■MYANMAR
Rare turtle rediscovered
The rare Arakan forest turtle, once thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in a remote forest, boosting chances of saving the reptile after hunting almost destroyed its population, researchers said yesterday. Texas researcher Steven Platt and staff from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society discovered five of the brown-and-tan-spotted turtles in May during a survey of wildlife in the Rakhine Yoma Elephant Sanctuary. The sanctuary contains thick stands of impenetrable bamboo forests, with the only trails made by the park’s elephants, said Platt, of Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.
■INDONESIA
Quake death toll rises
At least 100 people were likely killed by a major 7.0-magnitude quake that rocked the main island of Java last week, an official said yesterday. Authorities had confirmed 74 were killed in the quake, which struck off the south coast of Java on Wednesday, disaster management agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said. Another 34 people were also believed buried and likely dead under tonnes of boulders and earth by an earthquake-triggered landslide in the West Java village of Cikangkareng 130km south of Jakarta, Kardono said. “The bodies will be crushed if we use heavy machinery like excavators,” he said.
■HONG KONG
Police probe new acid attack
Police said yesterday they were investigating a fourth acid attack in less than a year in one of the world’s most densely populated neighborhoods. Eleven people suffered burns on Sunday when a man flung liquid at a market trader in the bustling Mongkok district, police said. Mongkok, a haven for shoppers looking for cheap clothes and electronics, has one of the planet’s highest number of inhabitants per square kilometer. Forty-six people were injured in December when two bottles of corrosive liquid were tossed from a building into the street.
■NEPAL
Top wanted man arrested
Police have arrested one of the most wanted men in the country, the alleged leader of a shadowy militant group blamed in deadly attacks on a church and a mosque, the government said yesterday. Ram Prasad Mainali, whom authorities believe is the leader of the underground Nepal Defense Army, was arrested in the southeastern town of Biratnagar on Saturday after months of investigation, Home Ministry spokesman Ramratna Pandey said. Pandey said Mainali was being brought to Kathmandu for questioning and that he has not been charged with any crime.
■VIETNAM
Mom seeks blogger’s release
The mother of a detained blogger made a tearful plea yesterday for her daughter’s release after two other online writers were freed. “Help us to get her free!” Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan said in a tearful telephone conversation from the southern coastal city of Nha Trang, where her daughter, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, has been held since Wednesday. Quynh blogged under the name “Me Nam.” “My daughter is still detained until now. I tried to visit her this morning but the police prevented me,” she said. Quynh had written about the sensitive topic of the country’s relations with China, her mother said. She had blogged about a controversial bauxite mining project in the Central Highlands and also about two South China Sea archipelagos, the Paracels and Spratleys, her mother said.
■MEXICO
Politician, family slain
A local politician was brutally slain along with his wife and two sons, officials and media in the southeastern state of Tabasco said on Sunday. Jose Francisco Fuentes, 43, was beheaded; his sons, ages eight and 10, were suffocated; and his wife was shot in the head, local news media said citing police sources. State officials confirmed that Fuentes, 43, a candidate for state legislature with the powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who lived in the state capital Villahermosa, was killed along with his wife and children but provided no other details. Fuentes had nearly 40 percent support against 21 percent for his closest rival for the Oct. 18 election, Tabasco media reported.
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