BANGLADESH
Yunus fights back
Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus began a legal battle yesterday to overturn an attempt by the government to sack him from the bank he founded. The central bank fired the 70-year-old leader of Grameen Bank on Wednesday, saying he had been “removed from his position” as managing director for breaking the law when he was re-appointed in 2000. The country has a mandatory retirement age of 60. However, Yunis defied the order yesterday, returning to work as normal at Grameen’s headquarters in Dhaka and lodging a case in the High Court contesting the decision to remove him. Yunus’s troubles are thought to stem from 2007 when he floated the idea of forming a political party, earning the wrath of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has publicly disparaged his work. Local economists have warned the government’s “hasty decision” could prompt a collapse of confidence or even a bank run in the country’s vast microfinance sector.
PAKISTAN
US diplomat to stand trial
A court yesterday said that the murder trial of a CIA contractor would go ahead, despite the insistence of the US that he has diplomatic immunity. The hearing against Raymond Davis took place in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore where he is being held, and was adjourned until Tuesday. The issue of Davis’ claim to diplomatic immunity is pending before the Pakistani High Court, which is due to rule on it on March 14. “The court passed an order today saying that he [Davis] had failed to produce any legitimate document proving his diplomatic immunity,” said Asad Manzoor Butt, the lawyer representing the two men shot by him, after a closed-door hearing.
INDIA
Forty killed in plunges
Two separate accidents in Himachal Pradesh killed at least 40 people on Wednesday, after an open truck carrying a wedding party and a bus rolled into gorges, police said. The truck flipped over at a curve in the road in Chamba district and fell into a 90m gorge. Rescuers recovered 33 bodies and took seven injured people to a hospital, police said. Seven people died in the second accident as workers on a power project were being driven home. Both drivers were killed and investigations have been opened into the cause of the accidents.
JAPAN
Hachiko’s death explained
Scientists have settled a decades-old mystery by naming a cause of death for the country’s most famous dog. Hachiko became legendary for his loyalty by waiting for his owner every day at a train station for 10 years after his master died. He has been immortalized in children’s books and two movies. He was considered such a hero that his organs were preserved when he died in 1935. Hachiko was rumored to have swallowed a chicken skewer that ruptured his stomach. However, veterinarians examining his organs said on Wednesday that he had terminal cancer.
INDIA
Appointment rejected
The Supreme Court yesterday quashed the appointment of P.J. Thomas as the head of the federal anti-graft commission because of his involvement in a controversial palm oil import case, in another rebuke for the Congress-led coalition government. The court said the appointment of Thomas was made last year without taking into account the 1992 case in which he, as a state official, had been accused of signing a deal to import palm oil from Malaysia at higher prices.
UNITED KINGDOM
Traders stuck in elevator
It turned out to be an all-nighter, but not the fun kind. Seven high-powered traders and brokers who went out for a night on the town in London’s Canary Wharf business district ended up curled up together on the floor of an elevator after it malfunctioned and their calls for help went unheeded. An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the elevator failure, but some news reports have speculated that the group was jumping up and down inside the elevator, causing it to stop working. Building employees found the seven traders and brokers asleep on the elevator floor at 3am. The seven had been eating sushi and drinking at a Japanese restaurant in the Canary Wharf business district before they became trapped.
UNITED STATES
Decades-old letter delivered
A World War II-era letter addressed to a woman at a Red Cross hospital in California has been delivered almost 70 years after its postmark in Alabama, but the mystery of the message remains. The Montgomery Advertiser reports that the letter is addressed to Miss R.T. Fletcher, American Red Cross Station Hospital, Camp Roberts, California. That building was torn down years ago. Camp Roberts was closed in 1970, so the letter was delivered to the Camp Roberts Historical Museum. Curator Gary McMaster said he hasn’t opened the letter for privacy reasons. The envelope is torn where the return address would be located, so it’s not clear who sent it. However, the tear reveals a handwritten letter inside.
CANADA
Consultant charged
Authorities on Wednesday charged an immigration consultant with helping foreigners obtain permanent residency or citizenship in a huge fraud scheme, police said. About 1,100 applicants mostly from the Middle East and their dependents were implicated in the fraud, including 76 who obtained citizenship. Immigration minister Jason Kenney said the consultant had allegedly “fraudulently helped individuals create the appearance they were residing in Canada in order to keep their permanent resident status and ultimately attempt to acquire citizenship.”
CANADA
Cuban dancers stay
Five members of the National Ballet of Cuba, including one of its principal dancers, have remained in Canada after performing there, dance officials said on Wednesday. National Ballet of Canada spokeswoman Catherine Chang said the five are taking classes with the ballet in Toronto, adding that she can’t confirm that they have defected. However, an official with the National Ballet of Cuba said the dancers had decided to stay in Canada. The official was not authorized to talk to the press on the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Montreal Gazette reported that among the Cubans was a principal dancer, Elier Bourzac, who said he was staying in Canada for “artistic” reasons.
UNITED STATES
Death sought against doctor
Prosecutors in Philadelphia say they will seek the death penalty against a doctor charged with killing a patient and seven babies at his abortion clinic. Kermit Gosnell is charged with running a filthy medical practice that allegedly served as a pill mill by day and an abortion mill by night. City prosecutors cite as aggravating circumstances the multiple deaths and the tender age of the babies allegedly killed with scissors after being born alive.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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