■ Philippines
Abducted girl rescued
Philippine troops yesterday rescued a 7-year-old girl abducted last month by suspected Moslem Abu Sayyaf rebels on a southern island, officials said. The victim, Rachel Anne Gojit, was abandoned by her kidnappers as troops swooped down on a village in Panglima Estino town on Jolo island, 1,000km south of Manila, before dawn. "The rebels abandoned the girl in a small thatched hut as they fled from the pursuing soldiers," said Brigadier General Alexander Yapching, the military commander on Jolo. "Aside from many insect bites, the girl is perfectly well," he added.
■ Australia
Drug raid preceded riot
Police enforced a crackdown on drug dealing in an Aboriginal ghetto just days before a race riot last month, officials said yesterday after claims that the violence in Sydney erupted only after officers allegedly chased a young boy to his death. Scores of mainly Aboriginal youngsters threw bricks, bottles and gasoline bombs during the Feb. 15 riot in the suburb of Redfern, injuring 40 police officers. "I can confirm that there was police activity on drugs in central Redfern," New South Wales state Premier Bob Carr said, following a report in The Daily Telegraph that tensions over a series of drug raids, not the boy's death, had sparked the riot.
■ China
Underground bishop caught
Police arrested an underground Roman Catholic bishop after he went to pick up two foreign friends from an airport in northeastern China, a US-based Catholic group said yesterday. Wei Jingyi, the underground Catholic bishop of Qiqihar City, was arrested on March 5 at a toll gate on the road from the airport in nearby Harbin, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement. Wei, 45, is a former secretary of an underground conference of bishops loyal to the Vatican. He was held in a Chinese labor camp from 1987 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1992, the statement said. The foundation said it had no further details of Wei's arrest.
■ Hong Kong
Harbor fill-in approved
A court ruled yesterday that Hong Kong can proceed with plans to fill in part of Victoria Harbor for a highway project, dealing a blow to conservationists who fear the project will harm the environment. The government had stopped work on the 18-hectare site in the downtown Central district while awaiting the ruling from High Court Judge Michael Hartmann, and it was not clear if opponents would now try to stop the project again with an appeal. The government argues the highway project is necessary to ease traffic congestion. But the conservationists filed a lawsuit that said the plan would needlessly shrink Hong Kong's famed Victoria Harbor -- which has already been reduced dramatically by decades of reclamation.
■ cambodia
Motorbike thief set on fire
A motorbike thief in northwestern Cambodia was chased down, killed and set on fire by an angry mob of motorcycle taxi drivers, authorities said yesterday. Police said the thief beat up a man and stole his motorcycle near the Thai border town of Poipet on Saturday. More than 20 motorbike taxi drivers started chasing him. His motorcycle hit a pot hole and he was thrown 20m from the bike and probably knocked dead from a neck injury. The motorcycle taxi drivers proceeded to beat the thief's body with sticks and then set him on fire with plastic bags and paper as fuel.
■ United States
Boy scouts rescued
Emergency teams have succeeded in rescuing over three dozen boy scouts who were trapped overnight when a massive avalanche sealed them inside their man-made snow caves near Salt Lake City, Utah. Ironically the dramatic incident occurred during a winter survival camping trip, according to the Salt Lake Tribune on Monday. Rescuers were led to the scene by scout leaders who were sleeping in nearby trailers. They heard the avalanche after 39 scouts and scout leaders went to sleep Friday night, and emergency crews used shovels and snow probes to locate the scouts.
■ Guatemala
Women decry murders
Guatemalan women used International Women's Day on Monday to demand an end to a chain of unsolved murders that has killed nearly 1,000 women in three years and 44 so far this year. "For the life of women" and "Not a single death more" were among the slogans protesters chanted at a rally outside the Guatemalan Congress to demand reforms to laws so that violence against women and sexual harassment could be considered crimes. The alarming levels of homicides of women in Guatemala prompted a visit in February by special UN envoy Yakin Erturk.
■ The Hague
Croat generals indicted
Two former Croat army generals have been indicted for alleged war crimes for atrocities carried out by their troops during a campaign against Serb rebels in 1995, the UN war crimes tribunal said. Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac were indicted last month on seven counts of crimes against civilians, including persecution, murder, plundering and wanton destruction of property. The court only revealed the indictment on Monday after it was served on the pair. Both deny any wrongdoing.
■ United states
Spalding Gray dies
Spalding Gray, the actor and comedian who created a spoof on his small role in the serious movie, The Killing Fields, was confirmed dead on Monday, The New York Times reported. Gray, 62, was best known for his role in Swimming to Cambodia and Monster in a Box, which were monologue-type self portraits on his experiences. The 1984 monologue Swimming to Cambodia related his experiences playing a small part in the movie about the Cambodian genocide. That piece "became a jumping-off point for exploring the history and culture of the war in Southeast Asia," the Times wrote, and was turned into a film directed by Jonathan Demme in 1987. Gray had disappeared on Jan. 11, when he was reported missing. His body was found floating in the East River near Brooklyn on Sunday, the medical officials said.
■ Italy
Famous statue may fall
Michelangelo's statue David may be clean in time for his 500th birthday this year, but experts are concerned that his left ankle may not be strong enough to keep him standing forever. A Bologna University team has begun analysing tiny cracks in the marble masterpiece since restoration work began on the statue last September. "The ankle is weak," said Franca Falletti, director of Florence's Galleria dell'Acc-ademia, where the statue is housed. David's melancholy pose, with his left leg bent at the knee, makes his left ankle perhaps the only design fault in this figure of male perfection, clearly strained by the 5,572kg of marble above.
■ United States
Don't debate WMD: Powell
Secretary of State Colin Powell made an unexpected foray into the US presidential campaign late Monday, insisting that the issue of whether the Bush administration has misled the nation about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction be excluded from political debate. In an interview with Fox News Channel, Powell said leveling such accusations "isn't right." "We shouldn't be having a political debate over issues like that," he said. "We ought to stick with what we said and not start changing our view a year later because it's in our political interest," Powell stressed. The testy retort came after several leading Democrats, including the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, publicly raised the possibility that the administration of President George W. Bush had hyped intelligence data on Iraq to lay the groundwork for invading the country and ousting dictator Saddam Hussein.
■ Israel
Hamas admits using Britons
The Palestinian militant group Hamas admitted for the first time on Monday that it had sent two Britons on a suicide mission almost a year ago. It released video footage in which Asif Mohammad Hanif, 21 and Omar Khan Sharif, 27, criticize Israel and quote the Koran while holding a Kalashnikov rifle. The men are believed to be the first Britons to have been recruited for Israeli suicide bombings. Hanif, from Hounslow, west London, blew himself up at the entrance of Mike's Bar, a popular tourist haunt on the Tel Aviv sea front, killing two musicians and a waitress. Sharif's attempt to detonate his explosive belt failed and he escaped after a struggle with bystanders. His body was found in the sea close to the bar almost two weeks later.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS