■ Japan
Abe a sure bet for PM: poll
A newspaper poll published yesterday indicated that Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe can be sure he'll win the race for leadership of the ruling party, a day after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi endorsed him as his successor. In the latest poll published by the national Asahi Shimbun yesterday, 54 percent of Japanese voters picked Abe as most suited for the next prime minister, while Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki and Foreign Minister Taro Aso received only about 10 percent each. The remaining respondents were undecided. The three are vying for the top post in the governing Liberal Democratic Party on the Sept. 20 ballot. Koizumi's term expires later this month.
■ Nepal
Rights group slams everyone
Both the government and Maoist rebels are killing people and violating human rights despite their truce, a leading rights group in the Himalayan nation said yesterday. Subodh Pyakurel, chairman of rights group Informal Service Sector Center (INSEC), said that the Maoists had killed 11 people while nine had died in action by security forces. Both sides have been observing a truce since May after King Gyanendra gave up absolute rule following street protests and handed power to an alliance of seven political parties. INSEC also reported the Maoists had violated the truce 144 times compared to 22 cases involving government forces.
■ Thailand
Tourist restrictions tightened
The government will tighten entry regulations for tourists in a bid to crack down on illegal foreign workers, the Immigration Bureau said yesterday. The move, which takes effect on Oct. 1, would affect tourists from 41 countries including Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the US, said Suwat Tham-rongsrisakul, the head of the bureau. Currently, tourists from 41 countries can enter Thailand without visas and stay in the kingdom for up to 30 days. They can extend their stay by checking out of the country, mainly by crossing the borders of Cambodia and Laos, and returning with new entry stamps.
■ Australia
Labor Party wins vote
The center-left Labor Party won a landslide election victory in the second-biggest state of Queensland, locking in the party's grip on all state governments, results showed yesterday. Prime Minister John Howard's conservative Liberal-National coalition, which holds power at the federal level, failed for the fourth straight time to gain control of the tourism-rich "Sunshine State" on the northeast coast. All Australia's six states and two territories are governed by Labor, while Howard and his coalition have held power nationally for 10 years. Despite winning four elections at the national level, the conservatives have lost the past 22 state and territory elections.
■ Malaysia
Mahathir loses home vote
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed's humiliating defeat in a grassroots party ballot shows he is finished as a force in politics after waging a bitter anti-government campaign, analysts said yesterday. For the right to address the ruling United Malay National Organization's annual assembly in November he was forced to contest a party ballot in his home state of Kedah on Saturday. He came in ninth out of the 15 candidates vying for seven delegates' positions.
■ Namibia
Record attempt falls short
Namibians narrowly missed their first-ever attempt to break a world record on Saturday after safety fears forced organizers to abandon what could have been the world's biggest barbecue. Thousands of people had gathered at a sports stadium in Windhoek to feast on an 8km sausage in an effort to beat the record set in Australia 13 years before. But after the barbecue, the organizers said the crowd began pushing at the gates, forcing them to stop the count. Namibia needed to feed 44,159 people to break the Guinness World Record and when organizers called off the counting they were just 152 short.
■ Canada
Dalai Lama is now a citizen
The minister of citizenship and immigration personally presented the Dalai Lama with Canadian citizenship on Saturday in Vancouver. Monte Solberg presented a framed certificate to the smiling Dalai Lama before a cheering crowd of 12,000 who came to hear the Tibetan Buddhist leader and Nobel peace laureate speak on "Cultivating Happiness." "You are a leading champion of human dignity and we recognize the qualities which make you a Nobel Peace Prize recipient," Solberg said.
■ Montenegro
First parliament vote held
Voters in the world's newest country, voted yesterday in the first parliamentary elections since their tiny Balkan nation became independent from Serbia. The vote for the 81-seat assembly is essential to Montenegro's aspirations to join the EU and NATO and the new parliament will be charged with drafting and passing a national Constitution. The governing coalition, which led the nation to independence after a May referendum, has campaigned on promises to lead Montenegro quickly toward membership in international organizations.
■ Canada
PM praises Chinese role
Prime Minister Stephen Harper paid tribute on Saturday to the Chinese community in the country, thanking its members for their contributions to society. "Through your dedication to family and community, solid work ethic and commitment to educational achievement, you are helping to secure Canada's place in the 21st century. This is something for which the government of Canada is exceptionally grateful," Harper said at the inauguration of new facilities at the Chinese Cultural Center of Greater Toronto. "The Canada we know and cherish would not exist without your efforts," he said.
■ Nicaragua
Police bust hooch sellers
Police stepped up raids on establishments selling moonshine on Saturday, bursting into seedy bars and liquor stores selling an adulterated cane liquor that the government says has killed at least 27 people. Leon, about 90km northwest of the capital, Managua, is the center of the epidemic. Overnight, about 100 new patients were admitted to the already overflowing and rundown public hospital there, raising fears of more deaths. Following tips from the public, police burst into bars and shops in the colonial city and seized grubby plastic barrels filled with suspected hooch. Many of the bars are bare concrete rooms where the raw liquor is sold to customers who bring their own jugs or even plastic bags to hold the drink.
■ Iraq
PM to visit Iran
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki plans to visit Iran today to discuss security and political matters with Iranian leaders, his spokesman said on Saturday. The visit would be the first by al-Maliki to Iran since he took office in late May. The visit is expected to last two days. A delegation led by Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister, traveled to Iran last week to pave the way for al-Maliki's visit. Al-Maliki lived for some time in Tehran, the Iranian capital, while in exile during former president Saddam Hussein's rule. The purpose of al-Maliki's visit is to "enhance relationships between the two countries," his spokesman, Ali al-Dabagh, said in a written statement.
■ United States
Former Iranian leader sued
A group of Jewish Iranians who say their missing relatives were kidnapped and tortured by the Iranian government have sued the country's former president, delivering the summons to him directly while he was visiting New York. The seven families, who reside in Los Angeles and Israel, say their relatives were arrested at different times between 1994 and 1997 as they tried to leave Iran by crossing into Pakistan. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in Manhattan federal court, claims former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami instituted policies that prevented the relatives from having fair trials.
■ Lebanon
Syria disputes deployment
Syria said on Saturday it did not accept the deployment of European guards on the Lebanese side of the two countries' border to help prevent alleged arms shipments to Hezbollah. The official news agency SANA said "there is no truth to news reports of Syria's acceptance of European border guards to monitor the border from Lebanon." Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi earlier said Syria had agreed in principle to allow unarmed EU personnel to patrol its border with Lebanon. Prodi had said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who last month warned deployment of international forces on the border would be a "hostile" move, had approved the idea.
■ Canada
Clinton throws birthday bash
A litany of movies stars and musicians helped former US president Bill Clinton celebrate his 60th birthday in style at the posh Royal York Hotel in Toronto on Saturday night, according to local reports. The event, a veiled fundraiser for his charitable foundation with tables selling for up to US$200,000, attracted Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, David Letterman's sidekick Paul Shaffer, and comedian Billy Crystal, who joked about the fitful urinating habits of older men. Country music star Tim McGraw and legendary folk singer James Taylor paid the charismatic man from Hope, Arkansas, a musical tribute. His wife, US Senator Hillary Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea also attended.
■ Russia
All miners accounted for
The final death toll from a fire at a remote gold mine reached 25 yesterday as rescuers found the bodies of four men, the last of the miners trapped deep underground three days earlier. Relatives had been keeping vigil on the surface hoping the four might be brought out alive after eight survivors emerged from the pit on Saturday. All 33 men trapped when the fire broke out in the mine's main shaft on Thursday have now been accounted for, Interfax news agency said, quoting the local administration in the Chita region of Eastern Siberia. A rescue operation involving 300 people was being wound down.
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Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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