■ Japan
Iraqi debt relief offered
Japan is willing to forgive the "vast majority" of its Iraqi debt if other Paris Club creditor nations do the same, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday during a visit by US envoy James Baker. Iraq owes Japan US$4.1 billion, but that number reaches an estimated US$7.76 billion when late penalty fees are included. The US has been encouraging creditors to assist Iraq by relieving part of its crushing debt. Baker, who has already won agreements on Iraqi debt relief from several European nations, met early yesterday with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi amid reports that Tokyo was considering some relief.
■ Indonesia
Bomb suspects face life
Indonesian prosecutors yesterday demanded that two Muslim militants be sentenced to life imprisonment for helping assemble two bombs that blew up in a nightclub district on Bali island last year. Abdul Ghoni and Syawad, alias Sarjio, are accused of violating anti-terror laws that carry a maximum penalty of death. Both remained silent during separate hearings at the Denpasar District Court. Prosecutors told the court that both men took part in planning meetings ahead of the bombs that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, on Oct. 12 last year.
■ The Philippines
Senator joins race
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's most bitter political rival filed his application yesterday to run in next year's presidential election, in a candidacy that has split the opposition and could mar its chances of beating Arroyo. Senator Panfilo Lacson is the first to file a candidate's certificate in a campaign that already includes declared candidates Arroyo and Fernando Poe Jr., an action film star and opposition newcomer who has been garnering strong voter support in opinion polls. Accompanied by hundreds of followers, Lacson filed his certificate at a jam-packed Elections Commission office, vowing to halt crime, fight corruption and revive the country's shaky economy if he is elected.
■ India
Rats safe from ratcatchers
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has a rat department that feeds on an annual budget of 7.8 million rupees (US$173,000) but doesn't catch any rodents, it was reported yesterday. Not many people know about the rat department's existence. Those who are in the department are clueless about the number of rats in the city or what is being done about them, the Times of India newspaper reported. Some civic officials smelt a rat after going through the MCD's annual accounts. They noticed the rat department spent only 50,000 rupees (US$1,100) on anti-rodent drives. The rest of the budget was spent on salaries, the report said.
■ Australia
Asylum seekers join fast
The number of asylum seekers hospitalized due to a protest fast at a Pacific island detention center has risen to 18, an increase of seven over the past three days, officials said yesterday. The hunger strikers are being treated at a hospital near the camp on the island of Nauru, where they began refusing food three weeks ago to protest Australia's refusal to accept them as refugees. A spokeswoman for the Australia's Immigration Department said the patients have been rehydrated and offered food.
■ United States
More bodies found in mud
Authorities on Sunday found the bodies of five more people caught in a mudslide that engulfed a church camp on Christmas, and urged people in mountain areas scorched by fall wildfires to prepare for heavy rains that could trigger more devastation. Two children washed away from the St Sophia Camp were found tangled in debris in a cement catch basin in downtown San Bernardino. Two women and a man were found closer to the camp. The grim discoveries brought the total number of bodies recovered from the Greek Orthodox camp to 12, with a baby boy and a teenage boy still unaccounted for.
■ Chechnya
Rebels kill five Russians
Five Russian soldiers were killed and six wounded in a series of attacks on military positions in the republic of Chechnya, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said Sunday. Chechnya's separatist rebels open fire daily on Russian military positions in the republic, including checkpoints. In all, positions were fired on 15 times over the past day, the official said on condition of anonymity. In the republic's capital Grozny, a Chechen policeman's corpse was found on Sunday morning, the official said. Chechens who work with the Russian forces or civil administration are often targeted by rebels. Also Sunday, Apti Khakiyev, the deputy interior minister of Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya to the west, was killed when his car came under fire.
■ Mauritania
Former president sentenced
A Mauritanian court on Sunday convicted former president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah of plotting to overthrow the current head of the northwest African state and handed him a five-year suspended jail term. Ould Haidallah, who had vehemently denied planning the ouster of President Maaouiya Ould Taya while running in a controversial election against him last month, was also ordered to pay 400,000 ouguiyas (US$1,550). He said he planned to lodge an appeal with the supreme court.
■ Italy
Smoky bars could go
The smoke-filled bar may soon be a thing of the past in Italy. Since yesterday, more than 200,000 bars and restaurants are subject to a new rule that requires designated smoking areas to be sealed off from the rest of the premises and equipped with powerful ventilators. Owners have 12 months to comply, or face heavy fines and temporary closure. A second rule, starting on New Year's Day, blocks vending machines from operating between 9am and 7pm. In the future, the machines will only accept purchases from customers with an electronic identity card proving they are not
under-age.
■ Guatemala
Berger takes the lead
A pro-business former mayor of Guatemala City had a strong lead over a center-left engineer who billed himself as the candidate of the poor late Sunday in a presidential run-off election marred by low voter turnout. With 71 percent of the votes counted, conservative Oscar Berger had 55.9 percent, compared to 44.02 percent for his opponent, Alvaro Colom. Berger served as mayor of Guatemala City from 1990 until 1999 and garnered 29 percent more votes in the capital than his opponent, according to initial results released by the election commission.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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