■MALAYSIA
More Chinese in sex trade
Chinese women topped the list of foreign prostitutes arrested last year, the New Straits Times daily reported yesterday. A total of 4,496 Chinese women were detained during anti-vice raids conducted nationwide. Police also nabbed 1,389 Indonesian women, 1,049 Thai nationals, 1,090 Filipinas and 512 Vietnamese women, all of whom were believed to be working as prostitutes in entertainment outlets and budget hotels, Bakri Zinin, the director of criminal investigations, was quoted as saying by the daily. He said a newly formed anti-trafficking unit has also rescued 39 foreign nationals forced into the trade.
■CHINA
Uruguayan president visits
Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez arrived in China yesterday for a six-day visit during which he will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart and witness the signing of several cooperation agreements. Vazquez is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and Wu Bangguo (吳邦國), the No. 2 official in the Communist Party.
■AUSTRALIA
Jet makes quick landing
An Emirates flight with 225 passengers on board made an emergency landing in Melbourne after the Airbus A340’s tail struck the tarmac during take-off, officials said yesterday. Flight EK407, headed for Dubai, circled the airport for more than 30 minutes to dump fuel before landing safely and without any injuries to passengers late on Friday. Passengers described their fear as the plane had to circle to lighten its load of fuel before returning to land. “It was terrifying, it really was scary. I’d hate to go through it again,” Catherine Edmunds told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
■KYRGYZSTAN
Election date fuels suspicion
Parliament voted on Friday to hold an early presidential election on July 23, timing that the opposition alleged indicated incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s government would try to rig the vote. Bakiyev said last month that he would seek a second term. Many observers believe he wants to hold the elections before the disunited opposition has a chance to regroup. “It is likely the election date was set for the middle of summer to make it easier to falsify the outcome, by taking advantage of the fact that people are on holiday and uninterested in politics in that period,” said Bakyt Beshimov, leader of the opposition Social Democrat party faction in parliament. Bakiyev was elected to a four-year term in 2005 after opposition protests drove his predecessor from office, but the Constitution was later amended to increase the maximum presidential term by a year.
■INDIA
Police want attacker dead
Mumbai police have demanded the death penalty for the lone surviving suspect from November’s militant attacks on the city, ahead of a trial expected to begin tomorrow. Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman, also known as Kasab, has been in police custody since Nov. 26 and faces trial for murder and “waging war against India.” The penalty was called for because it was the rarest of rare cases, Jayant Patil, home minister for Mumbai’s state of Maharashtra, told reporters. Iman appeared before an Indian court via videolink on March 9 and was remanded in custody for a further two weeks.
■IRAQ
Al-Zaidi was lucky: al-Maliki
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday that Baghdad reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi, who famously hurled his shoes at then-US president George W. Bush, was lucky to get away with three years’ jail. Al-Maliki, speaking in Canberra during an official visit to Australia, said a longer jail sentence or even execution could have been his punishment. Iraq had paid a high price in death and destruction in the six years since the US invasion, but it was still preferable to life under former president Saddam Hussein, al-Maliki told local broadcaster SBS. He said many of those who died would have been killed by Saddam had he continued in power. “They would have been killed,” al-Maliki said. “To get rid of this regime and the danger that was posed against the region, there had to be sacrifices and losses.”
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