■CHINA
Officials ordered to smoke
Officials in Gong’an County, Hubei Province, have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported yesterday. The Gong’an County government has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said. Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, the report said. “The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax,” Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong’an cigarette market supervision team, was quoted as saying. The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in Hunan Province.
■CAMBODIA
Four die in karaoke blaze
A police officer said four women who worked at a karaoke parlor were killed and two other people injured as a fire swept through their room while they slept. Major Thuch Ra said the four, aged 15 to 22, died early on Sunday in the northwestern city of Battambang. Another woman and a 25-year-old man were in critical condition from the blaze, which was believed to have started from faulty electric connections. He said the victims were believed to have been drunk and at least initially were not aware that a fire had broken out.
■CAMBODIA
Princess Eugenie targeted
Thieves tried to rob Queen Elizabeth II’s 19-year-old granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, and her friends while they were traveling in Cambodia, a British newspaper reported yesterday. Royal protection officers had to intervene to protect the princess, the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, when a thief tried to steal her friend’s purse as they walked through Phnom Penh one night, the Sun said. The two officers tackled the thief but were pelted with stones by another man, forcing them to let him go and focus on getting the princess to safety. They also managed to retrieve the purse.
■INDIA
Nor’wester kills 11
At least 11 people were killed and 15 injured when a powerful nor’wester hit West Bengal, a news report said yesterday. The casualties were caused on Sunday by house collapses and lightning strikes, PTI news agency reported. Seven villagers were killed in the central district of Malda when the storm uprooted trees and electrical poles. Four people died in different areas in the North 24-Parganas district, the report said. Fifteen workers were injured when lightning struck them in Burdwan district. A nor’wester is a type of storm that occurs in West Bengal during springtime or early summer, leading to a cooling effect.
■THAILAND
Four killed in shootings
Four people have been killed and two injured — including a child — in separate shootings in the restive south, local police said yesterday. They said two men on motorbikes shot dead a 59-year-old pork vendor early on Sunday afternoon while he was riding home with his nine-year-old nephew in Narathiwat Province. The child was injured when he fell from the bike. That evening, a 51-year-old construction worker was also killed and his colleague injured in another drive-by shooting nearby. A Muslim defense volunteer was shot dead in the same province later on Sunday night while he was parking his motorbike in front of his house.
■IRAQ
Pope may make visit
Pope Benedict XVI may visit in the middle of this month as part of his tour of the Middle East, a leading newspaper reported yesterday, citing “parliamentary sources.” Baghdad’s daily al-Sabbah newspaper quoted an unnamed lawmaker as saying that the Vatican was considering a visit to Baghdad on invitation from President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The Pope’s visit “would let him see situation on the ground, particularly for the Christian community,” al-Sabbah quoted the lawmaker as saying.
■SYRIA
Hamas chief re-elected
Exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal has been re-elected head of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s politburo, a statement from the group in Damascus said. Mahmoud Zahar and Khalil al-Hayya, both senior leaders of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, were also elected members of the politburo in an internal vote, the group’s top decision-making body, it said in a statement on Sunday. Meshaal, who is one of Israel’s most wanted men, lives in exile in Damascus. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, further exacerbating a long-running feud with the secular Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
■IRAQ
No extension of US pullback
The government says the June 30 deadline for US troops to withdraw from urban areas is “non-extendable.” A rise in violence has prompted concern about whether local forces are prepared to take over security responsibilities. In particular, US commanders have pointed to the northern city of Mosul as a possible exception to the withdrawal plans. But spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said yesterday that the government is committed to the timeline in the security agreement, calling the withdraw deadline “non-extendable.” The agreement calls for US forces to pull back from cities by the end of next month and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011.
■ISRAEL
Netanyahu names US envoy
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has named US professor and historian Michael Oren as the next ambassador to Washington, his office said on Sunday. “He will assume his functions shortly,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said. Oren, a Columbia and Princeton-educated historian who is currently a guest lecturer at Georgetown University, is expected to assume his post before Netanyahu leaves for a meeting with US President Barack Obama in the middle of this month. In a lecture at Georgetown last month, Oren said Tel Aviv must unilaterally withdraw from the occupied West Bank, an idea rejected by Netanyahu, a report in Haaretz said.
■ISRAEL
Rabbis want limit on women
Rabbis want authorities to reduce the number of female foreign workers, as their male employers seem to easily succumb to their charms, a report said yesterday. The plea follows an appeal lodged at a rabbinical court south of Tel Aviv by a scorned wife whose husband had an affair with a Filipina employee, the Maariv daily. “The authorities should apply restrictions to guard the honor of Israel’s daughters,” wrote Rabbi Nahum Gortald, the head of the tribunal. “It is inconceivable that a man leaves a spouse whose beauty bears the traces of time for a younger foreign employee,” he said. There is no civil marriage law in the country, and people of different religions must go abroad to marry.
■UNITED STATES
Home sought for detainees
Washington has made a formal request to Germany to take in some prisoners held at its military prison in Guantanamo Bay, a spokesman for Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Sunday. Confirming a report that was to appear in yesterday’s Der Spiegel magazine, the spokesman said the ministry was reviewing the request. He declined to provide details. Der Spiegel said Washington had asked Germany to take about 10 prisoners who cannot be sent to their home countries and who are classified as not posing a security threat.
■MEXICO
Police find 11 bodies
Police found 11 bodies dumped around a southern state, including seven wrapped in plastic bags and thrown off a bridge. Guerrero state police said the bodies of five men and two women were found in a river between Acapulco and Cuernavaca. They were wrapped in bags and dumped off a bridge. The other four bodies were found in a 600m ravine in Pilcaya. The bodies were all found on Sunday. Investigators did not have any suspects or possible motive for the killings, but warring drug cartels often dump the bodies of rivals.
■CANADA
Kidnappers ‘kind’: victim
A woman freed last week after being kidnapped in Nigeria described her abductors on Sunday as “mostly kind at heart” and said she was well-treated during nearly two weeks of captivity. Looking none the worse for wear after 13 days as a hostage, Julie Ann Mulligan, 45, told reporters that her captors seemed motivated by a need to earn money to improve their desperate economic plight. “The kidnappers were mostly kind at heart,” she said. “The job ... was a business of money that there desperately isn’t enough of for most of the people in Nigeria,” Mulligan said. “They did not hurt me physically and they did not torment me unnecessarily or psychologically ... I did live the hard life of many typical Nigerians, though, for 13 days. And believe me, it’s not an easy one.” Mulligan was kidnapped on April 16 while participating in a cultural exchange in Kaduna.
■UNITED STATES
Gunmen kidnap toddler
A three-year-old boy has been kidnapped by two gunmen who broke into his family’s home in Southern California and tied up his mother and her five other children. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said the men burst into the San Bernardino home with handguns on Sunday and stole money and property, then left with three-year-old Briant Rodriguez. The mother told investigators she did not know the two gunmen.
■UNITED STATES
Father kills wife, sons
A father shot and killed his wife and two of his sons — one five months old and the other seven years old — before killing himself in the front yard of their Florida home on Sunday night, authorities said. Another son, a 13-year-old, was pursued through the garage by his father, evaded several gunshots, and made it safely to a neighbor’s house, Polk County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Scott Wilder said in a statement. Investigators believe Troy Ryan Bellar, 34, and his wife, Wendy Bellar, 31, were arguing at about 9:30pm at their home in Lakeland when she tried to leave the home with two of the children. Bellar apparently opened fire with a 7.62mm rifle and killed his wife, five-month-old Zack James Bellar and seven-year-old Ryan Patrick Bellar in the front porch area.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
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