■ CHINA
Mao Zedong's son dies
Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) last surviving son, Mao Anqing (毛岸青), who suffered from mental illnesses and worked as a Russian translator, has died in Beijing at the age of 84, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Saturday. Born in southern Hunan Province, he was smuggled to Shanghai by the communist underground in 1930 after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials killed his mother Yang Kaihui (楊開慧), Xinhua said. But together with elder brother Mao Anying (毛岸英), he was often left to fend for himself on the city's streets and was once beaten by a policeman which contributed to later mental problems.
■ MALAYSIA
Elephants chase motorist
Elephants are straying onto one of the country's main highways, prompting the government to warn drivers not to trigger a possible rampage by honking at the animals, a news report said yesterday. The warning came after a motorist claimed to have been chased for about 50m earlier this month by a herd of elephants that had been blocking part of the East-West Highway. No injuries were reported in the incident. Sazmi Miah, parliamentary secretary of the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, said elephants are often spotted crossing the 125km highway, which cuts through forested territory in peninsular Malaysia. "It is safer for motorists to stop their vehicles and wait for the elephants to go into the jungle before continuing their journey," Sazmi said.
■ INDONESIA
Mining caused `mud volcano'
A police probe into the cause of the "mud volcano" that has made 15,000 people homeless in East Java points to negligence by a mining company, reports said yesterday. Mud began to flow out of a gas exploratory drilling well operated by Pt Lapindo Brantas in Sidoarjo, East Java last May. The mud has since flooded some 600 hectares of land and submerged whole villages. "All depositions by experts say that there is a correlation between the mudflow and the activities of the Lapindo exploratory well. Therefore, according to police investigations, there is clearly a link between the Lapindo well and the mud outflow," East Java police chief Herman Suryadi Sumawiredja said.
■ MALAYSIA
Tax evaders' travel stopped
Nearly 40,000 people who have failed to settle their income taxes have been barred from traveling outside the country, a news report said yesterday. The tax defaulters collectively owe the government 1.4 billion ringgit (US$400 million), Hasmah Abdullah, the Inland Revenue Board's chief executive officer, said in an interview published in the New Straits Times newspaper. "Some people are simply incorrigible," Hasmah said.
■ AUSTRALIA
Labor wins state election
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday denied his party's loss in a weekend state election represented a protest vote against his policies ahead of this year's national poll. Voters in New South Wales on Saturday comfortably returned the incumbent Labor government, a vote carefully watched ahead of the Howard's fifth tilt at winning the top job later this year. New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma said the result, which leaves all states under Labor control, sent a strong message to Howard's Liberal/National coalition that its workplace relations laws were deeply unpopular.
■ Armenia
PM dies of heart attack
Prime Minister Andranik Margarian died yesterday of heart failure, government spokeswoman Meri Arutunian said. He was 55. Margarian had been prime minister since May 2000. He was appointed in a politically tense period that followed the October 1999 armed attack on parliament that killed eight politicians, including prime minister Vazgen Sarkisian. The assassinated prime minister was first replaced by his brother, Aram, but President Robert Kocharian fired him and appointed Margarian amid rising discontent over the country's economic troubles. Parliament speaker Tigran Torosian praised Margarian as a unifying figure for the country.
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