INDONESIA
Boy dies of bird flu
A 12-year-old boy on the Indonesian resort island of Bali has died from bird flu on Tuesday, the fourth human death from the virus this year, an official said yesterday. The boy developed fever on Feb. 11 and was admitted to hospital five days later, said Rita Kusriastuti, head of the Indonesian ministry of health’s animal-borne infectious disease control department. “He suffered shortness of breath and eventually died on Feb. 21. Laboratory tests confirmed he died from the H5N1 virus,” she added.
PAKISTAN
US efforts failing: cable
The US ambassador to Afghanistan sent a top-secret cable to Washington last month warning that the existence of enemy havens in Pakistan was placing the US strategy in Afghanistan in jeopardy, the Washington Post reported late on Friday. Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said that the cable, written by ambassador Ryan Crocker, amounted to an admission that US efforts to curtail activities in Pakistan by the Haqqani network, a key Taliban ally, were failing.
ITALY
Church property to get taxed
Italy’s government announced measures on Friday to end tax exemptions on commercial property owned by the Catholic Church, a move expected to add as much as 600 million euros (US$805 million) to state coffers each year. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who is a practising Catholic, tacked the measure — which also affects other non-profit organizations — onto a larger deregulation package currently going through parliament. The Church owns many private clinics, hotels and guesthouses that enjoy tax-exempt status, because parts of them are also occupied by priests or nuns, or have a chapel. The new law closes this loophole. The income it makes from the measure will go towards cutting taxes, the government said.
KAZAKHSTAN
Opposition leaders arrested
Kazakh police arrested three leading opposition members yesterday as hundreds of protesters braved a much stronger security presence to rally against strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s rule. About 1,000 protesters had gathered on the main Palace of the Republic square in the financial capital Alamty to express outrage at the energy-rich state’s rights record under the veteran leader. Police raided the homes of three top members of the unregistered Azat (Freedom) party before the event began and hauled them off to a central police station for questioning, a party spokesman said by telephone.
NORTH KOREA
Talks no closer: diplomat
A US diplomat said yesterday that talks with North Korea aimed at restarting six-party negotiations on the country’s nuclear programs are unlikely to produce a breakthrough in the near future. Glyn Davies, coordinator for US policy on North Korea, said there was still a “long way” to go before the six-party talks could resume. Davies was speaking in Seoul, where he arrived yesterday to brief South Korean officials on two days of discussions with North Korean diplomats in Beijing. In the Chinese capital he had said he had seen “a little bit of progress,” but no breakthrough. Asked about the prospect of the six-party talks resuming, Davies was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying: “We are so long away from anything like that.”
VENEZUELA
Chavez back in Cuba
President Hugo Chavez arrived in Cuba for urgent cancer surgery following an emotional departure in which he vowed to win the presidential election in October despite his illness. The socialist leader said he was greeted at the airport by Cuban President Raul Castro and that he planned to meet with Cuban doctors for medical tests scheduled for yesterday. “I have faith that everything will go well,” Chavez told state television by telephone late on Friday. Chavez, who is seeking his fourth term as president, has said the tumor that doctors will try to remove is probably malignant.
UNITED STATES
UK businessman faces trial
A retired British businessman accused of plotting to sell missile components to Iran arrived in the country late on Friday to face charges after failing to overturn an extradition order. Christopher Tappin faces charges in El Paso, Texas, that he tried in 2006 to buy specialized batteries for Hawk missiles for US$25,000 from undercover agents with the intention of exporting them to Iran. His first court appearance is scheduled for tomorrow. The 65-year-old Tappin faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted. He fought extradition for two years until last month when he was denied a petition to take the case to Britain’s Supreme Court. A subsequent appeal to the European Human Rights Court was also rejected.
UNITED STATES
Bout removed from solitary
A judge on Friday ordered Viktor Bout, a Russian convicted of arms trafficking, to be removed from solitary confinement and put into a regular facility, saying that to continue his 15-month ordeal violated the constitution. Bout was convicted in November last year in New York federal court. Since his extradition Bout has been kept in severely restrictive conditions in the special housing unit of the metropolitan correctional center in Manhattan. While there, he has been confined to a tiny cell with just one hour of exercise in another small room, where he is also alone.
SPAIN
Treasure heads back home
Tonnes of gold and silver from a Spanish ship that sunk in 1804 and was discovered by a US deep sea exploration company was on its way home on Friday aboard two military transport planes. The transfer ends a five-year legal battle between Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc and Madrid over treasure from the sunken frigate Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, the most valuable sunken treasure discovery in history. “The total was 49,000lbs, much more than the 17 tonnes thought at first, because the first quantity the company announced was not correct,” Ministry of Defense press spokesperson Miguel Morer said. he added that the treasure was believed to be worth about US$500 million.
RUSSIA
Anti-Putin protests continue
Alexei Navalny vowed to lead 10,000 people through the streets of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s native city yesterday in protest against his likely return to the Kremlin in March 4 polls. The event was called a day before thousands more hoped to link hands around Moscow in a poignant show of frustration with the former KGB spy’s decision to seek a third presidential term after dominating politics for 12 years. “The head of the party of swindlers and thieves has to be crushed [in Saint Petersburg] on March 4,” Navalny wrote in his blog.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
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