■ SRI LANKA
Military captures bunkers
The military said yesterday that government forces captured 14 Tamil Tiger rebel bunkers in intense fighting in the north that killed “many” combatants. The fighting was reported after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the military was trying to minimize civilian casualties in its campaign against the rebels. Rajapaksa gave the assurance on Saturday in a telephone conversation with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There have been protests by ethnic Tamils in nearby India who say fellow Tamils are being targeted in the Sri Lankan conflict.
■ INDIA
Troops kill three at border
Troops shot dead three suspected Islamic militants during a gunbattle along the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the army said yesterday. The three were killed overnight during a “fierce encounter” in Rajouri district, about 430km south of Srinagar, an army statement said. The militants were asked to surrender after they infiltrated into Indian Kashmir “but they instead chose to fight,” the army said.
■ TONGA
Quake rattles capital
A powerful earthquake hit near the country yesterday, but there was no tsunami alert and no immediate report of injuries, Australian seismologists said. The 6.8-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 10km and hit east of the capital of Nuku’alofa, Geoscience Australia said. A correspondent said the city shook steadily for about two minutes but no tsunami alert was issued for the island nation. Buildings in the business district and along the seafront appeared undamaged, which hit as many were at evening church services. “We’ve got it at a magnitude 6.8 and very shallow,” seismologist Clive Collins said.
■ MALAYSIA
Official makes a comeback
The former health minister, who resigned earlier this year over a sex scandal, has won a key post in the ruling coalition’s second-largest party, reports said yesterday. Chua Soi-lek, who stepped down in January over the release of a video showing him having sex with a female friend, was voted in as the deputy president of the Malaysian Chinese Association, the Star daily said. The deputy president and president of the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-largest member of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, are traditionally given ministerial positions in the government. Chua’s dramatic comeback follows a change in leadership for the largest Chinese-based party in the ruling coalition, which has ruled the country since its independence in 1957.
■ CHINA
Veteran director dies
One of most prominent directors, Xie Jin (謝晉), has died. He was 84. The filmmaker was found dead early on Saturday in his hotel room in Shangyu, where he was attending the 100th anniversary of his middle school, Xinhua news agency reported. Xie’s career spanned six decades, predating the communist era. The cause of his death remained unclear, Xinhua said in a report late on Saturday. Actress Liu Xiaoqing (劉曉慶), made famous by Xie’s 1968 film Hibiscus Town said on her blog on Saturday that the director was still active on Friday, picking up his wife from a hospital where she had a pacemaker installed, before leaving for his school anniversary celebration.
■ THAILAND
Samak suffers from cancer
Samak Sundaravej, the former prime minister who was forced from office last month for appearing in television cooking shows, is being treated for liver cancer, local media reported yesterday. The 73-year-old had an operation earlier this month at a private Bangkok hospital to remove a tumor in his liver, the Bangkok Post reported, quoting a television journalist who had visited Samak. The newspaper said he was due to be discharged later this month and quoted the journalist as saying Samak’s condition was “not as serious as suspected.”
■ THAILAND
Doctor fires at boyfriend
A doctor lost her bedside manner when her boyfriend, also a doctor, refused to let her keep their dog after they decided to separate, a newspaper report said yesterday. Napawan Choppradit, 29, was upset when Supachoke Buddhacharoenlarp refused to part with the dog as they met on Thursday to arrange their parting. When he decided to drive off without giving up the dog, Napawan fired two shots with a handgun, hitting his Jeep Cherokee. “Dr Napawan wanted to take the dog, but I refused. After arguing for a while, I got in the car, where the dog was being kept. She was angry and shot at us two times,” he told the Bangkok Post.
■ CHINA
Herbal medicine banned
Drug regulators suspended sales and use of all Heilongjiang Wandashan Pharmaceutical Co injection products, expanding a ban on one herbal treatment that was linked to three deaths. Heilongjiang began a voluntary recall of all its injection projects on Friday in cooperation with the regulator, a State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) statement said yesterday. The company’s CiwujiaZhusheye injection, meant to enhance blood circulation, has been implicated in sickening six people, three of whom died. The product was contaminated with bacteria, the SFDA said on Oct. 16.
■ EGYPT
Tycoon pleads not guilty
A tycoon and an associate he allegedly hired as a hit man sat close together in a metal cage in a Cairo courtroom on Saturday and pleaded not guilty to charges they orchestrated the gruesome murder of a Lebanese pop star. The case has mesmerized Arabs across the Middle East who were shocked by the suspected actions of billionaire Hisham Talaat Moustafa, and just as surprised authorities arrested the powerful real estate mogul and lawmaker. Moustafa is a close friend of President Hosni Mubarak’s son, Gamal, and part of a powerful group long known as the untouchables because they were seen as above the law in the hierarchical class-based society.
■ FRANCE
Sarkozy’s account robbed
Thieves have made withdrawals from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s bank account after obtaining his account number, the Journal du Dimanche reported yesterday. The president’s office confirmed Sarkozy had filed complaints last month concerning the theft, which the newspaper quoted sources as saying involved only small amounts. The failure to apprehend the criminals “shows that the criminals weren’t amateurs,” the newspaper wrote.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Pro-life MPs drop battle
Anti-abortion members of parliament on Saturday abandoned their parliamentary fight for new restrictions, calling for the bitterly contested issue to be resolved by a high-powered inquiry instead. Nadine Dorries, the Tory member of parliament and former nurse who has led attempts to cut the time limit for abortions, said that the issue was too important to become a “political football” and deserved more lengthy reflection. The retreat came as Wednesday’s vote on the government’s embryology bill, seen by anti-abortionists at first as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the law on a woman’s right to choose, risked descending into farce.
■ ISRAEL
Pope invite renewed
Jerusalem has renewed an invitation to the pope to visit the Holy Land despite differences between Jews and Catholics on the possible beatification of Pope Pius XII, the country’s envoy to the Vatican said yesterday. “The invitation to Pope Benedict XVI to come has been renewed and remains,” Ambassador Motti Levy told public radio. “Our differences can be reduced, but the date of the visit has not yet been set.” Last month, Pope Benedict sparked a row when he praised the memory of Pope Pius XII on the 50th anniversary of his death and said he would like to see him beatified.
■ GREECE
Byron gets his day
The poet whose verse was more feared by the Ottoman Empire than insurgents’ bullets has won the belated honor of a “day of celebration” in the country he romanticized. Nearly 200 years after George Gordon, Lord Byron, invoked the battles of Marathon and Thermopylae to “dream that Greece might still be free,” the government in Athens has announced a Byron day on the anniversary of the writer’s death. Readings, drama and school outings will celebrate the role of the British peer, who partly redressed a reputation for bisexual immorality by dying while preparing to serve in the revolutionary navy.
■ CANADA
Body building icon dies
Ben Weider, who helped turn bodybuilding into a worldwide sport and who was instrumental in launching Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career in the US, has died at 85. Weider died on Friday after being taken to a hospital in Montreal, a family spokeswoman said on Saturday. The cause of his death was not immediately known. “He did work out every day until his death,” she said. Weider and his brother, Joe, turned their love of bodybuilding into a billion-dollar business that includes nutritional supplements, gyms and magazines. In 1946 Weider co-founded the International Brotherhood of Body Builders, which sanctions thousands of bodybuilding competitions worldwide. In 1969, the Weiders brought Schwarzenegger, a then-unknown bodybuilder, to California. Weider, a noted Napoleonic scholar, won the French Legion of Honor for his investigative work into Napoleon’s death. “He wrote books on Napoleon, has written screenplays, he actually wanted Jack Nicholson at one point to play Napoleon in a movie. So he was a very interesting guy,” Schwarzenegger said.
■ UNITED STATES
Abducted boy found alive
A six-year-old boy kidnapped from a Las Vegas home by alleged drug dealers has been found alive in a neighborhood northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, police said. Cole Puffinburger was recovered at around 11:30pm on Saturday after a citizen informed detectives about a child walking the streets, Las Vegas police Officer Jay Rivera said. He said the child appeared to be healthy. Puffinburger was abducted on Wednesday morning by two men posing as police officers. Authorities arrested Cole’s grandfather Clemens Tinnemeyer late on Friday in connection with the boy’s disappearance. Police believe that the abductors were Mexican drug dealers and that the kidnapping at gunpoint was a “message” to Tinnemeyer, who they said may have stolen millions of dollars from the dealers. Police said money and drugs were a huge factor in the abduction. “The only innocent person involved in this entire operation is the boy,” said Las Vegas police spokesman Cris Johnson.
■ MEXICO
City desperate for cops
The border city of Ciudad Juarez is sending police recruiters across the country and will keep 175 officers who have used drugs in the past as it tries to replace nearly half a police force gutted by firings and retirements. The city has seen several policemen killed and dozens of people murdered in bloody drug gang turf battles in recent months. More than 900 policemen have been fired, resigned or retired since the start of year — including 334 who were ousted on Friday after they failed psychological, background and other checks as part of a clean-up campaign meant to root out officers who are corrupt or cooperating with drug traffickers.
■ UNITED STATES
Researcher wins millions
A jury has ordered a Mobile, Alabama-based chemical manufacturer to pay a retired researcher US$192 million for stealing his ideas. The Mobile jury ruled on Friday that Ineos Americas LLC and Ineos Phenol profited by patenting Sven Peter Mannsfeld’s invention after he had retired, the Press-Register reported. Mannsfeld created a process for transforming hazardous waste into building products in the manufacture of tires and other items. Mannsfeld came up with the idea in the late 1990s. He filed his lawsuit in 2006 after realizing the company had filed patents using his idea in Europe and the US.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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