■SINGAPORE
Father, son jump to deaths
A father and his son fell to their deaths from an apartment block within two hours of each other, news reports said yesterday. The son, Selvaraja Suppiah, 26, fell on Saturday after he had locked his parents and other family members in the apartment, the Straits Times reported. When civil defense officers freed the family and discovered the body of the dead son on the foot of the block, his father, Nadeson Suppiah, 55, became hysterical and jumped to his death.
■BANGLADESH
Nation on high alert
Security has been stepped up at government installations across the country amid fears of possible attacks by Islamists or criminal gangs, officials said yesterday. The alert comes as Bangladesh prepares to put dozens of people alleged to have committed war crimes during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence on trial. Security officials also fear a backlash following the recent arrest of three close associates of underworld don Daud Ibrahim.
■HONG KONG
Police probe bus sex video
Police yesterday were investigating a video circulating on the Internet showing a teenage girl performing a sex act on a man on a bus to earn money toward a designer handbag. The video showed the girl performing oral sex on the man on the upper deck of a bus. The description of the video, which has been posted on a number of popular Internet forums, said: “Pay HK$200 [US$26] and get this service from a 17-year-old Hong Kong student. She wants to buy Gucci bag.” Two other passengers were sitting in front of the man and girl, apparently unaware of what was going on.
■PHILIPPINES
Arroyo least trusted official
Nearly one in two Filipinos are dissatisfied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, an independent poll published yesterday showed. Arroyo has consistently ranked as the least popular of four Philippine presidents following the 1986 ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Independent pollster Pulse Asia found that 46 percent of respondents disapproved of Arroyo, while 26 percent approved. The rest were undecided. Vice President Noli de Castro emerged as the most trusted official. Some 53 percent of respondents approved of him; 21 percent disapproved and 26 percent were undecided.
■INDIA
Police confirm women raped
Forensic tests confirmed the rape of two young women whose deaths sparked more than a week of violent protests in Kashmir, police said, increasing the potential for more unrest yesterday by demonstrators who blame Indian troops for the killings. Security forces blocked access to and from Srinagar, the region’s main city. Separatist groups called for a protest march yesterday to Shopian, a town 60km south of Srinagar. Protests erupted on May 30 after the bodies of a 17-year-old girl and a 22-year-old woman were found in a stream in Shopian. Locals accused Indian soldiers of raping and killing the women.
■PHILIPPINES
Fire destroys 300 homes
A man was killed and more than 1,000 were left homeless when a fire gutted hundreds of houses in Quezon City yesterday, a police report said. Fire investigators were still determining the cause of the blaze that razed 300 houses and left as many as 1,500 people homeless. Witnesses said the fire started at the house of the lone fatality who died after he allegedly refused to leave his burning house.
■DENMARK
Voters approve change
Women will have the right to be first in line to the throne after a referendum held on Sunday, marking a new era in the more than 1,000-year-old monarchy, final returns showed yesterday. The change, already cleared by parliament, was approved by 85.4 percent of voters. It will ensure that the first-born child of any future monarch will succeed to the throne, regardless of gender. Voter turnout was almost 59 per cent of the 4 million voters, sufficient to clear the threshold. The change will not have any effect on the royal family as Crown Prince Frederik’s oldest child, Prince Christian, was born before his sister, Isabella.
■IRAN
Woman may sue president
The wife of the leading opposition candidate in this week’s presidential election threatened on Sunday to sue President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for lying about her. Zahra Rahnavard, who is married to the moderate frontrunner Mir Hossein Mousavi, also told reporters who pressed her about comparisons with the US first lady: “I am not Iran’s Michelle Obama. I am Zahra, the follower of Fatimeh Zahra [the daughter of the Prophet Mohamed]. I respect all women who are active.” Rahnavard, a 61-year-old political scientist, sculptor and grandmother, wears a full-length black chador, though her headscarf does have an eye-catching, brightly colored floral pattern that conservatives might disapprove of.
■ISRAEL
Former minister convicted
A former finance minister was convicted yesterday of stealing about 2.5 million shekels (US$630,000) while head of the National Workers’ Organization trade union between 1998 and 2005. Avraham Hirchson stepped down as finance minister in 2007, a year after he was appointed to the post. The Tel Aviv District Court that found Hirchson guilty of theft, fraud and breach of trust, described his version of events as “far-fetched.” He will be sentenced later this month. Hirchson was a close political ally of former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who is under investigation in a series of corruption cases.
■GAZA STRIP
Four militants killed
Israeli forces killed at least four Palestinian militants who tried to cross into the Jewish state from the Hamas-controlled territory yesterday, Palestinian residents and Hamas security officials said. One Hamas radio station said at least 10 Palestinian militants, some on horseback, were involved in the attack. The clash occurred when a group of Palestinian gunmen, under cover of early morning fog, opened fire on an Israeli patrol in the area of the Karni crossing on the Israeli side of the border fence, residents and Hamas said. Residents said the militants fired anti-tank weapons and set off explosives against the patrol.
■UKRAINE
Tymoshenko eyes presidency
The opposition on Sunday abandoned talks with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on forming a coalition to rescue the country from political turmoil and deepening economic crisis. Tymoshenko said in a TV address that former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich’s decision to pull out of talks had been “unilateral and without warning” and “put an end to Ukraine’s chances for unity.” She formally announced she would run for president at an election that must take place by late January when the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, a bitter rival, comes to an end. She is likely to face Yanukovich, whose power base is in eastern Ukraine.
■IRAQ
Baghdad blast kills seven
A bomb attached to a minibus killed seven people and wounded 24 others at a bus terminal in southern Baghdad yesterday, police said. The blast took place in the mainly Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Abu Dsheer. Shiite areas are often targeted by Sunni Islamist groups who consider Shiites heretics. Analysts say violence may increase ahead of national elections due in January next year, which could pit Shiite groups against each other.
■SPAIN
Aristocrat faces charges
The grandson of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco could face legal charges after he allegedly struck and hurled a stream of racist invective at a female Argentine railway guard. Francisco Franco Martinez Bordiu, the son of Franco’s only daughter, was allegedly angry after attempting to board a departing train in the Spanish city of Zaragoza. He then hit and insulted the female guard, the Movement for Argentines Abroad said. Eyewitnesses quoted by the Argentine media said Franco arrived in a rush only to find the train doors closed. He made his way through a closed barricade and began banging on the windows in an effort to get the train to stop. The display attracted the attention of two stewardesses and the young security guard, whom Franco allegedly hit and threw to the floor shouting “go back to your own fucking country.” The episode occurred last week, Argentine media reported.
■UNITED STATES
Stowaway found in baggage
Federal authorities say they discovered a stowaway who arrived at a Washington-area airport in the cargo hold of a flight from Ethiopia. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Steve Sapp said personnel at Dulles International Airport were pulling baggage from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 500 when they noticed an arm sticking out. Sapp said the stowaway was an Ethiopian man who was exhausted and dehydrated. He was taken to hospital before being put in a federal detention center. Sapp said the man was charged with being a stowaway and would be deported, but was not a security threat. The flight departed from Addis Ababa and stopped in Rome before landing at Dulles shortly after 9am on Saturday.
■MEXICO
Drug shootout claims 18
At least 18 people were killed in a gunbattle between the military and alleged members of a drug gang in Acapulco, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday. The shootout started at about midnight on Saturday when an Army battalion responded to an anonymous tip-off about armed men in the Las Playas neighborhood. The soldiers were fired on and 16 alleged gang members were killed in the ensuing shootout, the ministry said. Five people were arrested. Two soldiers were also killed and nine other military officers were wounded in the clash, in which 200 soldiers were involved.
■UNITED STATES
Miami Beach bans chicken
Miami Beach tolerates all kinds of eccentricity, but the south Florida playground of the rich and famous draws the line at a bicycle riding rooster named Mr Clucky. The white bird who perches on his owner’s bike has become a favorite subject of tourist photos. But he’s been ordered out of town for his cacophonous crowing every day at 6am. A code enforcement officer ticketed owner Mark Buckley on May 27 for keeping a farm animal. Buckley faces a US$50 fine and an order to get rid of the famous fowl.
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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