PHILIPPINES
Bus falls off ravine, 14 dead
Fourteen people, including two foreigners, were killed and 31 were injured as a tourist bus fell into a deep ravine in the northern Mountain Province, police said yesterday. The bus carrying 45 people was traveling on a narrow road when it fell about 120m into the ravine, local police chief Senior Superintendent Oliver Enmodias said. Fourteen of the passengers died on the spot, including a Canadian and a Dutch national, he said. Among the injured were a Dutch woman and the driver of the bus, who were taken to hospital, Enmodias said. Local police spokesman Superintendent Davy Vicente Limmong said they suspect human error or a mechanical problem was the cause of the accident, as there was no traffic and the weather was clear.
CAMBODIA
Stolen relics recovered
Police yesterday said they have recovered a golden urn stolen last year that contains what are considered to be remnants of Buddha’s body. The urn was taken from a mountain shrine 40km outside the capital in mid-December. National police spokesman Kirt Chantharith said it was recovered on Thursday from a house in the southern province of Takeo, and one man was arrested in connection with the theft. Several countries in Asia process relics believed to come from the body of Buddha, and the urn stolen two months ago holds enormous religious and cultural significance for the predominantly Buddhist nation.
MALAYSIA
Execution postponed
Amnesty International yesterday said the government has postponed plans to execute a man for murder in a case that sparked an outcry from Amnesty International. Chandran Paskaran was sentenced to hang in 2008 for killing another man in a fight five years earlier in the southern state of Johor. Amnesty had earlier learned that the execution of Chandran, 35, was set for yesterday. However, the execution was halted on the order of Johor’s state sultan, Amnesty International Malaysia executive director Shamini Darshni said. “The risk to his life, however, is not over, and his death sentence must be commuted immediately,” Shamini said in a later statement.
AUSTRALIA
Police charged with rape
Two police officers were yesterday charged with raping a woman while on duty in a case Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said was a blow to the force’s reputation. The men, aged 28 and 29, were each charged with five counts of rape, one count of assault with intent to commit rape, and with deprivation of liberty. Neither entered a plea when they faced the Mackay Magistrates Court yesterday morning, with both of them granted bail. It is alleged they raped the woman in Mackay, 970km north of Brisbane, on Sunday last week. She filed a complaint on Monday, which sparked an internal investigation.
ARGENTINA
Lawyer demands testimony
The vice president and top tax collector are one step closer to being charged or absolved in a corruption case. A federal prosecutor says evidence supports requiring the testimony by Vice President Amado Boudou, tax agency director Ricardo Etchegaray and at least nine others accused of taking over the company that prints pesos. The bankrupt printer was sold off to a shell company linked to the vice president after he and Etchegaray intervened to lower its tax debts. Prosecutor Jorge DiLello presented his case on Thursday to Judge Ariel Lijo. He says there is evidence of crimes punishable by six years in prison and a lifetime ban from public office.
UNITED STATES
Leno farewells ‘Tonight’
An emotional Jay Leno taped his last Tonight Show with help from a stageful of stars, including Billy Crystal, Garth Brooks and Oprah Winfrey. Leno grew tearful as he brought his 22 years as Tonight host to a close on Thursday, thanking his viewers for being “incredibly loyal.” The comedian, who said goodbye as host once before, called this the right time to leave. Jimmy Fallon takes over Tonight on Feb. 17 in New York. Thursday’s hour-long show included celebrity advice on Leno’s next move, two songs from Brooks and a parody of a song from The Sound of Music.
UNITED STATES
Stradivarius find confirmed
The rare multimillion-dollar Stradivarius violin stolen last month from a concert violinist in Wisconsin has been recovered, police said on Thursday. The violin was found in a suitcase in the attic of a Milwaukee residence overnight on Wednesday, city Police Chief Edward Flynn said. The violin appears to be in good condition, he said. Citizen tips and information about the stun gun used in the theft led to the arrests of three people, Flynn said. Two men, aged 41 and 36, and a 32-year-old woman are in custody, according to prosecutors. Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm said one suspect was likely to be charged yesterday and the others could be charged after that. He said charges were delayed because prosecutors had been negotiating with one suspect for the return of the violin.
FRANCE
Pope’s bike sold for charity
The auction in Paris on Thursday of the pope’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle and jacket saw the combined proceeds of almost 300,000 euros (US$407,000) going to charity. After bidding lasting six minutes, the auctioneer Bonhams said the 1,585cc bike — given to Pope Francis by Harley-Davidson in June — was sold to a private buyer in Europe for 241,500 euros. The jacket, also signed by the pontiff, went to an anonymous buyer for 57,500 euros. The money was earmarked for the renovation of a hostel and soup kitchen in Rome run by the charity Caritas.
MEXICO
Note left with heads
A chilling note was found alongside the severed heads and dismembered bodies of four people on Thursday in the state of Michoacan where vigilantes are battling a drug cartel, authorities said. The heads were placed on top of plastic bags on a street in the town of Zacapu, an official in the Michoacan state prosecutor’s office said. The arms and legs were found near a church. A note was left near the body parts, reading: “This is what will happen to those who support the Knights Templar” cartel. The victims have been identified and authorities are trying to determine whether they are linked to organized crime, the official said.
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