of her car in Suffolk, then backing over her, a police spokesman said.
■ China
Fines for flying phone users
China's aviation regulator plans to quadruple fines for airline passengers who use mobile phones during flights due to concerns that the calls are threatening flight safety, state media said yesterday. Fines for in-flight cellphone use will be raised to 2,000 yuan (US$250) from the current 500 yuan, the official China Daily newspaper said, citing draft regulations from the General Administration of Civil Aviation.
■ China
Vice governor detained
China has detained a vice governor of Anhui Province for taking bribes, close on the heels of the sacking of a vice mayor of Beijing on similar grounds, a Hong Kong-based watchdog said yesterday. He Minxu (何閩旭), 50, was taken into custody by the Communist Party's internal corruption monitor, the discipline inspection commission, on Monday for allegedly accepting 300,000 yuan (US$37,510) in bribes from a businessman, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement. An officer at the provincial government declined to confirm or discuss the issue.
■ Philippines
Poor officers pawn guns
Six police officers may lose their jobs for pawning their guns in the southern Philippines, where underfunded and poorly paid security forces are fighting Muslim and communist insurgencies. German Doria, police chief of the central region of Mindanao island, said on Wednesday the incidents of government-issued guns being pawned came to light when the National Bureau of Investigation raided shops selling stolen goods in Tupi town. "What these police officers had done was tantamount to grave misconduct and they should be dismissed from the service," Doria told reporters, adding that he had ordered an inventory of guns issued to all officers in South Cotabato province.
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