INDIA
China sparks war of words
Minister of Defence A.K. Antony said yesterday that China’s comments on his visit to a territory disputed by the neighbors were “highly objectionable,” sparking a new war of words over the contested border. Beijing on Saturday reportedly called for India “to work with China to maintain peace and stability in border areas” and called for restraint to prevent complications in the dispute over Arunachal Pradesh, a northeastern Indian state that China claims in full. Antony visited the far-flung and highly militarized territory earlier this month to mark its 25th year as an Indian state. He promised better infrastructure and improved accessibility. “I was surprised to read the Chinese reaction. It is very sad and highly objectionable. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India,” he told reporters on Monday, according to the CNN-IBN television channel.
SOUTH KOREA
Conductor to visit North
A prominent South Korean conductor will visit Pyongyang this week to prepare for a planned joint concert in Paris by orchestras from North Korea and France, an official said yesterday. Chung Myung-whun will visit from today to Thursday to make arrangements for the concert between the North’s Unhasu Orchestra and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul’s unification ministry spokesman said. The ministry must authorize all inter-Korean exchanges. Chung, who conducts the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and also serves as the music director for the French orchestra, is set to lead the joint performance in Paris on March 14 as part of a cultural exchange program. The 59-year-old conductor and UNICEF “goodwill ambassador” has for years been seeking cross-border cultural projects.
NEW ZEALAND
Xena arrested over protest
Police have arrested actress Lucy Lawless and five Greenpeace environmental activists after the group spent four days protesting aboard a docked oil-drilling ship. Police yesterday removed the group from their perch atop a 53m drilling tower on the Noble Discoverer in Port Taranaki. Lawless and six activists climbed the tower early on Friday in an attempt to raise awareness about oil drilling in the Arctic. Chartered by oil company Shell, the ship had been scheduled to leave over the weekend for the Arctic to drill five exploratory wells. Lawless, 43, a native New Zealander, is best known for her title role in the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess.
THAILAND
Three Iranians questioned
Police yesterday said they were questioning three more Iranians in connection with an alleged plot to kill Israeli diplomats in Bangkok. “We have information that they may have links to the blasts,” police major general Piya Utayo said, referring to a series of botched explosions that shook a residential district of the Thai capital on Feb. 14. He said no charges had been laid against the trio. One was detained under immigration law for overstaying his visa. According to Thai media, mobile telephone call logs showed that one of the suspects had been in regular contact with two Iranians now in custody.
PAKISTAN
Bin Laden house demolished
Bulldozers yesterday finished demolishing the house where Osama bin Laden lived for at least five years until he was killed by US special forces in May last year. Only the wall of the compound remained intact, surrounding the debris of the three-floor building where the al-Qaeda leader lived in the garrison town of Abbottabad and a security official confirmed the demolition had been completed.
NIGERIA
Sect claims church bomb
Islamist sect Boko Haram said it was behind Sunday’s suicide bomb attack outside a church in the central city of Jos, and warned of more such assaults. “We carried out the attack on COCIN church in Jos today and we did what we did as part of our resolve to avenge the killings and dehumanization of Muslims in Jos in the last 10 years,” spokesman Abul Qaqa told reporters in a conference call. Three people including a toddler were killed in the attack, igniting brief riots by Christian youths that claimed another three lives on the streets of the capital of Plateau State. Qaqa said that that particular church had not been targeted for any reason. “We attacked simply because it is a church and we can decide to attack any other church. We have just started,” he said.
SUDAN
Rebels capture border area
Rebels said they captured a border district from the government in the oil-rich border state of Southern Kordofan. Fighters from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), attacked members of the Sudanese Armed Forces, took control of Jaw District and liberated the region of Lake Alubaid, the group said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Fighting in the border states of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan has intensified since South Sudan seceded on July 9 last year, assuming control of three-quarters of the former state’s oil production of 490,000 barrels a day.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
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