■MALAYSIA
Woman seeks 23rd husband
A 107-year-old woman, afraid of being abandoned by her current husband, is looking to marry again to overcome her loneliness, a news report said yesterday. The centenarian, Mek Wok Kundor, had married her 22nd husband, Mohamad Noor Che Musa, 37, in 2005, but separated in July when he was admitted into a drug rehabilitation program in the capital Kuala Lumpur, the Star daily said. Mek Wok, who lives in the northern state of Terengganu, believes her husband might leave her after he completes the rehab program and settle down with a younger woman in the city, the daily said. “Lately, there is this kind of insecurity in me,” she said, adding that she was lonely.
■MALAYSIA
Ethnic Indians give up fight
Ethnic Indian villagers gave up a high-profile struggle yesterday to prevent condominium developers from razing their homes, but one grief-stricken woman tried to set herself on fire as bulldozers moved in. The fate of Buah Pala Village has been a focal point for minority ethnic Indians, who are among the country’s poorest citizens and say politicians ignore them. Activists say it also exposes the country’s lack of clear traditional land rights, saying the northern Penang state government should have consulted villagers before selling the land in 2005. The top court ordered the residents to leave because they do not formally own the land, though they say their ancestors have lived there for generations.
■CHINA
New space launch center
The country began the construction of its fourth space launch center yesterday as the nation gears up for future manned space flights aboard a new generation of carrier rockets, state media reported. Work started on the Wenchang Space Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island, which will become the country’s first coastal launching pad when completed in 2013, the Hainan Daily reported. Chang Wanquan (常万全), member of the Central Military Commission, and Chen Qiufa (陳求發), head of the State Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, attended yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony, the report said. The site is being built to accommodate the Long March CZ-5 carrier rocket, which will be able to carry larger payloads.
■PHILIPPINES
One killed in rebel attack
A government militiaman was killed and four were wounded in an attack by communist rebels, a police report said yesterday. The fighting erupted on Sunday when communist rebels attacked an outpost of government militiamen in Bulalacao town in Mindoro Oriental Province, 120km south of Manila. The combat lasted for more than two hours before the guerrillas withdrew after they failed to overran the militia outpost.
■MYANMAR
Two meth busts announced
Authorities seized nearly 3 million methamphetamine tablets in two separate drug busts near the border with Thailand, a state-run newspaper said yesterday. An anti-drug squad on Friday seized 220,000 methamphetamine tablets hidden in a car’s spare wheel during a search at a checkpoint in the northeastern town of Tachileik, the Myanmar Ahlin newspaper said. Authorities arrested the driver and were searching for other suspects. Also on Friday, police and soldiers raided a house in the same town and seized 2.63 million methamphetamine tablets and several rounds of ammunition, the paper said. Three suspects were arrested.
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