■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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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