■ INDIA
Suspected militants slain
Police killed two suspected Pakistani militants after a car chase and gun battle on the outskirts of New Delhi before dawn yesterday. Police said the two men were shot dead in the town of Noida and one policeman was injured. “We recovered AK-47 rifles and grenades and some documents, including a Pakistani passport,” Navin Arora, a senior Noida police officer told reporters. The attack came on the eve of Republic Day today. Police said the suspects were trying to enter New Delhi.
■SOMALIA
Car bombing kills 16
A policeman and 15 civilians were reported killed on Saturday in a suicide car bombing in Mogadishu and 38 others seriously wounded, the Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera reported. The bombing at a police checkpoint came a week after the withdrawal of the remaining Ethiopian troops, and during a power vacuum contested by Islamist rebels and the interim government. The policeman shot at the car as it sped toward the checkpoint. In response, the bomber steered his car into a full bus.
■JAPAN
Medvedev invites Aso
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has invited Prime Minister Taro Aso to visit Sakhalin island next month for talks on “all issues” between the two nations, officials in Tokyo said late on Saturday. In a 15-minute phone call, Aso said he would consider the proposed meeting, the Japanese foreign ministry said. Medvedev invited Aso for a ceremony at the Sakhalin II project, which has just started, liquefied natural gas production and will export to Japan. Moscow and Tokyo have never signed a peace treaty to formally end World War II due to Tokyo’s claims over four islands which Soviet troops seized in 1945 off Japan’s northern coast.
■HONG KONG
3D porn flick planned
Filmmakers are preparing to leave filmgoers goggle-eyed by releasing the world’s first pornographic movie in 3D, the Sunday Morning Post. said yesterday. Shooting on the Chinese-language film 3D Sex And Zen, budgeted at US$4 million, is scheduled for April with producers promising some of the most realistic close-up sex scenes ever. “Just imagine that you’ll be watching it as if you were sitting beside the bed,” Stephen Shiu Jr said. “There will be many close-ups. It will look as if the actresses are only a few centimeters from the audience.” However, he said casting for the film was proving difficult. “We’re having trouble finding a male lead who is willing to undress in front of the camera,” he said. “It’s a lot more difficult to find an actor than an actress for this kind of film.”
■HONG KONG
Mugabe’s daughter studying
The daughter of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is studying at the University of Hong Kong under an assumed name, the Sunday Morning Post said yesterday. Bona Mugabe, whose father and fellow leaders are banned from visiting the US, the EU and Australia, began studying in the territory last year, a senior university source said. Her presence was revealed after her 43-year-old mother, Grace Mugabe, allegedly assaulted a British photographer who tried to take photos of her outside the Kowloon Shangri-la Hotel on Jan. 15. Police said they were still investigating the alleged assault on photographer Richard Jones, who said he had been repeatedly beaten and punched by Grace Mugabe while her bodyguard held him.
■ EL SALVADOR
Leftists gain in elections
Former leftist rebels won more seats than any other party in the legislative elections on Jan. 18, but fell short of a majority, final results showed on Saturday. The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) won 35 seats, three more than in the 2006 polls, making it the strongest party less than two months before the presidential election. But the outcome also shows that the party will have to negotiate with a conservative bloc if it takes the presidency. While President Tony Saca’s conservative Arena party lost two seats to end up with 32 in the 84 seat-unicameral congress, the Christian Democratic Party won 11 seats and the conservative National Conciliation Party won five.
■CANADA
Bird flu found in farm
Authorities discovered strains of bird flu on a western turkey farm and officials said on Saturday that 60,000 birds would have to be culled. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said tests indicate that the H5 avian influenza virus found on a turkey farm in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, British Columbia, is “low pathogenic.” That means the severity of the illness it causes in birds is relatively low. Even so, agency officials said that along with euthanizing all birds on the premises, food inspectors are also restricting the movement of poultry and poultry products within 3km of the farm.
■UNITED STATES
Plumber recovers diamond
It took a plumber to retrieve a woman’s seven-carat diamond ring after city workers failed in efforts to flush the gem out of the pipes of a restaurant toilet. The US$70,000 diamond ring fell from Allison Berry’s hand when she flushed the toilet in the restroom of the Black Bear Diner in Phoenix, Arizona, on Jan. 14. City workers opened a pipe outside the restaurant and continuously flushed the toilet, hoping to push the ring out to the opening. When that didn’t work, the city called the office of Mr. Rooter, a plumbing service. Mike Roberts, general manager of Mr. Rooter, used a tiny video camera to track and later retrieve the diamond ring.
■UNITED STATES
Workers find cash in trash
Three state highway workers cleaning up litter in Indiana picked up an abandoned tire — and found about US$100,000 inside. State police suspect the cash, in denominations of US$5 to US$100, may be drug money. State Police spokesman Mike Burns said a drug-sniffing dog found the scent of drugs on the bills. Police said the workers found the tire on Friday in a ditch along Interstate 70 just east of Indianapolis.
■MEXICO
Relatives to see ‘acid man’
Relatives of 100 missing people want to show photos of their loved ones to a man arrested in Tijuana for allegedly helping a druglord dispose of his slain enemies by dissolving their bodies in acid, a victims’ group said on Saturday. Santiago Meza Lopez, known as the “Pozole Maker” after a local stew, is accused of disposing of 300 bodies for Teodoro Garcia Simental, a suspected former lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel. The relatives have asked authorities for permission to meet face-to-face with the 45-year-old Meza, said Cristina Palacios, president of Citizens United Against Impunity, a group that represents families of missing people in Tijuana. Meza was arrested on Thursday and paraded by soldiers and federal police in front of reporters on Friday at a cement-block shack where he allegedly got rid of many of the bodies over several years.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was