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JAKARTA: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit
Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Tuesday, damaging houses and causing
panic and a power cut, but there were no immediate reports of
casualties, reports said. The quake struck at 10:49 a.m. (0349 GMT),
the US Geological Survey said, and was felt in cities including
Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, where power cuts were reported. It caused
panic as people fled buildings, and houses were damaged in Solok,
south of Bukittinggi, reports said. The quake was also said to have
been felt in Singapore.--AFP
SINGAPORE: A group of
Iraqi diplomats began a three-week training program in Singapore
Tuesday as part of the effort to help in the strife-torn nation’s
reconstruction, the foreign ministry said. The program, lasting
until March 23, “comprises English language training and the work
of foreign service officers,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said
in a statement. It was organized at the request of the Iraqi
government and is also part of the city-state’s effort to help in
the reconstruction of Iraq, the statement said. To date, 52 Iraqi
government officials have participated in training courses offered
under the Singapore Cooperation Program in areas like civil
aviation, communications, transport and logistics, public utilities,
information technology and trade promotion.--AFP
BEIJING: China will not
allow any more cyber cafés to open this year, state press announced
Tuesday, the latest move by the nation’s communist rulers to
restrict the rising influence of the Internet. Chinese authorities
will not approve any more Internet cafe licenses this year, the
official Xinhua news agency said, citing a new notice issued by 14
central government authorities. The notice also vowed to crack down
on gambling through online games and restrict the amount and use of
virtual currencies, according to Xinhua. There are currently about
113,000 Internet bars in China, Xinhua said, citing official figures
from the Ministry of Information Industry.--AFP
TOKYO: Japan’s defense
minister on Tuesday urged China not to trigger an arms race amid
concerns in the city about Beijing’s rapidly growing military
budget. “All of us should bear in mind that we should try to avoid
an arms race, as we are not going to have a lot of wars from now
on,” Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma told reporters. China announced
Sunday that it would spend 350.9 billion yuan (about $45 billion) on
its military budget in 2007, a rise of 17.8 percent from the
previous year. China has seen double-digit increases in its military
spending almost annually for the past 15 years, triggering concern
in Japan—whose own defense budget is going down— and the United
States.--AFP
BEIJING: A Chinese
delegation has arrived in Iraq with a mission to resume a
$700-million oil deal signed during Saddam Hussein’s time, state
media reported Tuesday. “It’s true that Chinese officials will
be in Baghdad to discuss the exploration of the Ahdab oil field,”
said an unnamed official with the Chinese Embassy to Iraq, according
to the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post. The official also said
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and other high-ranking officials
would visit China, with the specific date yet to be decided.
According to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, Oil Minister Hussein Al
Shahristani met China’s new ambassador Chen Xiaodong Monday to
discuss a planned visit by President Jalal Talabani and the oil
minister to China this month. Iraq holds estimated oil reserves of
up to 115 billion barrels, the third biggest in the world.--AFP
SYDNEY: A group of nine
Muslim men facing terrorism charges planned to carry out violent
jihad in Australia, a heavily fortified court in Sydney heard
Tuesday, possibly including an attack on a nuclear reactor. “They
believed Islam was under attack,” prosecutor Wendy Abraham said.
“Violence was the primary tool of their jihad. Abraham was making
the opening address in a committal hearing to determine whether the
men should stand trial on charges of planning bombing attacks in
Sydney, Australia’s most populous city. Their targets reportedly
included Australia’s only nuclear reactor, at Lucas Heights in
Sydney.--AFP
HANOI: Bird flu has struck
a chicken farm outside the Vietnamese capital, a provincial
veterinary official said Tuesday, raising fears the virus will
spread to Hanoi and through the country’s north. Birds started
dying on February 16 on the farm 40 kilometers southeast of the
city, and authorities culled 550 animals last week, said Nguyen Huy
Dang, head of the Ha Tay provincial animal health department.
“Test results showing they were positive to the H5N1 virus strain
were only available late Monday,” he said, adding that the entire
flock of unvaccinated birds had already been killed last Tuesday.
Chicken and duck farms in Ha Tay province are major suppliers of
poultry products for Hanoi.
--AFP
LOS ANGELES: British actor
Daniel Radcliffe has signed on to play Harry Potter in big-screen
versions of the final two installments of J.K. Rowling’s books
about the boy wizard, studio Warner Bros said Monday. A spokeswoman
for Warner Bros confirmed 17-year-old Radcliffe would reprise his
role as Potter in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The confirmation comes as Radcliffe
basks in the glow of rave reviews following his performance in the
London theater production of “Equus,” a play notable for its
nudity and dark subject matter.
--AFP
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