■CHINA
Sale sparks stampede
A sales promotion set off a stampede in Chongqing that left two people dead and 11 injured, Xinhua news agency said. Details of the Sunday sale were unclear, but Xinhua said the crowd was scrambling for giveaways during a promotion for a brand of Tibetan medicine. A spokeswoman for Chongqing’s Fuling District government said yesterday that said the company hosting the sale, Fuling Liaofeng Electronics Co, issued an apology.
■VIETNAM
Toddler escapes jaws
A mother narrowly rescued her year-old son from an attack by a crocodile that had escaped from a nearby farm, a police officer in the Mekong delta said yesterday. The woman was holding her son over a canal to relieve himself on Sunday when the 100kg crocodile leapt out of the water and snapped at the child’s foot. The mother managed to pull her son back and outrun the crocodile that pursued her onto land, the officer said. Four local men subdued the crocodile with ropes and sticks. “It is mating season, so the crocodile was more aggressive than usual,” the officer said.
■PHILIPPINES
Teen stabs six
Jonathan Tiplado, 17, was shot dead after stabbing six people inside a Manila police station, police said yesterday. He had been brought in for questioning over a stabbing late on Sunday. While being questioned he pulled out a knife that had been hidden in his underwear and began attacking people, police said. The injured included four teenagers, a community peace volunteer and a police officer.
■JAPAN
Activists appear in court
Two Greenpeace members appeared in court on charges of stealing whale meat, in what the environmental group said was a legitimate act to highlight corruption in Japan’s controversial whaling program. Junichi Sato, 32, and Toru Suzuki, 42, appeared in the district court in Aomori for a pre-trial hearing. They were arrested in June last year for allegedly stealing whale meat from a transport company in Aomori and held for 26 days. They face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty. Greenpeace says Sato and Suzuki took the meat to show it was being sold illegally and to highlight there is corruption in the Japanese whaling industry.
■AUSTRALIA
Whale rescue under way
Volunteers joined rescue workers yesterday in struggling to save the lives of 17 whales that survived a mass stranding on a beach in Hamelin Bay, south of Perth. Around 80 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins were found beached. “When found this morning there were 25 whales alive, since then a further eight have died,” the Department of Environment and Conservation said in a statement.
About 100 people were working to stabilize the survivors while awaiting equipment to help return them to the sea.
■SOUTH KOREA
Ex-presidential aide arrested
A former aide to President Lee Myung-bak has been arrested in connection with a widening bribery investigation, an official said yesterday. Choo Boo-kil was taken into custody in Seoul for allegedly accepting up to 200 million won (US$140,000) in bribes from a businessman, a prosecution spokesman said. Choo, a former presidential secretary for public relations, is being investigated for purportedly using his connections with tax officials to help the businessman avoid an investigation.
■ITALY
Royal heir wins dance show
More than 60 years after Italy scrapped its royal family, the youngest heir to the defunct throne has been crowned king for a day after dancing the cha-cha-cha on the TV dance show, Strictly Come Dancing. Emanuele Filiberto, the grandson of the country’s last king, and Russian dancer Natalia Titova won the show’s final round on Saturday night with 75 percent of the phone-in vote. The 36-year-old said he entered the contest “with the aim of letting Italians get to know me,” and has hinted he may stand in European elections. Waving his enormous trophy on Saturday, Filiberto gave a speech worthy of the Oscars, saying: “The victory is above all for the Italians who discovered me.”
■ISRAEL
Prisoner swap talks not over
Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers both said on Sunday that talks aimed at freeing an Israeli soldier held nearly three years by Palestinian militants are not over, despite last week’s public breakdown of talks mediated by Egypt. Sergeant Gilad Schalit has been held by Hamas-linked militants since June 2006. Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said on Sunday the government was trying to reach a deal with Hamas. “The work is ongoing,” he said. He provided no further details. The head of Hamas’ government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, also indicated a deal was still possible in an article in the Hamas newspaper al-Ray. “Our people are still trying to renew the Egyptian-sponsored negotiations in order to reach a respectable prisoner exchange,” he said.
■YEMEN
Spy sentenced to death
The state security court has issued a death sentence in the case of a Yemeni man found guilty of spying for Israel. Two other men received jail sentences of three and five years in the same case. Presiding judge Mouhssien Alwan said the court convicted the trio after it checked the evidence and found out that it was “clear enough to let the court have the degree of certainty to convict them.” The prosecution has charged the three young men with establishing contact with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, offering to work as agents for the Mossad intelligence agency. The group’s leader, Bassam Abdullah al-Haidari, 26, received the death sentence.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Shark kills teenage surfer
A 16-year-old surfer died after being attacked by a shark, media reported yesterday. The youth was part of a group surfing in Port St Johns when the shark bit him in the leg and buttocks, the region’s newspaper, the Herald, reported. He managed to paddle to shore, where his instructor and a lifeguard pulled him to safety. He died later in the hospital from his injuries. The incident is the second of its kind along the Wild Coast in two months.
■ISRAEL
Second coalition deal struck
Prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a second coalition deal with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, officials said yesterday. As part of the deal, the religious party will receive four portfolios in the new Cabinet, including interior, housing and religious affairs. The fourth minister from the party will be a minister without portfolio. The move brings Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud party, one step closer to forming a government following last week’s signing of a deal with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
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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