■MYANMAR
Elections confirmed
The junta chief confirmed yesterday that the country’s first general elections in two decades will be held this year but gave no date for the balloting, expected to exclude pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a message marking the anniversary of independence from Britain in 1948, Senior General Than Shwe said the regime’s seven-step roadmap was the only way for the country to move toward democracy. “Plans are underway to hold the elections in a systematic way this year and the entire people have to make correct choices,” Than Shwe said in a message printed in state-run newspapers.
■INDIA
Police probe girl’s suicide
An 11-year-old Indian girl who had appeared on television reality shows apparently committed suicide after her parents withdrew her from a dance school, media reported yesterday. Police were called to a flat in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai on Saturday after Neha Sawant was found hanging by a dupatta, or scarf, inside a locked room, the Mumbai Mirror said. The child, described as an amazing dancer and who had performed on three television talent shows, was taken to hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. Senior police inspector Subhash Divekar, leading the investigation, said there was no question of foul play, as the door was locked from the inside.
■PHILIPPINES
Politician’s home attacked
The home of a politician scheduled to go on trial this week over the massacre of 57 people was attacked with a grenade, police said yesterday. The grenade exploded behind a mosque in the compound of Andal Ampatuan Snr in the southern city of Shariff Aguak late on Sunday, provincial police commander Senior Superintendent Alex Lenesis said. A few minutes later, a mortar shell exploded near a petrol station in the same city but both blasts were small and no one was hurt, Lenesis said. The police said the attacks could have been carried out by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Muslim rebel group which is a longtime enemy of the Ampatuan clan. “We suspect it was the work of MILF rebels out to get even with the Ampatuans,” Lenesis said, adding that police were not ruling out “lawless elements” outside the MILF.
■INDIA
Boat capsizes, 18 dead
At least 18 New Year’s revelers, including seven children, were feared drowned after an overcrowded boat capsized in a river in eastern India, officials said yesterday. About 29 people were on board the small boat when it capsized late on Sunday in West Bengal state’s Kolaghat town, about 60km from Kolkata, the state capital. “Operations are on to trace bodies and chances of rescuing any more survivors looks slim,” C.D. Lama, a senior government official, said after 11 people were rescued by fishermen.
■PAKISTAN
Roadside bombs kill six
Roadside bombs that struck two vehicles in the volatile northwest on Sunday have killed a former irrigation minister and three others in one of the attacks and two anti-Taliban tribal elders in the other. The attacks on Sunday were the latest targeting public officials and private citizens who are combating the growing Taliban-led insurgency, part of a wave of retaliatory violence that has killed more than 600 people in the past two-and-a-half months. A single attack on Friday killed nearly 100 people when a suicide car bomber struck a sports event near a meeting of tribesmen who supervise an anti-Taliban militia near the South Waziristan tribal area.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Zuma to gain third first lady
President Jacob Zuma was to gain his third first lady in a traditional Zulu wedding yesterday. Zuma, 67, will marry Tobeka Madiba in a private family ceremony at his homestead in rural KwaZulu-Natal province, the president’s office confirmed. Madiba, 36, will be Zuma’s third current wife and his fifth marriage overall. He is also reported to be engaged to another woman. The Zulu tribe, the biggest ethnic group in South Africa, practices polygamy by tradition. Madiba will join Sizakele Khumalo-Zuma, whom Zuma has known for 50 years and married in 1973, and Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, whom he married two years ago. There were two further Mrs Zumas who are no longer with him. He divorced Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, now home affairs minister, in 1998. Kate Mantsho Zuma committed suicide in 2000, leaving a note describing her marriage to him as “24 years of hell.” Zuma is said to have more than 10 children, and possibly as many as 19. Jeremy Gordin, Zuma’s biographer said: “Zuma is adamant about polygamy. It’s his right as a Zulu. But he only took one wife to Italy to meet the pope.”
■SOMALIA
Pirates strike again
Pirates hijacked a British-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia, the EU’s anti-piracy naval force said on Saturday, in the second such attack this year. The Asian Glory was seized late Friday, less than 24 hours after the Indonesian chemical tanker Pramoni was captured in the Gulf of Aden. All 25 crew on board the Asian Glory are unharmed, the EU Naval Force said. The hijackers struck as the car transporter passed through the Somali Basin.
■IRAN
Sports official resigns
Media reports said a sports official resigned after his e-mailed New Year’s greetings to members of world soccer’s governing body were mistakenly forwarded to Israel’s soccer federation. The reports by several newspapers said on Sunday that Mohammad Mansour Azimzadeh Ardebili sent the e-mail through FIFA. It was supposed to go to all FIFA members except Israel, but was apparently forwarded to Israel’s soccer federation, too. Ardebili was a spokesman for Iran’s soccer federation.
■GERMANY
Jet veers off runway
A jet veered off the runway at an airport on Sunday, but no one was injured, authorities said. The pilot of the Air Berlin Boeing 737-800 had braked to abort the takeoff from Dortmund airport because of a “technical irregularity,” but the plane left the runway in wintry conditions, airline spokeswoman Diane Daedelow said. It came to rest with its nose pointing down a snow-covered slope.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Brown named worst-dressed
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has received a pre-election kick in the pants, being named the worst-dressed man of the year by the British edition of GQ magazine. Brown, who faces a grueling battle at this year’s general election, beat off competition from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British comedian Russell Brand and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il for the title. Brown moves from three in last year’s rankings to top this year’s list for being “anything but a prime example of British style,” the men’s magazine said. “Perhaps the French president should spend less time worrying about his stature and more time worrying about his style,” it added of Sarkozy, who reportedly at 1.65m, often wears stacked heels.
■UNITED STATES
Teen hits sibling with car
Police say a teenage girl accidentally ran over and killed her 17-year-old brother as the two played around in an Arizona shopping mall parking lot. Mesa Police spokesman Ed Wessing on Sunday identified the brother as Dwight Brock and his sister as 16-year-old Nicole Brock, both residents of Mesa. Wessing said the sister dropped off her brother at Superstition Springs Mall on Saturday evening and they started playing around, with the brother jumping in front of the car and the sister slamming on the brakes. The last time that happened the sister was unable to stop and ran over the brother. He was rushed to a hospital in critical condition and later pronounced dead.
■UNITED STATES
Pentagon, Obama at odds
President Barack Obama’s plan to begin phasing out nuclear weapons has run up against powerful resistance from officials in the Pentagon and other US agencies, the Los Angeles Times reported late on Sunday. Obama laid out his vision of a nuclear-free world in a speech in Prague last April. But citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the Obama administration is now locked in internal debate over a top-secret policy blueprint for shrinking the US nuclear arsenal and reducing the role of such weapons in the country’s military strategy. Officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere have pushed back against proposals to cut the number of weapons and narrow their mission, the report said.
■UNITED STATES
Obama effigy probed
The Secret Service says it is investigating an effigy of President Barack Obama found hanging by a noose from a building in Plains, Georgia, the hometown of former president Jimmy Carter. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said it was found on Saturday morning along Main Street. Footage from WALB-TV showed the doll hanging by a noose in front of a red, white and blue sign that said “Plains, Georgia. Home of Jimmy Carter, our 39th President.” A witness said the doll had a sign with Obama’s name on it.
■NEW ZEALAND
Former ‘Post’ staffer dies
Police in New Zealand said former Washington Post ombudswoman Deborah Howell may have been crossing a highway to take a photograph when she stepped in front of a car and was killed. Detective Sergeant John Hamilton of the Blenheim police said a full investigation was under way. Based on witness statements, it’s possible she was “completely unaware of the vehicle,” that hit her, he said. Drivers in New Zealand travel on the left side of the road, not the right.
■CANADA
Dementia cases growing
Canadians are developing dementia at such a rapid rate that dealing with the problem will cost more than C$870 billion (US$830 billion) over the next 30 years unless preventive measures are taken, a report released yesterday said. Canada’s Alzheimer Society said more than 103,700 people developed dementia in 2008 in Canada, a country of around 33 million. By 2038, 257,800 new cases per year are expected, with almost 3 percent of the population affected. “If we do nothing, dementia will have a crippling effect on Canadian families, our health care system and economy,” the report said. “It is the most significant cause of disability among Canadians over the age of 65.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
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