JAPAN
Ship collision video shown
Lawmakers yesterday said a coast guard video clearly showed a Chinese trawler intentionally ramming Japanese vessels in an incident that sparked the worst row in years between the two nations. The coast guard showed 30 lawmakers video footage of the Sept. 7 collision near the Senkaku Islands —known in Taiwan and China as the Diaoyutais (釣魚台). “It showed the moment of collision very clearly. It was the Chinese ship that bumped into [Japanese vessels],” said Hiroshi Nakai, chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee. The latest development threatens to further inflame a row that has escalated into protests, scrapped bilateral meetings and accusations that China is blocking exports of vital minerals.
MALAYSIA
Crash driver had no license
Police say the driver of a bus that crashed killing seven people, did not have a driver’s license. The traffic chief of Selangor State, Che Hussin Omar, said yesterday that the Road Transport Department blacklisted driver S. Muthumani years ago for not having a valid license. Muthumani drove a hired tour bus that skidded and overturned while descending from the popular Genting Highlands casino on Friday, killing seven and injuring dozens more passengers. Muthumani, who is hospitalized with a broken leg, reportedly said the bus brakes failed. Che Hussin said Muthumani is being investigated for causing death by reckless driving. The offense carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.
CAMBODIA
Clinton visits Argkor Wat
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton toured the famed 12th-century Angkor Wat temple complex on Sunday and pledged to do more to help end the scourge of sexual slavery on a visit to a rehabilitation center for child prostitutes. The self-proclaimed “ex-politician” is barred from partisan political activity while serving as the US’ top diplomat and made no mention of the fight for control of Congress. Clinton, the first US secretary of state to visit Angkor Wat, was surrounded by snapshot-taking tourists while admiring the site.
PAKISTAN
Suicide bomber kills two
A suicide attack claimed by Pakistani Taliban killed two policemen and wounded five others yesterday as security forces tried to stop the bomber from entering their offices, police said. The bomber blew himself up outside the Shah Mansoor compound of the police headquarters in the northwestern town of Swabi, 100km northwest of Islamabad. Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said in a telephone call from an undisclosed location that the militant group carried out the attack, saying it was in retaliation for a stepped-up US drone missile campaign.
INDIA
Deaths mount in boat sinking
At least 50 Muslim pilgrims drowned when an overcrowded ferry sank in the east of the country, officials said yesterday, adding that many more bodies may have been washed away or still be in the vessel. The boat capsized on Saturday in a fast-flowing river in the state of West Bengal, 120km south of Kolkata. “We have found bodies floating near the Bay of Bengal ... We fear many other bodies are under the boat. The death toll is likely to rise,” State Minister Kanti Ganguly said. The boat was badly overcrowded as it crossed the Muriganga River after a religious event, but the number of people on board was unknown.
AUSTRALIA
Mother, son arrested
A mother and son have been charged over one of the nation’s biggest heroin hauls after drugs were found in a shipment of doors, police said yesterday. They said 168kg of heroin was detected by customs officers who X-rayed a shipment of 295 wooden doors from Malaysia and discovered that 10 contained packages of white powder. “A seizure of this magnitude is significant,” Australian Federal Police Commander David Stewart told reporters, saying that the last of such a size was in 2002. “This importation is the fifth-largest in Australian history.” Stewart said the heroin was worth A$58.8 million (US$58.1 million) in its current form, but had the potential to be worth as much as A$410 million on the street depending on how many times it was cut. Police allowed the doors to be delivered to their destination, and then charged a 55-year-old Sydney woman and her son, 28, along with a 33-year-old Hong Kong man after they allegedly removed the heroin and took it away.
SAUDI ARABIA
Female vendors ban urged
A government-sanctioned board of senior Islamic clerics has endorsed a fatwa that calls for a ban on female vendors because it violates the kingdom’s strict segregation of the sexes. The committee said in its ruling on Sunday that the mixing of sexes was forbidden and women should not seek jobs where they could encounter men. The decision comes after a conservative preacher was reprimanded in August for violating a government-mandated restriction on issuing a fatwa by calling for a boycott of supermarkets employing female cashiers.
SOMALIA
Somali-American voted PM
Parliament on Sunday approved Somali-American Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed as prime minister, but some are already questioning whether he will be able to make a difference in the war-ravaged country. Mohamed was nominated on Oct. 14 by President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, but the vote on the nomination was delayed several times because of a disagreement between the president and the speaker over procedure. The president wanted lawmakers to vote by a show of hands, while the speaker preferred a secret ballot. Lawmakers voted by a show of hands 297-92 on Sunday in favor of Mohamed, said Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, speaker of the transitional parliament. Mohamed is expected to name a Cabinet in the coming weeks.
UNITED STATES
Turkish bombing condemned
The government on Sunday condemned a suicide bomb attack in Turkey that injured 32 people in Istanbul and reiterated its support for the Turkish government. “This is a shocking crime and the people of the United States stand in solidarity with our friends the people of Turkey,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a written statement. The blast targeted riot police patrolling the busy Taksim Square. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
PHILIPPINES
Guard shoots masked actor
An actor playing a masked gunman has been shot dead by a village watchman in Cebu who allegedly mistook him for a real assassin. Watchman Eddie Cuizon tried to accost Kirk Abella, who was wearing a ski mask and carrying a toy gun, and shot him late on Saturday just as the actor was directed to speed away on a motorcycle. The 32-year-old actor was working on Going Somewhere, being filmed by British director Alan Lyddiard.
UNITED STATES
Airplane bomb claim made
Police say a man who just missed his flight out of Denver on Saturday got angry and claimed there was a bomb in his luggage, which was already aboard. Police say a search of the plane turned up no explosives and the flight took off an hour late for its destination, Salt Lake City. Officials say the plane carrying 54 passengers and crew was on the ground when the alleged threat was made. Sergei Berejnoi, 49, of Sandy, Utah, was arrested on suspicion of endangering public transportation. Police say he was taken to the Denver jail.
UNITED STATES
Tomas threatens Haiti
Hurricane Tomas weakened in the Caribbean on Sunday but threatened to hit an already-battered Haiti late this week, forecasters said. Maximum sustained winds decreased to 120kph, making Tomas just barely a Category 1 hurricane. It was moving west over open sea at 19kph and was expected to continue the same general motion for the next couple of days, the National Hurricane Center said. The center predicted “some additional weakening” by late yesterday, but its forecast track said Tomas could strike Haiti as a hurricane by late Friday with wind speeds between 119kph and 177kph. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are huddled in precarious tent cities in the wake of a devastating January earthquake.
MEXICO
Canadian’s car found burned
A missing Canadian businessman’s rental car was found completely burned with a corpse in the trunk on Sunday, police in Guerrero state reported. Investigators are working to determine if it is the body of Daniel Dion, who was last seen about a week ago in the resort city of Acapulco. One of the vehicle’s license plates was not burned in the fire, which allowed police to identify it as Dion’s white Jetta, according to Guerrero state Investigative Police director Fernando Monreal. The car was discovered on a road in Zumpango del Rio, about 130km from Acapulco. Authorities say Dion has worked in Acapulco for several years with a company that employs inmates making bags from recycled materials. While Acapulco remains a popular getaway for local and foreign tourists, it has been hit by drug-gang violence in recent years.
UNITED STATES
Bush Jr to present memoir
Former president George W. Bush will kick off this year’s international book fair in Miami. Bush, who is scheduled to speak at the 27th annual Miami Book Fair International, which runs from Nov. 14 to Nov. 21, will present his memoir Decision Points. Book fair organizers told reporters that tickets to Bush’s presentation are US$40. That includes a pre-signed copy of the book, which comes out on Tuesday next week.
UNITED STATES
Growing support for CIA lead
Support is growing in the military and administration of President Barack Obama for shifting to the CIA operational control over elite special forces teams secretly in Yemen, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the foiled mail-bombing plot by suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen has added urgency to an administration review of expanded military options. Officials said allowing Special Operations Command units to operate under the CIA would also give the country greater leeway to strike without the explicit blessing of the Yemeni government, the paper said.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
Millions of dollars have poured into bets on who will win the US presidential election after a last-minute court ruling opened up gambling on the vote, upping the stakes on a too-close-to-call race between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump that has already put voters on edge. Contracts for a Harris victory were trading between 48 and 50 percent in favor of the Democrat on Friday on Interactive Brokers, a firm that has taken advantage of a legal opening created earlier this month in the country’s long running regulatory battle over election markets. With just a month
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
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