HAITI
At least 15 killed in slum
Deadly pre-election violence has flared up in and around the nation’s most notorious slum and resulted in the killings of two pregnant women and at least 13 other people in the densely populated district of shacks, community organizers and politicians said on Monday. Official numbers of the slain around Cite Soleil were hard to pin down, but Esau Bouchard, a government-appointed mayor in Cite Soleil, said at least 10 people were killed within the district’s boundaries over the last few days, and others that he described as gangsters were gunned down in shootouts with police. He told Radio Solidarite that the violence appeared to be politically motivated.
UNITED STATES
Bin Attash might defend self
A Guantanamo Bay prisoner, who is facing trial by military tribunal over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, on Monday told a judge that he might want to represent himself. Yemeni prisoner Walid bin Attash told the judge that he wanted to know more about the procedures involved in representing himself, indicating that he was frustrated that his court-appointed lawyers, a civilian and a member of the military, have not been able to resolve long-standing complaints about conditions in a maximum-security section of the base. The judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, cut off Bin Attash before he could go into detail about his complaints, turning the discussion in court instead to the practical issues involved with a defendant representing himself while held under such tight security.
UNITED STATES
‘Stoner’ claims e-mail hacks
An anonymous hacker claims to have breached CIA Director John Brennan’s personal e-mail account and has posted documents online, including a list of e-mail addresses purportedly from Brennan’s contact file. The hacker spoke to the New York Post, which described him in an article published on Sunday as “a stoner high-school student,” motivated by his opposition to the nation’s foreign policy and support for Palestinians. The hacker also claimed to have breached a Comcast account belonging to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and released what appeared to be personal information.
COLOMBIA
Pastrana urges crash probe
Former president Andres Pastrana is calling for a thorough investigation into what led to the crash of a small airplane minutes before it was scheduled to transport him to a campaign rally. The twin-engine Beechcraft on Sunday hurled into a crowded Bogota neighborhood shortly after takeoff from the capital’s airport. Six people were killed and eight more injured. Pastrana and former minister of national defense Marta Lucia Ramirez were waiting for the airplane at a regional airport outside Bogota when the crash took place. The group was scheduled to take the airplane to attend a rally in support of Conservative Party candidates running in Sunday’s mayoral and gubernatorial elections.
COLOMBIA
Police arrest drug mules
Police on Monday said that they had arrested a family of four, including a teenager, that were carrying a total of 91 cocaine and heroin capsules in their stomachs. The “drug mules,” who were on their way to the Dominican Republic, were carrying more than 3kg of the illicit drugs, police said. The parents, who worked as street vendors, and the son, a mason, face trial. The daughter was put into the care of child protection services.
JAPAN
Lawmakers visit Yasukuni
Scores of lawmakers yesterday visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. The group of 73 politicians and 96 representatives of other lawmakers went to the shrine to mark the autumn festival. The visit came after Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Sanae Takaichi and Minister of Justice Mitsuhide Iwaki visited on Sunday. “With the [parliament] session closed, the group was smaller this time. Still, we prayed and paid our sincere respects” at the shrine, former minister of health Hidehisa Otsuji told a news conference.
CHINA
Youngsters kill teachers
Media reports say three boys aged 11 to 13 killed a teacher and stole her cellphone and about 2,000 yuan (US$330) in cash in Hunan Province. The state-run Beijing News yesterday reported that the boys were hanging out around an elementary school in Lianqiao Township on Sunday when they decided to rob the teacher guarding the school. The suspects — who attend other schools — reportedly beat the 52-year-old teacher with a stick of wood, stuffed her mouth with cloth and dragged her into a bathroom, where she died.
CHINA
Magna Carta show moved
A Magna Carta exhibition scheduled for the Guanfu Museum in Shanghai has been switched to the British consulate — the second time the declaration of rights has been moved from a public venue. The exhibition was relocated last week from a university in Beijing to the British ambassador’s residence at the last minute. Organizers in Shanghai said the museum was not ready to host the exhibit since it is in the new Shanghai Tower, which is not yet open to the public and does not yet have its fire service inspection certificate.
SOUTH KOREA
Nakatani in Seoul for talks
Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani yesterday held talks in Seoul with his counterpart Han Min-koo. It is the first time a Japanese defense minister has traveled to Seoul in nearly five years, although the two men met in Singapore in May. Nakatani was expected to brief Han on the recent passage of new laws broadening the role of the Japanese military.
CHINA
Fake ‘inspectors’ nabbed
Police in Heilongjiang Province have arrested three people and are looking for a fourth who built a fake interrogation center and pretended to be graft inspectors, kidnapping a local official and his wife to extort money. Four people forced their way into the home of an agricultural official in August and took the couple away with hoods over their heads, media reports said. The couple were driven to a building and put in a room set up to look like an interrogation room, media said. The official finally offered to pay 200,000 yuan (US$31,500) and the two sides ended up settling on 400,000 yuan. When the couple were freed to go get the money, the official called the police.
AUSTRALIA
Abbot to pay damages
Former prime minister Tony Abbott said he would pay for a marble table damaged during a reported “wild party” in parliament after he was deposed in a Liberal party coup on Sept. 14. Abbott said he hosted drinks with staff and colleagues in a Cabinet room in Canberra. “During this event, a coffee table was damaged,” he said late on Monday, adding that he had asked to be sent the bill.
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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