■INDIA
Six killed in Assam blasts
At least six people were killed and 40 wounded in two bomb blasts in northeast Assam State yesterday, police said. Bombs hidden in bicycles exploded in front of a police station and a shopping complex in Nalbari, about 70km west of state capital Dispur, Jitmol Doley, a senior police officer, said by telephone. Police said the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom was behind the blasts, but a senior rebel leader telephoned local newspaper offices and television stations to deny its involvement. The blasts came soon after New Delhi announced the government would provide safe passage to top rebel leaders willing to talk and find a lasting solution to the decades old insurgency in the state. Security forces have placed the entire tea and oil-rich Assam State on high alert.
■INDONESIA
Ferry sinks off Sumatra
Rescuers saved more than 230 people aboard a passenger ferry that sank yesterday in rough waters off Sumatra island, but at least nine people died, an official said. An unknown number of passengers were still missing. A second ferry was still stranded in nearby waters after running aground, but all its passengers were said to be safe. Rescue teams found nine bodies, including those of two children, and rescued 232 survivors from the Dumai Express 10, said Nurdin Basirun, a local government official. High waves were making the search and rescue operation difficult, said Brigadier General Puji Hartanto, police chief of Riau Kepulauan Province. At least nine ships and several fishing boats were searching for an unknown number of missing passengers. Officials said the ferry manifest listed 228 people, including 15 children, and 14 crew members, but it was not known if those numbers were accurate.
■PHILIPPINES
Pirates abduct tugboat crew
Unidentified gunmen abducted the captain and two crewmen of a tugboat, the coast guard said yesterday. The gunmen were aboard three pump boats when they approached the MT Marinero off Siocon town in Zamboanga del Norte province late on Saturday. Commodore Rodolfo Isonera, a regional coast guard commander, said the suspects then forcibly boarded the Marinero. Isonera said the gunmen also took the crew’s personal belongings, including radio and mobile phones, as well as food supplies. Police said the tugboat’s other crew members reported the incident to authorities.
■SOUTH KOREA
Murderer is own last victim
A man on death row for murdering 13 people in one of the country’s worst killing sprees has died after hanging himself. The Justice Ministry says Jeong Nam-kyu died in a hospital yesterday, a day after hanging himself with plastic trash bags in his cell. The ministry says in a statement Jeong, 40, is believed to have died of a heart attack or brain damage caused by his suicide attempt. A court sentenced Jeong to death in 2007 for killing 13 people and wounding 20 others. He also robbed and sexually assaulted many of his victims.
■CHINA
Mine death toll rises
The death toll from the country’s latest coal mine disaster reached 87 as hopes dimmed yesterday that more survivors would be found a day after a gas blast at a colliery in the country’s icy far northeast. Xinhua news agency reported 528 workers were in the mine, at Hegang in Heilongjiang Province, at the time of the blast, and 420 had been rescued by yesterday. Some 21 miners remained trapped or unaccounted for, Zhang Jinguang (張金光), a spokesman for the mine company, told reporters, who were taken by officials to see 20 or so rescue workers descending down a tunnel still belching smoke. Zhang Fucheng (張福成), an official in charge of rescue efforts, told Chinese television that efforts were being impeded by dense gas and collapsed tunnels. Temperatures were near freezing.
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