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BEIJING: Millions of
Chinese are unable to get enough drinking water because of a series
of droughts caused by “abnormally high” temperatures, state
media said on Sunday. One of the worst hit regions is Shandong
province in east China, which is China’s second-most populous with
92 million and one of the nation’s main grain producers, the
Xinhua news agency reported. Xinhua quoted statistics from Shandong
Provincial Meteorological Observatory that in the period September
to February, the province received just 51.4 millimeters (two
inches) of rain, down 80 percent from a year earlier. One fifth of
the total farmland in the province is short of water, and out of
this portion, another fifth has had be left idle, according to
Xinhua. --AFP
KUWAIT
CITY: The Kuwaiti Cabinet, which has been in office for barely
eight months, is expected to step down ahead of a no-confidence vote
against a senior minister, newspapers reported on Sunday. Local
media said an official announcement is expected to be made this week
following high-level meetings that involved Emir Sheikh Sabah
al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait. Parliamentary sources
confirmed to AFP that the cabinet will either resign or Prime
Minister Sheikh Mohammad Nasser al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a nephew of the
emir, may carry out an expanded reshuffle.--AFP
SRI LANKA:
Tamil Tiger rebels Sunday accused Sri Lankan forces of killing at
least six civilians in the embattled northeast as police
investigated the execution-style murders of five men near the
capital. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said five
civilians, including a businessman, were killed by security forces
while the sixth, a student, was killed in a mortar bomb attack by
troops. The LTTE also said security forces had killed 66 civilians
last month, and blamed the forces for the “disappearance” of
another 62 Tamils, claims denied by the military.--AFP
KUALA
LUMPUR: A senior Malaysian politician linked to Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is being investigated for allegedly accepting
money to free three dangerous criminals, a report said Sunday.
Mohamad Shukri Abdul, investigations director with the
Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), told the New Sunday Times the watchdog
had launched a probe last week after receiving an anonymous tip-off.
He did not identify the politician. “We are working closely with
the police on the allegations,” the paper quoted him as saying.--
AFP
NEW YORK:
A historic exhibit showcasing the heroism of non-Jews, who helped
save Jewish lives during World War II, will soon open across the
United States, the American Jewish Committee and French culture
minister announced here on Sunday. The exhibit will feature a film
by Agnes Varda detailing acts of heroism displayed by les Justes, as
these people are known, that was released in France in January. The
film was shown to representatives of the US Jewish community by
prominent Frenchmen, including Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger and
lawyer Serge Klarsfeld.--AFP
BANGALORE,
India: Bangalore municipal workers started rounding up thousands
of street dogs Sunday in India’s high-tech hub after a young child
was savaged to death by a pack of neighborhood strays last week.
Thirty vans, each with three dog catchers, a policeman and a health
officer, were deployed throughout the sprawling city of nearly seven
million to bring the canines to animal shelters, Bangalore Municipal
Commissioner K. Jairaj told AFP. Thirty specialists have been
summoned from the western city of Ahmedabad and the Malabar region
of Kerala state to tackle “ferocious” strays that are “very
hard to catch,” he said.--AFP
BEIJING:
China’s military budget will increase by 17.8 percent in 2007, a
senior official said Sunday, one day before Chinese lawmakers start
their annual parliamentary session. “In recent years, China has
gradually been boosting its military expenditures,” said Jiang
Enzhu, a spokesman for the National People’s Congress, the Chinese
legislature. “But the increases have been in order to make up for
the weak basis of the nation’s defense.” He said the military
expenditures would account for 7.5 percent of total government
expenditures in 2007, compared with 7.4 percent in 2006.--
AFP
HANOI:
Laos may have suffered its second human case of the deadly H5N1
virus after a 42-year-old woman was hospitalized for bird flu-like
symptoms, the World Health Organization said on Sunday. “It is
very likely it is H5N1,” said Dida Connor, a WHO spokeswoman. On
Friday, tests at the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology
(NCLE) showed that the woman, from a village in the Vientiane
province, had been found to have the H5 strain, the organization and
the Laos authorities said in a press release. Both WHO and Laos
authorities are waiting for further test results from a WHO
reference laboratory in the region to confirm if it is H5N1, Connor
said.--
AFP
BEIJING:
Visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met with
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing Sunday, a day after China
voiced opposition over US weapons sales to Taiwan. US plans
announced last week to sell Taiwan 450 air and ground missiles
appeared to top the agenda of Negroponte’s talks that began with
separate meetings with Deputy Foreign Ministers Dai Bingguo and Yang
Jiechi. “In order to ensure the healthy development of China-US
relations, China resolutely opposes US weapons sales to Taiwan,”
ministry spokesman Qin Gang quoted Dai as telling Negroponte during
their two-hour meeting.
--AFP
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