■PAKISTAN
Bombing kills 35
A suicide bomber killed 35 people outside a Rawalpindi bank yesterday. Officials said many of the victims were elderly people who were at the bank to withdraw their pensions. Yesterday’s blast came as the government announced rewards of up to US$5 million for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and more than a dozen other leaders. The announcement of the bounty was made in newspaper ads as security forces zeroed in on Hakimullah’s strongholds in South Waziristan. Meanwhile, the UN said it had raised a security alert for the Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas, ordering all non-essential international staff to leave.
■CHINA
Education minister sacked
Education minister Zhou Ji (周濟) has been removed from his post, state media reported yesterday, ending a six-year term amid public dissatisfaction with the education system. Zhou has been transferred to the post of deputy Chinese Communist Party chief at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Xinhua news agency said. Rotations among posts do not always imply punishment, but Zhou’s was accompanied by scathing commentary. Zhou was criticized for not addressing problems of poor education offered at the college level, expensive tuition fees and low funding for basic education. “Though many of the issues predated his appointment in 2003,” the state-run China Daily said. “Zhou ... has come under fire for making little impact in solving them.” Zhou was replaced by deputy minister Yuan Guiren (袁貴仁).
■VIETNAM
Bird flu hits poultry farms
The government has announced the reemergence of bird flu among its poultry after six months with no reported outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, the animal health department said. The infected poultry were reported in nine farms in Dien Bien Province between Oct. 21 and Oct. 23, said the department in an online report late on Sunday. Health workers have slaughtered more than 2,200 poultry to contain the outbreak, it said.
■CHINA
Beijing works on hostages
The government said yesterday that efforts were continuing to rescue the 25 crew members aboard a cargo ship hijacked last month by Somali pirates, as Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) headed to Egypt for talks with African leaders this weekend. “Rest assured that the rescue work is under way,” Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun (翟俊) told reporters at a briefing on Wen’s trip.
■SPAIN
Space hotel plans on target
A company behind plans to open the first hotel in space says it is on target to accept its first paying guests in 2012 despite critics questioning the investment and time frame for the multibillion dollar project. The Barcelona-based architects of The Galactic Suite Space Resort say it will cost 3 million euros (US$4.4 million) for a three-night stay at the hotel, with the price including an eight-week training course on a tropical island. During their stay, guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes. They would wear velcro suits so they can crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.
■RUSSIA
Putin warns of gas problems
President Vladimir Putin on Sunday warned of hindrances in delivery of natural gas to European consumers, citing once again payment problems with Ukraine. According to the Interfax news agency, Putin informed Sweden in its role as EU president of the difficulties with Ukraine, which is the most important land route for Russian gas into the West. In January, a week-long row between Kiev and Moscow over alleged non-payment of supplies to Ukraine led to dramatic shortages of gas in Eastern and Western Europe, with Russia shutting off deliveries.
■ISRAEL
Settler suspected of murders
Police and security officials arrested a Jewish settler suspected of a series of crimes including the murder of two Palestinians in 1997, Israeli media reported on Sunday. Yaakov “Jack” Teitel, 37, who was born in Florida, lived in the northern West Bank settlement of Shevut Rachel since 1997. He was arrested on Oct. 7 for his alleged role in several shootings and bombings over a decade. Teitel has confessed the murder of an east Jerusalem taxi driver and a Palestinian shepherd in 1997 as well as other allegations. He also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that injured leftwing academic Zeev Sternhell in September last year.
■GERMANY
Man quits art project
A man who volunteered to relive his detention by the dreaded Stasi secret police, spending a week inside a prison preserved as a memorial, said on Sunday he had to give up because of the psychological strain. Carl-Wolfgang Holzapfel, 65, moved in on Thursday to a cell at Hohenschoenhausen Prison in Berlin, which is now a monument to the misdeeds of the communist secret police between 1949 and 1989, but on Saturday afternoon it all became too much for him. “Psychologically, I did not feel capable of continuing with this operation,” he said in a statement distributed by Franziska Vu, the woman who organized the event as both a performance artwork and a chilling reminder of the evils that ended 20 years ago.
■CYPRUS
Man bolts from plane
Police say a passenger bolted from an airliner after opening a rear exit and sliding down an emergency chute as it prepared for take off. Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said the 28-year-old sailor, who holds a Greek passport, then jumped the Larnaca airport fence and disappeared. Katsounotos said investigators don’t know what spurred the man to exit the Cyprus Airways jet on Saturday night moments after the captain ordered the crew to lock the aircraft doors. The Airbus with 158 passengers aboard was on a scheduled flight to Athens.
■UNITED STATES
Meatball sets world record
The bouncing giant meatball record has landed in the East Coast. Matthew Mitnitsky, owner of Nonni’s Italian Eatery in Concord, said on Sunday that a 101kg meatball was authenticated as the world’s largest after being weighed by state weights and measures officials. A Guinness World Records official confirmed the meatball as a record breaker and presented Mitnitsky with a plaque. The old record of 90kg was set just over a month ago, after Los Angeles-based talk show host Jimmy Kimmel vowed to beat a record set in Mexico. That record — 50kg — was set in August. Mitnitsky said he got involved “to bring the meatball back to the East Coast, because that’s where it originated.”
■UNITED KINGDOM
Prince Charles in Canada
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall embarked on an 11-day tour of Canada yesterday, the prince’s office said. While Charles, 60, has visited Canada 15 times, the trip is a first for his wife, Camilla, who has Canadian ancestors. The couple was due to land at the remote coastal town of St John’s in Newfoundland, where they will begin their trip by “celebrating the region’s culture.”
■KOSOVO
Clinton statue dedicated
Thousands of Kosovo Albanians gathered in Pristina on Sunday to welcome former US president Bill Clinton and honor his role in ending Serbian rule. “You should be proud for what you’ve achieved in the past years,” Clinton told the parliament, which convened for the occasion. He arrived for the dedication of a 3m statue of himself on Bill Clinton Boulevard in Pristina, the capital. “You, President Clinton, intervened to stop ethnic cleansing. You prevented a much greater number of victims,” President Fatmir Sejdiu said. “My country will always be grateful to you.” Clinton was the US president when NATO intervened against Serbia, forcing it to withdraw its security forces from Kosovo and ending a heavy-handed campaign of terror against rebelling Albanians.
■GUANTANAMO BAY
Prisoners to get flu shots
Terrorism suspects held at the US jail facility in southeast Cuba will soon get swine flu vaccines, despite complaints that US civilians should have priority, a military spokesman said on Sunday. Army Major James Crabtree, a spokesman for the jail facility, said the doses should start arriving this month, with guards and then inmates scheduled for inoculations. He acknowledged there may be an “emotional response” from critics. But he said US military officials are “responsible for the health and care of the detainee population.”
■CUBA
Protesters decry dissidents
More than 100 government supporters massed and shouted slogans on Sunday outside the home of a prominent dissident where about a dozen regime foes are holding a sit-in. The government often rallies its supporters to condemn its opponents. Havana claims the dissidents are in the pay of US diplomats. Demonstrators with megaphones shouted “Commander in chief, give your orders” waving signs and flags and singing revolutionary songs. Dissident Martha Beatriz Roque said the sit-in, in its 24th day, was called to protest against an incident in which police seized a camera. Roque said “demonstrators burst in and beat us, one person has their head injured and I have a fractured finger.”
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
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