■ PHILIPPINES
Ten hurt in drive-by attack
A man riding on a motorcycle opened fire on a crowded mosque on the southern island of Jolo, wounding at least 10 people as they took a break from nighttime prayers, police said yesterday. Investigators were trying to determine the man's identity and motive, a senior police officer said. The attacker was armed with a homemade rifle and fled aboard a motorcycle driven by a companion after the attack on Saturday, the officer said.
■ INDIA
Cabinet reshuffle underway
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh added several ministers to his government yesterday, mostly for new positions partly aimed at bolstering regional support ahead of elections in some states. President Abdul Kalam swore in 10 Cabinet ministers -- including three junior ministers being promoted -- and a dozen new junior ministers in a brief ceremony at the presidential palace. The new ministers include senior members of the ruling Congress party, as well as key regional politicians from the five states due to hold elections this year. The allocation of portfolios was due to be announced later. No major changes were expected.
■ AUSTRALIA
Bodies found in barrels
Firefighters made a grisly discovery yesterday when they discovered human body parts in two barrels burning in a forest south of Sydney, police said. The firefighters found the remains of a man and a woman after they went to deal with a small bush fire in a state forest at Tomerong, about 210km south of Sydney. New South Wales police superintendent Kyle Stewart said the discovery of the parts in 44-gallon drums was a "fairly horrific scene." Police were questioning a man and a woman over the find.
■ PHILIPPINES
Mass brush-off held
Nearly 11,000 schoolchildren brushed their teeth at a seaside Manila park yesterday in an attempt to break a world record for a simultaneous brush-off and to try and reverse the prevalence of tooth decay among Filipinos, organizers said. About 10,800 students from eight metropolitan Manila grade schools, guided by 187 dentists, used soft-bristle tooth brushes for nearly three minutes at the Rizal Park then tossed into the air red caps given by organizers. The mass brush-off was sponsored by a toothpaste company and health and education officials. Organizers hoped to break the Guinness World record set by 10,240 Chinese students on Sept. 20, 2003.
■ CAMBODIA
Stabbing suspects nabbed
Two men were arrested on Friday on suspicion of robbing and stabbing a Canadian tourist in the beach town of Sihanoukville, police said yesterday. Nhek Bunthol, 26, and Yav Phea, 24, approached the Canadian man and his British wife on Jan. 11 and asked if they wanted marijuana. When the couple refused, the two men allegedly stabbed the Canadian and took US$87 in cash. The victim was stabbed in the neck but recovered.
■ INDIA
Gurus asked to stop suicides
Maharashtra state has sought the help of holy men to contain the rash of suicides by poverty-stricken cotton farmers, a news report said yesterday. Authorities have approached gurus in the hope that the religious masters will motivate the farmers with hymns, invocations and discourses. At least 250 farmers have committed suicides since June last year.
■ BOLIVIA
Farmer named drug czar
President Evo Morales, who pledged as a candidate to roll back US efforts to curb coca growing in Bolivia, appointed a coca leaf grower as new drug czar on Saturday. During a trip to the heart of Bolivia's coca-growing region, Morales said he named Felipe Caceres, a co-founder of his Movement Toward Socialism party, to head his government's fight against drug trafficking. "A coca farmer is going to be in charge of the fight against drugs," Morales said, wearing a hat woven of coca leaves and drawing loud applause from hundreds of people, many of them coca farmers, gathered in this lush jungle swath.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Abortion limits supported
A majority of women in Britain want the law changed to make it harder for them to end a pregnancy, according to a poll in the Observer newspaper yesterday. The MORI poll found that 47 percent of women believe the legal limit for an abortion should be cut from its present 24 weeks while 10 percent thought abortion should be outlawed completely. Only 31 percent of women and 35 percent of men thought the current time limit is "about right." Just 2 percent of women and 5 percent of men thought the last possible date after which a woman can end a pregnancy should be increased from 24 weeks.
■ RUSSIA
Alleged UK spies arrested
Two spies in the pay of the British have been arrested, a former chief of Russia's FSB security services said in televised comments on the discovery of an alleged British spy operation in Moscow. Britain's Foreign Office said yesterday it was investigating the reports. "Two spies working for Britain were arrested," Nikolai Kovalev, now a lawmaker with the pro-Kremlin party United Russia, told the NTV channel on Saturday, without clarifying their nationality. "Certainly, they are not silent, they are speaking," added Kovalev, who headed the secret services from 1996-1998.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Hitler's art to be auctioned
Twenty-one watercolors and sketches by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler are to be auctioned in Britain after 70 years in a suitcase in a Belgian attic, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported. The collection was apparently produced between 1916 and 1918 when the young Hitler was a corporal during World War I. The works are to be auctioned at Jefferys in Lostwithiel, southwest England, and are expected to fetch up to ?100,000 (US$177,300), the British weekly reported. Among the watercolor landscapes are one of a church on the edge of town and another a hastily-erected barracks in pastel shades.
■ UNITED STATES
NASA scientist muzzled
NASA's top climate scientist has accused the Bush administration of trying to stop him from speaking out after called in a lecture for swift cuts in emissions of the greenhouse gases linked to global warming, the New York Times reported yesterday. James Hansen, director of the US space agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his forthcoming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for media interviews, the Times reported. "They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public," Hansen said.
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
‘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
The Philippines deferred the awarding of a project that is part of a plan to build one of the world’s longest marine bridges after local opposition over the potential involvement of a Chinese company due to national security fears. The proposals are “undergoing thorough review” by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which acts as a lender and an overseer of the project to ensure it meets international environmental and governance standards, the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways said in a statement on Monday in response to queries from Bloomberg. The agency said it would announce the winning bidder once ADB
IN ABSENTIA: The MP for Hampstead and Highgate in London, a niece of deposed Bangladesh prime minister Sheik Hasina, condemned the ‘flawed and farcical’ trial A court in Bangladesh yesterday sentenced British Member of Parliament Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail after a judge ruled she was complicit in corrupt land deals with her aunt, the country’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina. A judge found Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, guilty of misusing her “special influence” as a British politician to coerce Hasina into giving valuable pieces of land to her mother, brother and sister. Siddiq’s mother, Sheikh Rehana, was given seven years in prison and considered the prime participant in the case. The trial had been carried out in absentia: Neither Hasina, Siddiq,
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