CHINA
Blast kills six at cafe
At least six people were killed and 38 injured when a powerful explosion hit an Internet cafe in Kaili City, Guizhou Province, on Saturday evening, reducing it to ruins, state media reported. The blast ripped through the cafe at about 11pm, state television said yesterday, citing local police. The broadcast showed rescue workers pulling victims from the devastated building and rushing the injured to hospital. The blast may have been triggered by “inflammable and explosive materials” kept in a nearby storage room, the report said. Police were still investigating the cause of the explosion, which also smashed windows in neighboring buildings.
THAILAND
King’s health raises concern
The country is marking the 83rd birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch, but elaborate celebrations fail to mask concern over his health and the future of the royal institution. Bhumibol delivered his annual birthday speech yesterday, sounding what has become his usual call for unity to keep the country happy and prosperous in the face of the sometimes violent political conflict it has faced in recent years. The king made his brief remarks at the ceremonial Grand Palace in a slow and rasping voice, reflecting his frailty. Thousands of flag-waving citizens cheered his car’s journey from Siriraj Hospital, to which he was admitted in September last year, with a lung inflammation. There has been no detailed explanation of his extended stay.
MALAYSIA
Police break up protest
Police fired tear gas and water yesterday at protesters at an opposition-backed rally in Kuala Lumpur. Xavier Jayakumar, a legislator in central Selangor State, said police fired tear gas and water canon at a crowd of thousands. He said at least five people were also arrested. Reporters at the scene, who declined to be named, said rounds of tear gas sent people running into side streets near the big National Mosque before they regrouped. The protesters, including several opposition parliamentarians, gathered to speak out against the federal government’s interference of water management in Selangor, Xavier said. Selangor is run by the national opposition People’s Alliance, of which Xavier is a member. Gatherings of five or more people need police permission and authorities often crack down on protests.
MALAYSIA
Man deported for ‘terror’ link
An Indonesian man linked to the extremist Jemaah Islamiyah outfit has been deported, the Jakarta Post reported yesterday. Fadli Sadama arrived at Jakarta airport on Saturday evening under heavy guard, the Post reported. Sadama was suspected of having links with a local “terror” network and the Pattani United Liberation Organization separatist group in South Thailand, National Anti-Terror Agency director Petrus Golose was quoted as saying. “Fadli planned to train ... before returning to Indonesia to plot acts of terrorism in Pekanbaru, Riau Province, and in the Mount Anak Krakatau area with foreign tourists as his main target,” Golose added. Reports have said that Sadama was arrested on Oct. 13 while traveling to Johor and was found to be carrying two guns. Sadama is believed to be linked to a group suspected of killing a police officer in a spectacular bank robbery in the capital of Indonesia’s North Sumatra, Medan, in August.
UNITED STATES
Santa helps out needy
“Secret Santas” are roaming the streets of North Carolina, handing out US$100 handshakes. The Charlotte Observer reported that the crew of donors, who insist on anonymity, handed out the US$100 bills on Friday to anyone who looked like they could use it. Felicia Adams was handed US$100 while working at a Goodwill outlet store. She said the money will help her get to New York to visit her father who is dying of cancer. The donors take thousands of dollars from their own bank accounts to hand out. It’s the fourth year the random acts of kindness have been done in Charlotte. This year, a half-dozen volunteers from the Charlotte police and fire departments tagged along, guiding the group through the city and pointing out people they could help.
ECUADOR
Volcano fear downgraded
Authorities downgraded a warning late on Saturday about a possible major eruption of the Tungurahua volcano. The alert was reduced from the maximum red to orange as activity eased, the national civil defense office said. The Geophysical Institute in Quito earlier reported a “very rapid and sustained increase in seismic activity and other manifestations at the surface” since early Saturday. A red alert was also in effect in Banos and other Andean villages near the 5,029m volcano, whose name means “throat of fire” in the local Quechua language. In 1999, the 15,000 inhabitants of the town were forcibly evacuated after a powerful eruption and not allowed to return for a year. Tungurahua’s biggest eruption, in August 2006, left six people dead and destroyed hundreds of homes.
HONDURAS
Canadians attacked
A Canadian man was killed and his 13-year-old daughter raped when their boat was attacked last week, police said on Saturday after they found the boat stranded in a lagoon near the northwestern port of Tela. The girl, Myda Egrmajer, was rescued by a passing oil tanker and taken to Puerto Cortes, a few kilometers to the east of Tela, criminal investigation chief Abelino Gomez told reporters. He said the body of Ottawa resident Milan Egrmajer, 55, was found in the lagoon where the attack took place late on Thursday. It had seven gunshot wounds. Father and daughter were sailing in their yacht from Guatemala to the island of Utila when they had to put in at a lagoon near Tela due to bad weather on Thursday. Before they could set sail again, they were chased by another boat boarded and attacked by several men, according to media reports. Alerted to the attack, authorities said bad weather prevented then reaching the stranded Canadians until Saturday.
GREECE
Suspected bombers nabbed
An official says counterterrorism police have raided a location outside Athens where they seized weapons and arrested several people. Local media reported that four people were taken into custody, but the police spokesman who confirmed the raid would not say how many arrests were made. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in compliance with police rules. Last month, a radical anarchist group called Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire, claimed responsibility for a spate of parcel bombings. Most of the 14 packages, all using tiny amounts of explosives, were intercepted by police and destroyed, though a delivery service employee suffered minor burns in a small blast.
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the