NEPAL
PM has lung cancer
Prime Minister Sushil Koiarla has lung cancer and was to begin radiotherapy at a New York hospital yesterday, officials said. Information Minister Minendra Rijal said that doctors at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York believe that the spots on Koiarla’s lungs are at an initial stage and expect to complete the radiotherapy treatment within two weeks. Koiarla became the prime minister in February, heading a coalition government after his party won the most seats in parliament, but not a majority.
PHILIPPINES
Aquino assures on autonomy
President Benigno Aquino III yesterday assured the country’s largest Muslim rebel group that a new autonomous government would be in place by January in the south, a commitment made under a peace accord signed this year. The largely Roman Catholic Philippines signed an agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in March, ending nearly five decades of conflict. Under the pact, the MILF agreed to disband its guerrilla force, surrender weapons and rebuild communities while the government gives them wider powers to control their economy and culture. “All steps will be done that they can sit already in office by January 2015,” Aquino told reporters in the province of Iloilo, where he inaugurated some infrastructure projects. MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar had said the group was worried that the government was dragging its feet in implementing the pact.
INDIA
Gas pipeline blast kills 14
A state-owned gas pipeline exploded early yesterday, killing at least 14 people and sparking a massive fire that destroyed homes and forced the evacuation of neighboring villages in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, authorities said. Vandana Chanana, a top official of the state-run Gas Authority of India Ltd, said 14 people died and 15 others were injured in the fire following the explosion in the pipeline in Nagaram Village in the state’s East Godavari District. “The fire has been extinguished now and rescue operations are on,” Chanana said. The injured had been taken to nearby hospitals where doctors said the condition of at least six of them was critical, company officials said.
NEW ZEALAND
Schoolboy wins hair battle
A schoolboy has won a court battle to keep his hair long. Lucan Battison, 16, was last month suspended from his Catholic high school in the town of Hastings. St John’s College principal Paul Melloy said that Battison had breached a rule that states students must keep their hair short, tidy, off their collars and out of their eyes. Battison said his naturally curly hair would look messy if cut short and he was prepared to wear it in a bun to comply with the school’s rules. High Court Judge David Collins said that Battison’s suspension and the school’s hair rules were unlawful, and ordered the school to pay court costs.
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