■ 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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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