INDIA
Police hunt girl’s rapists
Police on Saturday were hunting for three men who allegedly drugged, kidnapped and raped a teenage girl while she was on her way to a test-preparation course in northern India. The 19-year-old victim was in stable condition in a hospital in Haryana state following the attack earlier in the week, police officer Ashwini Kumar said. The Press Trust of India news agency quoted the girl’s father as saying that she named three suspects who abducted her from a bus stop on Wednesday, but believed that eight to 10 people could have been in the village home where she was raped. The suspects were believed to be from the victim’s village and were known to her, Indian media reported.
BURKINA FASO
Eight killed in twin attacks
At least eight civilians have been killed in twin attacks in the east, where militants have been gaining ground over the past few months, authorities said on Saturday. “Two terror attacks were carried out in the villages of Diabiga and Kompienbiga” overnight in eastern Kompienga Province, the region’s governor said in a statement. One of the attacks targeted the home of a religious leader, who was killed along with four other people, a security source said. Meanwhile, three people belonging to the same family were killed and another two injured by suspected militants on mopeds, another security source said.
JAPAN
Murakami begs off prize
Japanese author Haruki Murakami has asked for the withdrawal of his nomination for an alternative to the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was postponed this year over a sexual misconduct scandal, saying that he wanted to concentrate on his writing. One of Japan’s most successful literary exports, Murakami’s Nobel prospects are the subject of intense annual scrutiny in his home country. Murakami expressed gratitude at the nomination, but said he wanted to “concentrate on writing, away from media attention,” the organizers of the New Academy Prize in Literature said while announcing his withdrawal on Facebook. The replacement award was set up by Swedish cultural figures after this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was postponed following a scandal at the Swedish Academy.
BHUTAN
Prime minister loses in polls
Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay yesterday conceded defeat, after the ruling party was knocked out in the first round of the nation’s third-ever election. Tobgay was seeking a second term in the poll, but fell short of two rival parties, which are to contest a runoff on Oct. 18. The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) party, which won Bhutan’s first election when it transitioned to democracy in 2008, attracted nearly 93,000 votes, narrowly beating the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) party, election officials said. “I congratulate DNT and DPT and their candidates [on] their outstanding performance,” Tobgay said on Twitter.
HAITI
Senate approves policies
The Haitian Senate on Saturday approved the new government’s general policies, a necessary first step before it can begin functioning, two months after the prime minister was forced to resign after attempting to impose unpopular austerity measures. Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant, who took office last month, listened to the doubts expressed by lawmakers angry at ministers suspected of tax evasion, before managing to obtain support of 21 of 28 senators.
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