■PAKISTAN
Security forces kill 21
A government official says security forces repulsed a militant attack against an army checkpoint in a northwestern tribal region and killed 21 insurgents. Samiullah Khan, a senior government administrator in the Orakzai region, says troops and artillery successfully defended the checkpoint. Orakzai is a Pakistani Taliban stronghold.
■INDONESIA
Sumatran rhino miscarries
An endangered Sumatran rhinoceros, whose pregnancy was hailed by conservationists, has miscarried, an Indonesian veterinarian said yesterday, adding that experts hoped she might still give birth someday. Conservationists will learn what they can from the failed pregnancy of a rhino named Ratu. Her baby would have been only the fifth known born in captivity. “We regret the loss ... but we are going to work hard in order for Ratu and Andalas to mate again,” said Andriansyah, a veterinarian at Indonesia’s Sumatra Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park on Sumatra Island. Andriansyah uses only one name, which is common in Indonesia. There are only an estimated 200 Sumatran rhinos remaining in the wild in Indonesia and Malaysia, which is half the number of 15 years ago. Another 10 live in captivity.
■JAPAN
Secretaries to talk beef
The US agriculture secretary heads to Japan this week in a renewed attempt to settle a long-running beef trade dispute that has created friction between the close allies. Japan, once the biggest buyer of US beef, stopped the imports after mad cow disease was detected in a US herd in late 2003 and has only resumed limited imports since then. Senators from US farm states have fumed that the restrictions are “scientifically unfounded,” with no new cases of the disease detected for years. During the recent controversy about Toyota’s faulty gas pedal systems, Republican Senator Mike Johanns from Nebraska charged that, by the same logic, the US could halt all Japanese car imports. Limited US imports from cattle under 20 months are allowed, except for high-risk parts such as brains and spine bones. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is expected to push to include cattle up to 30 months old.
■NEW ZEALAND
Racing teen killed
A 15-year-old girl has died after the speedway car she was driving crashed into a concrete wall at a dirt-track meet on New Zealand’s North Island. Samantha Mouat was driving in a ministocks event at the Kaikohe Speedway on Saturday when she lost control of her vehicle. Members of Mouat’s family were among the crowd who saw the crash. Ambulance service spokesman Keith Hall said paramedics were quickly on the scene, but Mouat could not be revived.
■AUSTRALIA
Scientists to create skin
Scientists are working toward creating a living, full-thickness replacement skin for burn victims and hope to begin animal trials later this year. Research is underway to reproduce in the laboratory fully functioning skin for transplant, which could transform the lives of those left with serious burn injuries, a spokeswoman for the Sydney Burns Foundation said yesterday. Burns victims are currently treated with skin grafts. However, laboratories can only grow epidermis — the thin outer layer of skin — and this can cannot stretch, perspire, grow hair or have normal feeling or movement.
■EGYPT
Book publisher arrested
An official said police have arrested a publisher and confiscated copies of a book calling for political change and lauding the former head of the UN nuclear agency, Mohammed ElBaradei. The official said police on Saturday raided the home and business of Ahmed Mahanna, owner of Dawin publishing. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, refused to provide details. Mahanna published the book ElBaradei and the Dream of a Green Revolution. It places hope for political change in Egypt on ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize winner whom some want to see run for president.
■SPAIN
ETA says police fired first
French police fired the first shot in a shootout in a Paris suburb last month in which one of their officers died, said a statement issued yesterday by the Basque separatist group ETA. The statement, written in Basque and published in the Basque daily Gara, said a police officer had fired two shots towards one of four activists they had already captured before other ETA militants intervened. French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to wipe out ETA bases in France after 52-year-old Jean-Serge Nerin became the first French police officer to be killed by the separatists following the March 16 gun battle.
■UNITED STATES
Stunt shocks officials
He was just trying to lighten things up while issuing tickets at pedestrian crossings, but police officer Tom Broadway had to ditch his Easter Bunny disguise when city officials charged his stunt was “breathtakingly dangerous.” Broadway came up with his long-eared full-body disguise during a pedestrian enforcement campaign in Glendale, a Los Angeles suburb. While it lasted, he issued 27 tickets to motorists who failed to stop when he was walking across a designated pedestrian crossing. City officials, however, were not amused, and Broadway now is back on his beat in a more ordinary disguise: shorts and T-shirt.
■ISRAEL
Christians celebrate Easter
With ancient hymns and religious rock bands, Christians from around the world were celebrating Easter Sunday in Jerusalem. Armenian Christians in ornate robes are holding a ceremony in the dark, incense-filled chambers of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and then resurrected on Easter Sunday at this site. Outside the Old City, members of Protestant church groups held their own celebration among the trees of the site known as the Garden Tomb, where some traditions say Jesus was buried. Two guitarists, a drummer and a keyboard player led hundreds of worshippers in English prayer. “All hail, Redeemer, for thou hast died for me,” they sang, some raising their hands and closing their eyes.
■VATICAN
Pope denounces defamation
Pope Benedict XVI has celebrated Easter Vigil as the Vatican newspaper denounced what it called a “vile defamation operation” against him concerning the clerical abuse scandal. Benedict presided over the evening service in St Peter’s Basilica, which commemorates the night before Easter. The pope didn’t directly refer to the scandal in his homily. He focused on life, death and immortality, pondering what would happen if modern medicine could remove death altogether.
■UNITED STATES
Egg hunters find body
Police say two teenagers who wandered away from their younger siblings at an Easter egg hunt found a body at a Des Moines, Iowa, park. Police Sergeant Chris Scott said the teens came across the man’s body in a wooded area at Beaverdale Park on Saturday morning. He said the teens had accompanied their siblings to the park’s egg hunt, but wandered away. The body was found at least 300m from where the egg hunt took place. He didn’t know how old the teens were. About 100 children participated in the annual event. Police said they didn’t suspect any foul play, adding that an autopsy was planned. The man’s name hasn’t been released pending notification of his family.
■CANADA
We are Arctic Power: Cannon
The country is is an Arctic power, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said on Saturday as Ottawa seeks to delineate the outer limits of the extended continental shelf also claimed by the US. Cannon plans to visit the Arctic’s Resolute Bay and the Borden Island ice camp today and tomorrow. There, he will witness work underway to prepare the country’s submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, an area rich in hydrocarbons. The trip comes on the heels of a summit of Arctic coastal states Cannon hosted to address the race to mine the area’s rich resources. Participants included Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the US.
■UNITED STATES
Pre-teen sues over arrest
A 12-year-old New York schoolgirl who was arrested and handcuffed for doodling on her classroom desk is suing police for US$1 million, a report said on Saturday. Lawyers for Alexa Gonzalez said police used excessive force and violated her rights in the February incident at Junior High School 190 in the Queens neighborhood. Gonzalez’s mother, Moraima Camacho, told the Daily News that the schoolgirl merely scribbled “I love my friends Abby and Faith” — in washable green ink — when teachers pounced on her and dragged her to the dean’s office. Police were called and officers cuffed and arrested the pre-teen. At the police station she was handcuffed to a pole for more than two hours, the lawsuit against the police and education departments claimed.
■MEXICO
Mother denies killing girl
A defense attorney said a woman suspected in the death of her four-year-old daughter denied involvement. The case of Paulette Gebara Farah has riveted the country because of the nationwide campaign her parents launched to find her. The girl was reported missing on March 22 and her body was found more than a week later in her home, wedged between the mattress and the frame of her own bed. Mother Lisette Farah is being held as suspect.
■COSTA RICA
Town celebrates croc hunt
Vigils, masses and parades are fine for Easter, but Ortega village in the north sticks to its own tantalizing observance: chasing after crocodiles. This year, the intrepid croc chase in swim suits and carrying clubs, along the Palma River, ended up in a deep cave, where the prey was cornered: a snarling, 5m female crocodile. The crocodile was captured on Friday and was to be kept on public display in a village square until yesterday, when he was to be released unharmed back into the wild.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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