■ JAPAN
Tokyo drops Raptor plans
The government is likely to drop its attempts to buy state-of-the-art US F-22 Raptor stealth fighter planes since it expects the US to stop producing them, a newspaper reported yesterday. The government had been trying to persuade the US to sell it F-22 Raptors to replace its own aging F-15 fleet, despite Washington’s reluctance. Tokyo, however, is now abandoning the plan amid signs that US president-elect Barack Obama’s new administration may halt production of the aircraft, the Daily Yomiuri said, quoting government sources.
■MALAYSIA
Anwar says no ‘Hadud’
The political party of former prime minister Anwar Ibrahim denied yesterday it would push to impose strict Islamic laws, such as punishing theft by amputation, if it came to power. Speculation has been rife about what Anwar’s party would do after a member of his opposition coalition said last week that Hudud — an area of Islamic criminal law covering punishments for certain deeds — would be instituted for Muslims in the multi-ethnic country. The speculation deepened because Anwar has yet to respond to those comments, but a member of his Keadilan party said it had no plans for Hudud in the country. The Muslim-majority country has traditionally been seen as moderate on such issues.
■BANGLADESH
Truck kills 24 hitchhikers
A truck loaded with iron rods veered off a road, killing 24 hitchhikers riding in the back and injuring 13 others yesterday in northern Bangladesh, a traffic police official said. Official A.K.M. Mujibul Haque said the accident in northern Tangail district happened when the driver apparently lost control and the truck fell into a roadside ditch. He said at least 23 people died at the scene while another man died on the way to a local hospital. Tangail is 72km north of the capital, Dhaka. Haque said the truck was heading for the northern district of Bogra from Dhaka, and most of the passengers on the back of the truck were traveling home to cast votes in today’s national elections.
■INDIA
Singh praises Kashmir vote
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the higher-than-expected turnout in elections in disputed Kashmir a “vote for democracy” yesterday, as early counting showed no one party dominating the polls. Despite a boycott call by separatists and armed rebels, more than 60 percent of voters participated in the multi-stage elections that came after a period of direct rule from New Delhi. The elections had to be held in seven stages to ensure security in the Himalayan region, where at least 47,000 people have been killed in violence linked to a long-running Muslim insurgency against New Delhi rule.
■CHINA
Tunnel under Yangtze opens
The country opened its first road tunnel under the Yangtze River yesterday, a move expected to cut travel time and ease traffic congestion in the central city of Wuhan, a state news agency reported. Construction began in November 2004 on the 1.7 billion yuan (US$250 million) tunnel, which stretches for 3.5km under China’s longest river, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The four-lane road connects Wuchang district — which is home to government offices and universities — to the business district of Hankou, and was expected to cut travel time between the two areas from a half-hour to just a few minutes, Xinhua said. It will also relieve traffic congestion in the city, the report said.
■LIBYA
US ambassador arrives
The first US ambassador in three decades arrived in Tripoli on Saturday, in a further sign of improving ties. Gene Cretz, a career diplomat whose foreign postings have included Tel Aviv, Damascus, Cairo, Islamabad, New Delhi and Beijing, said he would strive to broaden links between Tripoli and Washington. “I’m happy to be in Libya,” he told reporters on his arrival at Tripoli airport, naming business and tourism among his priorities for expanded cooperation. Ties have improved dramatically since Tripoli’s December 2003 decision to abandon the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and the subsequent resolution of disputes over bombings that Washington long blamed on it.
■FRANCE
Homeless take over gym
About 100 homeless people, including families with children, took over a Paris gymnasium on Saturday, demanding “asylum” from the mayor amid a cold snap after several people died sleeping outside. Mayor Bertrand Delanoe agreed to let the group stay in the city gym, a few blocks from Notre Dame cathedral, until it reopens after the New Year’s holidays. The homeless families were organized by the activist group Right to Housing, which has gained nationwide attention for its actions to defend the homeless. Spokesman Jean-Baptiste Eyraud said the group took over the Saint-Merri municipal gymnasium and let in several homeless people and families on Saturday because “we thought they were in danger.”
■UNITED KINGDOM
Prince in dog scandal
Prince Edward was in hot water with animal rights charities yesterday after using a stick to break up a dog fight. Edward, the third son and youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II, was pictured in newspapers waving a 1.2m stick at gundogs. The 44-year-old Earl of Wessex was pictured in newspapers with his shotgun under his arm and the stick in the air, and then with the stick very close to one of the dogs’ heads. The dogs were fighting over a dead pheasant during a shooting outing. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “It has not been determined that he did strike the dog.”
■UNITED KINGDOM
Tourists warned to behave
Holidaymakers to the United Arab Emirates have been told not to have sex outside marriage or kiss in public, in strong British government warnings over how to behave in Muslim countries. The advice follows allegations of drunken sex romps. The Foreign Office is worried that increasing numbers of tourists will get into trouble abroad as they the travel to less traditional holiday destinations and fall foul of local laws and customs. The number of Britons going to Egypt this year increased by 38 percent and to Turkey by 32 percent.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Nurse rescued from trunk
A nurse found in the trunk of her car suffering from hypothermia and dehydration may have been there for up to 10 days, police said on Saturday. Magdeline Makola, 38, was wearing nightclothes and had been tied up. She was found in her vehicle in Airdrie, east of Glasgow, on Friday. She was said to be suffering minor injuries and “extremely traumatized,” making it difficult to interview her. Makola had not been seen since she left work at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Dec. 15. Her bank card had been used in Airdrie and a police officer searching the town’s streets heard her cries for help. Officers smashed the car windows to get to the trunk.
■UNITED STATES
Sam Huntington dies at 81
Samuel Huntington, a political scientist best known for his views on the clash of civilizations, died on Wednesday in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, Harvard University announced on Saturday. He was 81. Huntington had retired from active teaching last year after 58 years at Harvard. His research and teaching focused on the US government, democratization, military politics, strategy and civil-military relations. He argued that in a post-Cold War world, violent conflict would come not from ideological friction between countries, but from cultural and religious differences among the world’s major civilizations.
■UNITED STATES
Shhh, or I’ll shoot!
A man enraged by a noisy family sitting near him in a movie theater on Christmas night shot the father of the family in the arm, police said. James Joseph Cialella, 29, of Philadelphia, told the man’s family to be quiet, then threw popcorn at the man’s son, police said. The victim told police that Cialella was walking toward his family when he stood up and was shot. Detectives called to the United Artists Riverview Stadium theater in South Philadelphia found Cialella carrying the weapon, a .380-caliber handgun, in his waistband, police said. Cialella faces six charges that include attempted murder and aggravated assault.
■UNITED STATES
Crackers hold surprise
The box of crackers Debra Rogoff bought from the grocery store had some crackerjack in it — an envelope stuffed with US$10,000. Yet the Irvine, California, woman was more curious than ecstatic about her daughter’s find. After all, who would leave money in such a place? “We just thought, ‘This is someone’s money,’” she said. “We would never feel good about spending it.” Rather than go on a shopping spree, the family called police and was initially told the money could be part of a drug drop. Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. In a mixup the store restocked the box rather than composting it.
■BOLIVIA
Coca used for cocaine
President Evo Morales acknowledged on Saturday for the first time in his nearly three years in office that a portion of coca produced in the country is used to make cocaine. Morales, who remains the top leader of the South American country’s coca-producing unions, also said that his government is aware that some farmers in the central coca-producing region of Chapare are violating a law that limits each family to producing 1,640m² of coca for medicine and food. “Not all of our coca goes to legal markets,” Morales told union leaders in Chapare during a speech broadcast on government radio Patria Nueva.
■SWEDEN
Goat burned down — again
A giant Christmas straw goat that has been targeted in a violent Christmas tradition for four decades was burned down yet again on Saturday, an official said. “It was set on fire early in the morning; it’s very sad,” goat committee spokeswoman Anna Ostman said. “People from 105 countries have followed the goat via the Web cams and many become really sad when they learn that he’s burned down. We have heard from a lot of people, including the United States.” Vandals have burned the 13m goat 23 times since it was first set up in the central city of Gavle on Dec. 3, 1966, to mark the holiday season.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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