■ Thailand
Thaksin revives drug war
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, undaunted by an avalanche of criticism after more than 2,500 people were killed in his first war on drugs in 2003, launched a third one on yesterday, vowing to wipe out the trade. "As long as I am still the prime minister, I will not allow narcotic drugs to return," he told 1,000 police officers and volunteers in Bangkok. The 10-month war on drugs in 2003, which Thais and foreigners say involved police assassinating suspects, was voted the most successful policy of Thaksin's first term and helped him win another landslide victory in February.
■ China
Drought plagues Guangdong
Guangdong is suffering its worst drought in 50 years, threatening water supplies for drinking and farming, a newspaper said yesterday. Authorities in Zhangjiang have launched more than 100 rockets carrying cloud-seeding chemicals since last November in hopes of inducing rain, the China Daily newspaper said. The government said in February that its population had passed 110 million people, putting heavy pressure on water supplies. Rainfall so far this year in Guangdong is down 40 percent from its level last year, and reservoirs in some areas were almost dry, the China Daily said.
■ China
Fumes kill man, hurt family
An accident at a tin-smelting workshop at a home in a village near Beijing released toxic fumes that killed one man and left 30 relatives hospitalized, including a pregnant woman and a 5-year-old boy, a news report said yesterday. The accident occurred last Thursday when a family member who was trying to hold down dust poured water on tin slag, releasing toxic hydrogen arsenide gas, the China Daily said. The man who poured the water on the slag died, the report said. It said 11 family members were rushed to a Beijing hospital, where they received blood transfusions. All were out of danger.
■ Australia
Toad proposal raises ire
A lawmaker outraged animal rights activists yesterday by suggesting an invasion of poisonous cane toads be fought by bashing the beasts with cricket bats and golf clubs. David Tollner, a Liberal member of parliament, said he grew up using the brute force method against the toads. "We hit them with cricket bats and golf clubs and the like," Tollner said on ABC radio. Animal rights groups clubbed his suggestion "We don't want children picking up their golf club or their cricket bat in the backyard and having a go at any animal," said Fiona Cummins, chief executive of the RSPCA in Darwin.
■ South Korea
Pyongyang, Seoul to talk
North Korea is to hold talks next week with Seoul on how to coordinate aid to combat a bird flu epidemic, South Korea's unification ministry said yesterday. The two would hold a day of talks sometime between April 20 and 22 in the Northern city of Kaesong on ways of dealing with the outbreak, which has led Pyongyang to cull more than 210,000 chickens, said a ministry spokesman.
■ Japan
Ships start whale hunt
Six ships left a port in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture yesterday for a whale hunt in an offshore research program that critics have denounced as a cover for commercial whaling. The fleet aims to intercept up to 60 minke whales, according to the Fisheries Agency.
■ Sudan
Annan pleads for funds
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday called for US$1 billion in immediate aid to help southern Sudan recover from Africa's longest civil war. "In the south, we will run out of food for 2 million people in a matter of weeks," Annan told delegates from 60 countries at a donors meeting in Oslo. "If there was ever a time for donor countries to get off the fence, it is now," Annan said. January's peace agreement ended the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan, opening the way for the country to receive badly needed funding for reconstruction.
■ Russia
Assassination probed
Police were investigating multiple theories yesterday in the assassination of a former top intelligence official and his wife, who were gunned down by unknown assailants in Moscow. Colonel General Anatoly Trofimov, a 65-year-old former deputy chief of the Federal Security Service under president Boris Yeltsin, was shot in his sports utility vehicle around 7:30pm Sunday evening on a street in the northern part of Moscow. He died on the scene. His 28-year-old wife died yesterday morning, after being hospitalized in critical condition, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported. Their daughter, who was also in the car, was reportedly unharmed.
■ United States
Snow storm cancels flights
Hundreds of travelers were stranded yesterday at the Denver airport and along highways as a blizzard blew across eastern Colorado with wet, heavy snow. Almost a 30cm of snow fell in Denver and 60cm in Greenland, about 30km north of Colorado Springs, the National Weather Service said. Heavy snow was still coming down Sunday evening but was expected to fade overnight. ``I can see just across the street and that's it,'' Heather Vansickler said at the Country Store in Palm Lake, 72km south of Denver. Fat, moisture-laden snowflakes were blown sideways by wind gusting to 48kph. Xcel Energy reported that 11,000 customers were without power in the heavily populated Front Range region.
■ Germany
Ad idea causes controversy
Like so many good ideas, it was conceived in a pub. Jurgen Scholz, the boss of a struggling fourth division German football team, was pondering how to make more money for his club, Arminia Hannover. After a couple of drinks, he hit upon the answer: why not sell advertising space on his players' bottoms? But Scholz's ingenious marketing strategy is now at the center of a bitter legal battle after the football association ruled that advertising on players' shorts is strictly forbidden. A judge will shortly decide whether "Po-Werbung" or "bottom advertising" can be allowed in Germany, as it is already in neighboring Austria.
■ Egypt
African summit postponed
A five-nation African summit in Egypt on the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has been postponed because some leaders could not attend it, an Egyptian official said yesterday. Egypt had planned to host the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on April 20 and had invited the leaders of Chad, Libya, Nigeria and Sudan. "It was agreed that it would be postponed because that time would not be convenient because several leaders have previous arrangements," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
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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