■BRUNEI
Two die in landslides, floods
Two people have been killed after heavy rains caused landslides and flooding that were among the sultanate’s worst ever, a newspaper reported yesterday. A 46-year-old woman died when a landslide crashed into her house as she slept, the Borneo Bulletin reported, citing a police spokesperson. In another incident, a 19-year-old woman trying to walk home from work drowned in fast-flowing flood waters, the report said. Water also swept into a power station, leaving some residents without electricity, while telephone service was also disrupted, the Bulletin said. The heaviest rains occurred on Tuesday night, it said.
■BANGLADESH
Voting begins after 18 years
Voting began yesterday for the country’s local government sub-district councils, or Upazila Parishads, which are taking place for the first time in nearly two decades, amid heightened security across the country. Election authorities expect a large turnout in the polls which will elect representatives at each of the 481 councils, which are constitutionally mandated to run local administrations and implement of schemes for social and economic development. But turnout was poor when the balloting began at 8am compared with last month’s general election that witnessed an overwhelming 87 percent voter turnout, according to reports from the countryside.
■AUSTRALIA
Thai royals asked for pardon
The government has asked Thailand’s royal family to pardon an author who was jailed for three years for defaming the monarchy in a novel that sold just seven copies. Officials have advised Thailand that the government “strongly supports” Harry Nicolaides’ plea for a pardon from King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement on Wednesday. Smith said he also sent a letter to Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya on Tuesday outlining Australia’s firm support of Nicolaides’ application for a pardon. Bangkok’s Criminal Court sentenced Nicolaides on Monday to three years in prison for defaming the king and crown prince in a 2005 novel.
■INDIA
Soldier shoots colleagues
A paramilitary soldier shot and killed six of his colleagues with an assault rifle, then fled their military camp in a remote and dangerous outpost in the northeast, the military said yesterday. Officials are investigating the Wednesday night shooting and have launched a manhunt for the soldier, a member of the Assam Rifles paramilitary troop whose name was not immediately released, said Major Shamsher Jung, an Assam Rifles spokesman. It was not clear what prompted the killings in Ukhrul District, 90km northeast of the state capital of Imphal, Jung said.
■AUSTRALIA
Officials snub group request
The nation’s leader rebuffed a conservation group’s offer to stop harassing Japanese whalers if Canberra takes legal action against them, saying yesterday he would instead rely on diplomacy to halt the hunt. The US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society offered on Wednesday to suspend its strategy of using a ship to disrupt the Japanese fleet in treacherous Antarctic waters if Australia agreed to take Japan to court to end the whaling. But Rudd said Australia had already initiated an International Whaling Commission review of Japan’s so-called scientific whaling, which would report mid-year. Under the commission’s rules, the mammals may be killed for research but not for commercial purposes.
■YEMEN
Detainee center prepared
Yemen is setting up a center where more than 100 Yemenis are to undergo rehabilitation after their expected release from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a state newspaper reported yesterday. The center is being built with US government assistance, the defense ministry mouthpiece publication 26 September said, citing well-informed official sources. In the new facility, the inmates would undergo a series of “edification programs based on moderation to shun extremism and terrorism,” the paper said. Yemeni authorities are to receive the Yemeni Guantanamo detainees shortly after the center is built, it said. Approximately 100 of about 250 detainees at the controversial prison camp are Yemenis.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Zimbabwe summit set
South Africa will host a special regional summit on Monday to discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe, officials said yesterday. The summit follows the failure of talks this week to bridge the divide between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, on forming a power-sharing government. “The summit of heads of state and government is expected to be attended by all [Southern African Development Community] member states,” the South African foreign ministry said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Lebedev takes media stake
Russian tycoon and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev took a majority stake in London’s Evening Standard newspaper on Wednesday, vowing to back “free and independent” journalism in the struggling daily. Lebedev agreed to pay a nominal sum — reportedly £1 — to buy a 75.1 percent stake in the paper, which like others is battling the explosion of online news that has caused a radical upheaval in the industry. Lebedev will be the chairman of a new company running the newspaper, Evening Standard Ltd, while his son will be senior executive director, the daily said.
■IRAQ
Hussein’s yacht for sale
A luxury yacht that belonged to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein failed to tempt a buyer owing to the credit crunch, an Iraqi government spokesman said on Wednesday. “The Ocean Breeze yacht will return to the southern port of Basra from the Greek port of Piraeus,” Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement. Al-Dabbagh added that the global crisis had discouraged buyers and cut the price to below what the Iraqi government considered the vessel’s true value. Despite features including a missile launcher and operating theater, no one was willing to pay US$30 million for the 82m vessel. Ocean Breeze has a submarine, a helicopter landing pad and bathrooms featuring taps of gold.
■FRANCE
Cryptic cards found
Police say calling cards bearing a skull and crossbones and a cryptic note have been found in the food sections of several Carrefour stores mainly in the Paris region. The cards read: “Coming soon to the [shelves] of this commercial group. Thank you for giving this card to the store manager.” It was unclear whether it suggested food could be poisoned. A police official says a preliminary investigation had been opened. Carrefour SA is the world’s second-largest retailer after US-based Wal-Mart Stores. The official said on Wednesday that the cards were found on Friday and Saturday in five stores of the giant retail chain, most of them in the Paris region.
■CANADA
Polygamists attend hearing
Two men charged with polygamy this month will use Canada’s legalization of same-sex marriage in their defense, a lawyer for one of the men said on Wednesday. Winston Blackmore, 52, and James Oler, 44, made their first court appearance in a courtroom in Creston, British Columbia, on Wednesday. The hearing lasted less than five minutes and was adjourned until Feb. 18. Blackmore’s lawyer, Blair Suffredine, argued in a telephone interview that if gay people can marry, then being married to more than one person should be legal as well. Canada’s parliament extended full marriage rights to same-sex couples in 2005. If gay people are allowed to marry, then “what is the reason that public policy says one person can’t marry more than one person?” said Suffredine, a former provincial lawmaker. He said the case is also about religious persecution.
■UNITED STATES
Labrador tops dogs list
If there were any doubt, the Labrador retriever is the people’s choice among purebred dogs for the 18th straight year, the American Kennel Club said. The club said on Wednesday that more than twice as many Labradors were registered in the US last year than Yorkshire terriers — the No. 2 dog on the list — which means the breed will probably retain its Most Popular Dog title for the indefinite future. The rest of the top 10 canines are German shepherd, golden retriever, beagle, boxer, dachshund, bulldog, poodle and shih tzu. The list comes as the nation’s new first family continues to mull its choice of a dog for the White House.
■UNITED STATES
Virginia Tech student killed
A female student was stabbed to death on Virginia Tech’s campus in Blackburg, the first killing at the school since a deadly mass shooting there in 2007. The killing on Wednesday night triggered a crisis notification system that was revamped after the shooting rampage, beaming an electronic warning around 7:45pm that students should stay in place while police investigated. Students were told about an hour later they could resume normal activity. A male suspect was taken into custody around 7:10pm, a university news release said. Campus police responding to an emergency call found the man and a knife they believe was used at the scene, a cafe in the Graduate Life Center.
■UNITED STATES
Blagojevich’s wife sacked
The wife of impeached Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was fired from her US$100,000-a-year job as a Chicago homeless agency’s chief fund raiser. The Chicago Christian Industrial League’s board exercised a termination clause of Patti Blagojevich’s contract on Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported on their Web sites on Wednesday. Interim executive director Mary Shaver told the papers she could not discuss personnel issues. Patti Blagojevich, 43, was “saddened” by the board’s decision, spokesman Lucio Guerrero said.
■UNITED STATES
Gates donates polio cash
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has pledged US$250 million toward the international effort to eradicate polio. Gates announced his donation on Wednesday night at a conference in San Diego for leaders of Rotary International. The group has been trying to match a US$100 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2007. The Gates foundation has given US$655 million to efforts to eradicate polio since the late 1990s.
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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