■ INDONESIA
President creates pop CD
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has composed an album of 10 heartfelt songs for release across the nation this week. My Longing for You, a 50-minute album released on compact disc, features pop songs written by the president and performed by prominent Indonesian singers. The cover shows Yudhoyono clutching an acoustic guitar, his solemn face looming over a line-up of musicians who perform songs such as The Sun is Shining, A Song Under the Moonlight, The Power of God and Good Luck in Your Struggle. The president said he composed all 10 songs after becoming president in 2004.
■ INDONESIA
Anthrax poisoning spreads
Three villages in the east have been closed off to outsiders after more than 750 people fell ill from eating anthrax-infected buffalo meat, an official said yesterday. "We've now recorded 761 people from three villages falling ill after eating buffalo meat infected with anthrax," local official Cornelis Wara said. Veterinary official Maria Geong said more teams had been sent to Ende District to locate and vaccinate livestock, reinforcing several sent at the weekend after 20 villagers were initially reported ill. "We have sent 20,000 doses of vaccine to the three villages and several areas in Ende District," she said.
■ CAMBODIA
First adulterer convicted
The courts have handed down the first adultery conviction under a controversial monogamy law that was passed to curb the practice of keeping mistresses, court officials said yesterday. Football federation vice president Kek Ravy, a nephew of disgraced royalist Prince Norodom Ranariddh, was fined US$250 after being found guilty of cheating on his wife, prosecutor Sok Kalyan said. "The court has fined him," Sok Kalyan said. The law was implemented last year after Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at men for bringing mistresses rather than wives to events.
■ CHINA
Jade mining out of hand
Authorities have ordered a crackdown on private mining of a precious jade whose soaring value in local markets has lured thousands of people to a remote river to extract it. The value of Hotan jade, a rare nephrite found in alluvial deposits along the Yurungkax River in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and prized for centuries, has exploded in recent years, fueled by speculators and its increasing scarcity. The jade had drawn about 100,000 people and thousands of earth-moving vehicles to the area, the Beijing News reported yesterday. Many villagers had formed collectives and spent vast sums in unsuccessful attempts to find the jade.
■ CHINA
Arrests in quality crackdown
Authorities have arrested 774 people in a nationwide crackdown on the manufacturing and sale of substandard food, drugs and other products, the country's quality inspector said. The arrests stemmed from 626 cases since August, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site on Monday. "All local authorities and all departments have maintained high pressure on those illegally manufacturing and selling such products," the notice said. "Authorities have cracked one large case after another and investigated and banned a large number of perpetrators, striking vigorously against them."
■ CHAD
Zoe's Ark members charged
A judge charged 16 Europeans late on Monday with kidnapping or complicity after a charity attempted to fly more than 100 children to France, the prosecutor's office said. Nine French nationals, including members of the charity Zoe's Ark and journalists, were formally charged with "kidnapping of minors with the aim of compromising their civil status" and "swindling," an official said. Seven Spanish members of the plane's flight crew, who were to have flown the 103 children out of the country, were charged with complicity. A Belgian pilot who was also arrested is being held in N'Djamena and could be charged separately.
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