■ Thailiands
Thais asked to turn off lights
Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has asked the kingdom's entire population to turn off their lights for five minutes on Wednesday at 8:45pm as part of an energy-saving campaign that the government hopes will reduce a growing trade deficit because of recent sharp increases in oil prices. Thaksin said he would lead a televised countdown for switching off lights starting at 8:45pm on Wednesday. Besides turning off unneeded lights, the government is also urging Thais to turn off air conditioners every day during the one-hour lunch break, and to drive at speeds of no more than 90km an hour. Energy Minister Wiset Jupibal has said that Thailand could save 1.2 billion baht (US$29 million) a year if every house switched off a light for one hour each day.
■ Singapore
Malay royals miffed
Singapore has built a Malay heritage center on the land, irking a group of 96 Malays who claim descent from Sultan Hussain Mahomed Shah, an early 19th century ruler of the island. "They never answer our letters," said Tengku Othman Tengku Aziz, a sixth-generation descendant of Sultan Hussain, adding that the Singapore government had turned the sultan's old palace into a heritage center without compensating his descendants. The center, situated on a 56-acre plot in central Singapore, houses a typical "kampong" or village house of the 1960s and is a repository of items of Malay literature, film and art such as the works of Zubir Said, composer of Singapore's national anthem. The center is due to open on June 4. "If Singapore plays a deaf ear, I may go to the International Court of Justice and claim the whole island of Singapore," Tengku Othman, a Malaysian citizen, said on Friday.
■ Thailand
Three die in unrest
Three people, including a deputy village headman, were shot dead and two others wounded in new attacks by suspected separatist militants in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, police said yesterday. Unknown attackers gunned down Panawa Ladeng, 35, the deputy chief of Kororamae village in southernmost Yala province, at about midnight Friday, regional police said in an official report. Hours earlier, 29-year-old villager Sompop Yingyong was shot in the head by two assailants as he traveled with his family in neighbouring Pattani province.
■ Afghanistan
Bin Laden not here: official
Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said in an interview released Friday that he has seen no evidence to convince him that al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is hiding in Afghanistan. "Personally, as well as the foreign minister of Afghanistan, I haven't seen any evidence to convince me that he is in Afghanistan at this stage," Abdullah said in an interview with CNN to be aired today. "Perhaps in other phases, he was able to come back and forth, go back and forth" between Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said.
■ Thailand
Prisons short on underwear
Female inmates in Thailand's prisons are so short of underwear that the head of the main women's prison appealed to the public for donations -- new or recycled. The director of the Central Women's Prison, Ankhanueng Lebnak, said Friday that the government refuses to provide a budget to buy each female prisoner more than two pairs of underpants each year because they are considered a luxury item, the official Thai News Agency reported. An appeal for assistance yielded donations of 74,010 new and used garments, and Ankhanueng began distributing the extra underwear to prisons across the country on Friday, the report said.
■ China
Beijing cracks down on Web
Chinese-run Web sites have until the end of the month to register their sites or face being shut down as part of a new government campaign to police the Internet, a leading portal announced yesterday. The registration drive is an effort by the Ministry of Information Industry to clamp down on "fraud" and other "unhealthy" activity on the Internet, the portal Sohu.com said. "If you have not registered by June, then your Web site could be ordered shut down," the portal quoted an official from the Beijing communications bureau as saying. The move is the latest in China's efforts to police the Internet and follow stringent efforts -- known as the Great Firewall of China -- to give the authoritarian government total control over what people see on the Net.
■ Australia
Immigrants abused: priest
A Roman Catholic priest has complained to the government that male guards can watch female detainees taking showers at an Australian immigration detention center, a news report said yesterday. Australian Broadcasting Corp radio said it has obtained a copy of a letter written by Father Paul Burke to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone on April 19 in which he complained about the lack of privacy for women held at the Baxter detention center in South Australia state.
■ Saudi Arabia
King Fahd in hospital
Saudi Arabia's veteran ruler King Fahd was being treated in hospital yesterday amid conflicting reports on his state of health, which has caused concern for the past decade. "The custodian of the two holy mosques, King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, on Friday evening entered King Faisal hospital in Riyadh ... for medical examinations," the royal palace said in a statement carried by the official news agency SPA. "Information broadcast by certain press agencies and picked up by certain hostile and malicious television stations who say that a state of alert has been declared and that leave of elements of the security forces has been cancelled is wrong," the report said.
■ Israel
Soccer watcher suspended
The commander of an Israeli army squad has been suspended after his patrol took over a Palestinian home and confined the family to a spare room so the soldiers could watch Liverpool's victory in the Champions League final. A Palestinian youth, Anan al-Zrayer, told Israeli television that he was stopped in the West Bank town of Hebron by soldiers who asked if his family had satellite television. After he confirmed that it did, he said the soldiers barged into the house, forced the family out of the living room and settled down to watch Wednesday's final between Liverpool and AC Milan. "I gave them the remote control and they carried out a search. We were kicked into another room," said Zrayer.
■ United Kingdom
Billboard goes on display
A month after it ignited controversy, a large advertising billboard that questions the existence of Santa Claus went on display yesterday. Artist Darren Cullen scrapped plans to display the work four weeks ago after media interest prompted Maiden Outdoor, which owns the billboard, to refuse to show it. Critics say the piece -- which carries the slogans "Stop Lying To Your Children About Santa Claus" and "Santa Gives More To Rich Kids Than Poor Kids" -- is an attempt to ruin the magic of Christmas. But Cullen insists it is his way of highlighting the dangers of consumerism.
■ Zimbabwe
Demolition campaign rages
Hundreds of riot police armed with hammers and axes on Friday demolished houses and shacks on the outskirts of Harare as a campaign against illegal settlements forged ahead in Zimbabwe. The demolition, conducted mainly by young paramilitary police wearing new uniforms, came as human rights lawyers filed urgent legal challenges to the crackdown which has been described by rights bodies as brutal and unjustified. Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said some 3,000 police had been deployed countrywide to carry out the campaign dubbed Operation Restore Order, sparking riots in some Harare suburbs.
■ United Kingdom
Judge rules on drawings
A High Court judge ruled Friday that the British Museum cannot return four Old Master drawings to a Jewish family that lost them to Nazi looters in 1939. The British Museum is not legally permitted to return the drawings, ruled Vice Chancellor Andrew Morritt, a senior judge in the Chancery Division of the High Court. While sympathetic to the family's claim, Morritt said it would require a change in the law. A group representing the family making the claim called the ruling a setback for all people who lost art to Nazi-era looters.
■ United States
Intel officers get rewarded
Two army analysts whose work was cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq have received job performance awards for the past three years. The civilian analysts work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center, an agency criticized by President George W. Bush's commission investigating US intelligence. Ahead of the US attack on Iraq, the analysts concluded it was unlikely that aluminum tubes sought by Baghdad were for use in Iraq's rocket arsenal. The Bush administration used that finding as evidence that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding Iraq's nuclear weapons program. Officials said granting such awards shows how the administration has not held people accountable for mistakes on prewar intelligence.
■ United States
Navy SEAL acquitted
A military jury acquitted a Navy SEAL Friday of beating an Iraqi prisoner who later died, finding Lieutenant Andrew Ledford not guilty of all charges. On a November 2003 mission, Ledford and his men captured Manadel al-Jamadi, a suspect in the bombing of Red Cross offices in Baghdad that killed 12. Members of Ledford's platoon testified that they punched, kicked and struck al-Jamadi with muzzles of their rifles. Al-Jamadi died shortly after the SEALs turned him over to the CIA while he was being interrogated in Abu-Ghraib prison. Documents show al-Jamadi died while suspended by his wrists, which were handcuffed behind his back. Ledford had posed for a picture with a can of Red Bull energy drink as he and his men gathered around al-Jamadi in the back of a Humvee. Ledford is slated to be promoted to Lieutenant Commander.
■ United States
Clinton aide acquitted
The former national finance director for Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign was acquitted Friday of lying to the government about a lavish 2000 Hollywood fundraising gala. David Rosen was charged with two counts of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission about the cost of the star-studded gala, which attracted such celebrities as Cher, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Republicans closely monitored the trial, hoping fallout from it might damage the New York Democrat's 2006 re-election bid and scuttle any hopes for a possible presidential campaign in 2008.
■ Mexico
Kingpin blamed for drug war
Reputed kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has launched a bloody offensive to control drug smuggling along the entire US border, Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said Friday. The country's top law enforcement official said Guzman was to blame for a grinding wave of violence that has killed hundreds of suspected drug smugglers, hitmen, police, soldiers and civilians. Guzman escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001, and US authorities have offered a US$5 million reward for his capture.
■ Canada
Aid given to Palestine
Prime Minister Paul Martin announced US$9.7 million in aid for Palestinians following a meeting Friday with leader Mahmud Abbas that aimed to re-energize the Middle East peace process. The money will be used for judicial reform, border management, to build houses for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and to help Palestinian women in Lebanon pursue university education. Canada will also deploy 50 observers for the upcoming Palestinian Legislative Council elections.
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
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
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