■ INDIA
Bus plunges into gorge
A bus carrying about 50 people skidded off a mountain road and fell into a gorge in the north of the country on Wednesday, killing 19 people and injuring about 30, police said. Rescuers pulled the injured passengers from the mangled bus, they said. Some were critically hurt. The accident took place at Kotkhai, northeast of Shimla, capital of the mountain state of Himachal Pradesh. Bus accidents on mountain roads are common and highway regulations are poorly enforced. Last week, at least 22 people were killed when a bus skidded off a mountain road.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Armed group seizes workers
An unidentified armed group kidnapped 12 workers -- eight Filipinos, three South Koreans and a Nigerian -- at a South Korean company's power plant construction site in Nigeria yesterday, the company said. The armed group broke into the firm's accommodation facilities and drove the abductees away in a stolen vehicle at 2am on yesterday from Afam power station, about 30km northeast of Port Harcourt, Nigeria's southern oil hub, a statement from Daewoo Engineering and Construction said. South Korea confirmed the kidnapping and said it was unclear what the captors were demanding. The gunmen had not yet presented demands, a Daewoo official said.
■ PAKISTAN
Several injured in protests
Several people were injured in another day of angry scuffles outside the heavily guarded Supreme Court yesterday in the latest protest over the sacking of the country's chief judge. Police said dozens of lawyers, marching in support of ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, ignored warnings not to try to enter the building, where he was appearing before a judicial panel, and clashed with police. "Lawyers attacked us with sticks and we had to retaliate," officer Mehboob Ahmed said. President Pervez Musharraf is accused of trying to weaken the judiciary and tighten his grip on power.
■ PHILIPPINES
Aquino's phone `bugged'
Repairmen working near the home of former president Corazon Aquino found a tape recorder and alleged wiretapping device on her line in a telephone switching box, officials said yesterday. Aquino, 74, a political icon who restored democracy in the Philippines after leading a 1986 "people power" revolt with mass protests, said she had suspected her phone was bugged "ever since the martial law" period in the 1970s. "I've been through the worst times before," she told reporters. "All of us in the opposition then were almost sure our phones were bugged."
■ INDIA
Gere's judge transferred
A judge who issued an arrest warrant against Richard Gere for publicly kissing a Bollywood actress has been transferred from his job, a media report said yesterday. Dinesh Gupta, a magistrate in the northwestern city of Jaipur, issued arrest orders last week for both Gere and actress Shilpa Shetty after the kissing incident at an AIDS awareness event in New Delhi earlier in March. The Times of India reported that Gupta was transferred from Jaipur to the small town of Kishangarh several hours away. The paper quoted High Court Commissioner C.P. Singh as saying the transfer was "routine," but he noted that the order came from a state chief justice.
■ KENYA
Rustlers kill 14 villagers
Livestock raiders in a remote part of the country have killed 14 people, including eight children, in the latest outbreak of deadly cattle rustling, police said on Wednesday. Attackers armed with AK-47 rifles stormed the Lokwamosing area in the Turkana region, one of the country's many arid rural outposts where clans fight for scant resources and bloody livestock raids are frequent.
■ GHANA
H5N1 strain detected
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread to fowl in this West African nation, a WHO official confirmed on Wednesday. Officials had said earlier this week they were investigating a suspected outbreak of the disease in birds around the eastern port city of Tema. Though H5N1 had been documented elsewhere in the region, the country had not previously had a case confirmed, the Health Ministry said. Sophia Twum-Barimah, a WHO spokeswoman in the capital, Accra, said the virus was first detected by a local lab and then confirmed by an Egyptian research center. "The public should remain calm. The situation is being technically and expertly handled," Health Minister Ernest Debrah told reporters.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Fishermen catch deer
A pair of Cornish fishermen came back with a bigger catch than usual, after hooking a live deer which had apparently fallen into the sea, a report said on Wednesday. Chris Earl and Tony Allsopp were out in their boat to check lobster pots when they spotted the animal, complete with antlers "and big worried eyes," swimming through the waves off the southwestern English coast. They found the deer near a small island called Gull Rock, apparently heading further along the Cornish coast. Animal experts said it may have fallen into the sea by nearby woods, adding that deer are known as good swimmers. Having returned to dry land -- Allsopp sitting atop the animal, as there was no other space in the boat -- the pair hauled it into Earl's van, and it was later released into the woods.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Man superglued to bike
A gang stripped a man before supergluing him to an exercise bicycle while they ransacked his house, according to a report yesterday. SAPA news agency said the attackers, dressed in suits, hijacked a man in his 50s and forced him at gunpoint to take them to his home in Johannesburg. "The victim was then forced to strip, after which he was superglued to the seat of an exercise bicycle, his hands were superglued, as were his feet and then his mouth was superglued shut," SAPA quoted Mark Stokoe, a spokesman for emergency services Netcare 911, as saying. The man was rescued about three hours later when his partner arrived home, SAPA said.
■ UNITED STATES
Baez gets cold shoulder
Military authorities who run Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital have spurned an offer from renowned folk singer Joan Baez to perform for convalescing troops, she said on Wednesday. Baez, 66, was to have appeared last week alongside rock/folk singer John Mellencamp at a concert for ailing soldiers, but officials declined to sign off on her participation, she wrote in a letter published on Wednesday in the Washington Post. "I was not `approved,'" she wrote.
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
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
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