VIETNAM
Pastor jailed for 11 years
A court sentenced a pastor to 11 years in prison after a one-day trial for undermining national unity through his links with “reactionary organizations,” state media said yesterday. Nguyen Cong Chinh, 43, was accused of sending documents to anti-government organizations in Vietnam and overseas. “He distorted the domestic situation, calumniating the government, the state and the army in interviews with the foreign media,” the English-language Vietnam News said, quoting the court. Rights group say dozens of peaceful political activists have been sentenced to long prison terms since the country, a one-party state, launched a crackdown on free expression in late 2009.
INDIA
Landmine kills 15 policemen
A landmine triggered by suspected Maoist guerrillas killed at least 15 policemen in the western state of Maharashtra yesterday, several TV channels reported, the latest sign of the rebels’ strength just weeks after they kidnapped two Italians. The personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were traveling on a bus in a remote district when the blast hit, the reports said. On Sunday, a different group of Maoists in the eastern state of Orissa released an Italian tourist they had held hostage for almost two weeks, in what was believed to be the first kidnapping of foreigners in the conflict. Another Italian and a local politician were still being held captive.
JAPAN
Boss vows to repay losses
The head of an investment company suspected of losing more than US$1 billion in clients’ pension funds has apologized and said he intends to repay the losses. AIJ Investment Advisors president Kazuhiko Asakawa made the apology in a committee hearing in parliament yesterday. He said he ordered company financial reports to be falsified to conceal the losses. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission alleges that AIJ lost ¥109.2 billion (US$1.3 billion) in pension funds in derivatives trading overseen by Asakawa. Asakawa said he had not set out to deceive customers. He did not say how he would repay the losses.
THAILAND
Party quits peace panel
The main opposition party withdrew yesterday from a parliamentary reconciliation panel in protest at an independent study it said was aimed at whitewashing exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra of his graft conviction. The house committee has taken up the study’s recommendation of a general amnesty for those guilty of crimes related to the country’s long-running political crisis. The Democrat Party suggested the plan, drafted by King Prajadhipok’s Institute, was aimed at facilitating the return and political comeback of twice-elected Thaksin, who fled into exile in 2008 before being sentenced to two years in prison for conflict of interest when he was in power. “The decision to include the report at a parliamentary meeting is an excuse to work toward a pardon,” Democrat lawmaker Jurin Luksanawisit told reporters.
INDONESIA
Bird flu kills teenager
A 17-year-old has died of bird flu. He is the country’s sixth fatality from the virus so far this year. Health ministry spokeswoman Murti Utami said yesterday that the boy from eastern Lombok island developed symptoms early this month after coming into contact with sick chickens. He died on March 9 after one week in hospital.
TURKEY
Ex-army chief nixes defense
Former armed forces chief General Ilker Basbug yesterday said he would not defend himself against terrorism charges, describing the allegations against him as a “comedy” and calling for his trial to be heard by the Supreme Court. Basbug, accused of involvement in a plot to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, told the court he had no respect for the indictment, saying the allegations were against the armed forces and were a serious insult to the state.
SWAZILAND
King to censor tweets
Africa’s last absolute monarchy is planning to censor Twitter and Facebook users to stop them criticizing his rule. King Mswati III is facing growing protests over his undemocratic regime, which has pushed the tiny mountain kingdom to the brink of bankruptcy. The government is finalizing a law that would make it illegal to insult the king on social networks, Justice Minister Mgwagwa Gamedze said. Although Internet penetration is low among the nation’s 1.2 million people, networks such as Facebook and Twitter have been used to organize protests, including a student rally on Monday against education cutbacks.
UNITED KINGDOM
Rushdie, Khan fight on
Salman Rushdie and Imran Khan are apparently locked in hostilities. Early this month, the cricketer turned Pakistani politician pulled out of a shared speaking date with the novelist in New Delhi because of the “immeasurable hurt” Rushdie had caused Muslims with the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. Rushdie hit back, asking the audience if they “noticed a physical resemblance between Imran Khan and [former Libyan leader Muammar] Qaddafi.” Rushdie added: “When he was a playboy in London, the most common nickname for him was ‘Im the Dim.’” Claim and counter-claim continued on Twitter — Khan calling Rushie “unbalanced”; Rushdie calling Khan a “liar” for claiming they had never met — with Khan adding in an interview on Pakistani TV that Rushdie had a “mindset of a small man.” He signed off the interview saying: “I never want to meet him.” It would seem he will get his wish.
AUSTRIA
Man cuts foot to avoid work
An unemployed man sawed his foot off, apparently to avoid being found fit to go back to work. Hours before an appointment on Monday for the labor office to check on his health, the man, 56, held his left leg against an electric saw in his home workshop and severed his foot just above the ankle, broadcaster ORF reported. Bleeding profusely, the man from the province of Styria then threw the foot into an oven, hobbled to his garage and called an ambulance. An emergency operation was unable to reattach the foot, ORF said.
SOUTH AFRICA
Thief asks victim for job
A thief was caught red-handed in East London in Eastern Cape on Sunday, when he knocked on the door of a house asking for gardening work — wearing the clothes that he had earlier stolen from the owners. “When I opened the door I was surprised because he was wearing our clothing,” the owner, who did not want be named, was quoted by the Times newspaper yesterday as saying. “I could not believe the audacity of this guy. I detained him after that and called the police, but they did not pitch after 45 minutes,” the owner said. The robber managed to get away, but was later nabbed by security guards, the report said.
UNITED STATES
Obama taps Bush official
President Barack Obama on Monday nominated a member of former president George W. Bush’s national security staff to be the next envoy to Iraq. The nominee, Brett McGurk, has plenty of experience in Iraq. He is currently senior advisor to Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey and earlier served in Baghdad as senior advisor to the previous two ambassadors, Ryan Crocker and Christopher Hill. From 2005 to 2009, during the Bush presidency, McGurk served on the National Security Council, first as director for Iraq and later as special presidential assistant and senior director on Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post, McGurk has “a very good relationship” with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
UNITED STATES
Judges to rule on passports
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the federal courts should decide whether a law that would allow Jerusalem-born Americans to list Israel as their birthplace on their passport passes constitutional muster. The justices, on an 8-1 judgement, overturned a lower court ruling that said the judiciary could not get involved in a political fight mixing Middle Eastern politics with a dispute between Congress and the president. “The courts are fully capable of determining whether this statute may be given effect, or instead must be struck down in light of authority conferred on the executive by the Constitution,” said Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion.
BRAZIL
Newspaper owner killed
The owner of a weekly newspaper was shot dead in the southern city of Santa Helena following a bar brawl and the assailant was released after confessing his crime, police said on Monday. Onei de Moura, the 42-year-old co-owner of the Costa Oeste, was shot three times in the chest on Saturday night shortly after he had an altercation with his assailant in a nearby bar. “It was not a robbery. He was in front of a vending machine and the assailant arrived in his car and shot him three times,” a police official said on condition of anonymity. “Apparently, the victim had offended him,” said the official, who described the case as “a personal issue.”
BRAZIL
Lightning kills family
Four members of the same family were killed by a lightning strike during a heavy storm in the Amazon region. The national space institute known as INPE tracks lightning strikes nationwide. It said in a Monday statement that one 30-year-old man and three girls died after lightning hit a tree they were standing under in Para state. They had been in the jungle picking fruit. The newspaper O Liberal reported that the man who died was the uncle of two sisters who were killed. The girls were seven and nine years old, while a 13-year-old girl in the group also died.
UNITED STATES
Tiny puppy could be smallest
A puppy named after one of the world’s biggest pop stars could set the world’s record for tiniest dog. Animal rescuers in northern California said the female Dachshund mix, named Beyonce, was so small at birth that she could fit into a spoon. At two weeks, she’s about the size of a business card. The Grace Foundation, based in El Dorado County, said animal control picked up Beyonce’s pregnant mother, and she gave birth to a litter of five on March 8. Beyonce was the last one delivered and was born without a heartbeat. Veterinarians revived her through chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the