■ THAILAND
School torched in south
Suspected Muslim insurgents burned down a school in the restive south yesterday, a day after detonating two bombs that killed one person and left 71 wounded, police said. Arsonists torched the school in Narathiwat province at about 1am local time when it was empty, Lieutenant Anurak Chathapon said. Nobody was injured but the two-story schoolhouse was destroyed. The attack bore the trademark of Muslim insurgents, Anurak said.
■ GERMANY
Bus fire leaves 20 dead
A tour bus caught fire on a highway near the city of Hannover on Tuesday night, killing 20 people after a passenger reportedly sneaked a cigarette, police said. Survivors told authorities the fire broke out in the bathroom of the bus after a person apparently smoked a cigarette there, police spokesman Stefan Wittke said. When the door was opened, flames shot out and quickly engulfed the bus, he said. “Passengers who were sitting close to the exit could get away, but the others had no chance,” a fire department official said. In addition to the deaths, thirteen people were injured in the blaze, including three with serious burns, according to the fire department. The bus had 39 primarily elderly passengers and the driver aboard, the company that owns it said. Wittke, however, said 33 people were aboard the bus.
■ CHINA
Factory owner held
Authorities have detained the owner of a feed processing factory suspected of selling chicken feed tainted with an industrial chemical that was later found in eggs, state media reported. Xinhua news agency said late on Tuesday that authorities in Shenyang found that the factory mixed an ingredient tainted with melamine into feed sold to the country’s leading egg producer, Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group. Xinhua said the owner of the Mingxing Feed Processing Factory, Gao Xingtao, was detained and the remaining tainted animal feed made by the factory was destroyed.
■ COLOMBIA
Army chief resigns
Army commander General Mario Montoya resigned on Tuesday after a probe tied scores of officers to the disappearance of a group of men who were later shot, dumped in mass graves and reported as killed in combat. The scandal has already forced President Alvaro Uribe to purge 27 officers from the army as the UN and rights groups call security forces to stop killing civilians to falsely inflate combat successes. Montoya had been the spearhead of Uribe’s recent military successes against rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
■ PUERTO RICO
Voters oust governor
Puerto Rico voted on Tuesday to oust an incumbent governor who is under indictment for allegedly violating campaign finance laws, electing a challenger who vowed to fight crime and spur the island’s economy. Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila conceded the election after Luis Fortuno of the New Progressive Party took a strong lead in early returns. Fortuno had 53 percent of the vote to 41 percent for the governor with 42 percent of ballots counted. The governor had urged islanders to support him despite a 24-count indictment charging him with wire fraud and other offenses for allegedly raising money illegally to pay off campaign debts from his terms as Puerto Rico’s nonvoting delegate to Congress from 2000 to 2004.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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