■Thailand
Burmese stage protest fast
Six anti-government activists from Myanmar said yesterday they were starting a 58-hour protest fast in front of their country's embassy to protest the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who turns 58 this week. The protesters demanded the immediate release of Suu Kyi, who heads the National League for Democracy party and is the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent campaign for democracy. She was arrested May 30 after what the ruling junta described as a clash between National League for Democracy members and government supporters.
■ Indonesia
Suspect admits to training
A suspect in a deadly McDonald's restaurant bombing told a court yesterday that he and other Indonesian Islamic militants had trained at a rebel camp in the southern Philippines. Suriyadi Masud made the remarks at the trial of Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual head of the regional al-Qaeda linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah. His testimony further confirms the regional nature of terrorism in Southeast Asia, something highlighted during the investigation into last year's Bali bombings. Like most of the prosecution witnesses called at Bashir's trial, Masud said he did not know the defendant, who is charged with treason and ordering a series of church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000.
■ Hong Kong
Consul calls for democracy
US Consul General James Keith has urged the Hong Kong government to implement full democracy, a spokeswoman said yesterday, as pro-government lawmakers moved to slow talks on making elections for the territory's top office more democratic. Debate over Hong Kong's limited form of democracy, percolating for years, has heated up in recent weeks as the country prepares to enact an anti-subversion law that critics fear could abridge civil liberties enjoyed here but not in mainland China. Hong Kong should introduce "democratization in the form of progress toward the Basic Law's call for universal suffrage," Keith told a local newspaper reporter on Monday.
■ Japan
Whaling decision delayed
Japan, one of the world's biggest consumers of whale meat, said yesterday it had not yet decided whether to quit the International Whaling Commission over new moves to protect marine mammals but was considering all options. In a sharp shift for the 57-year-old IWC, members voted 25 to 20 on Monday to create a conservation committee. Japan and other pro-whalers say the committee will irrevocably alter the nature of the organization, originally set up to manage whaling. "This goes against the basic goals of the IWC," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, the government's top spokesman.
■ The Philippines
Forgetful robber arrested
A 42-year-old man was arrested by village security officials in Manila after he returned to the house he robbed earlier to get an electric cord from a water heater, a police report said yesterday. The report said Mel Astoria was spotted at dawn on Monday by village security officials as he was about to flee from the house of Maximo Aldueso in Manila's suburban city of Pasig. Astoria admitted to robbing Aldueso's house earlier in the day along with two other companions, but he decided to return because he forgot the electric cord of the water heater he stole. Police have charged Astoria with robbery.
■Northern Ireland
Trimble wins victory
Northern Ireland's main Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, on Monday backed leader David Trimble and voted in favor of sticking with the British and Irish Governments' plans for the peace process. In a tense vote at a south Belfast hotel, members of the Ulster Unionist council supported Trimble as hardliners tried to force him into an outright rejection of the London and Dublin peace plan. Trimble won the vote by 54 percent to 46 percent. Hardline Ulster Unionist Jeffrey Donaldson led those opposing the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which has since provided the basis for Northern Ireland's up and down peace process.
■ Jordan
Voters head to the polls
Polls opened in Jordan yesterday for the first parliamentary elections since King Abdullah came to the throne five years ago, with the powerful Islamist movement expected to claim a nearly a quarter of the seats. Witnesses said voting began slowly at several polling stations in Amman and other major cities after polls opened at 7am. They are due to close at 7pm. First results were expected later yesterday and final results will be announced today. The elections are the third multi-party polls since the kingdom began a process of democratization after riots in 1989. The Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, has fielded 30 candidates after boycotting the last parliamentary poll in 1997.
■ France
Police sweep terror group
More than 1,300 police detained members of the Iranian opposition group the People's Mujahedeen in a vast sweep yesterday through the Paris region, the Interior Ministry said. More than 1,300 counterintelligence agents, police and a special intervention squad took part in the sweep that focused on 13 sites. Police used explosives to blast down some doors, according to one police investigator who asked not to be named. It was not immediately clear how many people had been detained. However, large quantities of computer material and "ultra-sophisticated transmission systems" were seized.
■ Congo
French soldiers kill fighters
In the first incident since the multinational force arrived in the Congolese city of Bunia, French soldiers shot and killed two militia fighters, a military spokesman said Monday. The French soldiers were on patrol Monday in the southwest of the city to protect civilians from fighting between ethnic Hema and Lendu militias when they came under fire, which they returned. The UN-mandated force, deployed by the EU to secure Bunia, "would respond firmly to all people threatening the life of the population and soldiers of the multi-national force," warned military spokesman Major Xavier Pons.
■ United States
Man wins suit over `blue ice'
A California man who says his boat was hit by two chunks of frozen human waste flushed out of an airplane toilet has won a payout from the airline, news reports said Monday. Ray Erickson, 73, claims the two blocks of "blue ice" crashed through the skylight of his boat in February. The blue ice, which takes its name from the color of disinfectant used in airliner toilets, was created when restroom holding tanks or tubes leaked. The impact created a sound like that of a shotgun blast and left a hole the size of a fist, reports said.
Agencies
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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