PHILIPPINES
Shooter kills four in Silay
A disgruntled former village official in the central province of Negros Occidental went on a shooting rampage yesterday, killing four people and critically wounding three others, police said. Noel Ayalin, a former village leader in Silay City, barged into a community meeting and shot at the officials present one by one, Negros Occidental Senior Superintendent Allan Guisihan said. “This is connected to local political rivalry,” Guisihan said, noting that one of the victims had beaten Ayalin in previous elections. Guisihan said a manhunt had been launched to find the gunman, who fled after the shooting.
SAMOA
HRPP retains control
The party that has ruled the country for the past 28 years has retained power in elections despite complaints about the government’s handling of a tsunami that struck the South Pacific island nation in 2009, killing 183 people. According to preliminary results released on Saturday by the Samoan Electoral Commission, the governing Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) lost a seat, but gained the support of an additional two independent lawmakers. That gives Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi control of 36 seats in the 49-seat parliament.
BANGLADESH
Ruling on Yunus expected
Deputy Attorney General Karunamoy Chakma said the High Court is set to rule on the legality of a government order dismissing Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as head of the microfinance bank he founded. Chakma said the ruling was expected yesterday. The central bank ordered Yunus out of Grameen Bank on Wednesday, saying he violated the country’s retirement laws. Yunus then went to the court challenging the legality of the order and said he was still holding the post. Yunus’ bank pioneered the concept of reducing poverty by making tiny loans to the poor. His work spurred a boom in such lending across the developing world and earned him and the bank the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
TUNISIA
Villains rounded up
The Interior Ministry said that more than 2,300 escaped inmates, thieves and other troublemakers have been rounded up by security forces since Feb. 1. More than 9,000 prisoners have fled prisons in the unrest that followed the end of the regime of former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled the country on Jan. 14. A ministry statement on Saturday, carried by the TAP news agency, didn’t say how many of the 2,342 people arrested were escaped inmates. It said that 700 had committed acts of theft and 260 were delinquents who had “terrorized citizens.” The caretaker government wants to re-establish security before elections for a constituent assembly on July 24.
CROATIA
Protesters take to the streets
Hundreds of protesters marched on Saturday in several towns demanding the government resign amid economic hardship and corruption allegations in the nation hoping to join the EU. The marches are the latest in a series of similar anti--government demonstrations, some of which erupted in clashes with police. Although not big in numbers, the protests have increased pressure on the government, which faces elections later this year or in early next year. The media reported that Saturday’s marches — just like previous gatherings — have been organized through Facebook and were held in eight towns throughout the country.
UNITED STATES
Professor sorry for sex act
A Northwestern University professor apologized on Saturday for letting a couple demonstrate the use of a sex toy after one of his classes, but he said he still sees “absolutely no harm” in what happened. Psychology professor J. Michael Bailey said he regrets hurting Northwestern’s reputation and “upsetting so many people in this particular manner. I apologize.” After a class on human sexuality on Feb. 21, Bailey invited students to stay for a discussion of sexual fetishes. He repeatedly warned that it would be graphic. The discussion included a woman who stripped and allowed her partner to use a sex toy on her. In a statement, Bailey said he had never before allowed something like that and would never again.
CUBA
American’s spy trial ends
The trial of an American for espionage concluded on Saturday, a US diplomat said. A second full day of court proceedings brought to a close the prosecution of Alan Gross, 61, whom officials accuse of violating the “territorial integrity” of the communist nation. There was no official statement about the trial, but a diplomat with the US Interests Section said: “The trial has concluded,” and added that the lawyer for Gross would be informed of the verdict, “but we don’t know when.” Prosecutors are seeking 20 years in prison for Gross, who was working under contract with the US State Department when he was arrested in late 2009 for distributing cellphones and computers to members of the nation’s Jewish community.
UNITED KINGDOM
Lady Gaga threatens to sue
Lawyers for US pop icon Lady Gaga have threatened legal proceedings against the makers of breast milk ice cream named “Baby Gaga,” according to papers seen on Saturday. The New York singer’s lawyers have given the manufacturers until 4pm on Wednesday to change the name “if you wish to avoid proceedings for trade mark infringement and passing off,” according to a letter addressed to London restaurant The Icecreamists. The cafe in the trendy Covent Garden district must also “cease and desist from in any other way associating with Lady Gaga any ice cream you are offering,” the letter from law firm Mishcon de Reya said.
UNITED STATES
Rape suspect tries suicide
Authorities say the man they believe is the East Coast rapist tried to hang himself in his cell and is in a Connecticut hospital. New Haven police Officer Joe Avery said on Saturday night that Aaron Thomas was expected to survive and undergo a psychological evaluation. Avery said it’s not clear how long Thomas will remain hospitalized. Authorities say Thomas, an unemployed truck driver, is the rapist suspected of terrorizing women with sexual assaults from Virginia to Rhode Island over 12 years. New Haven police say DNA linked Thomas to the assaults. He is charged in both Connecticut and Virginia.
UNITED STATES
Tornado kills woman
A tornado slammed a southwestern Louisiana town on Saturday, killing a young mother who was sheltering her child and injuring 11 others. More than 100 homes were damaged, many of them destroyed, authorities said, and about 1,500 people were evacuated because of natural gas leaks. Maxine Trahan, a spokeswoman for the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office, said 21-year-old Jalisa Granger was killed when a tree fell on her house.
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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