BANGLADESH
Workers untangle trains
Railway workers yesterday untangled two trains that collided at a station 30km northeast of Dhaka, as the death toll from the crash reached 10, with at least 60 people injured. One train was stopped at the station when the second plowed into it from behind, leaving mangled carriages stacked on top of each other. Rescue workers and local people pulled survivors from the wreckage. More than 40 people remain in hospital, many with severe injuries. The accident occurred in Narshingdi on Wednesday afternoon. Amrito Baroi, Narshingdi chief administrator, said the brakes on the approaching train may have failed.
PHOTO: EPA
PHILIPPINES
Corruption body rejected
President Benigno Aquino III lashed out on Wednesday at a Supreme Court decision rejecting an investigative body he created to look into alleged corruption during his predecessor’s administration, vowing his anti-graft battle would not be deterred by the setback. The Supreme Court declared on Tuesday that Aquino’s first executive order that created a “Truth Commission” was unconstitutional because it unfairly singled out his predecessor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s government for a wide-ranging corruption investigation. A majority of the justices on the 15-member tribunal were appointed by Arroyo, who left office in June.
TONGA
Noble arrested for drugs
A noble who was elected to the revamped parliament last month has been charged with drugs and firearms offenses, officials in Nuku’alofa said yesterday. Lord Tu’ilakepa faces four charges relating to illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and one of possessing an illegal drug, Solicitor General Aminiasi Kefu said. The nobleman appeared at a closed session of the Fasi Magistrates’ Court yesterday, meaning further details of the allegations against him were unavailable, the Mataingi Tonga online news Web site reported. He was arrested last week after a series of joint police raids in Tonga and Australia. Tu’ilakepa was one of nine nobles elected to the new-look 26-seat parliament late last month.
INDONESIA
Rare elephants killed
Three endangered Sumatran elephants have been found dead after their herd rampaged through a village in Banda Aceh, a conservationist and officials said yesterday. The cause of the animals’ deaths is being investigated, but a local conservationist said they might have died after eating poison intended for wild boars as they scavenged for food at village stores. Bakhtiar, an activist with local environmental group Leuser International Foundation, said a herd of elephants had sent villagers fleeing. Bakhtiar said his group and the local authorities are planning to bring tame elephants to the area to help chase any straying herd back into the forest.
SRI LANKA
Video shows executions
An international human rights group says there is new video evidence linking the military to the summary execution of prisoners during the final stages of the civil war last year. Human Rights Watch said yesterday that contents of a five-minute video clip aired by Britain’s Channel 4 television last month warrants a UN investigation. The video was an extension of a short clip aired by the station last year showing blindfolded, naked men being shot at close range. The latest video shows the naked body of a young woman identified by Tamil media as “Isaippriya,” a news reader with the Tamil Tiger rebel television station.
FRANCE
Snow shuts Eiffel Tower
The biggest snowfall in close to a quarter of a century forced Paris’ Eiffel Tower and airports to shut briefly on Wednesday. An exceptionally heavy afternoon snowstorm paralyzed the bus network, snarled up roads and motorways and even disrupted the underground train network. Meteo France weather forecasting agency said was the biggest fall of snow since 1987. “This is marvelous. I didn’t think it could snow so much in Paris and that these gardens could be so beautiful,” said Didier Mathus, one of many members of parliament enchanted by a snowfall of rare intensity for the heart of Paris.
RUSSIA
Road plan approved
Moscow will go through with plans to build a highway to Saint Petersburg through a disputed forest, whose protection was backed by two reporters were brutally attacked over their coverage, the Vedomosti business daily reported yesterday. The road’s construction was initially put on hold by President Dmitry Medvedev, who called for a review of the contested plan. However, a final decision on the construction has been reached, with the announcement expected during Medvedev’s talks with visiting French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, Vedomosti said. The daily said France was taking part in the project through the Vinci firm.
UNITED KINGDOM
Young widower kept in jail
A British man who allegedly arranged the killing of his wife during their South African honeymoon is in jail following his first appearance in extradition proceedings. A judge initially said on Wednesday that Shrien Dewani, 30, could be freed on bail, but that was revoked when South African authorities appealed the ruling. It was unclear how soon the High Court would hear arguments on the appeal. Dewani surrendered to police on Tuesday in Bristol. His family has dismissed the allegations against him as “totally ludicrous.”
UNITED STATES
Book back after 64 years
A California woman is proving it’s never too late to make things right. Hazel Severson, 95, of Sacramento says a book borrowed by her late husband from an Amador County library in 1936 was found by a friend while they were sorting through things for a garage sale. She returned the book and offer to pay the overdue fee — US$2,701. Severson told the Sacramento Bee that she and her husband Howard were newlyweds when he checked out Seaplane Solo, about Sir Francis Chichester’s 1930 solo flight across the Tasman Sea. The library didn’t charge her a late fee, though it did accept a donation when she returned the book.
UNITED STATES
Man arrested in bomb plot
A 21-year-old recent convert to Islam tried to blow up a military recruiting station in Maryland on Wednesday, ensnaring himself in a sting operation orchestrated by the FBI, officials said. Antonio Martinez, who now calls himself Muhammad Hussain, thought he was detonating a real car bomb at the Catonsville recruiting office, but he had actually been interacting with the FBI, and the bomb was a fake. Martinez faces charges of attempted murder of federal officials and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia