YEMEN
Gunman kills nine
Medical and security officials say a crazed gunman opened fire on Sunday on worshipers marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in in al-Dhale, a governorate about 190km south of the capital, Sana’a, killing nine. The gunman targeted men praying outside a crowded mosque during morning Eid el-Fitr services. Ten people were wounded, the officials said, and the gunman was arrested at the scene. Also on Sunday, a security official said a suicide bomber blew himself up in a town in the southern governorate of Abyan, killing a leading member of a civilian militia that has fought alongside government troops to drive al-Qaeda militants from their southern strongholds.
IRAQ
Sunni cleric attacked
A bomb struck the convoy of a senior Sunni cleric in western Baghdad on Sunday, killing four and critically wounding the anti-extremist Muslim leader, police said. The attack highlights the threats faced by moderate Sunni clerics whom the Shiite government needs to help rebuild the country and establish security. The blast left Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaie badly hurt, a Sunni religious official said. The cleric had just finished leading prayers to mark the beginning of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
PHILIPPINES
Ten new owl species found
Scientists and birdwatchers have discovered 10 new owl species in the country, using advanced recording equipment that can distinguish between their hoots, a conservation official said on Sunday. Eight of the new species were previously considered sub-species, while two are totally new, said Lisa Paguntalan, field director of Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Program. “There is no significant variation in their forms. It was the sound difference of their calls that was very significant in distinguishing between species,” she said. Paguntalan said many of these new species were possibly endangered because they were found only in small isolated islands or in tiny pockets of forests. The research took 10 years, but the results were only announced after coordination between groups, including Michigan State University and Birdlife International.
SOUTH KOREA
Joint military drills begin
Seoul and the US have begun annual military drills that North Korea calls a precursor to war. The US says the two-week Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills started with more than 80,000 troops from the US, South Korea and seven countries that fought with them in the Korean War. Pyongyang has repeatedly denounced the exercises as preparation for an attack.
PHILIPPINES
Temblin brings flooding
Tropical Storm Tembin brought heavy rains, triggering landslides and flashfloods in the north, just weeks after a series of deadly storms and monsoon rains, the government said yesterday. The storm remained almost stationary off the northern tip of Luzon, battering the mountainous region with powerful downpours. The storm caused landslides, damaging eight major highways, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Tembin, packing maximum winds of 105kph, with gusts of up to 135 kph, was expected to remain off the northern tip of Luzon for more than a day, the council added. Local communities were warned to monitor the levels of rivers and streams in their area and prepare for evacuations in case they begin to rise.
RUSSIA
Pussy Riot dismiss pardon
The three members of punk band Pussy Riot sentenced to two years in prison for performing an anti-Vladimir Putin song in a famous church are not planning to ask the president for a pardon, their lawyer said yesterday. “Our clients will not ask for a pardon,” defense lawyer Nikolai Polozov said yesterday, adding: “Literally this is what they said: ‘Let them go to hell with their pardon.’” Band members Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich on Friday were each found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for their Feb. 21 protest in the Christ the Savior Cathedral and handed two-year jail terms. In connected developments, a group of Russian activists have sued pop singer Madonna for millions of dollars, claiming they were offended by her support for gay rights during a recent concert in St. Petersburg. Anti-gay sentiment is strong in the country and a recent law passed in St. Petersburg makes it illegal to promote homosexuality to minors. The author of that law has pointed to the presence of children as young as 12 at Madonna’s concert on Aug. 9.
MEXICO
Airport police replaced
Federal police have replaced all 348 officers responsible for security at the capital’s biggest airport after three agents were killed by corrupt colleagues smuggling drugs from Peru. The Ministry of Public Security said the officers had been reassigned to different states. One of the three police agents sought in the June 25 shooting at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport has been captured. Two others remain at large. From their hiding place, the fugitive officers told Proceso magazine that they had no links to drug trafficking, and accused their superiors of trying to coerce them into getting involved in organized crime.
UNITED STATES
Lawmakers party probed
The FBI has investigated an incident that saw at least one Republican congressman swim naked at a drinking party in Israel last year attended by top leadership staff, the news Web site Politico reported on Sunday. It said Representative Keving Yoder of Kansas stripped and jumped into the Sea of Galilee during the privately funded trip, joining colleagues and their family members who were partially or fully clothed. “Regrettably, I jumped into the water without a swimsuit,” Yoder told Politico. “It is my greatest honor to represent the people of Kansas in Congress and [for] any embarrassment I have caused for my colleagues and constituents, I apologize.” More than 20 people participated in the late-night dip on Aug. 18 last year, according to the news Web site. Some of the lawmakers who jumped in said they did so because of the religious significance of the waters, where Jesus is said to have walked on water and performed other miracles.
UNITED STATES
Ads where they should be
Two brothers have created toilet tissue paper that is printed with ads and sometimes even coupon codes that can be read by cellphones. The Journal-News said on Sunday that Bryan and Jordan Silverman expect their product to appear this fall in the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library. Twenty-two-year-old Jordan Silverman came up with the idea for Star Toilet Paper in 2010. His 18-year-old brother said he was initially skeptical, but came to see it as advertising to “a really captive audience.” The brothers from Rye Brook have entered their concept in a contest run by Entrepreneur magazine.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
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