■ Pakistan
Father kills daughters
A father, angry that his eldest daughter had married for love, slit her throat as she slept before killing three other daughters. Nazir Ahmad feared the younger girls, aged four to 12, would follow in their sister's footsteps, a police spokesman said on Saturday. Ahmad surrendered to police in Burewala, about 115km east of Multan. Ahmad's eldest daughter, Muqadas Bibi, 25, had married a man against her father's wishes. Ahmad had then contacted Bibi this week, saying he was ready to forgive her, but during a visit to her parents' house, he slit her throat as she slept and then killed the other three girls.
■ China
Bus crashes into river
A bus ran off a road in northern China into a freezing section of the Yellow River, leaving 28 people missing and presumed dead, official media said yesterday. The accident occurred late on Saturday in the Hanggin prefecture of the Inner Mongolia Region, state-run China Central Television said. Eight of the 36 passengers had been rescued, but the remainder were presumed dead. Citing local officials, the official Xinhua News Agency said part of the icy road adjacent to the river collapsed, causing the bus to slide into the water.
■ China
Oil deal signed
China and North Korea have signed an agreement to jointly develop offshore oil reserves, the Chinese government said, amid efforts to prod the North to speed up economic reforms. The deal was signed after a meeting in Beijing between North Korean Vice Premier Ro Tu-chol and his Chinese counterpart, Zeng Peiyan (曾培炎), the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday. The report didn't say where the two governments planned to carry out oil development or give other details.
■ Thailand
Students suffer woes
One in 10 Thai high school students have considered suicide, carry weapons to school or have suffered physical abuse at home, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday. About half of the 280,000 students polled from 1,400 schools nationwide sometimes skip class because they are fed up with the school system or teachers, according to a National Institute of Development Administration survey. Seniors skip class more often than juniors, according to the survey that targeted risk behavior. About 10 percent smoke cigarettes and 1.6 per cent use drugs, with drug and alcohol abuse closely related to violence at home. On the question of sexual orientation, about seven per cent said they prefer people of the same sex.
■ Japan
Snow causes deaths
Heavy snowfall throughout Japan killed five people, disrupted holiday traffic and left thousands of residents without electricity. In the western prefecture of Fukui, where snow has piled up to more than 200cm in some areas, a factory building collapsed, killing a 72-year-old man. Those who died were mostly the elderly, including a 78-year-old man who fell from a ladder while trying to remove snow from the roof of his home in northern Akita prefecture. In the prefecture of Niigata, where as many as 650,000 homes and businesses suffered a blackout last week, about 1,100 households were left without electricity yesterday due to the snow.
■ Egypt
Al-Qaeda audiotape aired
Al-Qaeda's deputy leader said in an audiotape aired on Saturday that Taliban fighters control large areas in Afghanistan and are fighting US forces and the US-backed Afghan government. It was not clear when the tape purportedly by al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri was recorded. Dubai-based al-Arabiya television, which aired about 30 seconds of the tape, said al-Zawahri did not refer to any new events in the speech. The tape's authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but the voice resembled that of al-Zawahri's confirmed in past recordings.
■ Russia
ICBMs can foil missile shield
The chief of Russia's strategic forces on Saturday attended the deployment of a new set of intercontinental ballistic missiles, boasting of their capability to penetrate any prospective missile defense, news reports said. Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov, chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, took part in a ceremony that marked the commissioning of the latest set of Topol-M missiles at a missile base in Tatishchevo in the Volga River's Saratov region. Solovtsov said on Saturday that the new missile "is capable of penetrating any missile defense system," the RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies reported. Russian officials have called prospective US missile defenses destabilizing.
■ Israel
PM heads back to work
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was slated yesterday to return to a full schedule of work after recovering from a mild stroke he suffered last week. Sharon was to meet ministers at a weekly Cabinet meeting later in the day, his office said. He was rushed to hospital a week ago after complaining that he felt bad. Doctors later said he suffered a mild stroke that had not caused any permanent damage. Sharon's blood pressure and cholesterol levels are normal despite the fact he is overweight, the doctors told Israeli media.
■ Sweden
Minister pulls out of event
Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds, criticized for the government's slow response to the plight of nationals caught up in the Asian tsunami, has pulled out of a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the disaster. Freivalds had been due to attend the event in Stockholm today with Prime Minister Goran Persson. Relatives of the victims of the tsunami are also expected to be present. But Freivalds said in a statement on Saturday that plans for her presence had sparked "strong reactions." "Out of consideration to those who are grieving, I will therefore honor the tsunami's victims by following the ceremony in another way," she said, Swedish news agency TT reported.
■ Azerbaijan
Fault likely cause of crash
The crash of an Azerbaijani airliner that killed all 23 people on board may have been caused by a technical malfunction, but inves-tigators said they could not yet rule out a terrorist attack, a national airline official said. Azerbaijani Airlines' deputy chief, Ilham Amirov, said on Saturday that investigators were looking at a control system failure as the most probable cause of the crash. All 18 passengers and five crew on board were killed, Rustam Usubov, Azerbaijan's first deputy prosecutor general, said on Saturday as emergency workers combed wreckage for clues.
■ United States
Surfer attacked by shark
A man attacked by a shark while surfing off the northern Oregon coast suffered lacerations on his ankle and calf, authorities said. The 30-year-old surfer, Brian Anderson, was "conscious, alert and smiling" on the way to the hospital after Saturday's attack, said Seaside Fire Department Chief Joe Dotson. Witnesses said Anderson was able to hit the shark on the nose and scare it away, before being carried to safety by fellow surfers. An ambulance drove Anderson to Providence Seaside Hospital, Dotson said. "There was quite a bit of blood, but he was not entered into the trauma center, so I assume he will be fine," Dotson said.
■ United States
Court employees drinking
A social worker said she went with a client to Family Court in Philadelphia on a weekday afternoon only to be turned away by a beer-drinking employee who said the office was closed for a Christmas party. "We were shocked that she was drinking alcohol while on duty at Family Court," Linda Hsiao told the Philadelphia Inquirer in Saturday's edition. "This is what our tax dollars are going for? The court can just close down for a social event on our tax money? That's really nice to know." Joseph Cairone, the chief administrator of the Philadelphia courts, said he would take a serious look at the allegation.
■ United States
NORAD tracks Santa
For half a century, the military agency dedicated to detecting threats against the US and Canada has reported Santa's sleigh ride to curious youngsters around the world. With help from several civilian companies, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, reports Santa's progress on a Web site in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. It also answers telephone calls and e-mails as part of the Christmas Eve tradition. The reported track began at the North Pole, of course, and NORAD said Santa Claus was "spotted" in North America -- on Canada's eastern coast -- followed by New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Nepal and India. Last year, the tracking Web site at www.noradsanta.org received 912 million hits from 181 countries.
■ Canada
Governor seeks apology
British Columbia's lieutenant governor is asking her counterpart in Washington state to arrange an apology for the 1884 lynching of a 14-year-old Sto:lo Indian boy by an American mob. Louie Sam was being held by provincial authorities in February 1884 when more than 100 Americans came across the border on horseback, abducted the boy and hanged him. He was suspected in the killing of a shopkeeper in Nooksack, in what is now Washington state's Whatcom County.
■ Colombia
Bomb materials found
A bag containing 11kg of explosives and bomb-making materials was found outside a ranch where President Alvaro Uribe was staying, a presidential spokesman said on Saturday. The military-grade C4 explosives, detonator cords and other bomb-making materials were found on Friday night by the army after a neighbor reported a suspicious bag on a road near the president's family ranch near Monteria, 500km northwest of Bogota, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name. Uribe, who has been the target of several assassination attempts, slept overnight at the ranch.
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