■THAILAND
Car bomb injures 42
Forty-two people were wounded, at least four seriously, when a powerful bomb exploded outside a restaurant packed with civil servants in southern Thailand yesterday, police said. The 50kg device was hidden inside a stolen Toyota pick-up truck and exploded during the busy lunch hour in the center of Narathiwat, the main town in the province of the same name, officials said. “It’s very horrible. We had intelligence that militants would mount a large-scale attack,” Lieutenant General Pichet Wisaichorn, the southern region army commander, told reporters. The bombing was the latest in a slew of attacks that have claimed 13 lives in the past week in the south, where rebels fighting for an independent Muslim state regularly target government officials.
■CHINA
Coach held over boy’s death
Police in Chongqing City have detained a soccer coach over the alleged beating of a 14-year-old boy who was left in a coma and later died, officials said. The coach, Lin Lin, “educated and physically punished” the boy, Mu Shihao, for not following instructions during a practice session on July 24, the city’s Jiulongpo District government said in a statement. The teen lost consciousness and was rushed to hospital, where he died on Aug. 17 after 25 days in a coma, the statement said. An autopsy has been performed and the results are due within a month. Police are treating the incident as a criminal case and officials have told the family they are welcome to seek compensation in court, it said. The Yangtze Evening Post quoted the boy’s father, Mu Xianqiang, as saying the coach became angry when his son left the field to go to the washroom.
■AUSTRALIA
Nelson to quit next month
The lawmaker who replaced former prime minister John Howard as conservative leader said yesterday he would quit politics next month. Brendan Nelson succeeded Howard as the Liberal Party’s leader after the former prime minister suffered a landslide election loss in November 2007. But dogged by poor opinion polls, the Liberal Party replaced Nelson with Malcolm Turnbull in a vote last September. Turnbull is also proving unpopular in opinion polls, but Nelson, 51, ruled out any chance of a leadership comeback after announcing yesterday he would quit his post in the Sydney electoral district of Bradfield late next month. “It has become increasingly clear to me that Bradfield needs an energetic new advocate and representative sooner rather than later,” Nelson told reporters. The former doctor was elected to parliament when Howard’s government first swept to power in 1996. He served as education then defense minister in Howard’s government.
■AUSTRALIA
Politicians get bus passes
To entice politicians into practicing what they preach and traveling by public transport rather than in chauffeur-driven cars, bus company Greyhound Australia said yesterday that they could all ride for free. “We’re doing this to save taxpayers money, but also to help politicians set the example when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint,” Greyhound chief executive Robert Thomas said. “It would also help our politicians get back in touch with the people they represent.” The offer of free bus transport comes as anger grows over even former politicians enjoying rides in government cars at taxpayer expense and free, unlimited air travel.
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