■AUSTRALIA
Boat blast caused by arson
A blast on a boat smuggling people that killed five asylum seekers off northwest Australia earlier this year was caused by arson, police said yesterday. The explosion ripped through the boat carrying 47 asylum seekers and two Indonesian crew on April 16, shortly after it had been intercepted by an Australian navy vessel at Ashmore Reef. Authorities have previously refused to speculate on how the blast occurred, but Northern Territory police said yesterday a five-month investigation had concluded an asylum seeker set fire to gasoline in a bilge pump. “[It] was lit by one or more persons,” assistant police commissioner Mark McAdie told reporters. “What we can’t do is identify who did it.”
■MALAYSIA
Wife collects militant’s body
The wife of slain Islamist militant leader Noordin Mohammed Top has left for Indonesia to claim the body of her husband for burial in Malaysia today, a family representative said. “Noordin’s wife, Rahmah Rusdi, and his brother, Yahya Mohammed Top, left at 9:10am on Thursday morning for Jakarta to collect his body,” Badarudin Ismail said yesterday. “She will be meeting with Malaysian diplomats there and will be taken to the police morgue for the final paperwork. Once the paperwork is settled, we expect to receive Noordin’s body in Malaysia on Friday.” Noordin, a 41-year-old Malaysian who led a violent splinter faction of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah network, was killed along with several other militants at the bloody end of a nine-hour siege in central Java three weeks ago.
■INDIA
Boat death toll up to 36
Rescuers found another five bodies early yesterday from a double-decker tourist boat that capsized in a southern reservoir, raising the death toll to 36, with more than a dozen people still missing, police said. The boat carrying 74 tourists capsized on Wednesday evening after the tourists rushed to one side to look at elephants in a wildlife sanctuary, tipping the vessel, police officer R. Rajesh said. Rescuers have pulled 36 bodies from the reservoir in the Thekkady forest area in Kerala State and were looking for 18 missing people, Rajesh said. Most of the tourists were from Karnataka State, he said.
■JAPAN
Activists win rare victory
In a rare win for heritage activists, a court yesterday halted plans for a road bridge over the scenic and ancient port that helped inspire the animation hit movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. The court ruled that the impact would have been too grave on picturesque Tomonoura port — which is lined with traditional Japanese houses and faces the Seto Inland Sea — located in western Hiroshima Prefecture. It was the first time a court had halted a public works project in order to preserve a landscape, public broadcaster NHK said.
■BANGLADESH
Rat killer receives award
The goverment on Wednesday awarded a farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats and launched a month-long campaign nationwide to kill millions more, to protect crops and reduce the need for food imports. Mokhairul Islam, 40, won a first prize of a color TV for killing some 83,450 rats in the past nine months in Gazipur district near Dhaka. He collected their tails for proof. “I am so happy to get this honor,” Islam said after receiving a 14-inch TV and a certificate at an official ceremony. “I had no idea that the government gives prizes for this. This is an exciting moment. I will continue to kill them,” he said.
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