■ India
Suspected militants killed
Police on Saturday killed three suspected Muslim militants in the Indian capital, a news report said. The three belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit -- one of several groups that have been fighting since 1989 to end Indian rule in Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan. The report said the men were killed in the Uttam Nagar district in southwest New Delhi.
■ Thailand
Ferry boat capsizes
Rescue workers searched for victims yesterday after a ferry carrying dozens of people sank in foul weather off southern Thailand, leaving at least eight dead and 12 missing. Seven passengers died when the boat capsized Saturday en route from the resort island of Phuket to Yao island. A girl, hospitalized with injuries from the accident, died overnight at a Phuket hospital. Rescuers were working to raise the sunken boat, which was overloaded with at least 63 passengers. Its capacity was 30.
■ Sri Lanka
Murders spark blamefest
Tamil Tiger rebels blamed a breakaway faction yesterday for the murder of six villagers in eastern Sri Lanka, but the military said the main guerrilla group was responsible for the killings. TamilNet, a Web site backing the main Tamil Tiger group, said the renegade faction on Saturday killed six of the supporters of the main group who had provided intelligence information about the breakaway group. But military spokesman Daya Ratnayake said the six were murdered by 10 Tamil Tiger fighters armed with rifles who stormed Sevanapitiya village bordering the restive Batticaloa district. The Tigers accuse the military of using the renegades to attack the mainstream rebels.
■ China
Lip synch ban considered
Chinese government advisers meeting in Beijing this week have some weighty matters to discuss: blocking Taiwan's formal independence, alleviating dire poverty in the countryside, and lip synching. Ma Bomin, an official with Shanghai's municipal radio, film and television administration, likens the practice of performers pretending to sing to selling fake goods. She wants to pass a law making it a crime for a performer to do so without first notifying audience members. "Fake singing is no different from trading in fakes. It should be resolutely boycotted and shunned," Ma said. Ma didn't say what punishments would be proposed under the measure, included in a draft of China's first comprehensive law on arts and culture.
■ Indonesia
Indonesians earliest risers
Indonesians take the top spot for early risers in the Asia-Pacific, while the Taiwanese are the last out of bed, a study on sleep habits as conducted by ACNielsen of people ranging in age from 16 to over 60. The earliest to bed and longest sleepers are the Australians and New Zealanders. Twenty-four percent of Australians are in bed by 10pm, followed by 19 percent of New Zealanders. Thirty-one percent of Aussies and 28 percent of Kiwis clock over nine hours of sleep daily. The Japanese are the opposite, with four out of 10 getting six hours of sleep or less. Singapore turned out to be a nation of owls. The study found one in two stay up past midnight, with half of them hitting the sack between midnight and 1am. The other half turned in after 1am.
■ Israel
Headbanger gets religion
Ex-metal guitarist Brian "Head" Welch was baptized Saturday in the Jordan river, just weeks after quitting his band, drug habits and rock-and-roll lifestyle for religion. Welch, a founding member of the multi-platinum metal band Korn, joined some 20 other white-robed Christian pilgrims from a Bakersfield, California, church who were immersed by their pastor, Ron Vietti, in the cool, gray waters near the shore. Despite saying he was there to be "dunked in the water," Welch said the ritual baptism had washed away his anger. "You know when you get angry and it builds up? I felt like hurting someone before, now I feel like hugging people," he said.
■ Vatican
People await Pope sighting
Pope John Paul II will yesterday again give a silent blessing from the window of the Rome hospital where he is slowly recovering from throat surgery and re-learning how to breathe and speak. The pope will bless the faithful during traditional Angelus prayers as he did last week, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Saturday. Doctors at the Gemelli Polyclinic performed a tracheotomy on Feb. 24 after the Roman Catholic Church leader was rushed to hospital for a second time in a month with severe breathing complications due to the flu and a neurological disorder.
■ Ireland
Adams defends Sinn Fein
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has rejected accusations his party endorses crime, following a barrage of criticism over its alleged criminal links and a brutal Belfast murder. "There is no place in republicanism for anyone involved in criminality," the president of Northern Ireland's largest Catholic party -- political ally of Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrillas -- told an annual conference in Dublin on Saturday. "I'm not letting this issue go until those who have sullied the republican cause are made to account for their actions," he said.
■ France
EU Constitution backed
The French would approve the EU constitution if the referendum scheduled for May 29 were held today, but the numbers of those opposed are rising, a poll to be published yesterday suggests. The poll by the Ifop firm for the weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche shows that 40 percent of those polled are firmly in the "yes" camp or leaning that way while 29 percent of those questioned are in the "no" camp or leaning toward it. At the ballot box, that would translate to 58 percent support for the constitution and 42 percent opposition, according to Jean-Luc Parodi of the National Foundation for Political Science.
■ Russia
Activist wants to end draft
A prominent activist who seeks protection for military conscripts and peace in Chechnya said Saturday that she hopes her party can unite with other liberal forces to push for a better, happier Russia. One of the main issues Melnikova's party is working on is a push for a nationwide referendum on shifting the military to a volunteer and contract basis, ending the draft. Putin's government is seeking to shorten the term of compulsory service from two years to one in the coming years, but has no plans to abolish the draft. Melnikova's rights group, the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, has been working for years to aid conscripts who suffer from abuse or seek to avoid the draft.
■ Mexico
Two dead in drug-related hit
A gunman on a bicycle opened fire on a group of men in a parked car and two bystanders in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, killing two people and wounded a third, investigators said Saturday. The killings took place around 11:30pm Friday in the Colonia Victoria neighbor-hood, said Juan Antonio Varela, head of the ministerial police for Nuevo Leon state, which includes Nuevo Laredo. He said a group of young men was drinking beer and smoking marijuana in a parked car when an assailant peddled up and started shooting. The two deaths bring to 18 the number of people shot and killed in ambush-styled attacks in Nuevo Laredo so far this year.
■ United States
Vigil held for gay victim
About 300 people attended a candlelight vigil Saturday night to show support for a young gay man who was beaten unconscious a week ago outside a Santa Fe hotel. James Maestas, 21, remained hospitalized but spoke from his bed Saturday for the first time since the beating. Police said a group of at least three men confronted him outside a restaurant where he had eaten with a group of friends. The attackers later followed Maestas to a hotel, knocked him to the ground and repeatedly struck him in the face and head, according to investigators. Witnesses told police the assailants repeatedly called Maestas and a companion ``faggots'' during the beating.
■ United States
Dolphins found beached
The government has launched an investigation into whether the mass beaching of dolphins in south Florida this past week was caused by naval exercises involving a sonar-equipped submarine, officials said Saturday. More than 60 disoriented dolphins swam into ankle-deep waters off the Florida Keys near the town of Marathon last Wednesday, prompting a massive rescue operation involving wildlife officials and dozens of volunteers. Some mammals have been successfully led back to deep water. More dolphins are being taken care of by biologists and park rangers. Nobody knows exactly at this point what caused the dolphins to beach.
■ Brazil
Hostage feared killed in Iraq
The Foreign Ministry said Saturday it was investigating news reports that a Brazilian engineer held by kidnappers in Iraq had been killed. Without naming sources, the Arabic Al-Arabiya television and the Italian news agency ANSA said early Saturday that hostage Joao Jose Vasconcellos was killed by his captors. "We appeal to the kidnappers to allow the family to find out exactly what is [Vasconcellos'] situation," Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told the official Agencia Brasil news service during an official visit to Kenya.
■ Haiti
UN troops `violate mandate'
Haiti's justice minister on Saturday accused UN peacekeepers of violating their mandate, in a dispute over police officers accused of killing unarmed protesters that is creating more tension ahead of elections to replace ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The remarks could bring a confrontation about areas of responsibility between Haiti's US-backed interim govern-ment and the 7,400-member UN peacekeeping force tasked with supporting the government and restoring a stability that remains elusive one year after Aristide fled a rebel uprising. On Monday, witnesses say police fired into demonstrators flanked by UN troops.
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance yesterday as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of troops from the country’s army, navy and air force. “We have 123 confirmed dead and another 130 missing,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo. Cyclone Ditwah was moving away from the island yesterday and
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
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