■ PAKISTAN
Journalist shot dead
A journalist was shot dead by unknown gunmen after he interviewed a spokesman for the local Taliban in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials and witnesses said yesterday. Muhammad Ibrahim, 44, a reporter for Urdu-language Express newspaper, was killed on Thursday evening as he was returning to Khar after interviewing Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Maulvi Omar, they said. Tribal administration official Muwaz Khan confirmed the killing, saying no one had claimed responsibility.
■ AUSTRALIA
Teen punished with essay
A judge has ordered a teenager caught with Ecstasy to write a 2,000-word essay on the dangers of using drugs. Nicholas Benjamin Siiankoski, 18, pleaded guilty to possessing a dangerous drug and was sentenced yesterday to three years’ probation and 100 hours of community service. But Justice George Fryberg also ordered the teen to write a researched essay on the effects of cannabis and Ecstasy after he admitted experimenting with other drugs and using marijuana since he was 15. He has three months to write the essay.
■ MALAYSIA
Suspect escapes police
A suspect in a drug case escaped custody by driving off in a police car with his handcuffs still on. The 24-year-old man got away on Thursday when police transporting him to court stopped for a toilet break in the northern Perak state, local police chief Roslan Bek Ahmad said yesterday. Police were bringing the man from northern Alor Star town to a court in Klang town in central Malaysia for trial. Along the way, they stopped at a rest area off a highway. Two of the policemen went to the toilet while a third one remained with the suspect in the car. The suspect overpowered the officer, got behind the wheel and sped away, driving with his hands still cuffed, Roslan said.
■ VIETNAM
Virus spreading among kids
A health official warned local authorities nationwide to be on the lookout for an infectious disease that has killed 12 children in the country this year. So far, the nation has reported about 2,800 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, a common childhood illness that typically causes little more than a fever and rash, said Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the Preventive Medicine Department. About 400 of those cases have been blamed on enterovirus 71, or EV-71, one of several viruses that cause the illness. EV-71 can result in a more serious form of hand, foot and mouth disease that can lead to paralysis, brain swelling or death. State media quoted Vice Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan as saying the situation was becoming more complicated with the virus spreading in the north of the country.
■ HONG KONG
Police launch manhunt
Police launched a manhunt yesterday after the body of a strangled woman was found in her flat. They said they were looking for the boyfriend of Yang Xiuqiong, 32, who was found dead late on Wednesday with a curtain tied around her neck. A post mortem revealed Yang had been dead for more than 24 hours and had been suffocated. Neighbors called the police after noticing a smell coming from the third floor flat. They claimed they had also heard a heated argument coming from the apartment a few days earlier. Yang is believed to have moved in after separating from her husband. She also has a 10-year-old son living with her parents. Police said the case had been classified as murder.
■ RUSSIA
Ukrainian official banned
A travel ban was imposed on a Ukrainian government official on Thursday in retaliation for Ukraine’s bar on the mayor of Moscow, straining already damaged relations between the two countries. The Russian foreign ministry announced the measure against Ukraine’s first deputy justice minister, Evhen Kornichuk, and made clear it could ban other politicians as well. The ministry said Moscow had been forced to “take adequate measures against those Ukrainian politicians who damage the Russian Federation by action or word,” in response to the decision to ban Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov from Ukraine. Kornichuk was reported as saying last week that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin could be forbidden from entering Ukraine for saying it was not a proper country.
■ UKRAINE
Four dead in mine explosion
Four miners were killed and at least seven are missing in a methane gas explosion yesterday at a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, news agency Ria-Novosti reported. A spokesman for the Ukraine’s industry safety watchdog yesterday amended earlier reports that 10 men had died. Fourteen miners were working the night shift in the Krasnolimanskaya mine in the Donetsk Region where the explosion ripped through the shafts early yesterday. The body of one miner has been found, three made their way out through the debris and seven were missing.
■ TURKMENISTAN
Presidency may be extended
Parliament has told President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov it would like to extend the term of the presidency to seven years, which would allow him to stay in power until 2014, official media said. Berdymukhamedov, 50, came to power in late 2006 after the death of absolute leader Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled the Central Asian nation for 21 years and was officially president for life. “In order to facilitate the achievement of the goals set [by the president] it has been suggested to prolong the presidential term to seven years from five,” parliament speaker Akja Nurberdyeva said. Last month Berdymukhamedov appealed on parliament to revise the Niyazov-era Constitution, saying it was part of his push to liberalize the long-isolated state.
■ GERMANY
Stamps show Hitler deputy
Mail company Deutsche Post has inadvertently issued stamps bearing the image of Adolf Hitler’s former deputy, Rudolf Hess, the company said on Wednesday. Deutsche Post printed 20 stamps with Hess next to a bouquet of flowers as part of a service which allows clients to order custom-made envelopes, a company spokesman said. “It is very unfortunate. But it happened,” the spokesman said. “I presume it came from the far-right scene.” The stamps would be offensive to Jewish groups and embarrassing to Germans anxious to live down the Nazi past.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Tests provide cheat-sheet
It sounds like every student’s dream — turning over an exam paper and finding the answers on the back. But that was what happened to 12,000 lucky British teenagers when they sat their GCSE music exam last week. The Oxford, Cambridge and RSA examination board admitted on Thursday that, because of a “printing error,” papers sent to schools had answers to questions on the back page. The exam board said only 5 percent of the overall marks on the paper were possibly affected and students would not have to do a re-sit as most pupils seemed to have been unaware of their good fortune.
■ CANADA
Dead fly ruling overturned
The top court on Thursday overturned a C$341,000 (US$345,000) damage award to a man who says he became depressed, anxious, obsessive and phobic about flies after finding a dead insect in his bottled water. The Supreme Court of Canada agreed in a 9-0 judgment that Martin Mustapha suffered real psychological harm as a result of the incident, but Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin says his reaction was so “unusual or extreme” that bottling company Culligan of Canada should not have to pay compensation. The ruling means Mustapha, who won the judgment plus interest three years ago, will not get to collect that money. In fact, he will have to shell out thousands in court costs assessed against him.
■ UNITED STATES
Mother sentenced for cage
A mother in Jacksonville, Florida, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for keeping her 17-year-old adopted son caged in her home. Brenda Sullivan pleaded guilty in January to three counts of aggravated child abuse. Prosecutors agreed to drop lesser child neglect charges. She was sentenced on Thursday. The teen weighed 22kg when child welfare workers found him in 2005 in what appeared to be a cage. Sullivan told a judge at the time that Ohio authorities told her to keep the boy, who had severe medical and emotional problems, in a crib. Two other children, 13-year-old twins the Sullivans adopted as infants, both testified they were kept in similar cages.
■ UNITED STATES
Death sentence commuted
Georgia commuted the sentence of a convicted murderer less than two-and-a-half hours before he was scheduled to be put to death by legal injection, US news reports said yesterday. Samuel David Crowe’s death sentence was commuted late on Thursday to life in prison by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, his attorney was quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as saying. Crowe, 47, had already eaten what was to have been his last meal — a steak dinner from a nearby restaurant — and was waiting for the execution team to arrive when a call came from his lawyer telling him of the parole board’s decision. Crowe was convicted in 1988 of murdering the manager of a lumber company where he used to work. Crowe confessed to the killing. The parole board gave no reason for its decision to spare Crowe’s life. The Georgia Supreme Court had already rejected his final appeal.
■ ARGENTINA
Farmer talks collapse
Talks between the Argentine government and farmers aimed at averting another farmer strike over stiff new taxes collapsed late on Thursday, government officials said. Argentina is one of the world’s largest grain producers, especially of soya. Most of its production is for export, and a disruption could affect supply to the world grain market. Negotiators representing the government of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and leaders of farmers blamed each other for the breakdown.
■ IRAQ
Soldiers arrest smugglers
US soldiers said yesterday they had arrested four suspected weapons smugglers in Iraq. The army said the men, believed to be Shiite Muslims, were bringing anti-tank munitions, missiles and other weapons from Iran into the province of Diyala. One of the men had carried out many attacks on US soldiers, the army said.
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
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