INDIA
China sparks war of words
Minister of Defence A.K. Antony said yesterday that China’s comments on his visit to a territory disputed by the neighbors were “highly objectionable,” sparking a new war of words over the contested border. Beijing on Saturday reportedly called for India “to work with China to maintain peace and stability in border areas” and called for restraint to prevent complications in the dispute over Arunachal Pradesh, a northeastern Indian state that China claims in full. Antony visited the far-flung and highly militarized territory earlier this month to mark its 25th year as an Indian state. He promised better infrastructure and improved accessibility. “I was surprised to read the Chinese reaction. It is very sad and highly objectionable. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India,” he told reporters on Monday, according to the CNN-IBN television channel.
SOUTH KOREA
Conductor to visit North
A prominent South Korean conductor will visit Pyongyang this week to prepare for a planned joint concert in Paris by orchestras from North Korea and France, an official said yesterday. Chung Myung-whun will visit from today to Thursday to make arrangements for the concert between the North’s Unhasu Orchestra and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul’s unification ministry spokesman said. The ministry must authorize all inter-Korean exchanges. Chung, who conducts the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and also serves as the music director for the French orchestra, is set to lead the joint performance in Paris on March 14 as part of a cultural exchange program. The 59-year-old conductor and UNICEF “goodwill ambassador” has for years been seeking cross-border cultural projects.
NEW ZEALAND
Xena arrested over protest
Police have arrested actress Lucy Lawless and five Greenpeace environmental activists after the group spent four days protesting aboard a docked oil-drilling ship. Police yesterday removed the group from their perch atop a 53m drilling tower on the Noble Discoverer in Port Taranaki. Lawless and six activists climbed the tower early on Friday in an attempt to raise awareness about oil drilling in the Arctic. Chartered by oil company Shell, the ship had been scheduled to leave over the weekend for the Arctic to drill five exploratory wells. Lawless, 43, a native New Zealander, is best known for her title role in the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess.
THAILAND
Three Iranians questioned
Police yesterday said they were questioning three more Iranians in connection with an alleged plot to kill Israeli diplomats in Bangkok. “We have information that they may have links to the blasts,” police major general Piya Utayo said, referring to a series of botched explosions that shook a residential district of the Thai capital on Feb. 14. He said no charges had been laid against the trio. One was detained under immigration law for overstaying his visa. According to Thai media, mobile telephone call logs showed that one of the suspects had been in regular contact with two Iranians now in custody.
PAKISTAN
Bin Laden house demolished
Bulldozers yesterday finished demolishing the house where Osama bin Laden lived for at least five years until he was killed by US special forces in May last year. Only the wall of the compound remained intact, surrounding the debris of the three-floor building where the al-Qaeda leader lived in the garrison town of Abbottabad and a security official confirmed the demolition had been completed.
NIGERIA
Sect claims church bomb
Islamist sect Boko Haram said it was behind Sunday’s suicide bomb attack outside a church in the central city of Jos, and warned of more such assaults. “We carried out the attack on COCIN church in Jos today and we did what we did as part of our resolve to avenge the killings and dehumanization of Muslims in Jos in the last 10 years,” spokesman Abul Qaqa told reporters in a conference call. Three people including a toddler were killed in the attack, igniting brief riots by Christian youths that claimed another three lives on the streets of the capital of Plateau State. Qaqa said that that particular church had not been targeted for any reason. “We attacked simply because it is a church and we can decide to attack any other church. We have just started,” he said.
SUDAN
Rebels capture border area
Rebels said they captured a border district from the government in the oil-rich border state of Southern Kordofan. Fighters from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), attacked members of the Sudanese Armed Forces, took control of Jaw District and liberated the region of Lake Alubaid, the group said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Fighting in the border states of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan has intensified since South Sudan seceded on July 9 last year, assuming control of three-quarters of the former state’s oil production of 490,000 barrels a day.
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