PHILIPPINES
More extremist attacks
A military report says al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants managed to launch more attacks last year than in 2010 despite many battle setbacks. The report, which assesses the first year of the government’s new counterinsurgency program, attributes the increase in attacks by the notoriously violent Abu Sayyaf group to ineffective law enforcement and the failure of authorities to fully isolate the terrorists from their armed and civilian backers. The report said yesterday that the militants staged 19 percent more attacks last year than in 2010.
PHILIPPINES
Fire victim called for help
An aunt of a Filipino nursery teacher who was among 19 dead in a mall fire in Qatar says she received a final frantic cellphone call from her niece pleading for help. Julie Ann Soco told her aunt in the Philippines, “Help me, help me, I’m going to die.” Luzviminda Soco yesterday said she did not understand what the problem was and asked her niece to stop crying. The line was cut shortly after. She says she and Julie Ann’s mother, a caregiver in Egypt, were unable to reach her again. Julie Ann Soco and two other Filipinos were among the dead in Monday’s fire.
PAKISTAN
Fourth nuclear missile test
The government yesterday tested the fourth nuclear-capable cruise missile since India launched a new long-range weapon capable of hitting China on April 20. The Hatf VIII air cruise missile has a range of 350km and can carry conventional warheads, the military said. It described the “low altitude, terrain-hugging missile with high maneuverability” as “state of the art” with “pinpoint accuracy.”
AFGHANISTAN
Suicide bomb kills police
A suicide bomber rammed a police checkpost yesterday, killing at least five policemen and wounding six others in Kandahar Province, an official said. The attacker drove his explosives-laden car into the checkpoint at the district police headquarters of Arghistan district, provincial governor spokesman Jawed Faisal said.
NEPAL
Supreme Court judge killed
Police say controversial Supreme Court judge Rana Bahadur Bam was shot and killed yesterday morning. Bam’s bodyguard and another passenger in his car were also wounded in the attack which occurred as the judge was driven to work after worshipping at a Hindu temple, but his driver was able to escape. Police official Rabindra Shah said two masked men on a black motorcycle drove by the judge’s car and opened fire. Bam was alleged to have taken bribes from criminals in exchange for releasing them with light sentences and fines, but the case is still under investigation.
INDIA
Army chief of staff retires
Army chief General Vijay Kumar Singh retired yesterday after a stormy tenure in office that included a series of public spats with the government. Singh took the government to the Supreme Court in January in an unprecedented dispute over his retirement due to confusion over his date of birth. He lost his lawsuit, in which he sought to remain in his post an extra year, after the court upheld the government’s stance that his birthday in official records was May 10, 1950. Known as an anti-graft campaigner, Singh embarrassed the government in March by alleging that he was offered a US$2.8 million bribe in 2010 to fix a supply contract, a complaint that was not followed up by the authorities.
UNITED STATES
Mitt wants better ‘Amercia’
Republican Mitt Romney says he is running for president in search of a better America. This week, Romney’s campaign could have used a better speller. The campaign released an iPhone app late on Tuesday that featureds slogans supporting his campaign against President Barack Obama ahead of elections on Nov. 6. “We’re With Mitt,” one read. “American Greatness,” another declared. “A Better Amercia,” a third proclaimed, a misspelling that instantly became the subject of jokes on social media. “Mistakes happen,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told MSNBC about the spelling slip. A corrected version of the app was released by Apple on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Quake disturbed ionosphere
The massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Fukushima last year wreaked havoc in the skies above as well, disturbing electrons in the upper atmosphere, NASA reported. The waves of energy from the quake and tsunami that were so destructive on the ground reached into the ionosphere, a part of the upper atmosphere that stretches from about 80km to 805km above the Earth’s surface. In images released on Friday, NASA showed how the earthly disturbances from the March 11 quake and tsunami were echoed in the movement of electrons. Scientists have seen this phenomenon after tsunamis in Samoa in 2009 and Chile in 2010. The Japanese event, however, occurred in a region more closely monitored by a dense network of GPS receivers, NASA said in a statement.
EGYPT
Two US tourists kidnapped
Security officials say two US tourists have been kidnapped while traveling in the Sinai Peninsula. The officials said armed Bedouins snatched the two while they were traveling by car from Dahab to the resort of Nuweiba early yesterday. Both resorts are on the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba. The officials said the two Americans are men in their early 30s. Bedouins have been kidnapping tourists to pressure authorities to release detained relatives or to improve basic services in their areas.
ISRAEL
Israel hands over remains
The government transferred to Palestinian authorities yesterday the bodies of dozens of Palestinian militants, saying it hoped the move would help restart peace efforts. The militants had been buried, some of them for decades, in a desolate military cemetery for “enemy combatants” in the occupied West Bank. They included several suicide bombers. The remains of 80 Palestinians were handed over to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ administration in the West Bank and 11 bodies were slated for transfer to the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.
IRAQ
Bombings hit Baghdad
A spate of bombings in Baghdad yesterday killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more, with the deadliest violence to hit the capital in weeks breaking a relative calm. Roadside bombs and explosives-packed cars detonated across a half-dozen neighborhoods in the north, south and west of Baghdad, underlining persistent security concerns even as international energy companies met in the center of the capital to bid on oil and gas exploration blocks. The deadliest attack took place in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Shuala, where a car bomb killed at least four people and wounded 14 others, an interior ministry official and a medic said.
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
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
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