■ Homecoming marred
Celebrations marking the homecoming yesterday of the nation's first astronaut have been postponed because of the sudden death of his brother, officials and reports said. An official welcoming ceremony for Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who has just completed an 11-day mission in space, will be postponed so he can attend his brother's funeral, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted by the Sunday Star as saying. Sheikh Mustapha, 32, died on Saturday without regaining consciousness from a coma six days after slipping and falling into a pillar in a restaurant, the newspaper said. Sheikh Muszaphar will be taken straight from the airport yesterday to southern Negeri Sembilan state for his brother's burial, Najib said in the report.
■ PHILIPPINES
Clan violence fuels conflict
Clan violence has aggravated the conflict between government forces and Islamic separatists in the south, making the decade-long search for peace there even harder, a new study says. The study by the Asia Foundation, released on Wednesday, said the peace process in Mindanao would have a better chance of succeeding if clan violence were addressed. The project's researchers, who included Islamic scholars and anthropologists, found that in Mindanao from the 1930s to 2005, there had been 1,266 cases of clan violence -- rido -- in which 5,500 people were killed and thousands were displaced. The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have been negotiating for peace since 1997. The study said half of the documented rido occurred between 2000 and 2004, when ceasefire between the government and the Islamic front was broken many times by rido.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Energy talks open today
The six nations involved in North Korean disarmament talks will this week resume negotiations on energy aid for Pyongyang in return for its promised nuclear shutdown, officials said yesterday. "We will discuss details to provide energy aid including heavy fuel oil and other materials and equipment to the North," a foreign ministry official said. The meeting is due to take place on today and tomorrow at Panmunjom.
■ AUSTRALIA
Military defends troops
An Australian Defense Force (ADF) spokesman said yesterday that its soldiers did not fight in a Dutch-led assault on Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in June because of concerns about rules of engagement. Some 52 civilians were reported to have died in the Chora Valley battle, prompting Afghan President Hamid Karzai to condemn the "indiscriminate and unprecise operations" of the foreign forces. "As the situation in the Chora Valley deteriorated ... ADF personnel ... became aware that Dutch procedures for this operation differed from Australian targeting procedures and expressed their concerns, including at senior levels," Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said.
■ CAMBODIA
Car with a history for sale
Car collectors with macabre tastes and at least US$71,800 have a chance to own a car reportedly used by Pol Pot, the late Khmer Rouge chief. "For sale -- one classic 1973 Mercedes Benz stretch limousine ... previously used by one infamous owner Pol Pot," reads a listing on the online auction site eBay. The car was reportedly bought by its current owner in 2001, who used it "for Sunday drives around Phnom Penh and the outskirts."
■ Royal target of blackmail
Police have arrested two men over an attempt to blackmail a member of the royal family with an alleged sex tape, a newspaper reported. The Sunday Times said the pair had approached the unnamed family member and demanded US$100,000 not to publicize a video allegedly showing the royal engaged in a sex act. The blackmailers also claimed to have evidence suggesting the royal had supplied an aide with cocaine, the newspaper said. It said it could not identify the royal for legal reasons.
■ DR CONGO
Leader calls for surrender
A senior militia leader called on Saturday on renegade general Laurent Nkunda to lay down his arms and give up his battle against the government. Kibamba Kaserka, leader of the local Mai Mai militia in the troubled eastern province of Nord-Kivu, gave himself up to the UN early on Saturday. In a press conference -- surrounded by around 20 of his own officers -- Kaserka called on the rebel Tutsi leader to follow his example and end his guerrilla war. "If he is truly Congolese, then he will quit the shrubland and obey the orders of the DRC armed forces," he said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Brains worry ministry
The government is conducting a survey of its soldiers to determine if those exposed to powerful explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered mild brain injuries, the Ministry of Defense said on Saturday. The ministry said it has begun distributing questionnaires to troops to see if they have symptoms such as memory loss, depression and anxiety. The survey followed concerns within the US Army that up to 20 percent of returning soldiers were suffering from these conditions. The condition has been designated by the Pentagon as one of four "signature injuries" of the Iraq War, caused by roadside bombs.
■ SWITZERLAND
Activists turn to Sweden
Around 25 activists from the "Black Sheep" group invaded the garden of the Swedish ambassador in Bern on Friday, demanding political asylum in the wake of the victory by the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP), the Swiss news agency ATS reported. The group's name refers to a controversial campaign poster used by the SVP during the election depicting three white sheep on a Swiss flag booting out a black sheep. The activists had a discussion with Swedish Ambassador Per Thoresson before leaving peacefully. The group said SVP opponents were being victimized, Thoresson said. But he said the ambassador only has power to grant political asylum during war.
■ ALGERIA
Fifteen militants killed
Government forces, stepping up attacks on al-Qaeda-aligned armed groups, killed 15 militants and captured seven in the past two days near the Tunisian border, newspapers reported on Saturday. They seized large quantities of ammunition and destroyed several hideouts in the operation in Tebessa Province, the government-owned El Moudjahid said, citing a security source. One army officer was killed in the offensive, which was launched by the army, police and municipal guards, the independent newspaper Liberte said. The rebel group may have had links to a failed assassination attempt on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika last month, the daily El Watan said.
■ Ford's Theater to get facelift
Officials at Ford's Theater plan to transform the site of president Abraham Lincoln's assassination into a six-building complex that will include multimedia educational displays designed to immerse visitors in 1860s Washington and the legacy of the 16th US president. Work on the renovations began in August, and the renovated performance space is scheduled to open in time for the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth on Feb. 12, 2009. The new education center will open later. A US$40 million fundraising campaign also will allow for more mundane improvements.
■ UNITED STATES
Schools to be disinfected
A Kentucky school district with one confirmed case of antibiotic-resistant staph infection plans to shut down all 23 of its schools today, affecting about 10,300 students, to disinfect the facilities. The project will involve disinfecting classrooms, restrooms, cafeterias, hallways, locker rooms, buses and even external areas such as playgrounds and sports fields, said Roger Wagner, superintendent of Pike County schools. "We're not closing schools because there's been a large number of breakouts, but as a preventive measure," Wagner said.
■ UNITED STATES
Obama and Cheney related
Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday played down the surprise revelation that he and "Cousin Barack" -- Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama -- share a family tree. Cheney told CNBC television that he had not discussed that bizarre political twist, first revealed earlier this month by the vice president's wife Lynne, with distant cousin Obama. "Apparently we do have a common ancestor about eight or nine generations back," Cheney said. Lynne Cheney had dropped the bombshell revelation two weeks ago, saying she had made the surprise discover while researching her new book, a memoir of growing up in Wyoming. Obama's spokesman Bill Burton had offered a tongue in cheek reply. "Every family has its black sheep," he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Army finds ruling unfair
Black soldiers court-martialed 63 years ago in the rioting death of an Italian prisoner of war at Fort Lawton were unfairly denied access to their attorneys and investigative records and should have their convictions overturned, the Army said. The ruling on Friday by the Army's Board of Corrections of Military Records applies to four soldiers who petitioned military investigators with the help of two congressmen, but could eventually cover two-dozen more soldiers found guilty of rioting over alleged resentment of Italian prisoners' living conditions on the post. Samuel Snow, 83, one of the petitioners who served a year in prison, said he was "elated" by the decision. The other petitioners are deceased.
■ YEMEN
Bomber's term commuted
Authorities have commuted to house arrest the prison term of a mastermind of al-Qaeda's 2000 bombing of a US Navy vessel after he surrendered to Yemeni authorities, his relatives said on Friday. Relatives said they were allowed to visit Jamal Badawi at his home in the southern port city of Aden while under police surveillance. Details of the decision to release Badawi from prison were not known. But a government official who asked not to be identified said the militant remained "under close scrutiny and control of the security forces."
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
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese