■ Afghanistan
Bomb kills police chief
A senior police official was killed in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad yesterday when a bomb attached to his office chair exploded, doctors said. Haji Ajab Shah was killed at the police headquarters of the city, the capital of Nangarhar Province, as the workday began. "His body is in the morgue," said a doctor at the hospital to which Shah was taken. The attack was the latest incident in a wave of violence in the run-up to landmark elections in September, most of which has been blamed on remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and their Islamic militant allies including al-Qaeda.
■ China
Radiation gadget missing
Hundreds of police in Shanghai were searching yesterday for a small cylinder containing a gamma-ray apparatus capable of transmitting fatal doses of radiation, Chinese state press reported yesterday. The 10kg box containing the instrument used to perform industrial radiography on construction sites disappeared early Saturday after a company driver parked a car carrying the cylinder outside his flat, the Shanghai Daily said. When he returned, the canister clearly marked with a radioactive sign, was missing. Press reports said a two day-search in the city's northern Jingshan district had yet to yield results.
■ Indonesia
Potholes cause protests
Indonesian residents protesting at the state of their street have planted banana trees and released catfish in its huge potholes, a report said yesterday. "We want this street to be immediately repaired," Pos Kota newspaper quoted protester Otong Sasmita as saying. He said Perjuangan avenue in Bekasi just east of Jakarta was used by heavy vehicles serving a nearby industrial center and had been potholed for years. Protesters have released baby eels and catfish in water-filled potholes and planted scores of banana trees in others.
■ China
Tycoon gets 6-year term
A real estate tycoon once ranked as China's 11th-richest man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison on charges of fraud and stock manipulation. Zhou Zhengyi (周正毅) was sentenced by the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court, the official Xinhua News Agency said. A court spokesman declined to confirm the report. Zhou was ranked in 2002 by Forbes Magazine as number 11 in its list of China's wealthiest people. It estimated his fortune at that time at US$320 million. He made millions running restaurants and shops before branching out into property development, but ran afoul of regulators and was arrested in September. It wasn't clear if time Zhou has already spent in jail would be counted toward the sentence. There was no word on whether Zhou would appeal.
■ Malaysia
Whipping demos halted
In the face of public condemnation, Malaysia has suspended a nationwide program to hold whipping demonstrations in primary schools, news reports said yesterday. The road show of sorts, which was aimed at reducing the rate of serious juvenile offences like rape and drug trafficking, will continue to be held in secondary schools for older students, said deputy internal security minister Chia Kwang Chye. Chia said the government would also conduct a study to decide whether the program should be abandoned or changes made should be made to it.
■ United States
Last Civil War widow dies
Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died on Monday in Alabama, ending an ascent from sharecropper's daughter
to the belle of 21st-century Confederate history buffs. She was 97, dying nearly
140 years after the Civil War ended. Her marriage in the 1920s to Civil War veteran William Jasper Martin and her longevity made her a celebrated final link to the old Confederacy. After living in obscurity and poverty
for most of her life, in
her last years the Sons of Confederate Veterans took her to conventions and rallies, often with a small Confederate battle flag in her hand. "I don't see nothing wrong with the flag flying," she said frequently.
■ United Kingdom
Britain backs PRC on arms
Britain is likely to back anticipated moves by some EU nations to end a 15-year-long ban on arms sales to China, a report said late Monday. Britain is expected to line up alongside France and Germany in arguing that the restrictions, imposed after the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, should be ended, the Times said. However any moves would most likely come to nothing as the US would oppose the move and could even block European nations which sell arms to China from having access to US military technology, the newspaper said yesterday.
■ Bosnia
Blood to identify victims
Teams are to be sent across Europe to collect blood samples from relatives of victims of the 1990s conflict in the former Yugoslavia in
a bid to identify some 25,000 people still unaccounted for. Thousands of bodies have been exhumed from about 300 mass graves in Bosnia alone, but most have yet
to be identified. Launching
the drive on Monday, the International Commission
on Missing Persons said it would use missing persons' associations and cultural clubs to try to track down expatriate families scattered across Europe.
■ Georgia
Troops sent to border
Hundreds of Georgian troops were deployed at
the border of South Ossetia yesterday after the leader
of the pro-Russian separatist region vowed to fight back if invaded. In a show of force amid rising tensions, Georgia sent in troops to the border of the breakaway region
on Monday. Russian peacekeepers are patrolling
inside South Ossetia where
most people hold Russian passports. Military sources said some 400 interior ministry troops had been sent to Georgia's trading posts with South Ossetia
and that their main task was
to stamp out illegal trade.
But Georgia has agreed to withdraw some of the troops after reaching an agreement with South Ossetia's Russian authorities.
■ Portugal
Seven on trial over abuse
Seven people, including one of Portugal's top TV personalities, were ordered on Monday to stand trial for sexually abusing children at an orphanage, Lusa news agency said, but charges were dropped against a former minister. The case has riveted the Iberian nation since allegations of sexual abuse surfaced in late 2002. The allegations have centered on a Lisbon orphanage run by the Casa Pia child-shelter system, which cares for thousands of children nationwide. Six men and one woman will
be tried, Lusa said. Charges were dropped against former Cabinet minister Paulo Pedroso and another suspect.
■ United Kingdom
Cheese pursuit injures 21
It is perhaps a mark of Britain's proudly-worn reputation for eccentricity that one of its least-heralded yet highly dangerous sporting events sees competitors risk life and limb in the name of dairy produce. In all, 21 people were hurt during Friday's annual cheese rolling race at Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire, central England, where competitors pelt recklessly down a steep slope in pursuit of a 32kg cheese. The rewards for such peril are, of course, minimal. The winners receives the by-now rather dented cheese, while the runner-up gets ?5 (US$9) and third place secures a princely ?3 (US$5.5). Yet modern-day winners can count themselves lucky. From 1941 to 1954, when Britain faced food rationing during and after World War II, competitors raced for a wooden cheese containing just a piece of the real stuff inserted into a small hole.
■ Russia
Kremlin gets imperial mark
The ultimate endorsement a company can have may well be the coat of arms of the ruler on your product. In a bid to immerse itself in the commercial age, the Kremlin has started offering its emblem and the chance to be known as an official supplier to the Russian elite to certain favored products. By the end of the year select goods will be allowed to carry a small crest bearing the red, white and blue of the Russian flag and the Kremlin's golden gate and eagle. They can also say they have been "admitted for use in the official residence of the president of the Russian Federation, `the Moscow Kremlin.'" The move to create a Kremlin crest of approval similar to the Queen of England's will intensify suggestions that Vladimir Putin's administration is becoming more like its tsarist predecessors rather than a democratically elected state.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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