■ India
Factory fire kills seven
A fire gutted a garment factory in eastern India yesterday, killing seven workers, officials said. The fire hit a sari embroidery factory in Howrah, a suburb of Calcutta, when sparks from electrical wires ignited a can of diesel fuel lying in the factory, said Gopal Bhattacharjee, the director of the staste fire department. The fire, which broke out very early yesterday, has been brought under control, he said, adding that a detailed investigation is under way.
■ India
Bangalore police on alert
Thousands of riot police fanned out across India's technology hub of Bangalore yesterday ahead of a court ruling on a century-old water dispute which authorities fear could lead to a repeat of deadly 1991 riots. Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka, a southern state in dispute with neighboring Tamil Nadu over access to water from their shared Cauvery river. A 1991 interim court order telling Karnataka to release 205 billion cubic feet of water from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu sparked riots against Tamils in Bangalore, a linguistic minority in the city, leaving more than 18 people dead.
■ India
Suspected rebels arrested
Police arrested four suspected Islamic rebels after a gunbattle on a busy street in the Indian capital, a news report said yesterday. The shootout took place on Sunday night in the center of New Delhi after the police, acting on a tip, intercepted the suspected militants, the Indian Express reported. Police also seized explosives and weapons, including 3km of the explosive RDX, used in past bombings in India, six hand grenades and four detonators, the report said. The police say the men are members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group, which has been blamed for several attacks in India, including numerous bombings and shootings in New Delhi's part of Kashmir.
■ Malaysia
Man wants to reject Islam
An ethnic Chinese man who was mistakenly handed to a Muslim couple at birth in a hospital mix-up found his biological parents 21 years later, but now faces a new battle -- to renounce Islam and acquire a Chinese name, the Star reported yesterday. The family went public with their story only now because Zulhaidi Omar, 29, wants to take up a Chinese name and change his religion to Buddhism. But the Constitution does not allow Muslims to renounce their religion. Doing so is considered apostasy and is punishable by jail. Michael Tay, a politician who is helping the family, said that if negotiations with state officials and the hospital where Zulhaidi was born failed, the family might have to seek legal recourse.
■ Australia
Fugitive to fly home
An Australian fugitive wanted on fraud charges in two South Pacific nations said he would fly home yesterday from Vanuatu where he was jailed for a visa offense. Peter Foster, 44, was sentenced in the Port Vila Magistrates Court last Friday to six weeks in prison and fined 120,000 Vanuatuan vatu (US$1,080) for arriving on Vanuatu without a visa last month. Foster, who gained international attention for dating former British topless model Samantha Fox and for advising Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has served time for fraud-related offenses in Australia, the US and Britain.
■ Israel
President's lawyer quits
The main lawyer of Israeli President Moshe Katsav, faced with a looming indictment for rape and sexual harassment, announced on Sunday he would no longer represent the embattled head of state. David Libai, a former justice minister, said he had agreed to defend Katsav before the revelations of alleged sexual harassment, the media reported. His decision to resign was taken after the rape and harassment charges emerged. "Moshe Katsav and David Libai jointly decided a week ago that Katsav would no longer be represented by lawyer Libai," the president's office said.
■ Spain
Mayor murderer confesses
In a case that could be the plot of a murder mystery novel, the main political and business rival of a murdered mayor in a remote Spanish hamlet has confessed, newspapers said on Sunday. "I did it all on my own. I killed the mayor because I couldn't stand him any longer," Santiago Mainar, forester, hotel owner and losing candidate in recent mayoral elections, confessed to the Spanish daily El Pais. However, sources close to the enquiry cited by the Spanish media on Sunday said that the confession of Mainar, who was arrested on Friday, contained "several discrepancies" and that he is suspected of having had accomplices. The murder victim, Miguel Grima, 50, had defeated Mainar in elections and ran a rival hotel.
■ Germany
Tenants' space restricted
More than 100 German housing association tenants are obediently following tough new rules by agreeing not to use all the space in their apartments to avoid being forced to move out. The housing authority in the town of Loebau said on Friday the new regulations stipulate the tenants now only qualify for smaller homes. Because there is a shortage of smaller dwellings, the tenants are being allowed to stay, so long as the space they use does not exceed the new limit. Not everyone sees the sense of living in an apartment with off-limits areas. "It feels stupid not being able to go into all the rooms of your apartment any more," one 49-year-old woman was quoted as saying in the Dresdner Morgenpost newspaper.
■ United Kingdom
Molly set to go to convent
A Scottish girl who was at the center of an international custody battle will enrol in a convent school in Pakistan, the Daily Mail reported yesterday. The Pakistani Supreme Court decided earlier this year that 12-year-old Molly Campbell could stay with her father, Sajjad Ahmed Rana, after a lower court decided to order the girl to return to her mother in Scotland. "I am looking for a good school. My friends have suggested I get my daughter enrolled in Catholic schools because they have high educational standards and a safe and disciplined environment," Rana was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
■ United States
`Oz' actor arrested
An actor from the former HBO prison drama Oz was arrested in connection with the death of a man who fell down an elevator shaft during a scuffle at a nightclub, police said on Sunday. Granville Adams, 43, was arrested on Saturday and charged with criminally negligent homicide, police said. Adams acted in more than 20 episodes of Oz, playing the character Zahir Arif. He had been working as a manager at the upscale nightclub BED in Manhattan.
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