CHINA
Ex-monk self-immolates
A former Buddhist monk in Tibet has been hospitalized after setting himself on fire, the latest in a series of apparent self-immolation protests against Chinese rule, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said. Tenzin Phuntsog, a former monk in his 40s, set himself on fire on Thursday, it said, citing exiled Tibetans in India whom it did not identify by name. The attempted self-immolation reportedly occurred near the Karma monastery in Tibet’s Chamdo region. A woman who answered the telephone at the propaganda office of the Communist Party in Chamdo denied the incident occurred. “Nobody self-immolated. Nothing like that happened in Chamdo,” said the woman who would not give her name. If confirmed, at least 12 monks, nuns, and former monks have set themselves on fire this year in what some see as acts of desperation in the face of tightening Chinese controls over Tibetan life and culture.
INDIA
Police hopeful arrested
A man hoping to join the police was arrested for cheating after stuffing his vest under a wig so he could make the minimum height required for the post, the Mid Day tabloid said yesterday. Nilesh Ramlal Bari, 28, came up with the ruse after realizing that at 165cm, he was 3m too short to be a constable with the Mumbai police, the report said. Keen-eyed police suspected something amiss when he stepped up to be measured at a recruitment drive in the city on Thursday and the vest was discovered under the hairpiece. He was arrested for cheating and later released on bail.
AUSTRALIA
Elvis Presley refused bail
A former Federal Police worker who changed his name to Elvis Presley was refused bail yesterday after more than 35,000 child pornography images were allegedly found at his Sydney home. Officers raided the house on Thursday and seized computer equipment and hard drives, allegedly uncovering 800 videos, as well as thousands of pictures of child abuse. Police said they also discovered Federal Police uniforms, batons and handcuffs. The 49-year-old changed his name by deed poll to Elvis Presley, but was charged under his old name, Michael Feuerstein, ABC radio reported. He faces three counts of possessing and disseminating child pornography, possessing a prohibited weapon and possessing ammunition without a license.
HONG KONG
Alimony set at US$157m
An heir to a property fortune has been ordered to pay his ex-wife more than US$150 million in one of the territory’s biggest divorce settlements, media reports said yesterday. High Court Justice John Saunders ruled that billionaire tycoon Samathur Li (李建勤) must pay Florence Tsang (曾昭穎), his wife of eight years, HK$1.22 billion (US$157 million), reports said. Saunders said the couple lived a “lifestyle which was best described as just below that of a US--dollar billionaire” and ruled that Tsang, a 38-year-old solicitor, should be kept in the comfort to which she had become accustomed. The settlement represented 20 percent of the couple’s assets, less than the 55 percent demanded by Tsang, according to the Hong Kong Standard daily, which said the ruling sealed “Hong Kong’s reputation as Asia’s divorce capital.” Tsang reacted with a “cheer and a broad smile” when she read the decision, the South China Morning Post reported.
UNITED STATES
Kidnappers issue demands
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility on Thursday for the kidnapping of a 70-year-old US aid worker in Pakistan in August and issued a series of demands for his release. In a video message posted on militant Web sites, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said Warren Weinstein would be released if the US stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world. Weinstein was abducted by armed men from his house in the eastern city of Lahore on Aug. 13. Police and US officials have not publicly said who they believed was holding him, but Islamist militant groups were the main suspects.
MEXICO
Wirikuta mining slammed
More than 150 writers and artists from 30 countries called on authorities on Thursday to cancel Canadian mining concessions in an area in the north of the country northern Mexico considered sacred by Huichol Indians. “We hope that President [Felipe] Calderon won’t go down in history as the one who authorized the destruction of Wirikuta and its sacred places,” read a letter by internationally prominent intellectuals, including Nobel Prize-winning writers Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio of France and Orhan Pamuk of Turkey. Wirikuta is a desert area in the northern state of San Luis Potosi home to the Cerro Quemado, a mountain where the Huichol believe the sun was born. Indigenous people from neighboring states walk hundreds of kilometers on an annual pilgrimage to celebrate religious ceremonies at the site. The letter called for the government to cancel 22 concessions granted to Canada-based First Majestic Silver on an area of nearly 6,300 hectares.
UNITED STATES
No apology to Pakistan
The White House on Thursday dismissed the notion of offering an apology to Pakistan over the NATO air strikes that killed 24 soldiers, insisting an inquiry was still ongoing. “I, speaking for the White House and the president, offered condolences on behalf of him, the administration, the American people, for the tragic loss of life,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. “It was a tragedy.” However, he and other US officials have stopped short of offering any apology. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Department of State officials had lobbied for President Barack Obama to make a formal statement of regret to the Pakistani people to stem the damage to the key US--Pakistani relationship. However, according to the newspaper, the Pentagon balked at the idea, saying statements by other senior officials such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were sufficient. There was also concern that an apology by Obama would be used against him by his adversaries in the run-up to next year’s presidential election, the Times said.
CANADA
End of deployment marked
The country lowered its flag in Kandahar for the last time on Thursday during a ceremony to mark the end of its deployment in southern Afghanistan, the military announced. The government sent almost 3,000 troops to the region — described by Defense Minister Peter MacKay as Afghanistan’s “most dangerous province” — in 2005 as part of a NATO-led force to rout insurgents from the Taliban heartland. The country’s mission officially ended in July with the handover of security duties to US and Afghan troops, but several months were needed to dismantle its base.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not