■INDONESIA
Rains may trigger slides
Heavy rain threatened to trigger more landslides and hamper delivery of desperately needed aid yesterday on the island of Sumatra, where thousands of people were buried by last week’s powerful earthquake. The Meteorological and Geophysics Agency warned that remote areas could see strong winds and storms for the next two days, worsening the plight for those made homeless and creating dangerous conditions on roads already blocked by mud and felled trees. Satellite images showed continuing moderate to heavy rain in west Sumatra Province, which was struck by a 7.6-magnitude quake on Wednesday.
■NEW ZEALAND
Snow strands motorists
Hundreds of stranded motorists faced a second night in emergency shelters yesterday after an estimated 1m snowfall on central North Island. A state of emergency was declared in the lakeside town of Taupo when about 900 motorists were forced to abandon their cars after being trapped by the unseasonal springtime snowfall, described as “a freak weather occurrence.” Police said the 145km stretch of highway between the east coast port of Napier and the lakeside town of Taupo was expected to remain closed for a second night because of abandoned vehicles blocking the road. Two stretches of the main highway between the capital, Wellington, and the country’s biggest city, Auckland, were also likely to stay closed for another night.
■NEW ZEALAND
Murder suspect on the run
A murder suspect was at large yesterday, 24 hours after police cordoned off about 15km² of North Island farmland and launched a manhunt. Police said armed officers had searched outhouses, barns and wool sheds in rain and near-freezing temperatures and used heat-seeking helicopters without finding any trace of the suspect they named as David John Bourke, 46, from Wanganui. They said the body of a middle-aged man was found in the crashed car of the suspect, who also shot and wounded a farmworker near the small town of Norsewood, 215km north of Wellington, on Sunday. Police commander Russell Gibson said officers were searching a huge area and warned farmers to stay indoors and be patient.
■CAMBODIA
Officer arrested for drugs
A police officer who was less than a week into his post in an anti-drugs squad has been arrested after police found 10kg of heroin stashed at his home in the capital, national media reported yesterday. The raid on the house of Bun Pov, a first lieutenant in the anti-drugs squad, also uncovered 2kg of methamphetamines as well as large quantities of chemicals used to process and make drugs. Mok Dara, the head of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, told the Cambodia Daily that the raid was part of a concerted effort by the government to combat illicit drugs.
■JAPAN
Autopsy shows little
An initial autopsy of former Japanese finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa found cardiovascular abnormalities and alcohol in his body, but was unable to determine the cause of death, reports said yesterday. Police will conduct further examinations, which will require a few more days, according to Jiji Press and other media. Nakagawa, who resigned in February over his apparently drunken behavior at a meeting of world powers on the global financial crisis, was found dead on Sunday at his home. He was 56.
■ISRAEL
Security tight in Jerusalem
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