NEPAL
Constitutional camp held
Top leaders of the nation’s main political parties are camped at a resort south of the capital in an attempt to reach agreement on a new constitution. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai along with leaders of his Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) and United Democratic Madhesi Front have been meeting since Sunday afternoon at the resort located 10km south of Kathmandu. The road to the resort has been blocked by security forces and only the leaders were inside yesterday.
INDIA
Maoists ‘are biggest threat’
Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said Maoist insurgents are the country’s top internal security threat even as traditional conflicts in Kashmir and the northeast have ebbed. He was speaking yesterday to a meeting of the chief ministers aimed at coordinating the country’s anti-terror efforts. He said the security forces’ fight against the Maoists in at least nine states was hampered by a lack of resources. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also appealed to the state leaders to help strengthen the country’s defenses against terror.
INDIA
Two killed in collapse
Two people were killed and more than 20 others feared trapped yesterday after a building housing a blanket factory collapsed in the north, a senior police official said. TV footage showed emergency workers searching through the debris of the building which collapsed late on Sunday night in the town of Jalandhar in Punjab State. Jalandhar’s deputy commissioner of police, Tulsi Ram, said about 90 people had been working in the factory when it caved in, according to rescued workers. “We have rescued about 60 to 70 people so far, they tell us that at least 20 people are still trapped under debris, some with smashed bones. The rescue effort is in full swing,” he said.
AUSTRALIA
Tot lived off Easter eggs
A two-year-old spent up to five days home alone with the body of her dead mother, according to officials who said yesterday she may have survived on chocolate Easter eggs. The severely dehydrated child was found on Friday after neighbors raised the alarm, leading to the discovery of the body of a woman in her 30s in a house in Wagga Wagga, about 400km southwest of Sydney. “She was quite lethargic and pale. She wasn’t saying much, she wasn’t displaying much emotion,” regional Ambulance Inspector Eamonn Purcell said of the toddler. Authorities admit there are many unknowns in the case, including how the mother died, but while the girl was dehydrated her blood sugar levels were good.
JAPAN
Python may be killer
Police were yesterday probing the death of a man whose body was found next to a 6.5m python. Shoji Fujita, 66, was found dead outside his home in Ushiku city, 50km northeast of Tokyo, with a reticulated python lying next to him, a local police spokesman said. The snake was kept by his son, who operated an exotic pet store in the same city, the spokesman said. Fujita died after telling his wife he was going outside to check the temperature of a locked reptile compound next to the couple’s house. When he failed to return, the woman went to check and found her recumbent husband with bite marks on his head and right arm, said the spokesman.
TURKEY
Ex-military officers charged
A court has pressed charges against dozens of former military officers, including four retired generals, over their role in the ousting of a prime minister. The court yesterday ordered nine more suspects, including retired General Cevik Bir, placed in jail pending trial for forcing the resignation in 1997 of Islamist prime minister Necmettin Erbakan. The court has jailed 18 out of 29 suspects in the case. Bir, a former deputy chief of staff who served in Somalia as commander of the 1993 UN peacekeeping mission, had gained fame as the fiercely secular military’s chief critic of radical Islam.
IRAQ
Election chief freed on bail
Faraj al-Haidari, head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), said after his release on Sunday that his detention on suspicion of corruption was due to just one of many often-frivolous court cases brought against the body. Haidari was released along with Karim al-Tamimi, another member of the body who was detained with him on Thursday, on bail of 15 million Iraqi dinars (US$12,500) each, Haidari said. Haidari said in an interview in the Green Zone that his and Tamimi’s arrest “was not a good act, and does not serve the democratic political process.” He said the IHEC has been hit with a barrage of court cases. The latest case involved bonuses paid to some workers of the property department in Bayaa who divided land for the IHEC.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cetaceans quake sensitive?
Do whales hear earthquakes long before humans? As tsunami warnings hit the Indonesian and Sri Lankan coasts last week, observers at sea watched as every species of cetacean — from massive blue whales to diminutive spinner dolphins — disappeared within five minutes. British photographer and filmmaker Andrew Sutton said that he and his crew were mystified as the whales they were watching vanished in the space of a few minutes. The humans on the boat were unaware that the quake had happened, but the animals had evidently sensed the subsea seismic shocks, and fled.
ISRAEL
Officer hits protester
The military suspended a senior officer who struck a pro-Palestinian protester in the face with a gun, an army spokesman said yesterday, after video of the incident was put on the Internet. The video showed Lieutenant--Colonel Shalom Eisner holding his M-16 rifle in both hands and shouting at a group of demonstrators taking part in a bicycle rally in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, before suddenly striking a man in the face. The demonstrator, a Danish national, fell to the ground and was carried away by activists. The protester, named as Andreas Ias, was treated in a Palestinian hospital for light injuries and told Israeli media yesterday that he was well.
ITALY
Pillow warriors fight it out
About 100 people did battle with feather-filled pillows on Sunday in front of Rome’s Santa Maria in Trastevere church, to celebrate International Pillow Fight Day. The pillow warriors, most between 18 and 30 years old, lined up face-to-face, then unleashed their fiercest pillow-fight moves when the church’s bells rang at 6pm. After about 20 minutes of battle, they threw down what was left of their weapons, then proceeded to lie down on them. International Pillow Fight Day was launched in 2008. This year, events were held from April 6 to Sunday in dozens of cities, including Belgrade, New York, London, Paris and Sydney.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was