■JAPAN
Small quake rocks Tokyo
A moderate 4.8-magnitude earthquake rattled the Tokyo region yesterday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of damage. The tremor struck at 7:17am in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, at a depth of 80km, the agency said.
■MALAYSIA
Fruit fight leads to stabbing
A man allegedly stabbed his younger brother during an argument that broke out after they had interfered in a disagreement between their two other siblings over a preserved fruit, reports said yesterday. The 20-year-old stabbing victim, the sixth of eight siblings, had reprimanded his 14 year-old-sister for accusing their three-year-old brother of stealing a preserved fruit. Their 24-year-old brother interfered and sided his sister. In a fit of rage following a shoving match, the elder brother took out a knife and stabbed his sibling on the right side of his ribs outside their home, the Star reported.
■NEPAL
Lawyers go on strike
Lawyers across the country began a three-day strike yesterday by boycotting court proceedings in a sign of a worsening dispute between the country’s bar association and judges. The lawyers move was prompted by the Supreme Court barring Nepal Bar Association president Biswo Kant Mainali from taking part in court proceedings for six months after he accusd judges of corruption. Mainali alleged during a public meeting that becoming a judge amounted to “open license for corruption.” Judges of two appellate courts and three district courts in the Kathmandu valley stopped work on Friday to pressure the Supreme Court to take action.
■SRI LANKA
Fleeing Tamils register
Thousands who have fled the country’s war zones, nearly all Tamils, lined up on yesterday to register under what police say is an essential security measure to crack down on Tamil Tiger militants. From 8am, people lined up at schools, temples and other public buildings to give their details to police, who earlier this week ordered all those who had fled five war-affected districts in the past five years to come and be counted. The order, which affects those who came to the capital, Colombo, and the surrounding Western Province, came as the military is intensifying an offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels in the north.
■PHILIPPINES
Abductee released
A resort owner in the south was freed by his abductors after 10 days in captivity, a provincial police chief said yesterday. Senior Superintendent Esmail Ali said Jesus Perfecto Martinez, 49, was abandoned by his kidnappers before dawn on Saturday in the public market of Cotabato City, 930km south of Manila. Ali said the family of Martinez paid at least 300,000 pesos (US$6,451) in ransom to secure his safe release. “The victim was not harmed,” Ali said. “He was reunited with his family three hours after he was released.” Martinez was driving his motorcycle near his resort in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in nearby Shariff Kabunsuan Province, when he was seized by gunmen on Sept. 10.
■INDIA
Monsoon floods kill 16
Flooding has killed at least 16 people and left more than 220,000 marooned in villages in the east as incessant rains caused a river to breach its banks in several places, an official said. The government of Orissa state was using motorized boats to rescue people, Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathi told reporters. So far, 180,000 people have been evacuated to relief camps since heavy monsoon rains caused the Mahanadi river to overflow its banks, leaving 220,000 still marooned, he said on Saturday. Two air force helicopters were dropping packets of food to villagers in the flooded villages where people were stranded, Tripathi said, adding that the state has requested three more helicopters from the national government. The flooding has killed at least 16 people and affected huge swathes of 17 out of 30 districts in Orissa, he said. The new flooding comes just a month after the monsoon-swollen Kosi river, a Ganges tributary that flows from Nepal to India, burst its banks and submerged nearly 1,000 villages in the northern state of Bihar, killing at least 48 people and driving more than 1 million others from their homes.
RSS