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World News Quick Take

■ INDONESIA

Airplane crashes in Jakarta

A light airplane crashed into a residential neighborhood in the capital yesterday, killing the pilot and injuring one person on the ground, police said. The aircraft apparently developed engine trouble during the flight before slamming into a water tower and four houses, said police Captain Sudaryo, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. The 60-year-old pilot -- the only person onboard -- died instantly. One person on the ground was slightly injured, he said. The Pelican aircraft was flying from Tangerang, an industrial town south of Jakarta, to a small airstrip in the east of the capital. The cause of the accident was under investigation, Sudaryo said.



■ INDIA

Grenade thrown at festival

Suspected insurgents lobbed a hand grenade at thousands of people participating in a cultural festival yesterday in the northeast town of Jonai, killing three and wounding another 50, police said. Nearly 15,000 people belonging to the Mising tribe were participating in the festival when the blast went off, said Diwakar Mishra, the top district administrator. Fourteen seriously wounded people were taken to a hospital in nearby Dibrugarh, Mishra said. Police blamed the blast on the United Liberation Front of Asom, a separatist group that has been fighting for an independent homeland in the area for more than two decades. Mishra said the attack in Jonai came as the rebel group observed its "Army Day," which is held to commemorate the date it set up its armed wing in 1981. Several rebel groups are fighting for autonomy or independence in the country's northeast.



■ THAILAND

Swede murdered in Phuket

A Swedish tourist was stabbed to death in the popular southern resort island of Phuket on Saturday, police said. The body of Charlotta Sanua Backlund, 27, was found in Phuket's Mai Khao beach, a tourist police official said. "She was stabbed five times in the neck and had stabbing wounds on her wrists. She was killed around 10 in the morning," the official said, adding that Mai Khao beach was usually quiet. "We believe she was killed by one man who tried to rape her," he said. Police have not made an arrest in the case.



■ THAILAND

Bombs kill two, wound 18

Bombs killed two men and wounded 18 people in two separate attacks in the troubled Muslim deep south, police said yesterday. A 20kg remote-controlled bomb, hidden in a car near the entrance of the CS Pattani hotel in the city of Pattani, killed one man and wounded 13 others on Saturday, police said. Three were injured seriously in the blast. Hours after the hotel bombing, suspected militants used a mobile phone to detonate a 5kg bomb at a Pattani school, killing one firefighter and wounding five others. As security forces rushed the wounded to hospital, they were ambushed by insurgents. One soldier was wounded seriously, police said.



■ JAPAN

Peruvian leader pays visit

Peruvian President Alan Garcia was due to arrive yesterday for a trip symbolizing reconciliation after years of friction over former Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori. Garcia is expected to seek more investment from Japan on his three-day visit, the first by a Peruvian leader in nearly a decade. The last official visit was by Fujimori himself in 1999, one year before he fled to Tokyo and faxed his resignation from a hotel room, ending a controversial decade in power as a corruption scandal worsened at home. In a sign of the transformed relations between Tokyo and Lima, a Japanese official said Fujimori's ongoing trial in Peru "is not going to be a big issue" during Garcia's visit.



■ JAPAN

Son dies after 10 days alone

Police arrested a mother whose two-year-old son died after she allegedly left him and his siblings home alone for 10 days, officials said yesterday. The 29-year-old woman was arrested on Saturday for the alleged abandonment of the boy, said a police official in Saitama, just north of Tokyo. The woman told investigators she had lived with her children in a house in Misato City, but earlier this month she rented herself an apartment in the same town. Her husband had been living in the central prefecture of Aichi for his work. The woman called her parents on Friday to ask them to check on her son, the official said. The woman's father found the boy at the house, not breathing, he said.



■ SRI LANKA

Tiger rebels kill soldier

At least one soldier was killed and four others wounded in a road side bomb attack in the north yesterday, defense officials said. Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off the blast as troops drove in a motorized rickshaw in Vavuniya district, an area of ongoing heavy fighting between the government and guerrillas, a defense official said. The attack came as troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were locked in heavy combat along the frontline separating the Tigers' mini state in the north and government-controlled areas of the island.



■ UNITED STATES

Minor trouble on space walk

Two astronauts worked outside the International Space Station yesterday, attaching mechanical arms to a Canadian-made robot that will take over human tasks and help reduce the need for risky spacewalks. But the task for Mission Specialists Richard Linnehan and Mike Foreman got slightly more difficult when they encountered trouble releasing fasteners on one of the robot's arms. Although the problem was eventually resolved, as a result, "the spacewalkers are now about 45 minutes behind their timeline," a spokesman for NASA said.



■ UNITED STATES

Jet pilot killed in crash

The pilot of an F-16 fighter jet that crashed in a rugged area of western Arizona was killed when his plane went down, Air Force officials confirmed on Saturday. The student pilot was practicing air-to-air combat with another F-16 from Luke Air Force Base about noon on Friday when his plane crashed, base spokeswoman Mary Jo May said. Aircraft from the Air Force, Marines and Civil Air Patrol spent hours trying to find the wreckage, which was spotted late on Friday in a remote area about 129km northwest of Phoenix. Rescuers could only reach the site by helicopter, May said.



■ UNITED STATES

Cat bounty rescinded

The tiny town of Randolph, Iowa, rescinded a US$5 bounty on feral cats. Instead, the town of 200 people agreed to work with animal rescue groups on a catch, neuter and release program. "We've told them to get it lined up to do it," Randolph Mayor Vince Trively said on Friday. The bounty was approved following complaints about feral cats. Under the initial policy, stray cats without collars would be taken to a veterinarian and if they weren't claimed would be euthanized. On Thursday, the city voted to end the bounty. A task force will meet next week to lay out details of the new plan.



■ VENEZUELA

Police seize cocaine

Police seized some 3 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a shed in the northern city of Valencia, authorities said on Saturday. Police are searching for one suspect in the case after discovering the stash on Friday, the attorney general's office said in a statement. It was unclear how police learned of the drugs. The seizure was among the largest busts reported in recent months. Authorities also seized 2.6 tonnes of cocaine in October in a shipment headed for Mexico. US and Colombian counter-drug officials have called the country a key conduit for Colombian cocaine, faulting the government for what they call lax enforcement.



■ UNITED STATES

Girl stops runaway bus

A 15-year-old girl who stopped an out-of-control school bus was handed a Saturday detention because she was skipping school. Marina High School student Amanda Rouse of Seaside, California, was on a bus with 40 elementary school students on Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head. Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was hurt. She said she had asked the bus driver for a ride home because she felt sick at school. "She is in trouble with school because she made the wrong decision," Rouse's grandmother, Sally Correll said. "But I can't help but believe that she was where God wanted her to be.
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