■ Thailand
Schools closed in south
More than 1,000 schools have closed and some monks began evacuating their temples as tensions intensified yesterday between Buddhists and Muslims in southern Thailand, officials and media reports said. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, meeting with local leaders from the Muslim-dominated south, said the leaders told him some of the groups behind escalating violence were receiving funds from abroad. He did not elaborate. Public schools will remain closed this week while government officials discuss ways to increase security for teachers, some of whom have reported death threats against them.
■ Myanmar
Fire kills at least 20
A fire engulfed lodgings and shops at a popular tourist attraction in Myanmar, killing at least 20 Buddhist pilgrims and leaving another 10 missing, an official said yesterday. More than 30 others were injured. The blaze broke out early Tuesday near the Kyaik-tiyo Pagoda, the so-called Golden Rock temple, 160km northeast of the capital, Yangon. The exact cause of the fire was not immediately known, but official newspapers blamed the blaze on ``carelessness'' without citing details. A fire department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a strong wind fanned the flames which started in the wooden and thatched-roofed buildings, more than 120 of which were destroyed.
■ Cambodia
Murder suspects arrested
Cambodian police said yesterday they had arrested four men who may have been involved in the murder of a top union leader shot dead last week, in what the opposition say was a political assassination. The arrest on Tuesday night came after police released a sketch of a suspect although it remained unclear if the pictured man was among the four detainees. Chea Vichea, 36, leader of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, was gunned down last week in broad daylight at a street-side news-stand in the heart of Phnom Penh.
■ Australia
Man facing murder trial
An Australian man was ordered to stand trial yesterday for the murder of a British backpacker who fell to her death from a bridge during a robbery gone wrong. Ian Douglas Previte, 31, entered no plea when ordered to stand trial in the Queensland state Supreme Court for the murder and robbery of student Caroline Stuttle. Stuttle, 19, from York in the north of England, was found dead in April 2002 still clutching the strap of her handbag at the bottom of the Burnett Bridge in the sugar cane city of Bundaberg, 350km north of Brisbane. She had suffered severe head and spinal injuries and police believed she was either pushed or fell after being stalked and robbed by her attacker.
■ Singapore
Cabby exonerated
A cabby who accidentally drove his taxi into a condominium swimming pool will not be penalized, CityCab said yesterday. The decision, which also frees driver Ling Hong Lim to carry passengers again, took into account the poor visibility caused by a heavy downpour on Saturday night and the lack of barriers by the pool. "We won't be taking any action" against Ling, a CityCab spokesman said. Ling, 55, was supposed to pick up two passengers, but drove through the main gate and landed in the pool, which he mistook for a puddle. He got out by climbing into the back seat and pushing a door open.
■ Canada
More Pickton victims found
Vancouver police confirmed they have found the remains of nine more women, raising the possibility of more charges against a pig farmer alleged to be Canada's
worst serial killer. The latest discoveries bring the total number of confirmed dead to 31. Six of the latest victims were identified as having vanished from the city's drug-infested downtown eastside. Their remains were found at a farm owned by Robert William Pickton, 54, who is charged with 15 counts of first-degree murder over the disappearances of women over the past 20 years.
■ Israel
Settlers reject PM's offer
Israeli settlers said on Tuesday that they had rejected an offer by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to limit the evacuation of settlements in return for cooperation with his plan to withdraw unilaterally from parts of the occupied territories. The settlers' organization, the Yesha council, said the government had sought an agreement on the evacuation of seven small Jewish communities in the West Bank and Gaza
strip in return for legislation guaranteeing no more removals until a final peace agreement was reached
with the Palestinians. "We rejected it because this is a reward for terrorism," said Shaul Goldstein, deputy chairman of the council.
■ United States
Child lives for days in wreck
A toddler survived for five days on crackers while clinging to the body of her mother after being trapped
in the wreckage of a deadly
car crash, police said on Tuesday. The three-year-old girl was found by a police patrol on Monday after surviving the accident and freezing temperatures after her mother's car careened
off the road in an isolated part of Arizona last week. "[The mother] apparently died five days earlier in the accident," which occurred 32km north of the city of Globe, when her vehicle slammed into a tree and fell over an embankment, a police spokesman said. An officer was stunned to find the toddler, Angel Emery, lying next to the lifeless body of 44-year-old Patricia Marie Emery-Wade in the vehicle.
■ Liberia
Rebels urge leader to quit
Liberia's two rebel groups have jolted the country's fragile peace process by demanding the resignation of Gyude Bryant, the head of the transitional government. A joint statement signed by Sekou Conneh, leader of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, and Thomas Nimely-Yaya, chairman of the smaller Movement for Democracy in Liberia, said their fighters would not disarm until Bryant quit. Accusing him of being biased and incompetent, the rebels hinted they were willing to derail the three-month-old government, which was supposed to guide the western African nation towards elections next year after years of violence.
■ Poland
PM threatens to call poll
Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller said on Tuesday that he would call for early elections if parliament rejected his leftist minority Cabinet's austerity plan aiming to prepare Poland for euro zone membership. Miller's threat came after the Cabinet finally approved a package of measures set to generate about 30 billion zlotys (US$7.95 billion) in savings until 2007. Miller's deeply unpopular Cabinet lost its parliamentary majority last year but it has since won support from independents and small parties.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
Tanzanian politicians are in shock over the massacre of hundreds of young protesters during its recent election, insiders told Agence France-Presse, but are too afraid to speak out as a tiny cabal around the president takes control. Gruesome images of dead Tanzanians have flooded the Internet in the wake of the Oct. 29 elections that triggered widespread protests over government repression. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan officially won with 98 percent of the vote, but key opposition leaders were jailed or disqualified. The opposition said that more than 1,000 people were killed as security forces crushed the protests under cover of a five-day
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