■ Malaysia
Bush victory `a disaster'
Malaysia's outspoken former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said it would be "a disaster" if US President George W. Bush was re-elected. Urging US Muslims to back Democrat challenger Senator John Kerry, Mahathir said Kerry was unlikely to repeat Bush's mistake of alienating Muslims if he won. "I feel that if you vote Bush in, then it means you are approving all the things he has done," Mahathir said. "That would be a disaster." At the last US election and while he was still in power, Mahathir told Americans to support Bush against Al Gore, the man he accused of supporting former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
■ Japan
Fischer hoping for Kerry win
Bobby Fischer, the US chess legend turned critic of his country, was closely watching yesterday's presidential election from detention in Japan, believing his fight against deportation will get a boost if George W. Bush loses, his lawyer said. The maverick chess giant could be imprisoned for up to 10 years in the US for playing in Yugoslavia in 1992 against Boris Spassky in violation of US sanctions against Belgrade imposed over the Balkan wars. "If Bush wins, things may not change, but things may get better" if John Kerry becomes president, lawyer Masako Suzuki said, calling the Fischer case "very much politically affected."
■ United States
Singers lend weight to Kerry
Motown legend Stevie Wonder on Monday became the latest pop superstar to line up behind Senator John Kerry, on the eve of his showdown at the polls with US President George W. Bush. Wonder played a set before Kerry's rally in Detroit, Michigan, including a rendition of America the Beautiful on his harmonica. Kerry was later due to link up with another superstar backer, Bruce Springsteen in Cleveland, Ohio, and earlier in the day, rocker Bon Jovi opened a gig for him in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
■ JAPAN
Acupuncturist bets on Kerry
A British acupuncturist in Tokyo has promised to treat everyone who walks into his clinic for free today if US President George W. Bush loses the election -- even the would-be ex-president himself. Edward Obaidey, who treats about 20 people a day, said he stood to lose about
?120,000 (US$1,130) if Senator John Kerry wins. Obaidey said he decided to make his offer after hearing widespread anger about Bush from his patients, even ones who tend to be apolitical. Obaidey, who has worked in Tokyo for nearly 20 years, said he would consider making a similar offer when Britain holds its next general election. "If [Prime Minister Tony] Blair is out, maybe I'll do another campaign for that."
■ Australia
Howard stumps for Bush
The government has defended its open support for President George W. Bush in the US election, saying it was inevitable center-right governments would back one another. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied Prime Minister John Howard's comment that he was hoping for a Bush win had damaged the allies' close relationship. Downer said the Howard and Bush governments "have been very closely entwined" for four years, a period that included Australia's support and participation in the US-led war in Iraq.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
TRUDEAU IN TROUBLE: US president-elect Donald Trump reacted to Chrystia Freeland’s departure, saying: ‘Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday quit in a surprise move after disagreeing with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over US president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats. The resignation of Freeland, 56, who also stepped down as finance minister, marked the first open dissent against Trudeau from within his Cabinet, and could threaten his hold on power. Liberal leader Trudeau lags 20 points in polls behind his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, who has tried three times since September to topple the government and force a snap election. “It’s not been an easy day,” Trudeau said at a fundraiser Monday evening, but
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