■CAMBODIA
Thai ‘spy’ pardoned, set free
A Thai man convicted and then pardoned for spying on Thailand’s fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released yesterday. The release of Siwarak Chothipong came as Thaksin paid a visit to the country that could reignite diplomatic tensions between Bangkok and Phnom Penh. Siwarak, 31, a Thai employee of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, left Prey Sar prison early yesterday in a three-car convoy after receiving a pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni on Friday, witnesses said.
■BANGLADESH
Doctors face drug tests
Authorities at the country’s only medical university said yesterday they had introduced drugs tests for doctors after allegations of rampant narcotics abuse. Pran Gopal Dutta, vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Medical University in Dhaka, said the decision was taken after the death of a doctor because of an alleged drug overdose. “We will do the dope test on a case-by-case basis. A doctor must undergo the test if he is suspected of using substances,” he said. The mass-circulation daily Jugantor quoted officials as saying that at least 50 doctors at the medical university had been found to be addicted to substances.
■AFGHANISTAN
UK bishop ‘praises’ Taliban
The Taliban can be admired for conviction to their faith and sense of loyalty to one another, the new bishop of Britain’s armed forces said in comments published late on Sunday. The Church of England’s Right Reverend Stephen Venner said it would be harder to reach a peaceful solution to the war if the Taliban insurgents were all portrayed as “pure evil.” “There’s a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for which none of us in the west could approve, but simply to say therefore that everything they do is bad is not helping the situation because it’s not honest really,” he told the Daily Telegraph in comments published on its Web site. “The Taliban can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to each other.”
■CHINA
Woman executed in Guizhou
A woman in the southwest was executed after being convicted of forcing 22 schoolchildren into prostitution, state press said yesterday. Zhao Qingmei was put to death in Guizhou Province “in recent days” after her final appeal was rejected, the Guizhou Daily reported. Zhao was convicted with six others of forcing the 22 pupils, some of whom may have been as young as six, and an older girl into prostitution in the impoverished mountainous province from March to June 2006, the paper said. Zhao was also convicted of aiding her husband in the rape of a child, it said. The report said the other defendants, including Zhao’s husband, were given sentences ranging from life sentences to death with a two-year reprieve.
■INDIA
Traffic accident kills 21
Police said at least 21 people died in a traffic accident in the east. Surajit Kar Purakayastha, inspector-general of police, said a bus collided head-on with a tractor-driven carriage on Sunday on the outskirts of Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state. He said it was not immediately clear if all the victims were aboard the bus or whether some of them were aboard the carriage. Rescuers used gas cutters to open the mangled frame of the bus to remove the bodies. Deadly traffic accidents are common due to overloading of aging vehicles, reckless driving and poorly maintained roads.
■RUSSIA
Mayor and wife slain
The mayor of a small town near Moscow and his wife have been shot dead at their country home. The Prosecutor General’s Investigative Committee said yesterday that the bodies of Vitaly Ustimenko and his wife were found late on Sunday. Ustimenko was elected mayor of Tuchkovo, about 65km west of Moscow, in October.
■SPAIN
Catalonia holds referendum
Several hundred thousand people in small towns and villages across Catalonia voted on Sunday in an emblematic, if partial and unofficial, referendum on whether the region should declare independence. Polling stations were manned by separatists and were mostly set up in areas of strong support. While even the organizers recognized the result would not provide an accurate measure of separatist feeling within Catalonia, they claimed to be breaking ground for a region-wide vote in the future. Most observers agreed, however, that such a vote was unlikely any time soon.
■FRANCE
Mosque vandalized
Police say assailants have scrawled a Nazi slogan and hung pig feet on a mosque in the southern town of Castres. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has denounced the “vile and racist desecration.” Police say the swastika in black paint and slogans including Sieg Heil in German, “France to the French” in French, and “White Power” in English were scrawled on the mosque. Hortefeux said on Sunday that any person found responsible for the overnight desecration should be “severely punished.”
■CONGO
HRW decries killings
A human-rights group says more than 1,400 civilians have been killed in eastern Congo during army operations to oust militiamen from the area. In a report released yesterday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that both Congolese army soldiers and Hutu militiamen had shot civilians as people fled. It said others killed between January and September were burned inside their homes. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC, has backed the Congolese army in the region since March. Human Rights Watch urged the UN to immediately end all support to the military operation and called for commanders accused of abuses to be removed from their positions.
■SUDAN
Protesters beaten by police
Several protesters from the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) were beaten by police yesterday as they tried to reach parliament for a planned pro-democracy rally, an AFP reporter said. All roads leading to the parliament in Omdurman were blocked off by authorities and several members of the SPLM who were carrying their party flag were beaten on their way to the protest, the reporter said. Some 21 opposition groups have called a rally to demand greater democracy.
■YEMEN
Saudi raids kill 70: rebels
At least 70 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in a Saudi air raid on a village near the border with Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Huthi rebels alleged, declaring the attack a “massacre.” An army spokesman confirmed air raids but said they were carried out by Yemeni planes and targeted rebel positions and not civilians. An Internet rebel statement said the attack was carried out Sunday morning. There was no immediate reaction by the Saudi authorities to the rebels’ claims.
■BRAZIL
Torture to be investigated
The government plans to create a truth commission to investigate torture used by past military dictatorships, the human rights minister said on Sunday. Paulo de Tarso Vanucchi told the Web portal UOL Noticias that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would propose a law creating the commission later this month. Unlike Argentina and Chile, Brazil never prosecuted members of the armed forces for human rights abuses committed during its 1964-1985 dictatorship. An amnesty law pardoned both civilians and the military for crimes committed under the dictatorship. But a lawsuit now before the Supreme Court argues that torture is not covered by the amnesty.
■UNITED STATES
Agents hold ‘Iran’ chopper
Federal agents are investigating whether a helicopter they have been holding for 14 months at a Texas airport was earmarked for shipment to Iran. The Dallas Morning News said the agents suspected an Italian firm, Tiber Aviation SRL, had already shipped two helicopters to Iran, with a third one to follow. The Sunday newspaper said the US$8 million aircraft sits in a Bell Helicopter hangar in Arlington.
■UNITED STATES
Site diverts funds to aid
A new Web site lets people donate to charity the money they would have spent on, say, that US$44.50 Henley sweater from The Gap is selling this year. BRAC USA, the US arm of a Bangladeshi development and aid organization, started the site, www.whatididnotbuy.org, on Thursday. As of midday on Friday, 89 people had contributed roughly US$500 using the site, forgoing items like a blender, champagne, power tools and a flat-screen TV. Lucy Bernholz, a nonprofit and philanthropic consultant, said she saw the new Web site as a reaction to the growth of embedded giving, in which companies promise to donate part of the proceeds from the sale of specific items.
■UNITED STATES
Obama ‘unhappy’ over party
President Barack Obama hit out on Sunday at a socialite couple who gatecrashed his first state dinner, saying it was “a screwup” and promising it would never happen again. “What I know is what everybody knows. Which is that these people should not have gotten through the gate,” Obama told CBS’ 60 Minutes. “I was unhappy with everybody who was involved in the process. And so, it was a screwup.” The uninvited couple — Tareq Salahi and his wife Michaele — were pictured shaking hands at a lineup with the president during the dinner given in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The socialites got past several checkpoints and mingled with top-level officials at the Nov. 24 state dinner.
■UNITED STATES
Obamas at benefit concert
The nation’s capital got in the holiday spirit on Sunday night when music legends Neil Diamond and Mary Blige performed for President Barack Obama at the annual “Christmas in Washington” concert. The festivities, hosted by comedian George Lopez, took place at the National Building Museum and benefited the Children’s National Medical Center. “This season we celebrate that sacred moment, the birth of a child, the message of love preached to the world,” Obama said from the stage, where he was joined by first lady Michelle Obama. “More than 2,000 years later, that spirit still inspires us.” The president spoke of helping those in need during the holidays, as well as honoring those in the military.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
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