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World News Quick Take

■ AUSTRALIA

Rudd pans Mugabe

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday he feared Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe would “steal” the upcoming election and called on African nations to promote democracy. “I’ve seen how Robert Mugabe can manipulate elections,” Rudd told reporters. “Our concern and the concern of most countries around the world is that Mr Mugabe will steal this election.” Rudd said the African Union and South African Development Council should “speak with one voice about the importance of democracy and the will of the people prevailing in Zimbabwe.” His remarks came after Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the country would consider taking further action against Zimbabwe if Mugabe continues to threaten the outcome of a forthcoming presidential poll.



■PHILIPPINES

MILF commander killed

A notorious commander of the country’s largest Muslim separatist rebel group has been killed in a clash with government troops, an army spokesman said yesterday. Kiddie Abdulsalam, a commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), was responsible for several kidnapping-for-ransom incidents and bomb attacks in the south. He was killed on Saturday afternoon in a conflict with government soldiers in Kabasalan town in Zamboanga Sibugay Province, 810km south of Manila, Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said. Brawner said the soldiers were serving an arrest warrant against Abdulsalam when the fighting erupted. Abdulsalam was facing kidnapping charges for the abduction of Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi last year. He was also behind the kidnapping of Italian priest Guiseppe Pierantoni in 2001. Both priests were freed unharmed after ransom was allegedly paid.

■ South Korea

North Koreans seek refuge

Two North Koreans defected to the south by boat early yesterday, a Coast Guard official said. They crossed the western sea border into South Korean waters, the official said. An official with the National Intelligence Service said the North Koreans would be questioned by intelligence officials later in the day. “The two expressed their intention to defect to South Korea,” the official said. Defections by boat are rare, with the vast majority of North Koreans fleeing over land through China and Southeast Asia.



■THAILAND

PM lauds local garlic

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej yesterday used his weekly TV address to give tips on cooking with garlic, hoping to ward off protests by farmers of the pungent bulb. The colorful and controversial leader, using ingredients such as shrimp paste, chillies and mackerel, urged people to buy local rather than imported garlic, and rattled off his favorite garlic-infused dishes. “I did not come here today for ... a cooking demonstration, but I came here to show these ingredients,” said Samak, who was a television chef before his People Power Party was elected in December. Samak’s new government is facing the threat of protests from truck drivers, rice farmers, fishermen and now garlic growers, who want state assistance to battle soaring inflation and high fuel prices. “I bought the garlic to prevent them from blocking the roads,” he said.



■NEPAL

Hitler gift may be displayed

A car given by Adolf Hitler to a Nepali king is likely to be displayed in a palace museum after the Himalayan nation abolished the 239-year-old monarchy and the ousted King Gyanendra quit the palace. Officials said a 1939 Mercedes Benz presented by the Nazi leader to King Tribhuvan, Gyanendra’s grandfather, is now rusting in the main Narayanhiti palace grounds. It was left lying there for more than three years after an engineering college in Kathmandu, which was using it to train mechanics, said it did not have enough money and spare parts to restore the antique car. But now efforts are being made to display the car in the palace, which the government says will be turned into a museum.



■NEPAL

Bus station bomb kills two

A bomb explosion at a busy bus station in the south killed two people and wounded 12 others, officials said yesterday. The bomb, hidden in a bag, exploded on Saturday night as passengers were waiting for the bus during in Chandranigahapur town, about 250km south of Kathmandu. Rautahat district’s chief official Durga Bhandari said two of the 12 wounded were in critical condition and the remaining 10 were in serious condition at a hospital. Several people gathered at the station to take shelter from a downpour when the bomb went off, he said.



■INDIA

Rains cause 14 deaths

A series of landslides and house collapses caused by heavy rains killed at least 14 people and injured more than 50 others in the remote northeast, an official said. Rescue workers recovered 14 bodies on Saturday after two days of heavy rains lashed areas around Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh state, government official Bidol Tayeng said. The landslides cut off the area from the rest of the state, Tayeng said, adding electricity and water supplies were also cut. “The situation is grim, but the rains have stopped and our rescue work is in full swing,” he said. Tayeng said the death toll is likely to rise.

■ UNITED KINGDO

Cops arrest shooting suspect

Police have arrested a 19-year-old man after a teenage girl was shot in the head in Manchester on Saturday, police said. The 16-year-old girl was discovered with a gunshot wound to the head after police were called to the Gorton district of Manchester early on Saturday and is in a critical condition in hospital. “We have already arrested a man in connection with this incident and have a team of detectives currently gathering all possible evidence,” Greater Manchester Police superintendent Simon Barraclough said. “This would appear to be an isolated incident, however there will be extra patrols in the area to reassure residents.”



■TURKEY

Explosion derails train

A cargo train was hit by a mine blast on a track in the southeast on Saturday, injuring three railway workers, security sources said. The train was crossing a bridge when the mine exploded and two wagons fell into a stream below. State news agency Anatolian quoted the governor of Mus Province, Erdogan Bektas, as blaming outlawed Kurdish separatist guerrillas for the attack. Violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast has escalated in recent months and fighting between the Kurdistan Workers Party and security forces continued on Saturday.



■UKRAINE

Russia warns against bid

Defense industry ties with Russia would suffer if it joined NATO, news agencies quoted Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying on Saturday. Ivanov, speaking at a ceremony to mark the 225th anniversary of Sevastopol port on the Crimean Peninsula said visa regulations would also be tightened should Ukraine pursue its ambition to join NATO. “I couldn’t say for whom such a breakup would be more painful — for Russia or for Ukraine. I think it would be painful for both nations,” Ivanov said. Russia is vehemently against bids by Ukraine and Georgia to join the military alliance, regarding NATO’s encroachment on its borders as a security threat. It has said it might take “military steps” if the former Soviet states join.



■ISRAEL

Cabinet mulls prisoner swap

Officials say Cabinet ministers will soon decide whether to swap a convicted Lebanese killer for two Israeli soldiers captured by a Lebanese guerrilla group. Samir Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for killing four Israelis in a 1979 infiltration of northern Israel. Officials hoped Kantar would be a bargaining chip to wrest information from Hezbollah guerrillas about a navigator captured in Lebanon in 1986. But Israel has apparently concluded that Hezbollah has no information on the navigator and is willing to swap Kantar for two Israeli soldiers Hezbollah captured in 2006.



■SOUTH AFRICA

Mob burns man alive

A mob burned a Mozambican man alive on Saturday near Pretoria after accusing him of setting fire to a shack, police said, following a recent wave of xenophobic attacks. The 30-year-old victim was stoned then burned in the Atteridgeville township, said Captain Thomas Mufamadi, who estimated the mob at about 300 people. Police arrested three suspects for murder and robbery, as some 2,000 rand (US$246) were stolen from the man, Mufamadi said. He said that officers did not consider the incident linked to the recent wave of xenophobic violence that killed 62 people and displaced tens of thousands since it occurred after the accusations involving the shack. “They are alleging that he burned a shack yesterday,” Mufamadi said.

■UNITED STATES

Man claims tattoo record

Oliver Peck may be seeing the number 13 in his dreams. From midnight on Thursday to midnight on Friday, Peck completed 415 tattoos, applying the unlucky number 13 to scores of arms, legs, ankles, backs, thighs and even some rear ends. Peck claimed a mention in the Guinness Book of Records for drawing the most tattoos in a 24-hour period. He was awarded the honor by Guinness adjudicator Danny Girton Jr., according to a report on the Dallas Morning News Web site on Saturday. For several years on Friday the 13th, Elm Street Tattoo in the Deep Ellum entertainment district in Dallas has launched a 24-hour tattoo marathon.



■UNITED STATES

‘In God’ taken as first name

A school bus driver and amateur artist from the Chicago suburb of Zion, Illinois, has legally changed his name to “In God We Trust.” A Lake County circuit court judge approved Steve Kreuscher’s name change petition on Friday. The 57-year-old’s first name was changed to “In God,” while his last name was changed to “We Trust.” He says the new name symbolizes the help God gave him during tough times and says he can’t wait to begin signing his artwork with the new moniker.



■UNITED STATES

107-year-old gets pardoned

In Andover, Massachusetts, C. Yardley Chittick sneaked off school grounds with Humphrey Bogart and other schoolmates, but Phillips Academy on Saturday let its oldest living graduate off the hook. Attending his 90th high school reunion, the 107-year-old grinned from his golf cart at the head of the Andover school’s alumni parade. A 1918 graduate, Chittick also received a pardon from the school for some long-ago schoolboy mischief. At a ceremony in the school chapel, Barbara Chase, the school’s head, read a resolution from Phillips Academy’s trustees that paid tribute to Chittick’s life and service to the school. It also noted that Chittick wrote in a 1918 diary entry that he’d sneaked off campus during a spring night with friends, including Bogart, to watch a fire in North Wilmington.



■UNITED STATES

Monkey escapes from zoo

A spider monkey new to the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City, Indiana, used a garden hose to scale the walls of a moat and make a break for freedom. Workers were cleaning the moat at the time on Wednesday. Zoo director Johnny Martinez says workers had figured the monkeys would remain inside their enclosure during the cleaning even though the moat was empty of water. However, one monkey made it past the moat, grabbed the hose and jumped onto the roof of a water filtration plant. The zoo staff recaptured the adventurous monkey at a nearby boat dealership, where they found it perched atop a white and blue speedboat.



■MEXICO

Reptiles left at airport

More than 500 reptiles and small creatures are alive and in government custody after they were abandoned at the Mexico City airport for more than a week. Officials found the shipment of scorpions, turtles, lizards, tarantulas, frogs, salamanders and snakes after their owner failed to pick them up. Many are protected species. More than 170 did not survive the ordeal. The country’s environment department said on Saturday in a statement that the reptiles that could be saved were sent to a wildlife center and will eventually be returned to their natural habitat. Authorities were investigating why the creatures were abandoned.


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