■ Afghanistan
Forty killed in battle
Forty suspected Taliban rebels were killed in a battle with US and Afghan troops, the US military said yesterday, doubling the toll from the bloodiest firefights since the regime launched a spring offensive. Initial reports said only 20 militants died in the clash on Tuesday, while six US servicemen and five Afghan police were injured. The clash in the troubled district of Deh Chopan was sparked when militants kidnapped three local doctors and police tried to free them.
■ India
Cowcatchers miss deadline
Cow catchers in New Delhi missed a court deadline yesterday to clear the city's streets of stray cows and buffaloes. Hundreds of cows and bulls continued to wander aimlessly, park themselves in the middle of busy roads and feast at overflowing garbage dumps, despite a April 28 High Court order to remove all stray cattle from the city within a week. "From September 2003 we have rounded up about 30,000 cows. There are around 35,000 still on the roads," a veterinary officer said yesterday. Since the court order, Delhi officials managed to catch a mere 200 cows.
■ Australia
Teacher sentenced for sex
A teacher was sentenced yesterday to six months in prison for having sex with one of her pupils after prosecutors appealed that her original suspended sentence was too lenient. The Victorian Court of Appeal overturned the original 22-month suspended sentence imposed by a County Court judge on mother-of-three Karen Louise Ellis, 37. Under the ruling, Ellis would not have been jailed unless she committed a crime during the period. Yesterday, the appeal court sentenced her to two years and eight months, suspending all but six months. Ellis had pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual penetration with a boy under 16. Her lawyer said his client would consider an appeal. "She's taking it pretty hard at the moment," he said.
■ Afghanistan
Six confess to kidnappings
Six men in police custody have confessed to kidnapping three UN workers in Kabul last year. The men have "confessed to their crime and have told us how they designed this plan," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said, adding that the six were also suspected of armed robbery. The three UN election workers -- one each from the Philippines, Northern Ireland and Kosovo -- were seized at gunpoint last October and were released unharmed a month later. Jalali declined to identify the six. Aid workers in Kabul earlier this week were warned that criminals might try to kidnap another foreigner in an attempt to force the release of those in custody.
■ Philippines
Former rebel leader dies
Luis Taruc, a legendary guerrilla leader who led Philippine resistance against the Japanese occupation during World War II and later a failed communist uprising, has died from a heart attack at age 92. Born to peasants on June 21, 1913, Taruc and his brothers Jose and Jesus Lava in 1942 formed the People's Army Against the Japanese, known as Hukbalahap, or Huks, one of the best organized anti-Japanese resistance movements in Asia. Many poor farmers were attracted to the Huks because of their emphasis on land reform. The government launched a vigorous US-backed military campaign against the guerrillas, and in 1954, following months of negotiation, Taruc surrendered. He spent 12 years in prison before being pardoned by dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
■ Northern Ireland
Suspect to be charged
A man is to be charged with murder over the 1998 Omagh bombing which killed 29 people, the bloodiest attack in three decades of violence in Northern Ireland, an authoritative source said on Wednesday. Prosecutors have given police the go-ahead to charge a 35-year-old man with the murders of those who died, the source said. The source said the charges were likely to be formally put to the suspect, who is in custody awaiting trial for other terrorism offences, later this month.
■ Austria
Pensioner threatens firemen
A 79-year-old unidentified retiree who mistook firefighters for burglars as they arrived to douse a small blaze at his apartment complex threatened to shoot them with a gas-powered pistol, police said on Wednesday. Authorities confiscated the pistol and two other loaded gas weapons after Tuesday's incident in St. Poelten, about 80km west of Vienna. The weapons are powered with CO<<2>> cartridges that shoot projectiles, unlike conventional guns that use bullets or shells. It was unclear whether the man would face charges.
■ Colombia
US soldiers arrested
Officials said on Wednesday they had detained two US military personnel, including a reported lieutenant colonel, suspected of smuggling arms to right-wing paramilitaries in the South American country. A US embassy official in Bogota confirmed that the two men had been arrested on Tuesday and that the embassy was working to clarify the events surrounding their arrests. Colombian television channel RCN named the two as Lieutenant Colonel Alan Norman and Sergeant Jose Hernandez, saying the men were assigned to a training unit here. According to officials, three Colombians are also involved in the case.
■ Russia
Tonne of explosives found
A truck carrying more than a tonne of explosives was found near the Chechen capital, Grozny, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service said yesterday. Major General Ilya Shabalkin, chief spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus region, said that the Kamaz truck contained about 1,200kg of explosives and that it was connected with a major attack allegedly planned by Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev, Doku Umarov and Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, the successor to slain rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.
■ Mexico
Mayor acquitted in Fox fight
Mexico's government has cleared the capital's mayor of wrongdoing, conceding defeat in a political fight that ousted an attorney general and raised criticisms that President Vicente Fox was unfairly targeting his top rival. Prosecutors dropped all charges against Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday. Constitutional term limits bar Fox from running again, and Lopez Obrador is the leading candidate to replace him, according to most opinion polls. Last month, Congress voted to strip the mayor of the immunity from prosecution his office brings, allowing prosecutors to press charges he abused his power by ignoring a judge's order to stop construction of a hospital access road on private land. Lopez Obrador claimed Fox's government trumped up the case to keep him out of the presidential election.
■ Italy
Berlusconi eases tensions
US soldiers bear some responsibility for the death of an Italian agent in Baghdad, but the incident should not affect the Italian troop presence in Iraq or relations between Italy and the US, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told parliament yesterday. He said that Italy's commitment to retaining troops in Iraq would not be affected by the row over the death of Nicola Calipari soon after he rescued journalist Giuliana Sgrena from kidnappers in late March. The prime minister stressed irregularities committed by the US patrol, who "did not have precise instructions."
■ Canada
Air India case dropped
Prosecutors will not appeal the acquittals in the Air India bombing case because they believe they have no chance of winning a new trial, Prosecutor Geoffrey Gaul said on Wednesday. He said that since Justice Ian Josephson's judgment was based on the fact that he didn't believe the evidence of prosecution witnesses, it couldn't win an appeal because the judge had made no error in law. "The trial judge's judgment is profoundly fact-driven," Gaul told reporters. "An appellate court will not interfere in such findings." Canadians Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were found innocent of murder and conspiracy charges March 16 in the bombing of Air India Flight 182. It blew up June 23, 1985, off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board.
■ United States
Analyst arrested in spy probe
The FBI arrested a Defense Department analyst on Wednesday on a charge alleging he passed classified information about potential Iranian-backed attacks against US forces in Iraq to employees of a pro-Israel group. Larry Franklin, 58, turned himself in Wednesday. He made a brief appearance in a suburban US District Court and was released on US$100,000 bond under the condition he surrender his firearms and passport. The single charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years. A preliminary hearing was set for May 27. The charge is the first in an investigation dating to 2001 about whether Israel obtained classified US information.
■ United States
Rights victim to be exhumed
A half century after the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till shocked the US and galvanized the civil rights movement, his body will be exhumed as authorities attempt to determine who killed him, the FBI said. Till's body, buried in a cemetery in a Chicago suburb, will be exhumed within the next few weeks for an autopsy. Till was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Mississippi on Aug. 28, 1955, reportedly for whistling at a white woman at a grocery store. His mutilated body was found by fishermen three days later in the Tallahatchie River. It was unrecognizable and his mother was only able to identify him because of a ring.
■ Saudi Arabia
Crackdown paying off
A Saudi crackdown on the abuse of charities and other avenues of terrorism financing has led to a sharp drop in funding for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, according to Hamas, Middle Eastern and US officials. A Hamas official in the West Bank confirmed Saudi funding had dwindled significantly since the kingdom cracked down on charities after bombings in the kingdom in 2003, and that Hamas had been hit hard by the drop in revenue.
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
Czech intelligence chief Michal Koudelka has spent decades uncovering Russian spy networks, sabotage attempts and disinformation campaigns against Europe. Speaking in an interview from a high-security compound on the outskirts of Prague, he is now warning allies that pushing Kyiv to accept significant concessions to end the war in Ukraine would only embolden the Kremlin. “Russia would spend perhaps the next 10 to 15 years recovering from its huge human and economic losses and preparing for the next target, which is central and eastern Europe,” said Koudelka, a major general who heads the country’s Security Information Service. “If Ukraine loses, or is forced
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
RSS