■THAILAND
Protests wind down
Protests in Bangkok and on the Thai-Cambodian border wound down yesterday, one peacefully, the other leaving dozens injured. About 30,000 supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra ended their protest in Bangkok at midnight on Saturday, marking the third anniversary of the Sept. 19, 2006, coup that ousted him. The demonstration ended without violence. A simultaneous protest on Saturday by the rival People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) near the ruins of an 11th-century Hindu temple on the Cambodian border resulted in a clash. The ultra-nationalist PAD wanted to march to the Preah Vihear site to protest Cambodia’s erection of housing on a disputed area adjacent to the temple. The 2,000 protesters ran into a blockade of police and villagers. The clash left dozens injured, two critically.
■INDIA
Pair suspected in murders
A teenager in the northern state of Haryana murdered seven members of her family, including her parents, news reports said yesterday. The 19-year-old woman was arrested with her lover in Kabulpur village on Saturday, the NDTV network reported. Police said the pair committed the crime fearing their families would never allow them to get married since they belonged to the same clan. The bodies of the victims were found in the house on Tuesday. Police told the PTI news agency that the man procured poison and the woman mixed it with food and served it to her family. Once the victims fell unconscious, she called her lover to the house and the two strangled them.
■INDIA
Daughter lost in card game
A father gave his teenage daughter to a fellow gambler after losing a card game, media reported yesterday, with police launching a hunt to retrieve the girl. Ismail Sheikh, from a village in West Bengal, used his 18-year-old daughter as a stake after he lost all his money, the Times of India said. “Ismail lost the game again and Mustafa walked away with the girl,” said Satyajit Bandhopadhyay, a senior police officer investigating the case. The daughter protested, but Mustafa dragged her out of the village, the report said. Family members were quoted as saying the father was a compulsive gambler with a drinking problem and that they had thrown him out of the house after the incident.
■PAKISTAN
Taliban commander dies
A top Taliban commander, who was injured in a military operation in which he was arrested last week, died from his injuries yesterday, the military said. “Sher Mohammad Qasab, who had multiple bullet wounds, succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning,” it said in a statement. Qasab, one of the most senior Taliban on a wanted list in the Swat valley, was arrested on Wednesday. The army said he was injured in a military operation in which three of his sons were killed and another captured.
■JAPAN
Black bear injures nine
A bear injured nine people at a highway rest stop before being shot dead in a souvenir shop. The black bear seriously injured four men on Saturday afternoon in Nyukawa town about 230km west of Tokyo, firefighter Tomohiko Akano said. The 1.3m bear attacked people at a bus parking lot, then entered a lodge, where it was trapped in a souvenir shop and shot dead by a hunter. None of the people attacked suffered life-threatening injuries.
■RUSSIA
Muslim cleric murdered
A top Muslim cleric was killed yesterday in an attack in the North Caucasus. “The murder of the high-ranking spiritual leader occurred early this morning,” a local police source was quoted by Interfax as saying. “His car was fired on by unknown assailants as the vehicle was stopped at a traffic light in the center of Cherkessk.” Ismail Bostanov was the rector of the Islamic Institute and a long-serving Muslim official in the Karachai-Cherkessia region. His son was also wounded, the RIA Novosti news agency said.
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