■ CHINA
Landslide death toll rises
The confirmed death toll in a landslide has risen to at least 34 after one more body was pulled from the debris, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. Most of the dead in the landslide late last month in mountainous Badong County in Hubei Province were in a bus that was crushed by rocks and other debris, Xinhua said. The latest confirmed victim was believed to be a migrant worker, Li Qingzhong, who was clearing water from the road by the entrance to a tunnel with three co-workers when the landslide occurred. Only one survived.
■ CHINA
Bicycle theft targeted
Beijing, where 4 million bicycles are stolen a year, is clamping down on bike thieves and trying to end the vicious cycle of the second-hand market months before it hosts the Olympics, state media said yesterday. China is home to a world-record 470 million bicycles. Starting at the weekend, new bicycles must have identification numbers and buyers must register using their real names, the China Daily said. "The registration of names, ID and phone numbers will make it easier for police to trace stolen bicycles and return them to their rightful owners," the newspaper said. Around 4,000 people have been caught stealing bicycles this year in Beijing.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Teen jumps to his death
A teenager has jumped to his death after sneaking into a US base in Seoul, police said yesterday. US troops found the body on Sunday beneath a communications tower on the roof of a building inside the small US base on Mount Namsan near the city center, police and US officials said. "His family confirmed the body was their mentally ill son, a teenager who had been temporarily released from hospital for a family visit," a detective at Seoul's Jungbu police station said. "We have concluded that he committed suicide."
■ BANGLADESH
Extortion trial begins
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina went on trial yesterday accused of extortion, her lawyer said. Hasina was brought to the court from a makeshift jail in the Parliament complex amid tight security, her lawyer Mahbube Alam said. After hours of debate, Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Azizul Hoque fixed Monday next week for the next hearing on the charge that she and two relatives received kickbacks to let a businessman build a power plant, Alam said. In June, businessman Azam Chowdhury, managing director of Eastcoast Trading, filed a case accusing Hasina, her sister and their cousin, of taking money in return for allowing his company to set up a power plant.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Minister pleads not guilty
A Cabinet minister who punched a political opponent in the face in the parliament building pleaded not guilty to assault charges yesterday. Environment Minister Trevor Mallard earlier apologized to parliament and to opposition National Party Legislator Tau Henare, whom he punched on the jaw on Oct. 24 after Henare made comments about Mallard's personal life. Henare called "Shut up, Sharon" while Mallard was speaking -- in a reference to a woman wrongly linked with the minister by gossip columns. Although Henare said he would not press charges, accountant Graham McCready launched a private prosecution. Judge Thomas Broadmore scheduled the hearing for Dec. 18.
■ UNITED STATES
Storm system hits northeast
A storm system slid across the northeastern US with snow, sleet and freezing rain, glazing roads and tying up air travel after blacking out thousands of customers in the Midwest. At least 11 deaths have been blamed on weather-related traffic accidents. Winter storm warnings were in effect into yesterday in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and into today in parts of New York state. On the other side of the weather system, warnings were issued for parts of Michigan, where freezing rain and sleet were turning to snow on Sunday.
■ UNITED STATES
Wedding ring saves life
Police say a Mississippi man's wedding band deflected a bullet and probably saved his life. Two men walked into Donnie Register's shop in Jackson on Saturday and asked to see a coin collection, police Sergeant Jeffery Scott said. When Register retrieved the collection, one of the men pulled a gun and demanded money. A shot was fired as Register threw up his left hand, and his wedding ring deflected the bullet, police said. "The bullet managed to go through two of his fingers without severing the bone," said his wife, Darlene.
■ UNITED STATES
Weapons take center stage
The evidence included Buffalo Bill's Winchester rifle, a pair of Colt six-shooters owned by General George Custer and Geronimo's bow and arrows when three antique gun enthusiasts went on trial yesterday on charges of bilking millionaire collector Owsley Brown Frazier. The Kentucky, philanthropist spent millions acquiring the antique arms and displaying them in a museum that he opened in 2004. But federal authorities say Frazier grossly overpaid for the weapons, thanks to an alleged scam hatched by the man he entrusted to find the famous firearms and run the museum. Prosecutors estimate that Michael Salisbury and his wife, Karen Salisbury, turned a profit of at least US$1.75 million from 1997 to 2002 by giving Frazier false appraisals. The grand jury also named R.L. Wilson, an authority on antique firearms, who appraised the weapons at inflated prices, federal officials said.
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
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
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
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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