SAUDI ARABIA
Salman named crown prince
King Abdullah appointed his defense minister, Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, as heir apparent, opting for stability and a continuation of cautious reforms at a time of challenges for the world’s biggest oil exporter. Crown Prince Salman, 76, has built a reputation for pragmatism and is likely swiftly to assume substantial day-to-day responsibilities from a king 13 years his senior. The swift decision came as no surprise; analysts had already said they expected Salman to continue the gradual social and economic reforms adopted by Abdullah.
PAKISTAN
Popular singer shot to death
A popular singer was shot dead in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said yesterday. Ghazala Javed, 24, was shot six times by gunmen as she left a beauty salon, and her ex-husband was a suspect in the case, police said. Her father, who was with her, was also killed, police said. “Two men on a motorbike sprayed bullets and fled leaving them in a pool of blood,” senior police officer Dilawar Bangash said. “We have registered a case and launched an investigation. The murder seems to be result of some internal dispute.” She sang in her native Pashto language and released more than two-dozen albums that were popular among Pashto speakers in the northwest. She married a businessman in 2010, but demanded a divorce after discovering he had another wife and because he tried to ban her from singing, the family said.
INDIA
Man decapitates daughter
A father cut off his daughter’s head and paraded it around his village after becoming enraged over her relationships with men, police in Rajasthan state said yesterday. Oghad Singh, a marble mine worker, used a sword to behead his 22-year-old daughter, Manju, who was married three years ago, but had become estranged from her husband. “The accused was disturbed with his daughter’s extramarital affairs so he took this extreme step,” Rahul Katkey, superintendent of police in Rajsamand District, said by telephone. Singh walked out of his home on Sunday evening holding his daughter’s head in one hand and the bloodied sword in the other before a neighbor persuaded him to give himself up.
CHINA
Teacher a sex crime suspect
Authorities in Gansu Province ordered the arrest of an elementary-school teacher who allegedly sexually assaulted eight pupils, the youngest aged 10, a newspaper said yesterday. Liu Junhong (劉軍紅), 28, reportedly raped five girls and acted indecently toward another three over the past year at the school, the China Youth Daily said. The oldest victim was 13. Seven of the girls were children of migrant workers who were employed far from their homes, the report said. It is unclear whether police had already arrested the teacher or whether they were still looking for him.
MYANMAR
Suspects sentenced to death
State media said a court sentenced two men to death for the rape and murder of a woman whose killing sparked a wave of communal violence that left more than 50 people dead. The Myanma Ahlin daily reported yesterday that the verdict was handed down Monday in Kyaukpyu District, Rakhine State. The 27-year-old Buddhist woman was killed by Rohingya Muslims on May 28. On June 3, a Buddhist mob dragged 10 Rohingyas off a bus and killed them. The incidents helped set off almost a week of violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingyas.
UNITED STATES
Indians win court fight
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the government to repay to Native American tribes the costs of running federal programs including education, homeland security and environmental protection. In a victory for the Navajo and several other tribes, the top court ruled by five to four the government must reim burse in full the funding spent on such programs which they run independent of federal authorities. Under laws governing the Native Americans’ right to self-determination, the government committed to repay the entire cost of such programs run by the tribes for their people. However, Congress intervened, setting a ceiling on such payments, and the Native Americans were not compensated for the full costs incurred from 1994 to 2001. “We stressed that the government’s obligation to pay contract support costs should be treated as an ordinary contract promise,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority ruling.
VENEZUELA
Chavez disses opponent
President Hugo Chavez on Monday scoffed at the idea of a debate with rival Henrique Capriles ahead of elections this autumn, dismissing his opponent as unworthy. “A debate? With whom?” said Chavez, 57, after being asked whether he would debate Capriles, 39, his center-left opponent in the Oct. 7 presidential poll. “I would be really embarrassed in one of those things, because there is nothing there” to debate, Chavez said, likening himself to a world-class boxer and his opponent to a third-rate amateur.
TURKEY
Rebel attack kills seven
At least seven soldiers were killed and 15 wounded when Kurdish rebels attacked their southeast post, local security services said yesterday. They said the attack occurred in Yuksekova, near the border with Iraq and Iran, and warned the toll could go up. A group of rebels probably crossed from their bases in northern Iraq to attack the army post at Yesiltas, they said. The NTV news channel said ground troops and combat helicopters were pursuing the assailants.
KENYA
Korean Air apologizes
Korean Air on Monday apologized for having vaunted the “primitive energy” of the Kenyan people in an advertisement for the soon to be opened Seoul-Nairobi route and withdrew the ad from its Web site. “Fly Korean Air and enjoy the grand African Savanna, the safari tour and the indigenous people full of primitive energy,” the airline said. The ad provoked a barrage of reactions from Kenyans, most of them amused rather than furious. “Thinking of lion hunting today and maybe some elephant baiting to deal with my #PrimitiveEnergy,” one Kenyan tweeted. “I use #PrimitiveEnergy every morning to rise from my bed,” another Kenyan said. After hundreds of tweets were addressed to them, the airline apologized.
UGANDA
Police raid gay workshop
Police on Monday raided a gay rights workshop in Kampala and questioned activists attending the gathering. East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, the organization behind the workshop, said that police interrupted the meeting and began questioning participants at the event, including activists from Canada, Kenya and Rwanda. The police forced their way into some of the activists’ hotel rooms, the group said in a statement. The training workshop was intended to bolster the local gay community’s abilities to report rights abuses, the statement said.
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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