INDIA
Attack anniversary marked
Indians marked the second anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack yesterday with somber ceremonies and a renewed promise to seek justice for the 166 people slain in an assault that has set back peace efforts with archrival Pakistan. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the strength of the Indian people would conquer those threatening their way of life. “We will never succumb to the designs of our enemies,” he said. “We pledge to redouble our efforts to bring the perpetrators of this crime against humanity to justice.” Officers flanked by special anti-terror vehicles marched through Mumbai yesterday morning from the Oberoi Trident Hotel, one of the attack sites. Hundreds of students held a giant banner that read “The Great Wall of Mumbai,” intending to show how the city remained defiant in the face of the attack.
TONGA
No clear winner in election
The first vote for a popularly elected government produced a high turnout, but no clear winner, with results yesterday showing the main pro-democracy party was one seat short of a majority. The Friendly Islands Democratic Party, led by veteran pro-democracy campaigner Akilisi Pohiva, won 13 of the 26 seats in the election, which ended 165 years of near-absolute rule by the monarchy in the Pacific archipelago. Of the remaining 13 seats, four were won by independents and nine were reserved for the nobility. Voter turnout was up to 89 percent of the 42,000 registered voters, figures released by election supervisor Pita Vuka showed.
MALAYSIA
Deposed sultan loses case
A deposed state sultan lost a court battle yesterday with his eldest son, who seized the throne in a palace coup that scandalized the country’s royalty. The verdict by Malaysia’s highest court prevents Tuanku Ismail Petra Yahya Petra from regaining his throne of Kelantan State anytime soon. Nine of Malaysia’s 13 states are ruled by royal families, who have mainly ceremonial powers, but command wide respect after centuries of hereditary rule. Ismail’s eldest son, Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra, took over the throne in September while his father was bedridden with a reported stroke.
HONG KONG
French diplomat suspended
The top French diplomat in Hong Kong and Macau has been suspended and recalled to Paris, a consulate spokeswoman confirmed yesterday, as an “administrative investigation” gets under way. “He left Hong Kong on Monday,” the spokeswoman said. Marc Fonbaustier, 46, France’s consul-general in the Chinese semi-autonomous territories, was recalled over conduct that would “likely not meet the requirements of professional conduct for a French diplomat,” foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in Paris. Fonbaustier, who is married and has three children, was appointed to the post last year.
PHILIPPINES
Senate Web cast begins
The senate has begun broadcasting live on the Internet, in keeping with President Benigno Aquino’s pledge of government transparency, officials said yesterday. The online broadcasts, which began this week, are also part of the five month-old government’s aggressive use of the Internet and social networking media to engage the public and help it fight corruption. Senator Francis Pangilinan said the Web casts at www.senate.gov.ph would allow the public to monitor hearings on the proposed budget for next year.
CANADA
Archbishop turns himself in
The archbishop of an orthodox church was charged with two counts of sexual assault after turning himself in, police in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said on Thursday. Constable Natalie Aitken said Kenneth William Storheim, who heads the country’s archdiocese of the Orthodox Church in America, has been accused of assaulting two people. Storheim, known as Archbishop Seraphim in his role as head of the church’s branch in the country, flew to Manitoba from Edmonton, Alberta, and turned himself in at police headquarters, said Aitken, who would not provide further details on the charges.
UNITED KINGDOM
Dark side strikes out
Auctioneers overestimated the power of the dark side. An original Darth Vader costume from a Star Wars movie did not sell at auction on Thursday when no bidder offered to pay the reserve price, Christie’s auctioneers in London said. The outfit — a jet-black helmet, mask and armor — was expected to sell for between ￡160,000 (US$250,000) and ￡230,000. Christie’s said bidding stopped at ￡150,000. The costume is thought to have been made for The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in George Lucas’ sci-fi series. Meanwhile, a gun used in an advertising campaign for a James Bond movie was sold for more than 10 times its estimated value at Thursday’s auction of movie memorabilia. The Walther air pistol held by Bond actor Sean Connery in the poster for the 1963 film, From Russia With Love, sold for ￡277,250 to an unidentified telephone bidder, Christie’s said.
MEXICO
Illegal immigrants arrested
Immigration authorities said on Thursday they arrested 104 illegal migrants from Central America, Ecuador and India as they made their way through southern Oaxaca state to the US. Federal agents “apprehended 104 people, including 15 women and three male minors,” the National Migration Institute said in a statement. The group included 90 Guatemalans, nine Salvadorans, two Indians and one each from Nicaragua, Honduras and Ecuador, it added.
FRANCE
Black box search to resume
The government said on Thursday it will conduct a fourth search for the flight recorders of an Air France jetliner that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris 18 months ago. All 228 people aboard Flight 447 died when the plane plunged into the ocean during a large thunderstorm on June 1 last year. The fourth search is to begin in February. The initial search found 50 bodies and hundreds of pieces of the plane, but the latest search, a 13 million euro third effort, ended in May and did not find the black box voice and data recorders at the crash site.
CANADA
Polygamy court case begins
A lawyer for a polygamous community in western Canada argued on Thursday that the practice should be decriminalized because prohibiting multiple marriages violates its right to religious freedom. Robert Wickett said in his opening statement in British Columbia Supreme Court that the law, not polygamy, victimizes polygamists. The court began hearing submissions this week in a case examining whether banning polygamy violates Canada’s version of the bill of rights in a case that focuses on the polygamous community of Bountiful, British Columbia.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
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
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
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