■ Indonesia
Militant leader arrested
Indonesian police arrested and then deported to Singapore an alleged militant leader wanted in the city-state for plotting to crash a plane into its airport several years ago, a police spokesman said yesterday. Slamet bin Kastari -- who served time in an Indonesian jail in 2003 for immigration offenses -- was arrested in east Java province on Jan. 20 because he was found to be using a fake identity card, said Anton Bachrul Alam.
■ Malaysia
Son disowned over loans
A 60-year-old Malaysian widow has disowned one of her three sons to stop illegal money lenders from harassing the family to pay his gambling debts, reports said yesterday. Chong Au Yen was quoted by the New Straits Times as saying that she used up her life savings of 100,000 ringgit (US$26,667) last year to pay off loan sharks after her son, Yap Choon Wai, swore that he would stop gambling. But he broke his promise and started racking up more debts, she said.
■ China
Manhole cover theft drops
Thieves in Beijing stole 4,000 manhole covers and sold them for scrap metal last year, despite government efforts to put a lid on the pilfering, state press said yesterday. The loss was a sharp fall from the 24,000 manhole covers that went missing in 2004, but still left city streets and sidewalks hazardous, Xinhua news agency reported. Thieves can get up to 20 yuan (US$2.40) from scrap dealers for each manhole cover, equivalent to the daily wage of some migrant workers, the report said. Recent laws forbid scrap metal traders from buying the covers, while local utilities are liable for not replacing missing covers.
■ Japan
Language also for the birds
Pet birds can not only imitate sounds, they can distinguish between languages, potentially offering new clues on how the brain recognizes speech, Japanese researchers say. It has already been confirmed that monkeys, mice and other mammals can recognize different languages but this is the first time that birds have been found to possess the ability, the Mainichi Shimbun reported. "If we study common traits in brain structure, this may shed light on the mechanisms of speech recognition," Keio University experimental psychology professor Shigeru Watanabe, who led the research, was quoted as saying.
■ Japan
Burial hidden for pension
A man and his mother were arrested for allegedly burying his father's body in their backyard to keep the old man's pension benefits, police said yesterday. Buntaro Makizuka, 93, died last September, apparently of natural causes, but his death only became known to authorities last week when they searched his home in southwestern Kagawa Prefecture. The son, Fumio Makizuka, 59, and his mother, Fumiko Makizuka, 85, are suspected to have pocketed the more than ?1 million (US$8,440) in pension benefits that arrived after the elderly man's death, he said.They were arrested on charges of abandoning the body.
■ India
Troop cutback planned
New Dehli said yesterday it would withdraw 15,000 troops from the restive state of Jammu and Kashmir, in a move seen as bolstering a slow-moving peace process with Pakistan. A government official said the troop withdrawal would take place in phases, but gave no more details. An estimated half a million soldiers are based in the Himalayan state, many of them fighting Islamic militants opposed to New Delhi's rule there. New Delhi had earlier rejected proposals made by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to demilitarize three Indian Kashmir cities in an attempt to push talks over the disputed Himalayan region forward.
■ Nepal
Roadblock blast kills five
An explosion at a booby-trapped roadblock along a key highway in the west of the country killed one policeman and wounded four others yesterday, officials said, blaming Maoist rebels who have vowed to disrupt this week's municipal elections. Dissidents in Kathmandu, meanwhile, accused the royal government of torturing jailed opposition politicians and denying them medical care -- allegations the government denied. The elections tomorrow for mayors and ward council members -- posts with little power and few responsibilities -- have been billed as a small, but symbolic step back toward democracy a year after the king seized absolute power.
■ China
State targets Web porn
Regulators closed down more than 2,000 Web sites last year because they had too much sex, violence or politics, state media reported yesterday. The crackdown was part of a nationwide campaign to eradicate the distribution of pornography and other illegal activities, the Beijing Morning Post said. The paper referred to the Websites as "unhealthy," a word describing a broad range of illegal content including pornography, excessive violence and sensitive political or religious issues. Beijing has been stepping up its policing on the Internet in recent months.
■ Zambia
Morgan Tsvangirai deported
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader was deported from Zambia because he secretly met with officials from an organization headed by former US intelligence agents, an official newspaper said on Sunday. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai was ejected with eight colleagues last Thursday for violating Zambia's immigration laws.
■ Egypt
Crowd attacks ferry office
People awaiting news of relatives who were aboard a ferry which sank in the Red Sea last week set fire to the office of the firm which owned the vessel, witnesses said yesterday. Police used tear gas to drive away the people, who had attacked the office of the el Salam Maritime Transport Co outside the port of Safaga. Relatives have been gathered at the port entrance since Friday, when the Al Salam 98 sank with more than 1,400 people on board. Relatives of the missing have protested against what they see as rough treatment by the government. They have also been angered by survivor accounts of the ferry continuing its voyage for several hours after a fire had started below deck.
■ Spain
Cigarette war breaks out
Spain's recent smoking ban has sparked a price war between cigarette manufacturers, leaving tobacco vendors and health campaigners fuming. Weeks after the prohibition on smoking in offices and public spaces went into effect on Jan. 1, Philip Morris slashed prices of its Marlboro brand by 15 percent. On Feb. 1, Spanish-French multinational Altadis announced it would cut its Fortuna and Nobel brands by 18 percent despite a 170 million euro (US$ 200 million) cut in its operating profits expected from the drastic measure. At the weekend, Japan Tobacco International joined the struggle. The manufacturer of Winston and Camel said it would reduce prices by 33 percent beginning yesterday, to equal those of Fortuna, according to the Spanish Union of Tobacco Vendors' Web site.
■ Kenya
`Pirates' challenge court
Ten alleged pirates captured last month by the US Navy off the coast of Somalia yesterday challenged the jurisdiction of a Kenyan court which has charged them with piracy. Defense lawyer Mohammed Khatib argued that since the suspects were captured in Somali waters aboard an Indian dhow, Kenya had no authority to try them. Khatib said the proper venue for the trial would be Somalia itself or India, where the ship they allegedly commandeered is registered.
■ Brazil
Crush tragedy investigated
Police were investigating whether organizers of an autograph session with the Mexican pop band RBD were authorized to stage the event that left three people dead and 38 injured, authorities said. A woman and two teenage girls were crushed to death on Saturday morning when thousands of fans tried to get closer to the group. Authorities said event organizers had until yesterday to prove they had authorization from Sao Paulo city officials, police and firefighters to stage the autograph session at the parking lot, a spokesman with Sao Paulo state's public safety secretariat, said on Sunday. Organizers said in a statement on Saturday night that there was no wrongdoing on their part and that they had been properly authorized.
■ United States
Bikes deadlier than war
More US troops have died on US roads in off-duty motorcycle accidents than have been killed fighting in Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001, safety records show. Military commanders in North Carolina say the deaths are largely the result of boredom, bonus pay and adrenalin to burn off after troops return from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 350 troops have died on motorcycles since the 2001 terrorist attacks, compared with 259 killed while serving in Afghanistan. Nearly 1,000 more troops have been injured on motorcycles.
■ United States
Civil commitment proposed
New York is preparing to go a big step further in its legal battle against sex offenders, with lawmakers passing bills that would allow for the civil commitment of some sex offenders after they are released from prison. And in his budget, Governor George Pataki included a US$130 million plan to raze a prison north of Binghamton and replace it with a compound to house up to 500 sex offenders who have already served their sentences. More than a dozen other states have enacted civil commitment laws, which have been upheld by the US Supreme Court. Prosecutors and politicians have pressed for the measures, saying that it is the only way to protect potential victims.
■ South Africa
Mbeki rejects third term
President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday that he would not seek a third term in office, dispelling speculation that he was trying to hold on to power after his mandate ends in 2009. "By the end of 2009, I will have been in a senior position in government for 15 years. I think that's too long," Mbeki said in an interview with state broadcaster SABC. Mbeki, 63, succeeded Nelson Mandela as the nation's second democratically-elected president in 1999 and won a second five-year term in 2004. Mandela chose Mbeki to be deputy president in 1994 after the African National Congress swept to power in elections at the end of the apartheid era.
■ Russia
Oil pipeline project rejected
The Kremlin's environmental safety body rejected a plan for a controversial crude oil pipeline that ecologists have said could threaten the world's biggest freshwater lake. The proposals for the pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Pacific coast were not in line with environmental legislation, the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision said in a statement posted on its Web site late on Friday. The decision is a blow for state pipeline monopoly Transneft, which had backed a route passing within a kilometer of Lake Baikal, which is a UNESCO protected site and home to 20 percent of the world's fresh water.
■ Sudan
Thousands flee conflict
The conflict in Darfur is slipping back into major violence as peace talks aimed at ending the crisis in the nation's western region plunge into deadlock and the UN Security Council starts to press for UN peacekeepers to replace the African Union. Up to 70,000 people have fled in recent days from displacement camps where they had settled to escape earlier armed raids north of the city of Nyala. Several hundred more have crossed the border into Chad to seek refuge. Baba Gana Kingibe, head of the Africa Union Mission in Sudan, blamed anti-government rebels -- the Sudan Liberation Army -- for provoking the new violence by attacking the government-held towns of Shearia on Jan. 16 and Golo a week later.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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