■AFGHANISTAN
Two NATO soldiers killed
Two NATO soldiers have died in a bomb attack in the south, the international alliance said yesterday. The soldiers, part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were killed on Friday by an improvised explosive device, a weapon blamed for the majority of casualties among foreign forces. “Two ISAF service members died following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan yesterday,” it said. The nationalities of the soldiers was not disclosed.
■PAKISTAN
Gunmen kill 16 Shiites
Sixteen Shiite were killed and four wounded yesterday in an apparent sectarian ambush in a remote tribal town in the northwest, a paramilitary spokesman and local officials said. The incident took place early yesterday in the Sunni dominated Charkhel area on Tal-Parachinar road in the violence-hit Kurram tribal district, close to the Afghan border. The victims were heading to Peshawar in two passenger vehicles when unidentified attackers ambushed them in a hail of gunfire, officials said.
■INDIA
Gods barred from trading
A court has ruled that Hindu gods cannot deal in stocks and shares, reports said yesterday, after an application for trading accounts to be set up in their names. Two judges at the Bombay High Court on Friday rejected a petition from a private religious trust to open accounts in the names of five deities, including the revered elephant-headed god, Ganesha. “Trading in shares on the stock market requires certain skills and expertise and to expect this from deities would not be proper,” judges P.B. Majumdar and Rajendra Sawant said, according to Indian newspapers. The trust, owned by the former royal family of Sangli, in western Maharashtra state, brought the case after successfully securing income tax cards and savings accounts for the deities.
■MALAYSIA
Hubby, wife, 108, reunite
A 108-year-old Malaysian woman has reunited with her husband, a man 70 years her junior, after a year-long separation as he completed drug treatment. Wook Kundor made headlines in 2006 when she married Mohammed Noor Che Musa, who is now 38. The couple were back together on Thursday after Mohammed completed a 12-month voluntary drug rehabilitation treatment in Kuala Lumpur, the Malay-language newspaper Utusan Malaysia reported yesterday. “I am grateful my husband has come back, I am happy we see each other again because I really love him,” Wook told the daily, which had a front-page photograph of her husband hugging the smiling and wrinkle-faced centenarian. “We will return to our normal life and I will serve my duty as a wife, just like any other woman,” the 108-year-old said.
■CHINA
Oil pipeline explodes
An oil pipeline at a busy port exploded, causing a massive fire that burned for 15 hours before being put out yesterday. Officials said no one was killed. State-run media said the pipeline blew up on Friday evening, and more than 2,000 firefighters worked overnight to control flames and further blasts on a second pipeline. China Central Television showed flames raging among tanks at the port in the northern city of Dalian, and state media described flames of about 30m high. The cause of the initial blast was not clear. The Xinhua News Agency said it happened after a tanker uploaded oil at the port.
■SUDAN
Army claims Darfur success
The army says it has inflicted a series of defeats on Darfur’s most powerful rebel group, killing and capturing hundreds in a series of clashes over the past few days. General Al-Tayeb al-Musbah Osman, the commander of the western region, told the state news agency that the army killed at least 300 members of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and captured another 86, destroying dozens of their vehicles. He added in late Friday’s report that 75 Sudanese soldiers lost their lives in fighting across five areas of the north. For its part, JEM said it had clashed with government forces, but maintained it had defeated them.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Tour operator collapses
Tour operator Goldtrail, which specializes in holidays to Greece and Turkey, has collapsed, leaving thousands of holidaymakers abroad, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said. The Surrey-based company, which mainly sold its holidays through travel agents, went into administration on Friday. It had about 16,000 customers on holiday abroad at the time of its collapse, media reported. The CAA said it was arranging to fly holidaymakers home at the end of their holidays, with flights from Turkey expected to operate as normal, but passengers traveling back from Greece were likely to face changes to their journey.
■BELGIUM
Court upholds cafe ban
Its name may be synonymous with European unity — but increasingly its coffee shops are not. Moves by the Dutch border town of Maastricht to ban foreigners from its marijuana cafes have been upheld by the European court, in a rare contravention of EU laws governing free markets and free movement of people. In response to what it terms an influx of hordes of weed-seeking tourists, mainly from Belgium and France, Maastricht decided to limit admission to coffee shops to Dutch residents only. The court’s finding concluded by saying that backpackers descending upon the Netherlands for a weekend of exuberance and oblivion endangered the EU’s security. “Drug tourism, in so far as it conceals, in actual fact, international trade in narcotics and fuels organized criminal activities, threatens even the European Union’s internal security,” it said.
■FRANCE
Town hit by riots
The southeastern town of Grenoble was hit by riots early yesterday, with shots fired and cars set alight after a man accused of robbing a casino was killed by police. Police spokeswoman Brigitte Jullien said shots had been fired at police who returned fire four times. A youth was arrested at the scene of the riots in the working class district of La Villeneuve. Thirty cars and several businesses were torched, while angry youths armed with baseball bats and iron bars attacked a tram and forced the passengers to get out. The incidents started after a Muslim service for 27-year-old Karim Boudouda, who died 24 hours earlier in a shootout with police.
■KENYA
Bombing suspect arrested
Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the Uganda bomb attacks that killed 76 people watching the World Cup final on television, an official said. The man was arrested at a police checkpoint on Wednesday near the Kenya-Somalia border with a satellite phone and digital camera, Northeastern Provincial Commissioner James ole Seriani said on Friday. Police say the man said he supported al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab, despite his claim to be a member of the Ugandan army.
■UNITED STATES
Manned spacecraft tested
A company working to send tourists on suborbital flights has tested its spacecraft with a crew for the first time. Virgin Galactic said the craft remained attached to a specially designed airplane throughout a six-hour flight over California’s Mojave desert on Thursday. On its Web site, the company congratulated the crew, saying: “Objectives achieved.” It said the two crew members evaluated all of the spaceship’s systems and functions. Virgin Galactic said the flight test program would run through next year before it starts commercial operations.
■UNITED STATES
Warrant out for ‘abuser’
Federal prosecutors said an arrest warrant had been issued in New York for a man accused of sexually abusing boys in Haiti after a judge dismissed charges against him in Connecticut. A criminal complaint was filed in Brooklyn against Douglas Perlitz on Thursday, a day after federal Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven dismissed charges against Perlitz. Arterton said she was only ruling on the venue issue and that her dismissal did not prohibit prosecutors from charging Perlitz in another state. She said Perlitz flew to Haiti from airports in New York and Florida, but took no flights from Connecticut. Perlitz is accused of enticing children into sex acts by promising them food, shelter and other items.
■UNITED STATES
Bieber tops YouTube
Justin Bieber’s music video for Baby is the most-watched video ever on YouTube. The 16-year-old pop star’s video passed Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance video to take the all-time lead. More than 246 million have watched Bieber’s video on the Google Inc-owned Web site. Bieber tweeted a thank you to “Beliebers” and said the video’s success was “crazy.” The most-watched clip on YouTube that isn’t a music video is the popular Charlie bit me viral video, which more than 210 million have watched.
■UNITED STATES
Palin payment questioned
The foundation arm of a cash-strapped California public university paid Sarah Palin US$75,000 to speak at a 50th anniversary gala, officials said on Friday. The former Alaska governor’s speech last month at California State University, Stanislaus, drew intense criticism and scrutiny and also attracted sizable donations for the public school. Officials refused to divulge the terms of her contract or her speaking fee until Friday. Additional details only came to light after students fished part of what appeared to be Palin’s contract from a rubbish bin. That prompted California Attorney General Jerry Brown to launch an investigation into the finances of the university’s foundation arm and allegations that the nonprofit violated public disclosure laws.
■UNITED STATES
Christo could frighten sheep
Federal land managers said artist Christo’s plan to drape fabric over several kilometers of the Arkansas River in the state of Colorado would have a significant impact on bighorn sheep and historical sites. The Bureau of Land Management released its draft environmental study on Friday on Christo’s Over the River project. Christo wants to use a system of anchors, frames and cables to suspend 9.5km of fabric across eight spots along a 68km stretch of the river. The draft study said more than 1,400 hectares would be disturbed. The bureau studied six alternatives, including not carrying out the project. After a 30-day comment period and a series of public meetings, the bureau will decide which alternative it prefers.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in