■INDIA
Saving Gandhi’s belongings
The country is preparing legislation to prevent more of Mohandas Gandhi’s belongings being auctioned off abroad, after a recent sale sparked outrage, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday. A senior official at the ministry of culture told the news agency that the government planned to obtain injunctions in advance in European and US courts against possible auctions of Gandhi’s possessions. “We want to preempt any auction of Gandhi items in the future by making it known that selling or buying these heritage articles is illegal,” the official was quoted as saying. “No one has the right to do this.”
■MYANMAR
New pagoda inaugurated
In a ceremony presided over by military supremo Senior General Than Shwe and attended by the junta hierarchy, a new pagoda for the capital of Naypyitaw was inaugurated on Saturday, media reports said yesterday. Than Shwe and his wife Kyaing Kyaing presided over the hoisting of the umbrella on top of the Uppatasanti Pagoda on Saturday in Naypyitaw, the country’s capital since 2004 that is situated about 350km north of Yangon, the former capital. The couple also donated a Buddha tooth relic, provided by China, to be placed inside the pagoda, the first to be opened in Naypyitaw since it became the country’s new capital, the New Light of Myanmar reported.
■PHILIPPINES
Rebels kill three fishermen
Gunmen attacked a fishing boat in the volatile south, shooting to death three fishermen and abducting two others, officials said yesterday. Government troops and police were trying to determine who was behind Thursday’s attack off Basilan Island, where al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants have been blamed for a surge in kidnappings for ransom, navy Commodore Alex Pama said. The gunmen on a motorboat approached the fishing vessel and opened fire. The two surviving fishermen were abducted and the boat’s engine and fishing equipment were seized, Basilan Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakkalahul said.
■AUSTRALIA
Cyclone Hamish closes in
Thousands of holidaymakers fled one of the country’s top tourist destinations yesterday as a tropical cyclone lashed the northeast coast. Authorities in Queensland State ordered the evacuation of Fraser Island as Tropical Cyclone Hamish approached the World Heritage-listed site shortly after it was upgraded to a category five storm, the most severe on the weather scale. The cyclone has been tracking south about 120km off the Queensland coast, but meteorologists warn its path is unpredictable and it could veer onto the mainland, potentially sparking a major disaster. Five tourist islands have been evacuated.
■AFGHANISTAN
Two policemen killed
A joint Afghan-coalition patrol killed two Afghan policemen who opened fire on their team in the northeast, the coalition said in a statement yesterday. The joint patrol was conducting an operation against a senior insurgent leader in Kapisa Province late on Friday when the policemen began shooting, despite attempts to identify themselves as friendly forces, the statement said. “In self-defense, the patrol returned fire killing two individuals,” it said. The coalition said it is reviewing the incident. “We sincerely regret the loss of life of our friendly forces and we are continually working with our Afghan partners to prevent situations like this from happening in the future,” said Colonel Greg Julian, a spokesman for US forces.
■FRANCE
Two die in rail accident
Two people were killed and 11 injured on Saturday when a commuter train hit them while they were on the rails between the northern Paris suburbs of Aubervilliers and Saint-Denis, firefighters said. The accident took place when a train hit the people who were on the railway overpass crossing a highway, firefighters said. Children were among the victims, and three of the injured were in serious condition, they said.
■UNITED STATES
Never too late to confess
Some New York City Catholic churches are trying to send a message that it’s never too late to come to confession. A few churches stayed open from Friday night through early Saturday morning in hope of boosting participation in one of the faith’s sacraments, the New York Times reported. Several other parishes offered extended hours. Organizers and the Archdiocese of New York say the event was the first of its kind in the city. Organizer Mario Bruschi says at least 855 confessions were made as part of the event.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Crash was an ‘accident’
The government said late on Saturday it believed the automobile crash that injured Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and killed his wife Susan was indeed an accident and not a politically motivated attack as some have alleged. The truck that collided with Tsvangirai’s car belonged to a British-American organization, the foreign ministry said in London. The evidence points to an accident, a spokeswoman said. In a statement released in South Africa on Saturday, Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) described the crash as a “perfect organized hit.” In Zimbabwe, leading MDC members stopped short of such a direct accusation, but said they were making their own investigations, and accused the government of failing to provide the protection of a police escort for Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai survived Friday’s crash with minor injuries after his vehicle was hit by an oncoming truck but his wife was killed.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Demo protests PRC rule
More than 1,000 people gathered in London on Saturday for a demonstration against Chinese rule in Tibet ahead of this week’s 50th anniversary of a failed uprising. The crowd held banners with such slogans as “Stop the torture in Tibet” and “China stole my land, my voice, my freedom.” The Tibet Society of the UK said the march set off from the Chinese embassy, where an open letter which it said featured documentary evidence of torture, was delivered by Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso, who was imprisoned for 33 years. “It is a shameful indictment of the Chinese government that 50 years after its brutal crackdown on the Tibetan people, they continue using the same policies today,” said Philippa Carrick, the society’s chief executive.
■IRAN
Karzai to attend summit
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is to visit Tehran to attend an economic summit beginning on Wednesday, Hamshahri newspaper reported yesterday. The newspaper, quoting foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi, said that the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Turkey will attend the summit. Karzai’s visit to Iran gains significance as the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that Iran will be invited for an international conference later this month to solve the crisis in Afghanistan.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
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