■ 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.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
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