BANGLADESH
Yunus fights back
Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus began a legal battle yesterday to overturn an attempt by the government to sack him from the bank he founded. The central bank fired the 70-year-old leader of Grameen Bank on Wednesday, saying he had been “removed from his position” as managing director for breaking the law when he was re-appointed in 2000. The country has a mandatory retirement age of 60. However, Yunis defied the order yesterday, returning to work as normal at Grameen’s headquarters in Dhaka and lodging a case in the High Court contesting the decision to remove him. Yunus’s troubles are thought to stem from 2007 when he floated the idea of forming a political party, earning the wrath of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has publicly disparaged his work. Local economists have warned the government’s “hasty decision” could prompt a collapse of confidence or even a bank run in the country’s vast microfinance sector.
PAKISTAN
US diplomat to stand trial
A court yesterday said that the murder trial of a CIA contractor would go ahead, despite the insistence of the US that he has diplomatic immunity. The hearing against Raymond Davis took place in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore where he is being held, and was adjourned until Tuesday. The issue of Davis’ claim to diplomatic immunity is pending before the Pakistani High Court, which is due to rule on it on March 14. “The court passed an order today saying that he [Davis] had failed to produce any legitimate document proving his diplomatic immunity,” said Asad Manzoor Butt, the lawyer representing the two men shot by him, after a closed-door hearing.
INDIA
Forty killed in plunges
Two separate accidents in Himachal Pradesh killed at least 40 people on Wednesday, after an open truck carrying a wedding party and a bus rolled into gorges, police said. The truck flipped over at a curve in the road in Chamba district and fell into a 90m gorge. Rescuers recovered 33 bodies and took seven injured people to a hospital, police said. Seven people died in the second accident as workers on a power project were being driven home. Both drivers were killed and investigations have been opened into the cause of the accidents.
JAPAN
Hachiko’s death explained
Scientists have settled a decades-old mystery by naming a cause of death for the country’s most famous dog. Hachiko became legendary for his loyalty by waiting for his owner every day at a train station for 10 years after his master died. He has been immortalized in children’s books and two movies. He was considered such a hero that his organs were preserved when he died in 1935. Hachiko was rumored to have swallowed a chicken skewer that ruptured his stomach. However, veterinarians examining his organs said on Wednesday that he had terminal cancer.
INDIA
Appointment rejected
The Supreme Court yesterday quashed the appointment of P.J. Thomas as the head of the federal anti-graft commission because of his involvement in a controversial palm oil import case, in another rebuke for the Congress-led coalition government. The court said the appointment of Thomas was made last year without taking into account the 1992 case in which he, as a state official, had been accused of signing a deal to import palm oil from Malaysia at higher prices.
UNITED KINGDOM
Traders stuck in elevator
It turned out to be an all-nighter, but not the fun kind. Seven high-powered traders and brokers who went out for a night on the town in London’s Canary Wharf business district ended up curled up together on the floor of an elevator after it malfunctioned and their calls for help went unheeded. An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the elevator failure, but some news reports have speculated that the group was jumping up and down inside the elevator, causing it to stop working. Building employees found the seven traders and brokers asleep on the elevator floor at 3am. The seven had been eating sushi and drinking at a Japanese restaurant in the Canary Wharf business district before they became trapped.
UNITED STATES
Decades-old letter delivered
A World War II-era letter addressed to a woman at a Red Cross hospital in California has been delivered almost 70 years after its postmark in Alabama, but the mystery of the message remains. The Montgomery Advertiser reports that the letter is addressed to Miss R.T. Fletcher, American Red Cross Station Hospital, Camp Roberts, California. That building was torn down years ago. Camp Roberts was closed in 1970, so the letter was delivered to the Camp Roberts Historical Museum. Curator Gary McMaster said he hasn’t opened the letter for privacy reasons. The envelope is torn where the return address would be located, so it’s not clear who sent it. However, the tear reveals a handwritten letter inside.
CANADA
Consultant charged
Authorities on Wednesday charged an immigration consultant with helping foreigners obtain permanent residency or citizenship in a huge fraud scheme, police said. About 1,100 applicants mostly from the Middle East and their dependents were implicated in the fraud, including 76 who obtained citizenship. Immigration minister Jason Kenney said the consultant had allegedly “fraudulently helped individuals create the appearance they were residing in Canada in order to keep their permanent resident status and ultimately attempt to acquire citizenship.”
CANADA
Cuban dancers stay
Five members of the National Ballet of Cuba, including one of its principal dancers, have remained in Canada after performing there, dance officials said on Wednesday. National Ballet of Canada spokeswoman Catherine Chang said the five are taking classes with the ballet in Toronto, adding that she can’t confirm that they have defected. However, an official with the National Ballet of Cuba said the dancers had decided to stay in Canada. The official was not authorized to talk to the press on the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Montreal Gazette reported that among the Cubans was a principal dancer, Elier Bourzac, who said he was staying in Canada for “artistic” reasons.
UNITED STATES
Death sought against doctor
Prosecutors in Philadelphia say they will seek the death penalty against a doctor charged with killing a patient and seven babies at his abortion clinic. Kermit Gosnell is charged with running a filthy medical practice that allegedly served as a pill mill by day and an abortion mill by night. City prosecutors cite as aggravating circumstances the multiple deaths and the tender age of the babies allegedly killed with scissors after being born alive.
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