PAKISTAN
Militants bomb four schools
Suspected Taliban militants yesterday bombed four boys’ schools in the northwestern tribal belt, officials said, in the latest attack on government educational institutions. No one was injured in the pre-dawn blasts in the Mohmand tribal district, where officials said Taliban attacks have destroyed more than 100 schools. “Militants from TTM [Tehreek-e-Taliban Mohmand] blew up the buildings of four schools at around 2:30am,” an intelligence official in Mohmand said. Liaqat Ali, a government official, confirmed the incident and said that militants planted locally made explosives to dynamite the school buildings.
INDONESIA
No pressure to go: minister
Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo yesterday denied he was being pushed out of his job, dismissing speculation that he was being shifted to the post of central bank governor because he had crossed swords with politically powerful businessmen. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unexpectedly nominated Martowardojo to replace Darmin Nasution, whose term as Bank Indonesia governor ends in May. There has been no clear explanation from the presidential palace why either man is moving from his current job nor who would be the new finance minister if Martowardojo is approved by parliament to head Bank Indonesia, which MPs will debate later next month.
CHINA
Six held over fatal stampede
Authorities have detained six people after a stampede at a primary school saw four children die in an incident in which they were crushed against a locked gate, a local official said yesterday. The six — including the principal — were among 12 people being investigated for the accident in Laohekou in Hubei Province, a city official said. The stampede happened at 6am on Wednesday when large numbers of pupils left their school dormitory, on the fourth floor, and attempted to exit the block. The ground floor gate was closed, resulting in the crush. Another seven pupils were injured in the stampede, although the ages of those involved was unclear.
AFGHANISTAN
Officer ‘kills’ 17 colleagues
A police officer drugged 17 colleagues and shot them dead on Wednesday with the aid of the Taliban, police said, the latest in a series of so-called “insider” attacks involving Afghan security forces and the Taliban. The killings, the worst in a string of similar attacks in recent months, occurred at a remote Afghan Local Police outpost in the eastern province of Ghazni. “An infiltrated local policeman first drugged all 17 of his comrades, and then called the Taliban and they together shot them all,” Ghazni chief police detective Mohammad Hassan said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
INDONESIA
Mom kills son over penis
A 38-year-old woman drowned her nine-year-old son in the bath, claiming she was worried that his “small penis” would affect his prospects for the future, police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name, said yesterday. The woman from Jakarta told police her son had had a small penis prior to being circumcised, but that it appeared to shrink further after the operation, Rikwanto said. “She told police investigators that she killed him, as he would have a bleak future with his small penis,” he said. Police have ordered a psychological test to assess her mental condition, Rikwanto said.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
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