■PAKISTAN
Taliban commander caught
Intelligence agents have arrested a senior Afghan Taliban commander, the latest move in a crackdown on the insurgent network in Pakistan. Agha Jan Mohtasim, a former finance minister for the Taliban before the US-led invasion in 2001, was detained in the southern city of Karachi, two intelligence officials said on Thursday. One of the officials said two other Taliban associates were arrested along with Mohtasim, though he would not identify them.
■CHINA
Child trafficking trial ends
Twenty-three people are on trial on suspicion of involvement in the sale of nearly 50 babies, in what state media described yesterday as one of the country’s biggest-ever child trafficking cases. Prosecutors accused ring members of buying baby boys for between 13,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan (US$1,900 and US$2,925) in Yunnan Province and selling them for 40,000 yuan in the north of the country, the China Daily reported. The accused allegedly also bought baby girls for between 5,000 yuan and 14,000 yuan and sold them for 20,000 yuan, the court heard during the two-day trial, which concluded on Thursday in Wuhan. No verdict has been delivered.
■NORTH KOREA
China wants talks by July
China wants stalled six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear arms activities to restart before July, a senior Chinese diplomat said, warning that progress was by no means certain. China’s envoy on the dispute, former vice foreign minister Wu Dawei (武大偉), said he hoped to see progress in coming months, the China Daily reported yesterday. “China’s goal is to start the six-party talks in the first half of this year,” Wu told the newspaper. “That’s our expectation, but it is difficult to say if this will be realized.”
■PHILIPPINES
Power shortages worsen
Power shortages worsened yesterday, with the capital hit by rolling outages despite President Gloria Arroyo’s efforts to solve the problem. Both Manila and the largely rural southern region of Mindanao were blacked out because of breakdowns at aging power plants and low capacity in hydroelectric dams caused by a dry spell, power officials said. Manila Electric Co said areas would have their power cut for 90 minutes at a time throughout the day.
■INDIA
Police studying YouTube
Police in Goa on Thursday said they were looking into a YouTube video that shows an alleged drug dealer detailing how police supply him with confiscated narcotics. Goa’s director-general of police, Bhimsen Bassi, told reporters they were closely studying the footage, which shows a foreign national with cropped hair explaining how he received supplies from a drugs squad officer. “It’s definitely a serious matter,” Basi told reporters. “We will look into it and if sustainable evidence is found, strict action will be taken.” The footage on the video-sharing Web site has caused a stir in the former Portuguese colony, where the availability of illegal drugs and aggressive peddling in and around its popular beach resorts has sparked wide concern.
■MALAYSIA
Joint crackdown on drugs
Iran has pledged to cooperate with Malaysia to crack down on drug trafficking after a spike in the number of alleged Iranian smugglers. Iran’s narcotics department head Hamid Reza Hossein-Abadi said late on Thursday that he had agreed with Malaysian authorities to start working closely together to stamp out the lucrative business, keeping each other updated and conducting joint training. Malaysian authorities have arrested more than 40 Iranians for alleged smuggling so far this year — compared with 24 held all of last year.
■MALAYSIA
Party plunged into crisis
The top ethnic Chinese party has plunged into a new round of a long-running crisis that has hampered the ruling coalition’s efforts to claw back support from the minority community. The Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-largest member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, was hit with a mass leadership resignation on Thursday that has triggered calls for fresh party elections. The crisis began when deputy president Chua Soi Lek was suspended over a sex tape scandal last August and has since developed into infighting among different party factions. Twenty-one members of the party’s top decision-making body resigned on Thursday.
■AUSTRALIA
Banana underwear unveiled
Underwear company AussieBum has been monkeying around and the result is a range of men’s underwear made with bananas. The new eco-friendly banana range of undies incorporates 27 percent banana fiber, 64 percent cotton and 9 percent lycra, AussieBum’s Lloyd Jones said yesterday. The banana fiber used in the underwear is made from a bark weave from the banana plant and makes the underwear not only lightweight, but also very absorbent, he said. “Naturally, you can’t really add any more banana fiber than that because it might be a bit squishy,” said Jones, adding that wearers did not have to worry about monkeys, as the underwear does not smell like banana.
■INDIA
Police launch criminal probe
Police launched a criminal investigation yesterday into a deadly stampede at a Hindu temple in northern India as relatives made funeral preparations for the 63 victims, most of them women and children. The stampede occurred on Thursday afternoon as thousands of poor villagers scrambled for free food and clothes at a commemorative event at a temple in the small town of Kunda in Uttar Pradesh State. Relatives complained that organizers should have done a better job of controlling the crowds. Police have opened a criminal negligence case against the temple management.
■UNITED NATIONS
Israel blamed for uranium
Syria suggested on Thursday that Israel dropped uranium particles onto its soil from the air to make it look as if a covert nuclear weapons plant was being built, diplomats at a UN nuclear watchdog meeting said. Damascus has strongly denied US intelligence that a complex in the Syrian desert bombed by Israel in 2007 had been a nascent nuclear reactor, North Korean in design and geared to making plutonium for atomic bombs, but International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano last month lent independent support to Western suspicions for the first time by saying uranium traces found in a 2008 visit by inspectors pointed to nuclear-related activity on the ground.
■PORTUGAL
Civil servants go on strike
Civil servants shut schools, courts and hospitals on Thursday in a strike to protest against austerity measures, with unions saying 80 percent took part, while the Socialist government put the figure at 13 percent. Civil servants are challenging the government’s freeze on their wages this year during a deep economic downturn that has taken unemployment to its highest level in a quarter of a century. “Civil servants won’t back down, they will resist, to change the government’s position,” Ana Avoila, coordinator for the Common Front union, said outside a social security center in central Lisbon that was shut for the day. She said health services, local government and schools were shut across the country.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Brown to testify at inquiry
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was scheduled to testify yesterday to the country’s inquiry on mistakes made over the Iraq war, a potentially embarrassing session before a looming national election. Brown, who served as Treasury chief from 1997 to 2007 and approved military spending, will give around four hours of evidence to the five-person panel, watched in an inquiry room by relatives of those killed in the US-led conflict. Brown has faced accusations that he failed to ensure troops had adequate equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he has been accused of insensitivity in some of his dealings with bereaved families.
■FRANCE
Champs-Elysees to go green
The Champs-Elysees in Paris will be cleared of traffic and blanketed with grass, flowers and trees for three days in May — giving Parisians a chance to picnic or stroll down the famous avenue barefoot. Catherine Rosec, press officer for the May 22 to May 24 event, says it aims to increase people’s awareness about sustainable development and celebrate farmers’ work. The greenery will be provided by the Young Farmers Union and France Wood Forest, which represents the wood industry. May 22 is the International Day for Biological Diversity.
■ISRAEL
Minister rejects allegations
Contentious Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has rejected police allegations that he tried to disrupt an investigation into his business dealings. Lieberman claims the police probe is politically motivated. He derided the charges on Thursday as nonsense. Police fraud investigators questioned Lieberman this week on suspicions that a former Israeli ambassador tipped off Lieberman in 2008 that Israeli police had asked Belarus to help with their investigation. Lieberman is suspected of laundering money through shell companies before becoming foreign minister last year. He denies any wrongdoing.
■MEXICO
Gay couples tie the knot
Gay couples lined up in Mexico City on Thursday to get a date to tie the knot as the city becomes the first in mostly Catholic and typically macho Latin America to allow same-sex marriage. The law, now in effect after being approved by the city’s mainly left-wing legislature in December, goes beyond current law allowing same-sex civil unions to give gay couples the same marriage rights as straight couples, including adoption.
■MEXICO
Buttocks sprayer gets fired
A mayor said he fired one of his town officials for spray-painting the buttocks of a teenage boy as punishment for graffiti tagging. The mayor of San Juan del Rio in Queretaro state said police caught the 13-year-old tagging a wall last week and turned him over to the official. The official’s job is to impose penalties for petty crime. Mayor Gustavo Nieto said on Thursday that he fired the official because he should have notified the boy’s parents so they could pay for the damage, and not punish the teen personally.
■UNITED STATES
Snow nude covered up
Police in New Jersey ordered a snow sculpture modeled on the famous nude Venus de Milo to be covered up after a neighbor complained, the artist said on Thursday. Elisa Gonzalez, 44, carved the ancient Greek-style torso from snow on her front lawn in Rahway and says her work was initially a hit. “It looked very beautiful,” she said. “We got a lot of attention from people in the neighborhood. Some of them got out and took pictures and spoke to us.” One neighbor clearly felt the snow nude — headless, armless, and cut off above the knees — was too hot. “We had a visit from the local police who told us that a neighbor had complained about the statue and we needed to cover it up or knock it down,” Gonzalez said.
■UNITED STATES
FBI uses DNA in art case
Twenty years after the world’s biggest art theft, the FBI said on Thursday it had resubmitted evidence for cutting-edge DNA analysis in hopes of finally finding the culprits. In March 1990, two men dressed as police officers walked out of the Gardner Museum in Boston with paintings including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer worth between US$250 million and US$300 million. The FBI now hopes that new DNA testing technology at its Quantico, Virginia, lab could provide a breakthrough.
■BRAZIL
Ship under quarantine
An international cruise ship was placed under quarantine in the southeast after hundreds of passengers were stricken with vomiting and diarrhea, health authorities said on Thursday. At least 310 people suffered “some kind of food poisoning aboard” the Vision of the Seas, operated by Royal Caribbean International. the first case was detected on Wednesday, prompting the agency to order all 1,987 passengers and 765 crew members to remain on the ship anchored at Buzios, near Rio de Janeiro.
■BRAZIL
Niemeyer creation unveiled
The state of Minas Gerais on Thursday unveiled a glittering new government complex by legendary architect Oscar Niemeyer, still showing a flair for dramatic design at the age of 102. His latest creation covers an expanse of 804,000m². With the opening of the new complex, Belo Horizonte, the regional capital of Minas Gerais, becomes the city with the most buildings by Niemeyer — 14.
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
Pets are not forgotten during Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, when even Fido and Tiger get a place at the altars Mexican families set up to honor their deceased loved ones, complete with flowers, candles and photographs. Although the human dead usually get their favorite food or drink placed on altars, the nature of pet food can make things a little different. The holiday has roots in Mexican pre-Hispanic customs, as does the reverence for animals. The small, hairless dogs that Mexicans kept before the Spanish conquest were believed to help guide their owners to the afterlife, and were sometimes given
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