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World News Quick Take

■MYANMAR

Army blames ‘insurgents’

The army-ruled state media blamed unnamed“insurgents” yesterday for bomb attacks that killed two people and wounded 10 last week. A man and woman were killed on Thursday when a bomb exploded in a video store in Kyaukkyi Township of Bago Division, about 190km north of the former capital, Yangon, the Kyemon newspaper said. Nine others were wounded in the blast. Separately, a villager in the same township was wounded by a bomb that exploded in a bamboo grove, the newspaper said.



■MYANMAR

Police bust opium ring

Police arrested 420 drug traffickers last month, state media reported yesterday, as the world’s second-largest opium producer sought to show it was cracking down on the narcotics trade. The UN anti-drugs body has said opium production in the country shot up 46 percent from 2006 to last year, but the military-ruled nation continues to insist that it is on track to be drugs-free by 2014. Police, customs and military said the seized some 151kg of opium, 7.5kg of heroin, 1,263kg of low-grade opium and 142,955 stimulant tablets, along with other batches of narcotics and chemicals, a local paper said.



■INDIA

Military tests missile

The military yesterday carried out a successful test of a homemade air-to-air missile designed for its air force, defense sources said. The Astra — Hindi for weapon — was fired from India’s Integrated Testing Range at Chandipur-on-Sea, some 200km northeast of Orissa’s state capital Bhubaneswar. The single-stage solid-fuel missile can carry a 15 kg conventional warhead. “Astra belongs to the beyond-visual range class of missiles capable of ducking radar eyes and attacking enemy targets up to 80 kilometers,” a defense official said on condition of anonymity. India routinely conducts missile tests and has built a range of ballistic and cruise missiles as a deterrent to China and Pakistan.



■INDONESIA

Police kill another Nigerian

A Nigerian was shot dead by police after he tried to escape a drug arrest in the second police killing of a citizen of the African country in as many days, a report said yesterday. The 38-year-old, identified only as Steve, was shot on Friday as he tried to flee police after being caught with 100g of heroin in Jakarta, the Jakarta Post daily reported. Police said they fired a warning shot before shooting the man, who died on the spot, the newspaper reported. Another Nigerian was shot dead and one wounded on Thursday when they resisted arrest during a raid on suspected drug traffickers in the capital, police said earlier this week. The country executed two Nigerians by firing squad in June for drug trafficking.



■JAPAN

Explosions heard near base

No injuries had been reported after two explosions were heard late on Friday near a US naval base where a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will soon dock south of Tokyo, police said yesterday. Police said investigations were underway and that rocket fragments had been found near the controversial naval base at Yokosuka, but few other details were available. Residents had reported that the roof of one nearby home had been damaged by the blasts, police said. The blasts occurred about two weeks before the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington is scheduled to arrive at the port city of Yokosuka on Sept. 25. It will be the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be stationed in the country.



■SAUDI ARABIA

Cleric slams TV moguls

A senior Saudi cleric has issued a religious decree saying the owners of TV networks broadcasting “depravation and debauchery” may be killed, al-Arabiya television reported on Friday. “The owners of these channels propagate depravation and debauchery,” said Saleh al-Luhaidan, chief justice of the supreme judicial council, the highest judicial authority in the ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom. He made the remarks on radio in response to a caller who asked him to give an opinion on what he said were “immoral” programs on Arab television during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a source at al-Arabiya said.



■WEST BANK

Child stabbed in settlement

A Palestinian suspect stabbed a nine-year-old boy and burned down a house after sneaking into a West Bank settlement early yesterday, Israeli and Palestinian security officials said. The boy was taken to hospital after being lightly wounded in the attack, which took place at around 8am in the Yitzhar settlement, an Israeli army spokesman said. Israeli troops launched a manhunt between Yitzhar and the West Bank city of Nablus, placing three Palestinian villages under a tight curfew, Palestinian security officials said. The army was also preventing settlers from Yitzhar — a bastion of extreme right-wing Jews — from entering the villages.



■ISRAEL

French kid’s body identified

Local media reported that autopsy results on a body dragged from a Tel Aviv river confirm it is that of four-year-old French girl Rose Pizem, but the cause of death is not yet clear. Radio and TV reports said the corpse discovered by police divers on Thursday was identified on Friday by a comparison of its DNA with a sample taken from the girl’s mother, 23-year-old Marie-Charlotte Renault. Police believe that Renault’s lover, 45-year-old Roni Ron, murdered the child and the mother may also have been implicated. Both are in custody.



■GERMANY

Party treasurer convicted

The longtime treasurer of the leading far-right party was sentenced on Friday to two years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of euros from its accounts. Erwin Kemna, 57, admitted to stealing 700,000 euros (US$984,000) from the National Democratic Party. As part of an agreement with the Muenster state court, Kemna’s guilty plea meant he was subject to a maximum three years in prison.



■NETHERLANDS

Bad dentists go on trial

Just thinking about it is enough to rattle your teeth. The local media are enthralled by the trials of two men dubbed the “horror dentists.” They were caught separately practicing without licenses — and, according to the allegations, without much skill, either. Amsterdam prosecutors say 64-year-old Hok Tong Kwee permanently ruined the teeth of at least 10 patients after losing his license in 2004. Kwee denies malpractice, saying he only took “acceptable” risks. But when prosecutors called on victims to come forward last year, hundreds responded. In the other case, 55-year-old Ben Verlinden was sentenced to four months by judges in Haarlem on Friday for mistreating four patients after having been stripped of his license in 2001. He had been banned twice before for mistakes that prosecutors said included “drilling teeth to bits.”


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