■JAPAN
Bigger military mulled
A draft of the new mid-term defense policy guidelines is calling for the reinforcement of military personnel and equipment in the face of growing regional tensions, Kyodo news agency said. The draft said the country must reverse its policy of reducing its defense budgets in light of North Korea’s missile launches and nuclear tests, as well as China’s rise to a major military power. The document urges the government to raise the number of Ground Self-Defense Forces troops by 5,000 to 160,000, Kyodo said. The new National Defense Program Guidelines, covering five years to March 2015, are scheduled to be adopted by the government by the end of the year.
■MALAYSIA
Thief abandons forklift
It was no speedy smash-and-grab when a thief, dressed like a Formula One driver, failed in his attempt to break open a Malaysian cash machine with a forklift, reports said yesterday. Closed-circuit TV footage caught the helmet-wearing, white jumpsuit-clad thief in the act as he used the forklift to ram the cash machine booth for 10 minutes, district police chief Zainal Rashid Abu Bakar told the Star daily. The cash machine was located at a petrol station which was closed during the early morning robbery attempt, he said. “However, as soon as the alarm went off, the man panicked and left the forklift which was stuck in the panel” of the cash dispenser, Zainal told the daily.
■CHINA
Factory explosion kills 16
At least 16 people died and 43 were injured yesterday in a factory explosion in Anhui Province, a police source and state media said. The explosion occurred at 3:17am in the workshops of a privately owned factory that produces and processes quartz sand in the district of Fengyang, Xinhua news agency reported, citing local authorities. “At the moment we have 16 dead confirmed,” said a local policeman, who declined to give his name. “It happened in a mining area. We don’t know what caused the blast.” Most of those killed were factory workers, Xinhua said.
■NEW ZEALAND
Swine flu count rises
The country has 258 confirmed cases of swine flu and health authorities say 213 of those had been recorded in the past seven days. Public Health Director Mark Jacobs said in a statement yesterday that most cases have been mild to moderate, but the country would see a big increase in cases in coming months. The tally has risen by 42 since Friday. New Zealand was the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to announce a confirmed case of swine flu in late April. No deaths have been reported, but a 30-year-old woman remained in critical condition in Wellington. Jacobs said the country had another 728 suspected cases.
■INDONESIA
Fugitive businessman caught
The country’s powerful anti-graft body arrested a fugitive businessman in a major corruption case linked to several high-ranking officials, reports said yesterday. Hengky Samuel Daud had been on the run for three years after being named a suspect for his alleged role in getting regional administrations to illegally buy fire engines from his company Istana Sarana Karya, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported. He was arrested at his Jakarta home on Friday night and taken to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for questioning, it said. The involved was immediately detained at the Jakarta police headquarters,” KPK deputy chairman Chandra Hamzah said.
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