■ Australia
Opposition denies divisions
The Australian opposition denied yesterday it was internally divided over a controversial pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq if it wins office in elections later this year. One of the Labor Party's most senior figures, New South Wales Premier Bob Carr, said the policy would present a major challenge to US ties in an interview aired on public radio yesterday. The conservative government said the comments showed deep misgivings within the Labor Party over the policy, which has been criticized by senior White House officials, including US President George W. Bush.
■ Myanmar
Another bomb in Yangon
A small bomb exploded near the central train station in the capital of Myanmar yesterday, a day after three went off in the same area, officials said. No injuries have been reported in any of the blasts, the first this year in the capital. "Another time bomb went off at about 5:30am. this morning near a small convenience store," an official from the Yangon Central Station said. A police officer at the scene said the crude device was smaller than the three that went off early on Saturday. Had the bomb been larger, it could have had very grave consequences because the convenience store was next to a petrol station, the officer said.
■ Vietnam
Bird flu still present
An avian flu virus that hit Asia a few months ago is still present in Vietnamese poultry and might be a potential danger, a veterinary official said. Nguyen Van Thong, a deputy director in the agriculture ministry, said that samples from 10,000 poultry throughout Vietnam had been tested recently and "lots of these samples were positive to H5 virus." Scientists could not identify the precise strain of the virus, he said. Vietnam, with 16 people killed, was the worst-hit in human terms of the eight Asian countries recently struck by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
■ South Korea
Probe into rescue attempt
South Korea's lawmakers agreed yesterday to launch a one-month parliamentary investigation into the government's failed attempt to rescue a Korean hostage in Iraq. The agreement between the ruling Uri Party and the main opposition Grand National Party came a day after the remains of Kim Sun-Il were taken to his hometown in the southern port of Busan. Uri's deputy parliamentary leader Lee Jong-Kul said the inquiry by 20 opposition and ruling party lawmakers would begin on Wednesday. The rival parties agreed to send a parliamentary team to Iraq to investigate South Korea's embassy in the war-torn country. Kim was beheaded by militants in Iraq last week after Seoul rejected a demand by his captors to scrap plans to send troops to Iraq.
■ Hong Kong
Outrage over animal cruelty
An article in a Chinese-language magazine in Hong Kong portraying youths butchering pets for fun has outraged animal lovers in the former British territory, provoking a street protest yesterday. Easy Finder magazine revealed in graphic detail how two boys aged 13 and 18 stoned and strangled dogs and then hacked them to death, sometimes beheading them. Although media reports suggested the story may be a hoax, the Society Against Animal Abuse and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) organized a protest rally, fearing the article would encourage attacks on pets, or worse.
■ Lithuania
Second round of voting held
Lithuanians went to the polls yesterday for the second and decisive round of a presidential election expected to be oversha-dowed by a new corruption scandal involving top politicians. The Baltic country's 2.6 million voters must choose between ex-president Valdas Adamkus, a 77-year-old former US emigre who enjoys the support of mainly right-wing voters, and Kazimira Prunskiene, 61, Lithuania's first post-Soviet premier who belongs to the center left New Democracy and Farmer's Union. The latest poll showed Adamkus clearly the favorite with a 10 percentage point lead over his rival. But officials fear a new scandal -- over raids of the headquarters of four political parties, including three which back Adamkus -- might even invalidate the vote.
■ Czech Republic
PM resigns over election
Czech Prime Minister Vla-dimir Spidla resigned on Saturday, becoming the first leader of an EU country to pay for a dismal showing in European Parliament elec-tions this month. Spidla narrowly survived a no-confidence vote by his Social Democratic Party earlier on Saturday, but only because critics opposed to economic austerity mea-sures fell just short of a required three-fifths major-ity to remove him. The last straw came when the party voted it was dissatisfied with his coalition. Spidla's resignation will automati-cally trigger the fall of the Cabinet. President Vaclav Klaus will be in charge of appointing another prime minister who will try to form a new Cabinet.
■ Cyprus
Arrests made in `orgy' case
Three Greek Cypriots believed to be the organi-zers of debauched "fantasy boat" trips off the coast of Cyprus were under arrest on Saturday as authorities stepped up an investigation into whether female British tourists were drugged before participating in mass orgies on a cruise ship. Among those detained were the captain of the vessel and party organizers. Other ferry boat owners in Ayia Napa said they had seen girls returning from a night on the high seas battered and bruised. "A lot of the girls like it, but a lot don't and they come back really shocked," said Dimitris Christodoulou, who operates the daytime Party Cruises out of the port.
■ Germany
Doctors threaten strike
Hospital doctors are threatening to stage walkouts in a dispute over long working hours. "We are prepared to go on strikes or other work action if hospital working hours are not remedied," said Dr. Frank Montgomery, head of the Marburger Bund hospital physicians association. "Despite new laws and European Union regula-tions, it is commonplace for hospital doctors to work 80-hour weeks," he said. "Very often doctors are expected to work 24 hours without a break," he said.
■ Zimbabwe
Election standards revised
The government has agreed to adopt regionally accepted election standards -- including translucent ballot boxes -- in a bid to elimi-nate the need for Western ``imperialist'' observers, a state newspaper has reported. The reforms were necessary because of ``the intrusive behavior of the US and [EU], who often declare elections not free and fair when the results are not in their political interest,'' the paper quoted on official as saying.
■ Israel
Gaza pullout a sin, rabbi says
A top Israeli rabbi has called Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan "a sin and a crime" and said it must be prevented at all costs, an Israeli newspaper reported yesterday. The comments by Avraham Shapira, a former chief rabbi, represent a potential threat to the plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four small settlements in the West Bank by the end of next year. In a letter to a follower published in the Haaretz newspaper, Shapira said Sharon's plan contradicted the spirit of the Torah, because the promised Land of Israel includes the Gush Katif cluster of settlements in the Gaza Strip.
■ United States
Green Party snubs Nader
Democratic Party activists were breathing a sigh of relief on Saturday after Ralph Nader, the consumer activist blamed for spoiling Democrat Al Gore's bid for the presidency in 2000, lost a bid for a third party endorsement. The Green Party snubbed Nader's bid for backing, the Chicago Tribune reported, denying him access to 22 state ballots where the Green Party will run. Nader had named Green Party activist Peter Camejo as his vice presidential candidate last week, in a bid for Green Party support.
■ United States
CIA halts harsh questioning
The CIA has stopped using interrogation techniques such as "stress positions," sleep deprivation and denial of pain medication while the Bush administration reviews their legality, The Washington Post said on Sunday. "The whole thing's been stopped until we can sort out whether we are sure we are on legal ground," the Post quoted a former senior CIA official as saying. The newspaper said the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques have been used in questioning al-Qaeda leaders. The suspension applies to CIA detention facilities around the world. Questioning of prisoners will continue, the newspaper said, but without use of the techniques.
■ United Kingdom
State trying to censor book
Britain's government is trying to censor a book by a former top adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair that will reveal embarrassing details of the fiery relationship between Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported yesterday. Cabinet Secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull is pressing Adam Scott -- Blair's chief economics adviser from 1997 until last December -- to remove large sections of his book on the grounds that they breach the Official Secrets Act. Scott's account of his time at Downing Street, Off Whitehall, is said to contain first-hand details of clashes between Blair and Brown.
■ Russia
Renewed violence feared
Police in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, bordering Chechnya, which was recently hit by deadly rebel attacks, have discovered several remote controled anti-tank shells ready to be used in fresh violence, a police official said yesterday. Police discovered and destroyed the shells on Saturday near the Ingush capital Magas, the Interfax-Yug news agency quoted the official as saying. A criminal inquiry has been launched, the official said, adding that a cache containing weapons had been discovered in Ingushetia on Friday. Between 200 and 300 fighters struck three towns in Ingushetia on Tuesday, targeting police stations, government buildings and checkpoints with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. The attack left nearly 100 people dead.
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
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘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
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