■ China
Tibetan festival banned
China banned government workers, Communist Party members and students in Tibet from marking a recent Buddhist festival, citing the need to "tighten up education," a Tibetan rights group reported. A notice in the official Lhasa Evening News said the ban also applied to "retired cadres and staff" and "workers of business and enterprise work units and people's collectives" in the Tibetan capital.
■ China
Grandfather in rape arrest
Police in Beijing have arrested four men as old as 82 years for allegedly repeatedly raping and molesting a 14-year-old mentally handicapped girl, state press reported yesterday. The case unraveled after another 12-year-old girl was raped by one of the men in Beijing's Fengtai district last month, the Beijing News reported. The suspect of that rape later confessed that the 14-year-old girl, identified as Xing, was also present during the crime, the paper said. Xing told police that three other men, aged 82, 70 and 50 had also been having illicit sexual relations with her for several months. The 70-year-old suspect was a married father of four and grandfather of three.
■ Malaysia
Motorcycle medics
Kuala Lumpur may deploy paramedic squads on motorcycles to provide emergency treatment, following complaints that ambulances often get stuck in the city's notorious traffic jams, a news report said yesterday. Lee Kah Choon of the Health Ministry said motorcycle squads could improve emergency medical services, based on a pilot project by the ministry in the central Malaysian Klang Valley region since last year.
■ Japan
Wife confesses to murder
A woman has confessed to bludgeoning her husband with a wine bottle, sawing the corpse in pieces and dumping his body parts around Tokyo, police and news reports said yesterday. The arrest of 32-year-old Kaori Mihashi late on Wednesday capped a grisly murder mystery that began when a man's torso was found in a garbage bag on a street in downtown Tokyo last month. The man's legs were found late last month at a separate location in the city and his head was discovered in a suburban park on Wednesday, a Metropolitan Police official said. His arms were still missing.
■ India
Taj Mahal being repaired
Archeologists and conservationists have begun giving a facelift to the massive gates of the Taj Mahal in Agra to repair weather damage to the 17th-century monument. Two of the three stone gates, decorated with black and white marble slabs, were being repaired and restored with the help of local stone carvers and masons, an official said. The Taj Mahal, built by Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, houses the graves of the Muslim emperor, his wife and other Mogul royalty. The white marble-domed monument is among the country's most popular historical sites. Each year about 3 million tourists visit it.
■ South Korea
Bird flu case confirmed
Officials said yesterday that the bird flu virus had been transmitted to a human during a recent outbreak among poultry, but the person showed no symptoms of disease. The South's Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention said a person, whom it did not identify, had been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus but developed natural immunity to the disease and was not ill. The outbreak late last year in Gimje, 257km south of Seoul, led to the slaughter of thousands of poultry to stem its potential spread. It was among several such outbreaks late last year.
■ Afghanistan
Up to 150 insurgents killed
NATO and Afghan troops killed up to 150 insurgents in a ground and air operation after the insurgents infiltrated an area in the southeast of the country from neighboring Pakistan, the alliance said yesterday. Afghan anger over the infiltration of Taliban militants from Pakistan has seriously soured relations between the neighbors, both important US allies in the war on terrorism. The latest fighting, the biggest clash in Afghanistan in months, was on Wednesday night in Paktika Province and initial battle damage estimates indicated as many as 150 insurgents were killed NATO said. It did not say if there were any casualties among NATO or Afghan government troops.
■ India
Airports on terror alert
Airports across India were on high alert for a fifth day yesterday because of intelligence reports that Kashmiri militants may try to hijack an Indian plane, the Civil Aviation Ministry said. Tightened security at airports meant passengers were likely to endure more searches and checks, said Maushumi Chakravarty, a ministry spokeswoman. The alert is likely to remain in place for some time, Chakravarty said, although she could not say precisely how long. More than a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting in India's part of Kashmir since 1989. Airports across India were put on alert after the July train bombings in Mumbai, an attack that killed more than 200 people.
■ France
Rwandan denied asylum
France's refugee agency has denied a request for asylum by the widow of late Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, saying she could have played a role in the 1994 genocide, her lawyer said on Wednesday. The decision came just weeks after Rwanda cut off diplomatic relations with the country over a French probe into Habyarimana's mysterious assassination. The downing of his plane in 1994 sparked the slaughter of more than half a million people in less than 100 days. The refugee agency rejected the application, citing numerous documents "giving serious reasons ... to believe that she participated as instigator or accomplice in committing genocide," a lawyer said.
■ United Kingdom
Police seize 28 dogs
Police and officers from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals seized 28 suspected pit bull terriers and 14 people were arrested on Wednesday in raids on Merseyside, in the north west of England, that brought the number of dogs seized in the area this month to 58. The operation, which had been planned for three months, was launched after five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson was killed in the industrial town of St Helens, Merseyside, by her uncle's pit bull on New Year's Day.
■ Vietnam
UK star may be released
Disgraced 1970s British pop star Gary Glitter will be considered for an early release from a prison for child molestation next month, a jail official said yesterday. Glitter, 62, who was sentenced to three years' jail last March, may qualify for a presidential amnesty to mark the traditional Tet lunar new year's celebrations next month, he said. The faded "glam rock" star, born Paul Francis Gadd, was found guilty last March of committing obscene acts with two girls then aged 11 and 12 in the southern resort town of Vung Tau.
■ Russia
Gunfire erupts in Dagestan
Police surrounded an apartment building in the south after exchanging gunfire with a small group of rebels holed up inside, a police official said yesterday. The gunfight began on Wednesday evening between rebels and police in Dagestan's regional capital, Makhachkala, authorites said. The rebels were firing with submachine guns from what was believed to be the 10th floor of the 11-story building, and police were returning fire, she said. Authorities estimated that about five rebels were involved. There were no reports of any injuries. By yesterday morning, the gunfire had ended, and police were maintaining their stakeout around the building.
■ Zimbabwe
Doctors on strike
Patients are being turned away from overflowing hospitals as striking junior doctors continue to pursue demands for pay rises of almost 9,000 percent. Broken arms, fractured skulls and internal injuries are going untreated for days as the strike enters its fourth week. New doctors at state hospitals say they want a living wage from the government, as inflation -- officially recorded at about 1,280 percent -- devours their income. The striking doctors are paid Z$56,000 (US$230) a month. A loaf of bread costs Z$900 and renting a room is Z$10,000 a month. Senior hospital specialists vowed to join the strike if the government did not achieve a settlement by next Monday.
■ United States
CIA mum on techniques
The CIA cannot reveal "alternative interrogation methods" used on suspected terrorists because doing so would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security by telling enemies how it gathers intelligence, the government told a judge. In a document filed in US District Court in New York, the CIA said it could not reveal more than what US President George W. Bush said last summer about the detention and questioning of terrorism suspects. The American Civil Liberties Union had asked the court to require the CIA to turn over two Justice Department memos on interrogation methods and a presidential order concerning the CIA's authorization to set up detention facilities outside the US.
■ United States
Ney blames alcoholism
Former representative Bob Ney, who faces sentencing next week in a congressional bribery scandal, asked a federal judge to note that alcohol addiction contributed to his misconduct. Ney, who resigned in November shortly after pleading guilty in October to conspiracy and making false statements, admitted that he traded official actions for expensive trips, sports tickets, lavish meals and campaign donations from imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Ney faces about two years in prison when he is sentenced next Friday.
■ United States
Baby-in-oven mom charged
A mother faces aggravated child abuse charges after allegedly putting her baby in a lit oven and leaving her apartment, police said on Wednesday, adding that the tot was not hurt. Sharlyn Singh, 29, a citizen of Guyana, was arrested on Monday in Orlando, Florida, and remained in custody in lieu of a US$15,000 bail, police said. The police report said that the baby's uncle had arrived at Singh's apartment on Monday, heard crying and asked Singh where the nearly-year-old girl was. Singh ignored his question and left the apartment. Realizing that the crying came from the oven, he approached the oven, turned off the lit oven and removed the child, police said.
■ Brazil
Anti-crime fund to be raised
The federal government will increase its budget to fight crime following gang attacks in Rio de Janeiro that have left 19 dead and ignited fear in major cities, chief Cabinet Minister Dilma Roussef said on Wednesday. "We are planning an increase of resources for public security because of the priority that the president established," Roussef told reporters in Brasilia. "I can't yet say what the size of this increase will be." On Tuesday, the governors of four of the richest and most populous states -- Rio, Sao Paulo, Espirito Santo and Minas Gerais -- called on the federal government to deploy more federal and highway police officers to their states.
■ Brazil
Mine dumps toxic waste
A dam burst at a mine in southeastern Brazil on Wednesday, dumping tonnes of possibly toxic runoff into rivers that supply water for cities in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states, the government news agency Agencia Brasil reported. The Rio Pomba company mines bauxite and calcium, and the runoff of polluted mud dirtied the rivers around Mirai, 290km northeast of Rio de Janeiro, it said. The head of the state water and drainage company Cedae, Wagner Victer, said drinking water would be trucked into nearby cities. Late on Wednesday, the state government of Minas Gerais said it had shut down the firm definitively.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
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