CHINA
Children killed in bus crash
Nineteen people, 17 of them children, were killed in a collision between an overloaded school bus and a truck in Gansu Province yesterday, local authorities and state media said. Two adults were among those killed in the accident, which happened at 9:40am in Yulinzi Township, an official surnamed Du from the Gansu safety bureau said. The bus was from a local kindergarten, Xinhua news agency said. A photograph posted on China National Radio’s Web site purportedly of the accident scene showed a badly damaged orange bus and a red truck on a road.
PAKISTAN
US drone blasts compound
A salvo of missiles fired by US drones destroyed a Taliban base in the tribal badlands on the Afghan border yesterday, killing up to 18 militants, officials said. Up to 10 missiles slammed into the sprawling compound in the Baber Ghar area of South Waziristan, killing between 15 and 18 militants, most of whom were reported to be local Taliban fighters, Pakistani security officials said. Five US drones carried out the attack, one of the officials said.
HONG KONG
Mugabe attends graduation
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe attended his daughter’s graduation at City University, a university spokeswoman said yesterday. The veteran leader, who is accused of widespread human rights abuses in his country, reportedly thanked local authorities for protecting Bona Mugabe, 22, from the media spotlight during her studies. Bona, who has lived in the territory for more than three years, received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with honors in accountancy at City University, spokeswoman Karen Cheng said.
AUSTRALIA
Police evict protesters
Police have swooped down on the Occupy Melbourne camp, arresting three protesters as they enforced city orders requiring demonstrators to take down tents and tarpaulins. A Melbourne spokeswoman says campers weren’t evicted yesterday morning, but were issued notices giving them an hour to remove the shelters. She said some protesters have lawfully remained at the camp. A Victoria Police spokeswoman said aside from the arrests, more than a dozen protesters were pulled away by officers and then later released.
INDONESIA
Strong quake hits Papua
A strong earthquake hit Papua Province yesterday, causing panic among residents, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2, struck at 8:42am, Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said. The agency said the quake was centered about 34km southwest of the mountainous town of Oksibil at a depth of 57km. It shocked residents in Oksibil, which is located south of Papua’s provincial capital, Jayapura.
NEPAL
Fungus fighters sentenced
A court in the northwest has convicted 19 villagers for the beating deaths of seven people from a rival community in a dispute over foraging for a rare fungus known as “Himalayan Viagra.” The Manang district court said six of the defendants were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while the remaining were sentenced to two years. Residents of Naar village attacked the seven rivals in June 2009 after they came to nearby mountainous areas to collect yarsagumba, a rare fungus that grows out of the corpses of caterpillars.
UNITED KINGDOM
Crackdown on metal thieves
A bill to curb metals theft moved a step closer to becoming law on Tuesday with safe passage through the House of Commons, as industry groups called for tougher punishments for thieves and tighter regulation of the scrap metal trade. The bill would establish a tough licensing scheme for scrap metal dealers coupled with greater police and judicial powers to close scrap yards found flouting the law. The bill also proposes to require scrap yards to make cash-less payments and require proof of identification and address from any potential seller. Metal thefts have led to widespread communications and rail network disruptions in Britain and across Europe as well as damage to heritage sites. They cost the economy upwards of £770 million (US$1.2 billion), according to figures from the UK’s Association of Chief Police Officers in July.
GAZA STRIP
Israeli raids wound one
Israeli planes carried out two raids overnight, wounding a Palestinian, a Hamas official said. The raids were on targets in Beit-Lahya and northern Gaza, a member of Hamas’ security service said. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed a raid on “terrorist sites.” Palestinian militants in the strip fired two rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday evening, damaging a farm outbuilding, but causing no casualties, Israeli police said.
NORTH KOREA
Reactor work progressing
Pyongyang has made significant progress in building a new nuclear reactor, but it is unlikely to become operational for two to three years, according to 38 North Web site (38north.org), which published satellite photos. The nation’s official news agency said last week the light-water reactor at the Yongbyon complex would start operating soon, but gave no date. The Web site, which is devoted to analysis of the North, this week carried satellite images of the work in cooperation with DigitalGlobe’s Analysis Center. It said “significant progress” over the past year could indicate a desire to push ahead as fast as possible with uranium enrichment, to produce fuel for the reactor and possibly fissile material for weapons. It said the plant’s exterior could be completed in six to 12 months, but operations were unlikely to start for another two-to-three years because Pyongyang still needed to complete construction, finish loading machinery and equipment, install electronics in the control room and produce fuel assemblies.
RUSSIA
Chechen poet murdered
A Chechen poet with anti-separatist views was gunned down in Moscow in an apparent contract killing, investigators said yesterday. Ruslan Akhtakhanov was exiting his car just before midnight on Tuesday near his apartment building when an unidentified gunman fired several shots at him, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. The 58-year-old Akhtakhanov was a professor at the Modern Humanitarian Academy in Moscow and received a special journalism prize in 2009 for a book of poems called I am proud of Chechnya, which gave heroes to the world.
INDIA
New member for dynasty
Bollywood’s golden couple, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her husband, Abhishek, became proud parents for the first time yesterday with the birth of a girl, who joins a celebrated acting dynasty. Former Miss World Rai Bachchan, 38, gave birth at the private Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai, hospital staff said.
VENEZUELA
Kidnappers shoot consul
Chile’s consul was shot and beaten during an attempted kidnapping by unidentified assailants who released the diplomatic envoy after holding him captive for several hours in Venezuela’s capital, Chile’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. The diplomat, Juan Carlos Fernandez, was nabbed by kidnappers on Nov. 11 when he was leaving a hotel, the ministry announced in a statement. Fernandez’s injuries were not life-threatening, it said. Chile’s Foreign Ministry said Fernandez is recovering from his injuries at home after receiving treatment at a hospital.
SPACE
Trio arrives at ISS
A spacecraft carrying a US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts yesterday successfully docked to the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz TMA-22 with NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin on board docked to the orbiting station several minutes ahead of schedule. The three blasted off from the Russia-leased cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday. The three men are to remain aboard the space station until March. The US’ Michael Fossum, Russian Sergey Volkov and Japanese Satoshi Furukawa have been onboard since June and are due to return to Earth next week.
UNITED STATES
Botero bronze breaks record
Fernando Botero’s monumental bronze Dancers has fetched more than US$1.7 million at a New York auction, setting a new record for a sculpture by the renowned Colombian artist. The 3.18m tall sculpture, which depicts a couple standing face to face, as if about to start a dance, was made in 2007 and bought directly from Botero. It was acquired at the first session of Christie’s Latin American Art sale on Tuesday, by a private European buyer whose identity was not revealed. The previous record for a sculpture by Botero was US$1.6 million, achieved in 2007, also at Christie’s, with the 1986 white marble piece Mujer fumando, or Woman Smoking.
UNITED STATES
Priest, victim settle case
Attorneys for a victim of convicted pedophile and former Roman Catholic priest Daniel McCormack have reached a US$3.2 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George. Chicago-based law firms Hilfman & Martin and Abels & Annes announced the agreement Tuesday. The plaintiff was one of five victims McCormack admitted abusing when he pleaded guilty in 2007. The victim was 10 to 12 years old during the abuse. The lawsuit claimed church leaders failed to keep McCormack away from children even though they knew he had abused minors.
BRAZIL
Leaking oil well sealed
US energy giant Chevron said on Tuesday it had sealed a ruptured offshore well which for the past week has seeped oil into waters off Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state. The company “can currently advise that well control operations have been successful and that any fluid flow from the well appears to have ceased,” a Chevron statement said. The well, located about 1,200m underwater, had been leaking crude at a rate of about 400 barrels per day, according to state officials quoted by the news agency Agencia Brasil. Chevron devised a plan, approved by Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency, to encase the well in cement, ensuring that it will never be accessed again.
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