■ Malaysia
Floods cause evacuations
Around 50,000 people have been forced to evacuate their flooded homes in the south as the region suffered its heaviest rainfall in a century, news reports said yesterday. The rains, blamed on Typhoon Utor, triggered large-scale flooding, cut off several towns in the southern state of Johor, shut down power and water supplies and disrupted train services. One passenger bus fell into a ravine early yesterday in the southern town of Kota Tinggi but none of the six people on board were injured.
■ Cambodia
Former top cop in custody
A former police chief convicted of masterminding the murder of a judge was flown back to Cambodia yesterday, soon after he lost a court ruling in Malaysia, police said. Cambodia has sought custody of Heng Peo, who was sentenced in absentia to 18 years in jail on charges of organizing the murder of a judge in April 2003. Heng Peo says he was wrongly accused. Heng Peo arrived in Cambodia on a special flight from Malaysia.
■ Malaysia
Memorial plan protests
The opposition yesterday protested against plans to tear down a monument to ethnic Chinese who resisted Japanese occupation, saying it was a sign of the government's disregard for the community. About a dozen members of the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party gathered at a private cemetery in western Negeri, Sembilan State, where the monument was erected this year. Party Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng said the government had misinterpreted the "honorable intentions" of the Chinese and instead accused them of being communist sympathizers.
■ Thailand
Old airport may re-open
The government is mulling reopening Bangkok's old international airport, just three months after it closed to make way for the much-heralded Suvarnabhumi airport, an official said yesterday. Almost three months after opening, the new airport has lingering problems led by inadequate bathrooms and seating areas, dirtiness and safety concerns for female flight attendants, who have complained of sexual harassment by construction workers at the site. Low-cost airline operators have asked airport officials to let them move back to Don Muang, saying the new airport has become congested and their costs rose after relocation to Suvarnabhumi.
■ Japan
Top tax official resigns
A top tax official who was handpicked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned yesterday after he was caught living with his mistress, not his wife, at a government apartment. The resignation of Masaaki Homma, chairman of the Tax Commission, was a personal decision and did not reflect pressure from Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said. Homma, considered a business-friendly tax expert, was chosen to help spearhead Abe's push for tax reform. Calls for Homma's resignation erupted after the Weekly Post magazine reported earlier this month that he had been living in a plush government apartment in Tokyo with the woman.
■ China
Man kills two schoolkids
A man attacked a group of schoolchildren with a knife in Xinjiang, killing two of them and injuring three others plus their teacher, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The man dashed towards the pupils and their teacher when they were about to cross the street in front of their school on Wednesday afternoon, it reported. One pupil died on the spot and another died in hospital, it quoted police as saying. Another three children and the injured teacher were in stable condition, Xinhua said. Police arrested a 38-year-old man but said the motive for the attack was still unknown.
■ Vietnam
Police seize elephant tusks
Police in northern Vietnam have seized more than 100kg of elephant tusks being smuggled to China to be used for jewelry and home decoration, an official said yesterday. Last Sunday, police stopped a taxi loaded with 26 tusks weighing 117.5kg as it headed toward the northern border town of Mong Cai, said Nguyen Cao Le, an official with the Quang Ninh provincial Forest Control Bureau. The shipment was being transported by a transnational ring that smuggles elephant tusks from Laos to China via Vietnam, he said. Police have arrested an alleged member of the ring suspected of organizing the shipment, he said.
■ South Korea
School probes blood pledge
A South Korean teacher is being investigated after telling two pupils to write in their own blood as punishment for failing to do their homework, education authorities said yesterday. Authorities in Gunsan said that the teacher, in her mid-20s, told two 13-year-old boys they could either write a pledge in blood to do their homework in future or clean the room as punishment. When the teacher briefly left the room, the two boys cut their index fingers with penknives. Kang Hoi-sug, an official at the Office of Education in Gunsan, denied local news reports that the boys actually wrote the statement, saying they were immediately taken to the school nurse.
■ United Kingdom
Kids attack Santa
A Father Christmas at a Scottish shopping mall swapped his traditional red and white hat for a protective helmet after children pelted him with mince pies. Santa was hit on the head by pastries thrown from a balcony as he handed out chocolate coins in Paisley, near Glasgow, at the weekend. "Health and safety is paramount," center manager Andrew MacKinnon said on Wednesday. "We issued him with a yellow hardhat equipped with a pair of reindeer antlers to make it look more festive."
■ Russia
Bailiffs ban holidays
Bailiffs announced on Wednesday a novel way to prod debtors to fork out -- bar them from leaving the country for the holidays. Drafted in Saint Petersburg, the pay-or-don't-go scheme covers such sins as unpaid alimony and parking tickets or banking debts. "A Russian citizen can be refused the right to go overseas if he hasn't fulfilled all his judicial obligations," the country's bailiff service warned on its Internet site. In a further humiliation, the list of debtors -- numbering 10,000 in Saint Petersburg alone -- will be sent to airports and train stations as of tomorrow.
■ South Africa
New orchid species found
A new species of orchid with beetroot-red leaves and a white flower has been discovered growing on a high mountain peak, conservation officials said Wednesday. A member of the genus Disa, which is part of the orchid family, the new flower was found near the summit of the 2,026m-high Sneeuberg, the highest mountain in the Cape's Cederberg range. Late last month a team of botanists found about 40 of the orchids on the mountain. "It was an arduous climb, straight up," Tessa Oliver, a botanist from the University of Western Cape, said.
■ United Kingdom
Soldier on trial over secrets
A soldier has appeared in court accused of divulging secret information, newspapers reported yesterday, with the Times saying the charges related to information on Afghanistan passed to Iran. The Daily Telegraph said Daniel James had communicated with a "foreign power" believed to be Iran. The newspaper, which did not give a source for its information, said it had learned he acted as an interpreter for NATO's commander in Afghanistan, British General David Richards. The Daily Telegraph said James was of Iranian descent and spoke fluent Pashtun, the main language in Afghanistan. The 44-year-old James appeared at a London magistrates court on Wednesday charged under the Official Secrets Act, the newspapers said.
■ Austria
Historian wins appeal
British historian David Irving was set to be deported from Austria after winning an appeal on Wednesday against a three-year prison sentence for denying the Holocaust. The court in Vienna ruled that Irving should serve the remainder of his sentence on probation. Irving had been in jail since his arrest on a visit to Austria in November last year. He was convicted in February for denying the Nazis organized the mass murder of 6 million Jews. "The fact that the offense was committed a long time ago, 17 years, was a mitigating circumstance," Judge Ernest Maurer said. "We expect Irving will leave Austria immediately. We don't suspect he will commit another offense."
■ Spain
Suspect faces extradition
The government could extradite a former Argentine officer back to his home country to face trial for hundreds of disappearances during military rule after a court on Wednesday ruled it had no jurisdiction over him. The High Court said it would invite Argentina to apply for the extradition of Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, who worked in Buenos Aires' Navy School of Mechanics, a notorious torture center during the 1976-83 military dictatorship. Cavallo was extradited to Spain from Mexico in 2003 and Spanish prosecutors had requested up to 17,000 years in prison for the death and torture of Spanish citizens. Judge Baltasar Garzon accuses Cavallo of "participating directly and actively in carrying out arrests, kidnappings, transfers, torture and killings."
■ France
Cult leader acquitted
A leader of the new-age cult the Solar Temple, accused of inciting dozens of followers to carry out murder-suicide pacts in France, Switzerland and Canada, was on Wednesday acquitted by a French appeals court. Michel Tabachnik, a 64-year-old Swiss-French orchestra conductor, had been charged with criminal association and murder for having written tracts that allegedly encouraged the followers to take their own lives and those of others in the secret society in 1994 and 1995. The verdict by the Grenoble court upheld a lower court's ruling in 2001 that also acquitted Tabachnik.
■ United States
Judge overturns conviction
A judge cited a lawyer's incompetence as he overturned the murder conviction of a father of three who has served 15 years in prison for a killing that seemed to have occurred while he was out of the country. Jose Garcia must be retried or freed because his defense lawyer failed to pursue proof that he was in the Dominican Republic during the July 16, 1991, murder of Cesar Vasquez, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said. The judge stopped short of ordering Garcia released immediately, saying the government was entitled to retry him for the execution-style killing of his friend Vasquez if it has proof.
■ United States
Anti-Bush gifts selling hot
Some of the T-shirts bear only the date: 01.20.09. The others spell it out: "Bush's Last Day." But both, along with an assortment of "Bush's Last Day" caps, mugs, bumper stickers, buttons and other collectibles are seeing strong sales as politically minded gift givers stock up for this holiday season. One of the most popular items is a pocket-sized clock that counts down the minutes -- and yes, seconds -- left in President George W. Bush's final term in office. "We're close to selling a million pieces of assorted stuff. We'll hit that this Christmas season," said business proprietor Elliott Nachwalter, 56, of Arlington, Vermont.
■ United States
Mount Hood rescue called off
With yet another snowstorm barreling in, search teams gave up any hope of finding two missing climbers alive on wind-whipped Mount Hood and abandoned the rescue effort after nine frustrating days. "We've done everything we can at this point," said Hood River County Sheriff Joe Wampler on Wednesday. He choked back tears after returning from one last, fruitless flyover of the 3,372m peak. As the weather permits, officials will now look for the bodies of Brian Hall and Jerry Cooke, he said. Some of the climbers' relatives had wanted the search called off, though not all, Wampler said.
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