■ Indonesia
Bomb suspects arrested
Police in the Indonesian city of Medan in North Sumatra said Monday they had arrested two men suspected of links to a bombing last week. "Two men have been arrested and two others are being sought by the police," said acting North Sumatra Police Spokesman HS Ginting. Ginting declined to say where the men had been arrested. "We already have the complete identity of the two others that are still on the run," Ginting said. On Jan, 4 a bomb said to have been thrown by people on a speeding motorcycle exploded in front of an empty lot near an intercity bus terminal in southeastern Medan. It caused no injuries or damage.
■ Malaysia
Arrests made in Thai attack
Authorities have arrested several Thais in northern Malaysia in connection with the deadly Jan. 4 raid on an armory in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south, an official said. Home Ministry Secretary Abu Zahar Isnin said the suspects were being interrogated by Malaysian officials and would be handed over to Thai authorities if their involvement in the raid, which killed four soldiers, was confirmed, the New Straits Times newspaper reported on Monday. "This is the assurance we have given to the Thai government," Abu Zahar was quoted as saying.
■ Pakistan
PM sets off for Afghanistan
Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali left Monday for Afghanistan on his first official visit to boost bilateral relations, officials said. He is visiting Kabul at the invitation of President Hamid Karzai who was in Pakistan in April last year. During the day-long stay in Kabul, Jamali will hold talks with Karzai and meet the former king, Zahir Shah, officials said. As a goodwill gesture, Jamali on Sunday ordered the release of 149 Afghan nationals serving terms in Pakistani prisons for immigration violations. Jamali is likely to urge his hosts to hasten the release of hundreds of Pakistanis jailed following the ouster of the Taliban regime in November 2001, officials said.
■ The Philippines
Fire rips through slum
More than 22,000 people were left homeless yesterday after a massive fire destroyed their dwellings in a slum area in the Philippine capital, officials said. No one was killed in the blaze, which broke out after midnight in the Manila district of Tondo and raged for more than seven hours. Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the fire spread quickly and efforts to put it out were hampered by narrow roads leading to the scene. She said 2,503 homes were burned down, leaving about 4,500 families or 22,000 people homeless. An initial investigation showed the fire could have been caused by a candle or a gas lamp.
■ Japan
Bird flu kills chickens
A highly contagious bird flu has killed thousands of chickens in southern Japan, a prefectural official said yesterday. By Sunday, about 6,000 chickens had died of the disease a poultry farm in the town of Ato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, about 800km southwest of Tokyo, local agricultural official Tatsuro Okuhara said. Tests have found the virus was a strain of the H5 virus, the same category as the H5N1 virus that spread in South Korea last year, Okuhara said. Authorities are still investigating whether it is the deadly H5N1-97 strain that killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997.
■ Haiti
Thousands protest Aristide
Thousands of Haitians staged a protest march against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the capital Port-au-Prince on Sunday as the poorest country in the Americas approached a key milestone in its political crisis. The terms of most members of parliament were due to expire yesterday with no plan in sight to hold elections to replace them, threatening to plunge Haiti further into disarray. Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected leader in 1991. The march on Sunday began after a mass by Roman Catholic Bishop Pierre-Andre Dumas who criticized the corruption, repression and anarchy that he said Aristide's government had created.
■ United States
Jackson friends plan rally
Michael Jackson's family, friends and fans are planning a massive show of support when the pop superstar is arraigned on child molestation charges late this week. Fans and family of Jackson, including his brother Jermaine, scheduled a news conference yesterday at the family's complex in Encino to announce their plans for the singer's arraignment, which is scheduled for Friday in Santa Maria. Jackson's fan clubs plan to have cars and buses travel to the courthouse in northern Santa Barbara County from throughout Southern California.
■ Germany
Anti-terror fog proposed
The German government has proposed using an instant "fog shield" to protect its vulnerable nuclear power stations from airborne terrorist attacks. The German environment ministry is considering installing special equipment around the country's 18 nuclear power stations, which would throw up a wall of artificial fog in seconds if threatened by a hijacked plane. The fog shield is supposed to disrupt a plane's navigation equipment and hide the power station from view. Last week an environment ministry spokesman confirmed reports in the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung that Germany's nuclear power stations were inadequately protected from airborne suicide attacks.
■ United States
Church names abuse-priests
The Roman Catholic Church publicly named 15 priests in the Orange County diocese who have been accused of sexually abusing children. A 16th priest, now deceased, was not identified, which the church said was at the victim's request. Of the 15 named on Saturday, 11 had been identified in news articles about sexual misconduct by priests. Church officials said 47 children in the county were molested by priests since 1976. They also noted that the 16 accused priests represent less than 3 percent of the 589 priests who have served in the diocese since then.
■ Turkey
US improving ties
The US military has begun using a sprawling air base in southern Turkey for a massive rotation of troops for Iraq, a US official said Sunday, a sign of improved relations between the US and its NATO ally Turkey that had become strained over the war. The permission to use Turkey's southern Incirlik air base strikes a sharp contrast to last year, when Turkey refused to allow US troops on its territory for the war against its southern neighbor. It also comes as Turkey is increasingly eager to win favor with the US amid concerns over Iraqi Kurdish demands for greater autonomy in oil-rich northern Iraq.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
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