■CHINA
Diabetes drug kills two
The Ministry of Health has ordered doctors around the country to stop prescribing a diabetes drug after a fake batch of the medicine was linked to the deaths of two patients. The patients died in Xinjiang Province after taking counterfeit medication that carried the brand of Guangxi Pingnan Pharmaceutical Co, but had not been produced by that company, the ministry said in a statement on Friday. It called on medical institutions to submit their stocks of the drug to local authorities for quality testing. Last month the government said it dealt with 297,500 cases of “illegal drugs and medical equipment” last year and warned that the economic slowdown could lead to more such cases as struggling drug makers cut corners and violated standards.
■PHILIPPINES
Rebels turn to extortion
Muslim separatist guerrillas in the south are attacking rural businesses as part of extortion schemes, the military claimed yesterday. Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters have burned equipment belonging to construction companies and warned of further destruction unless they are paid a monthly protection fee, the military said. Regional military spokeswoman Lieutenant Steffani Cachoe said the rebels were resorting to extortion to “project their power and sustain their daily operations.” “We call on the MILF hierarchy to address these issues and punish their erring commanders and subordinates,” she said. The government is seeking to resume peace talks with the MILF which stalled when the Supreme Court struck down a draft accord that would have given the rebels autonomy over their own Muslim homeland in the south.
■PAKISTAN
Poland appeals to Islamabad
Poland has asked Islamabad to do everything it can to free a Polish citizen kidnapped by suspected militants four months ago. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski made the request in a phone call on Friday to his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi. The call followed a report in the Dawn newspaper that the kidnappers were threatening to kill the Pole if Islamabad refuses to remove its troops from their tribal areas and release jailed comrades by Wednesday. The hostage, a geologist, was kidnapped on Sept. 28.
■INDIA
Newborns die in blaze
Five newborns, all less than a week old, were killed and another was injured in the north after a short circuit sparked a fire in the hospital maternity ward where they were being treated for jaundice. The blaze began before dawn at the state-run Rajendra hospital in the city of Patiala, apparently after a machine that helps treat jaundiced babies by exposing them to a special light malfunctioned, police officer Pritpal Singh said. Five other newborns were rescued, including one that suffered burns. All the babies were under a week old and receiving treatment under the phototherapy machine. “There was a short circuit in the tubes of the machines,” hospital superintendent Surinder Singh told a local TV station.
■INDONESIA
Six killed in landslide
A landslide triggered by heavy rain killed six people and injured another in Central Java Province, an official said yesterday. The victims were in their homes in Karanganyar district when they were buried by a torrent of mud on Friday night, said Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Health Ministry’s crisis center. Another person was hospitalized with serious injuries, he said.
■MOROCCO
Man jailed over dog meat
Taking things a little too literally, a man was jailed for six years for selling customers dog meat instead of beef, a judicial source said on Friday. The man, who admitted mixing the dog meat with chemicals to conceal the different smell and color, was also made to pay a fine of 10,000 dirhams (US$1,185). A Casablanca court also sentenced four other men to between eight months and four years in prison for their part in hunting and shooting the dogs.
■SERBIA
Parliament protests tennis
Parliament stopped work for two hours on Thursday in protest at a decision by state television (RTS) to broadcast a tennis match instead of the latest episode of the legislative session. Serbia’s tennis players have been very successful of late, and on Thursday RTS aired the Australian Open semifinal between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer, even though Serbia’s defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic had exited in the previous round.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Court fines drunken rider
Using a 19th-century law, a British court has fined a man £150 (US$215) after be admitted riding a horse while drunk. Godfrey Blacklin pleaded guilty to a charge under the 1872 Licensing Act of being drunk in charge of a carriage horse, cattle or steam engine. Prosecuting lawyer David Thompson told Newcastle Magistrates Court it was “not a charge you see every day.” He said 31-year-old Blacklin was stopped by police while riding bareback in Newcastle, northeast England, in October. Officers found he was unsteady on his feet and slurring his words.
■GUATEMALA
Prosecutor a wanted man
Authorities have ordered the arrest of a top prosecutor, alleging he destroyed evidence in an investigation linked to the unsolved murders of three Salvadoran politicians, officials said on Friday. Attorney General Amilcar Velasquez Zarate told a news conference a judge ordered the arrest of Alvaro Matus on Thursday after considering the evidence presented by the country’s anti-corruption agency. Police have not yet located Matus, Velasquez said. Matus had been leading the probe into the slaying of a senior Interior Ministry official who had been investigating the killing of the politicians. “We’re talking about an act of organized crime which has been concealed within the public prosecutor’s office,” Carlos Castresana, the anti-corruption commission head said at the news conference. “We know of at least a dozen concrete examples — searches that should have been carried out and weren’t, documents that disappeared.” The charred, bullet-riddled bodies of the three Salvadoran representatives to a regional parliament were found on a back road in February 2007. Authorities say drug gangs were behind the killings and the case has shed light on illegal armed groups operating within Guatemala’s security forces and possible links between high-level officials and organized crime. At least eight people linked to the case have been killed, including the four police officers accused of shooting the politicians.
■UNITED STATES
Bus crash kills six tourists
At least six people were killed and more than a dozen were injured after a bus carrying a Chinese tour group crashed in Arizona on Friday, police and local media said. A spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety confirmed six people had died and 16 were injured in the accident, which occurred near Dolan Springs, 365km northwest of Phoenix.
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
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
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
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