■JAPAN
Sailors missing after sinking
Two Japanese sailors were missing yesterday after their ship sank following a night-time collision with another cargo vessel, the coastguard said. The 2,926-tonne Outsailing, registered in the Marshall Islands, collided with the Japanese-flagged 199-tonne Nisshin-maru shortly after midnight in Naruto strait, which is surrounded by Japan’s main islands of Honshu and Shikoku. All four men on the Japanese ship were thrown into the water as the vessel went down. Two were rescued by the 15-member crew on Outsailing. No one on Outsailing was injured.
■CHINA
Corrupt officials sought
A planned anti-graft museum in Chengdu is asking the public to nominate the 100 most corrupt officials of the past century, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. Fan Jianchuan said he started collecting artifacts for his “Traitors Museum” after Internet users suggested the idea, Xinhua said. His biggest concern was that he will be overwhelmed by too many suggestions. Criteria for deciding the top 100 will include the official’s position, how much they stole, by what means, the circumstances and the impact of their corruption, he said. Fan said he would ask the Chinese Communist Party’s disciplinary committee for support and envisions the museum as an anti-corruption education center, possibly even providing tours for criminals serving prison sentences.
■MALAYSIA
MCA votes for new leaders
More than 2,300 delegates from the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) voted yesterday for new leaders as the party tries to draw a line under months of infighting. The polls were triggered by the mass resignation of the party’s leadership. More than 100 candidates representing various factions within the party are fighting it out for 31 posts. The party turmoil began last August last when deputy president Chua Soi Lek was suspended over a sex tape scandal, triggering bitter factional fighting. The MCA suffered its worst ever electoral defeat in 2008, winning less than half of the parliamentary and state seats it contested.
■PHILIPPINES
Bishops slam crucifixtions
Roman Catholic bishops yesterday criticized the traditional Easter rituals of people publicly whipping themselves or having themselves crucified. “These are expressions of superstitious beliefs and are usually done out of the need for money and for tourism purposes which is totally wrong,” the Manila Bulletin quoted Bishop Rolando Tirona, chairman of a church office on the laity and the family, as saying.
■GERMANY
Gitmo discussions re-open
An official says the country has reopened discussions with the US about the possibility of taking in selected inmates to be released from the Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) detention center. A spokesman for the interior ministry said on Saturday that discussions had been resumed and focused on individual cases. He declined to give his name in keeping with department policy. The US has been asking countries to take in former prisoners on the grounds that in some cases it is not safe to send them home, because they might suffer reprisal after being held in US custody.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Parliament hosts gay wedding
Europe Minister Chris Bryant has taken part in parliament’s first gay marriage, celebrating a civil partnership ceremony at the historic venue. Bryant, a member of the governing Labour Party, won permission to hold his civil partnership ceremony with partner Jared Cranney at the Palace of Westminster — home to the Houses of Parliament.
■EGYPT
Mubarak returns
President Hosni Mubarak arrived on Saturday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where he is to recover after undergoing surgery in Germany, state television reported. Dozens of senior officials greeted the 81-year-old leader he walked out of the presidential plane and stepped onto an escalator. “This moment, which everyone has been waiting for, is the arrival of President Hosni Mubarak,” the television report said. A smiling Mubarak walked down the long red carpet and shook hands with Sunni Islam’s top cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Coptic Pope Shenouda III, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and a host of ministers and senior police and army officials. Mubarak underwent surgery in Germany on March 6 to have his gall bladder and a growth on the small intestine removed.
■ITALY
Regional polls begin
Voters have begun casting ballots in regional elections seen as an important test of popularity for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi has campaigned relentlessly for the ballot and has urged his supporters to vote and avert the risk of low turnout. The prime minister has seen his popularity eroded amid a corruption scandal and an investigation into his alleged attempts to influence TV coverage. The outcome of the voting will not have direct consequences on the stability of Berlusconi’s government. But a defeat might lead to a Cabinet shuffle. Berlusconi’s conservatives hold two of the 13 regions up for grabs, however, and are expected to keep those two and possibly snatch two away from their center-left rivals.
■TURKEY
PM rejects Iran sanctions
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again rejected the idea of imposing new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program in an interview with a German magazine out today. Erdogan’s comments come ahead of a visit to Turkey today and tomorrow by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has held out the possibility of additional sanctions against Iran. “We must first try to find a diplomatic solution,” Erdogan told Spiegel magazine. “What we need here is diplomacy, and then more diplomacy.” The Turkish leader said “everything else threatens world peace.” Merkel on Saturday reaffirmed her country’s position on the Iranian nuclear crisis in a video message on her Web site. “If Iran does not show proof of transparency on nuclear energy issues, we [must] also think about sanctions,” she said.
■COLOMBIA
FARC to release soldiers
The release of two soldiers held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) appears imminent nearly a year after the rebels first announced it. Two loaned Brazilian helicopters with Red Cross logos arrived on Saturday in the eastern city of Villavicencio. They were to pick up the ailing 23-year-old Private Josue Calvo yesterday. Calvo has been a captive for a year. Sergeant Pablo Emilio Moncayo is to be freed separately in the coming days. He has been held for 12 years. Leading the mission is opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba, to whom the FARC gave pickup coordinates. The military has agreed to halt operations in the handover zones. The remains of a police major who died in captivity are also to be returned.
■UNITED STATES
Battling paparazzo arrested
A battle by a pair of paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport ended with one of them in the hospital and the other in jail. Airport police spokeswoman Sergeant Belinda Nettles said on Saturday that 42-year-old Stefan Saad was arrested on suspicion of felony battery after the Friday night scuffle with another photographer as the two tried to get a spot on an airport curb for a shot of British singer Pixie Lott. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Web site said Saad was released on Saturday after posting US$50,000 bail. Nettles said the second paparazzo was treated at a local hospital. His name and condition were not released.
■MEXICO
Police chief decapitated
The decapitated body of the police chief of a northern town and the body of his brother were found inside the chief’s patrol truck on Friday, authorities said. Hours earlier, gunmen killed a deputy police chief and his bodyguard in another northern town. The body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in Agualeguas, was found on the bed of a patrol pickup truck, which was left on a dirt road in the nearby town of General Trevino. His head was on his lap, said a spokesman for Nuevo Leon state prosecutors, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. The body of the chief’s brother, Jesus Cerda, was found inside the truck, the official said.
■VENEZUELA
Putin to visit Caracas
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit Caracas on Friday, President Hugo Chavez announced. Chavez made the announcement during a joint press conference with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who he is visiting. Chavez said he was grateful to Russia for helping his country “to bolster its defensive potential” in the face of “threats” that he said were coming from the US. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Caracas in November 2008.
■COLOMBIA
Child bomb explodes
A schoolboy carrying a rebel-made bomb died when it exploded before he reached its police station target, officials said on Friday, marking the rare use of a child in such attacks in the country’s war. The 12-year-old walked up to the local police headquarters on Thursday in the town of El Charco, near the Ecuadorean border, carrying a package laden with explosives. It detonated before he reached the station, local authorities said. “A child bomb. Terrible. Repugnant,” Narino Province Governor Antonio Navarro said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number