■ Malaysia
Watchdog pans government
An international media watchdog condemned Malaysia's police on Thursday for trying to stifle coverage of the murder of a Mongolian woman. Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said police had put pressure on journalists over the murder, which officers are suspected of being involved in. "Police have been summoning and putting pressure on journalists while the head of police has told the press that it was speculating dangerously," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. Malaysia's top police chief on Monday defended a move to haul in five journalists for their report on the gruesome murder of Mongolian model, Altantuya Shaariibuu, 28.
■ India
Brawl over land kills 14
Two families clashed with guns and knives yesterday over land ownership in a northern Indian town, killing 14 people and injuring three others, police said. The clash among neighbors occurred in Sitapur, 80km southwest of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state. The three hurt have been hospitalized, said Surendra Srivastava, a police spokesman. "Home-made guns and knives were used in the bloody tussle," Srivastava said. "The heads of both families have died." Possession over land has caused tension for years between the neighbors, and a brawl left one person dead in 1998.
■ Japan
Woman put on abduction list
Police said yesterday that a woman missing for nearly 30 years was the 17th Japanese victim of a program started by North Korea in the 1970s to abduct Japanese citizens, a news report said yesterday. Investigators suspect that Kyoko Matsumoto, who disappeared from western Japan in 1977, was kidnapped by North Korean agents and taken by boat to the communist state, according to the report. Matsumoto, then 29, was added yesterday to a list of abduction victims identified by the Japanese police, according to a National Police Agency official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
■ Indonesia
Missing plane carrying 12
A small plane carrying 12 people was reported missing yesterday in a remote area of Papua Province, an airport official and police said. The Trigana Air plane left the town of Mulia at 7:50am for nearby Ilaga, but had not shown up more than four hours after it was scheduled to land, an airport official said. The Twin Otter was carrying nine passengers -- many believed to be local government officials -- and three crew, Papua police spokesman Colonel Kartono Wangsadisatra said.
■ South Korea
Nuclear reactor planned
An international consortium including South Korea will next week sign a formal agreement to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor in France by 2015, officials said yesterday. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) consortium will finalize the deal on Tuesday in Paris after nearly 10 years of informal and preparatory talks by South Korea, Russia, China, the EU, the US, India and Japan, the Ministry of Science and Technology said. ITER, a fusion energy project worth US$12.8 billion and expected to run over 30 years, will be built at Cadarache in southern France. It aims to provide a clean source of energy that can replace fossil fuel. South Korea joined the project in June 2003 and is expected to pay about 9 percent of the US$5 billion construction cost, Yonhap said.
■ United Kingdom
Police hunt Tiger traders
London's Metropolitan Police yesterday launched an initiative to crack down on the illegal sale of products made from endangered species in Chinese medicine shops. "Operation Charm," backed by wildlife charities and the Chinese community, will focus on shops that sell goods that are made -- or claim to be made -- from endangered species. There is a growing market in London for products made from endangered animals, including products made from tiger bone and rhino horn. "It is quite unacceptable that illegal acts in London are contributing to the decline of creatures like the tiger," said Andy Fisher, the head of the Met's Wildlife Crime Unit. "In `Operation Charm' we want to stop the illegal trade in these animals in London. Anyone who persists in doing so could spend five years in prison." There are now estimated to be fewer than 5,000 tigers left in the wild, down from 100,000 in 1900.
■ France
Chinese card scam busted
Three people suspected of running a counterfeit credit card ring were arrested this week in Paris and their equipment seized, police said on Thursday. According to one investigator, the three made the bogus cards from numbers received directly from China and sent Chinese students in France out to make purchases with them. Officers seized special printers used to make the cards, as well as a stock of 300 cards already encoded with data and 700 other blank ones. It was not known how much the gang netted from the operation.
■ United States
Foley probe starts
Florida authorities have opened an investigation into the sexually explicit computer messages that disgraced lawmaker Mark Foley sent to male former interns. "It was a preliminary inquiry before, but we found the basis to open up a criminal investigation," Kristen Perezluha, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said on Thursday. The FBI is investigating whether Foley broke federal laws with his messages to teenaged former congressional pages, and the House Ethics Committee is looking into whether senior Republican officials hid what they knew about the messages. Foley resigned on Sept. 29 after being confronted with the lurid messages. His attorney, David Roth, has said Foley never had inappropriate sexual contact with minors.
■ South Africa
ANC whip suspended
The ruling African National Congress suspended its chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe on Thursday after finding clear evidence he had sexually harrassed a parliamentary intern in an initial probe. According to widespread media reports, the unnamed intern was propositioned by Goniwe after a recent party at his home. She has also complained of being threatened since making the accusation and is currently being looked after by the head of the ANC women's caucus in the parliament, Vytjie Mentor. The disciplinary committee said there was evidence to substantiate the claims of intimidation. Goniwe's predecessor as chief whip, Tony Yengeni, has also had legal troubles. He is currently serving a prison term for corruption and is himself in hot water after being photographed drinking beer in apparent contravention of his parole conditions.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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