■ AFGHANISTAN
Blasts destroy 40 trucks
Nearly 40 trucks carrying fuel to US-led forces have been destroyed in two bomb attacks on the Pakistani border. Officials say about 100 people have been injured. Local official Muhammad Iqbal Khan said the blasts late on Sunday were from two bombs planted in a parking lot on the Pakistani side of the Torkham customs post. He said yesterday that nine people have been detained for questioning -- three parking lot attendants and six border guards who were on duty at the time.
■ PHILIPPINES
Aquino has colon cancer
Former president Corazon Aquino has colon cancer, her daughter said yesterday. Aquino, 74, was swept into power by the peaceful "people power" revolt that ousted late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, cementing her as an icon of democracy. She has remained active in social and political causes. Kris Aquino, fighting tears, read a statement on TV saying her mother had gone in for tests after suffering from high blood pressure, difficulty breathing and a persistent cough and weight loss. "The result showed our mother is suffering from cancer of the colon," Kris Aquino said. "It was our mother's decision for us to come out with this statement. Our mother, like all patients ... needs time to rest. We respectfully ask she be accorded her privacy. We ask you for your compassion and prayers for our mom's recovery.''
■ CHINA
Killer gets death sentence
A village chief was sentenced to death for murdering six people over business and land disputes, state media reported yesterday. Xing Guoping (邢國平), 37, was sentenced on Saturday for killing the six villagers in Henan Province in October, the Beijing News reported. Two of the victims were business partners locked in a dispute with Xing over a brick factory they managed, the report said. Xing was also involved in a land dispute in another village. The murders all took place on one day. Xing killed his two business partners before going to the other village and shooting dead four people there, the report said.
■ JAPAN
Young dog learns old tricks
At a Zen Buddhist temple in Naha, Okinawa, even the dog prays. Mimicking his master, Zen priest Joei Yoshikuni, the 18-month-old black and white Chihuahua named Conan joins in the prayers at Shuri Kannondo temple, sitting up on his hind legs and putting his front paws together before the altar. It took him only a few days to learn. ``Word has spread, and we are getting a lot more tourists,'' Yoshikuni said yesterday. He said Conan generally goes through his prayer routine without prompting before his morning and evening meals. "I think he saw me doing it all the time and got the idea to do it, too," Yoshikuni said. The priest is now trying to teach Conan how to meditate. Well, sort of. "Basically, I am just trying to get him to sit still while I meditate," Yoshikuni said. "It's not like we can make him cross his legs."
■ SRI LANKA
Military kills 23 rebels
Government troops and Tamil rebels fought scattered battles in fresh fighting that killed 23 rebel fighters and three soldiers, the military said yesterday. Fighting on Sunday killed 10 rebel fighters in the Vavuniya district south of the Tamil Tigers' de facto state in the north, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. Battles in the Welioya area killed six rebels and four soldiers. Another six rebels were killed in Mannar, while one was killed in Jaffna, he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Fire causes chemical leak
Twelve firefighters were injured in a blaze that broke out at a commercial building in Anaheim, California, causing three chemical storage tanks to rupture and forcing the evacuation of 35 businesses, authorities said. The injuries, including respiratory irritation and chemical burns, were all mild-to-moderate, said Jeff Lutz of the Anaheim Fire Department on Sunday. The fire was reported just after 4pm on Sunday near 15,140 chemical storage tanks outside Alstyle Dyeing and Finishing, Lutz said. The blaze, which burned through combustible material near the tanks, was out in under two hours. Two tanks of hydrogen peroxide and one of phosphoric acid burst open in the fire.
■ UNITED STATES
Meat packing plant explodes
A fire set off a series of explosions at a meat packing plant in Booneville, Arkansas, destroying the factory and causing an ammonia gas leak that forced 180 people from their homes, authorities said. There were no reported injuries. The fire started on Sunday in a freezer section of the Cargill Meat Solutions plant in this western Arkansas town of 4,000 residents, Logan County emergency manager Don Fairbanks said. Workers "were doing some welding on some fans," Fairbanks said. "The welders had put their equipment up and turned around and there was a fire."
■ UNITED STATES
Shark not hanging around
A great white shark released from the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California six weeks ago has already swum past the southern tip of Mexico's Baja peninsula -- about 1,930km away. Aquarium staff said the male shark's migration is the fastest ever documented from Monterey to Mexico. To cover the distance, the shark traveled at least an average of nearly 43km a day, assuming it swam in a straight line. Aquarium staff attached electronic tags to the 1.8m long predator before releasing it to track its travels. The shark is now heading south toward the Mexican mainland. More than 650,000 visitors saw the great white during its August-to-February stay at the aquarium.
■ UNITED STATES
Fishing vessel sinks
Four people were killed and one was missing on Sunday after a fishing vessel sank off the coast of Alaska, the US Coast Guard said. The Alaska Ranger reported to the Coast Guard at about 2:50am that it was having rudder problems and had begun taking on water, prompting the 47 crew members to assemble the inflatable life rafts and abandon ship, a spokesman said. Forty-two of the fishermen were soon rescued by the Coast Guard and a fishing boat that was in the area, some 193km west of Dutch Harbor on Unalaska island. However, four people died in the incident, the spokesman said.
■ VENEZUELA
Exxon burned in effigy
In a political take on a popular Easter ritual, hundreds of people in the Caracas neighborhood El Cementerio cheered at the burning of an "Judas" effigy symbolizing oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last week lost a battle with the South American nation. With a pink face, sculpted hair and wearing a pair of aviator-style sunglasses, the model packed with fireworks was hoisted up a pole and set ablaze with a flaming torch on Sunday while African-inspired dancers swayed to fast drum rhythms.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
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