■PAKISTAN
Blast kills five, injures 40
A suicide bomber killed five people and wounded 40 in an attack on a security forces convoy in Swat valley yesterday, officials and witnesses said. The bombing struck the Mingora town after a relative lull in the valley, where the military launched a major offensive last year. The powerful device ripped through a busy street outside a bus terminal.
■PAKISTAN
Indian minister in talks
Pakistan and India sought to improve their strained relationship yesterday with high-level talks aimed at rebuilding trust that was fractured by the deadly terrorist attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai nearly two years ago. But analysts expected little concrete progress from the visit by Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad yesterday. Krishna is the most senior official to come to Pakistan since the November 2008 attacks, which India blames on Pakistan-based militants.
■MALAYSIA
Papers held in suspense
The authorities yesterday agreed to let an Islamic opposition party continue publishing its newspaper, but kept two other anti-government publications in suspense about whether they might be banned. The newspapers of all three parties in opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s alliance have faced an uncertain future because the Home Ministry refused to immediately renew their expired publication licenses in recent weeks. The Home Ministry said it was renewing the license of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party’s newspaper after party officials pledged to obey government guidelines, but did not mention two other opposition papers without fresh permits.
■PHILIPPINES
Peace negotiator tapped
President Benigno Aquino III said yesterday he would resume peace talks aimed at ending a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion. Aquino named a prominent academic — Marvic Leonen, law school dean at the University of the Philippines — to restart formal negotiations with the 12,000-member Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), while warning that he had to work within the Constitution, which rules out the creation of a new state. MILF deputy chief Mohagher Iqbal was guarded on the government announcement. “Our stand is clear. The peace talks should continue [from] where we stopped,” he told reporters from his base in the south.
■MARSHALL ISLANDS
No room to bury dead
Ebeye Island, a crowded urban center, has run out of room to bury its dead, with grieving families forced to put coffins into existing graves, traditional chief Michael Kabua said yesterday. Ebeye has a population of more than 10,000 people crowded on to 31 hectares of land. It is also home to 1,000 Marshall Islanders who work at the US Army’s nearby Kwajalein missile range. Kabua has raised the problem with the US Army, with the suggestion of creating cemeteries on the small islands that border the central part of Kawajalein Atoll reserve. However, they are periodically off-limits because of US missile tests, he said.
■PAKISTAN
Bin Laden comedy banned
Tere bin Laden, an Indian comedy about a Pakistani reporter who tries to win points to immigrate to the US by interviewing an Osama bin Laden lookalike has been banned here, two days before it was supposed to open. Officials expressed concern that the slapstick characterization of bin Laden could draw terrorist strikes in the country.
■CAMEROON
Celebrated journalist dies
Pius Njawe, one of Africa’s most celebrated journalists, died in a car accident on Monday in Virginia, according to his newspaper’s Web site and news agency reports. Njawe, who founded the newspaper Le Messager (The Messenger) in Cameroon at age 22 in 1979 after selling newspapers on the street as a child, was considered a symbol of opposition to the autocratic regime of Paul Biya. Repeatedly arrested, imprisoned, fined, threatened and harassed, Njawe had a career that was seen abroad as a case study in the risks African journalists take in setting themselves up as critics of the government.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Ulster unrest continues
Nationalist rioters in Northern Ireland threw gasoline bombs at police, who responded by firing rubber bullets, in a fourth night of unrest during the province’s marching season, a report said yesterday. Trouble flared late on Wednesday at a flashpoint in north Belfast, the BBC said, after riots on three previous nights injured 82 police officers. Gasoline bombs were thrown in the Ardoyne area, which is populated mainly by Catholics, and a car was set alight, prompting police to use rubber bullets and deploy a water cannon.
■RUSSIA
Medvedev slams corruption
President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday said corruption permeated everyday life in Russia, warning anti-graft efforts would be fruitless unless ordinary Russians stopped handing out bribes. “As we know, corruption always has two sides. It’s not enough to blame bribetakers, bribers are no less guilty. And unfortunately a very large amount of people in our country belong to them,” Medvedev told a meeting at the Kremlin. “Not only those who give large bribes to officials at various levels but also those who commit crimes in ordinary life without thinking about it. What any law-abiding person in Europe would not do — for example, bribing a policeman standing by the road with a baton — we do without a shadow of a doubt because there’s no other way to get rid of him,” Medvedev said in televised remarks. “So this is a mental problem, a problem of everyday habits, the issue of lawful behavior from all of the country’s citizens.”
■GERMANY
Llama drama on motorway
A love-shy llama called Luisa sparked chaos as she leapt over a fence onto a motorway to escape the amorous advances of a male llama, forcing police to close the road, authorities said on Wednesday. Police in Gifhorn, around 250km west of Berlin, received calls from stunned motorists as Luisa bolted down the B4 motorway in the direction of the nearby city of Braunschweig. “We sent three police cars with six officers,” police spokesman Thomas Reuter said. After closing the road, police managed to corner Luisa and move her to safety in a nearby wood. Her owner had heard about the drama on the radio and rushed to the area. Between them, they managed to lasso Luisa.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Map shows warming risks
Ministers on Wednesday launched a new Google Earth map designed to show the potential impact of temperature rises of 4°C. The interactive map lets members of the public see the dramatic changes that could occur if action is not taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions. It was created using analysis from the Meteorological Office Hadley Centre, a climate change research unit that advises government, a Foreign Office statement said.
■MEXICO
Interior minister replaced
President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday replaced controversial Fernando Gomez Mont at the Interior Ministry with an ally whom he praised for his record in fighting drug gangs. Jose Francisco Blake, a senior official in Baja California, “has played a fundamental role in confronting the problem of violence and organized crime,” Calderon said in a televised address. Blake takes on the top security post as drug-related violence soars.
■UNITED STATES
Bus driver hailed as hero
A transit bus driver is being credited for saving 10 people asleep inside a burning home in Buffalo, New York, by pounding on the door. After his heroics, Richard Lucas got back behind the wheel and finished his route. Lucas was driving his Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority bus around 6:30am on Monday when he noticed smoke coming from the back of a two-family house. He says he stopped the bus, ran to the house and banged on the front door, waking up the people inside. A woman living upstairs with her three children and a teenage nephew, and a man who lived downstairs with his wife and three kids told WGRZ-TV that they all could have died if not for Lucas. After everyone was out, Lucas headed drove off.
■BERMUDA
Fugitive updates Facebook
Fugitive Alvone Maybury, 24, has evaded police for almost two days, and still found time to update his Facebook page. Maybury has made at least 10 posts since he escaped on Tuesday morning. Maybury, whose brazen daylight escape was captured on camera by a local TV station, boasted online that he was relaxing, playing on his PlayStation, as armed police searched for him. Maybury, who is apparently posting his updates from a cellular phone, was being escorted from court following an appearance on weapons charges when he made his escape.
■UNITED STATES
Robber flees on skateboard
Who needs a getaway car? California authorities say a skateboard-clutching bandit flashed a gun at a San Diego Comerica Bank teller, stuffed money in his backpack and fled. Police and FBI investigators say no one has been arrested for Monday’s heist. The thief’s face was covered by a green paisley bandanna and his beanie, sweat shirt, gloves and pants were black.
■BOLIVIA
Presidential jet lacks pilot
President Evo Morales’ new executive jet, bought for US$37.8 million, is standing idle at a military airport due to a lack of experienced pilots, local media reported. For insurance reasons, pilots must have at least 100 hours flight time to fly this model, a Dassault Falcon 900EX, Minister of the Presidency Oscar Coca said. The company also requires a pilot with experience to accompany any new pilots to fly the plane, which was delivered earlier this month but remains confined to an air force base in El Alto.
■UNITED STATES
Palin’s daughter engaged
Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol told Us Weekly that she’s engaged to the father of her child but she hadn’t told her parents yet. The 19-year-old Bristol is featured on the magazine’s cover this week along with 20-year-old Levi Johnston and their 18-month-old son, Tripp. The couple said they reconnected while working out a custody plan and became engaged two weeks ago. They plan to wed within six weeks in Alaska.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of