■ Pakistan
Bomb rocks Quetta
A powerful bomb concealed in a bin rocked the southwestern city of Quetta on Saturday, shattering windows but causing no casualties, police said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast in a residential area of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. The blast was the latest in a series of bombings and attacks in the city. In July, a suicide attack on a minority Shiite mosque killed 47 people and injured scores of others. On Thursday, two small explosions in the city caused no injuries and on Nov. 10 three blasts in a residential area injured nine people.
■ China
Forest fires on the rise
Beijing reported 550 forest fires in September and last month, up 116.5 percent over the same period last year, state media reported yesterday. Officials with State Forestry Administration said the fires were mainly caused by farmers burning grass, according to the Xinhua news agency. According to agency statistics, this month saw no ease in forest fires with a supervision satellite detecting frequent blazes in Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces and Hunan Province. The agency has circulated an emergency notice urging all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to enforce prohibitions against starting fires, Xinhua said.
■ Hong Kong
Men's prison turns to women
A men's prison has been converted into a jail for women because of the huge numbers of prostitutes being arrested, a news report said yesterday. The emergency measure to place women in Ma Hang prison in Stanley comes as women's jails in the territory are in some cases filled to double their capacity. The converted prison is already holding 177 inmates, 26 percent more than its capacity, according to the Sunday Morning Post. Two- thirds of all inmates in the territory are Chinese women, most of them arrested for prostitution-related offences, the paper said.
■ China
Six executed on Friday
A drug addict from Beijing and five people from Guangdong Province have been executed for robbery, murder and drug manufacturing, state media reported yesterday. Three men were executed in Guangdong for robbery and murder immediately after being sentenced at mass sentencing rallies held Friday at seven different locations in Guangzhou, the Xinxi Shibao newspaper said. The men were found guilty of together murdering four people, the report said. In Beijing, drug addict Bai Dezhen was executed Friday for robbing and killing her godmother's 78-year-old mother-in-law after the woman refused to give her money for drugs, the Xinhua news agency said.
■ Pakistan
Five back from Guantanamo
Five Pakistani prisoners arrived home on Saturday after being freed by US authorities from their high-security detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said. The men were captured in Afghanistan during the US-led campaign to oust the Taliban in late 2001, and were later shifted to Guantanamo Bay to probe their suspected links to al-Qaeda, an Interior Ministry official said. The official said the men will remain in Pakistani custody for a few days. "We believe that they had no links with any militant groups, but we want to satisfy ourselves before allowing them to go to their homes," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
■ Italy
Berlusconi ally convicted
A Milan court on Saturday convicted an ally of Premier Silvio Berlusconi of corruption, sentencing him to five years in prison, but said it found no evidence the defendant had bribed judges to influence a ruling on the sale of a state-held food conglomerate, a case in which the premier himself has been accused of corruption. After three-and-a-half-years of trial and several hours of deliberation, the panel of Milan judges convicted lawmaker Cesare Previti, who was defense minister in Berlusconi's first government in 1994, of one count of corruption stemming from the payment of US$434,000 payment to a Rome judge in 1991.
■ Lithuania
President under pressure
Thousands of people on Saturday called for the resignation of Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas who is embroiled in a scandal over alleged links between his office and organized crime, while his supporters held a counter-demonstration. Amid tight security, about 3,000 people, most of them critics of Paksas, gathered outside the presidential offices and residence in central Vilnius. An iron fence and police wearing helmets and carrying shields separated Paksas' supporters who numbered about 500 from those demanding that he resign, holding banners saying "It Is Time To Leave." "Was it worth fighting Russians for 13 years to get a president who is a puppet of Russia?" shouted Giedrius, a student from a youth organization who did not give his family name. The action follows a report by the country's state security department, which accused several of Paksas' aides of having links with international criminal groups.
■ United States
Spam rage hits home
Call it spam rage: A Silicon Valley computer programmer has been arrested for threatening to torture and kill employees of the company he blames for bombarding his computer with Internet ads promising to enlarge his penis. In one of the first prosecutions of its kind in the state that made "road rage" famous, Charles Booher, 44, was arrested on Thursday and released on US$75,000 bond for making repeated threats to staff of a Canadian company between May and July. Booher threatened to send a "package full of Anthrax spores"to the company, to "disable" an employee with a bullet and torture him with a power drill and ice pick; and to hunt down and castrate the employees unless they removed him from their e-mail list, prosecutors said.
■ Croatia
Citizens vote in tight race
Croatians began voting in their fourth general election in 12 years of independence yesterday with polls showing a tight race between opposition nationalists and the incumbent center-left coalition. Some 4.3 million people were entitled to cast ballots at 6,974 polling stations and abroad. Prime Minister Ivica Racan, a Social Democrat, is seeking a fresh four-year mandate for his coalition against a strong challenge from the revamped Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), who say his economic reforms have caused too much pain. The election may be the closest yet as the last opinion poll before voting started at 7am showed the opposition, led by the HDZ, may capture half the 140 fixed seats in parliament.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
RSS