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KUPANG, Indonesia: An Indonesian village has
been sealed off after about 20 people fell ill after consuming
anthrax-infected beef, a health official said Monday. Health
officials quarantined a village on the island of Flores and rushed
medical teams to treat ill villagers and vaccinate their livestock
after six water buffaloes died with the deadly disease. In April,
five people died after consuming infected beef on nearby Sumba
Island and health officials sealed off several villages there for
several weeks to contain the disease. AFP
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s
premier has congratulated Myanmar’s new premier,
Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, and invited him to attend the Asean
bloc’s upcoming summit, the foreign ministry said Friday. Thein
Sein took over as prime minister from General Soe Win, who died on
October 12 after a long illness. Soe Win had spent about four months
in a Singapore hospital before he was flown home to spend his final
days.
The prime minister in
military-ruled Myanmar is thought to wield little influence, with
the real power held by junta leader Senior General Than Shwe. AFP
BEIJING: Israeli Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni was in China on Monday for talks with top
officials during which she intends to push for tough sanctions on
Iran over its nuclear drive. Livni arrived late on Sunday for a
visit expected to conclude on Tuesday, according to a staff member
at the public affairs office at Israel’s embassy in Beijing. Livni
was quoted by Israeli media over the weekend as saying she would
urge China to back “dramatic” sanctions against Tehran. Israel
has said Livni will meet Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister
Yang Jiechi. The embassy official said Livni would brief the press
on her visit on Tuesday afternoon before leaving China. AFP
SEOUL: North Korea Monday
promised to start disabling its nuclear plants this week, a South
Korean official said as a six-nation meeting discussed compensatory
energy aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “Basically what
the North Korean side said was that North Korea is moving to disable
its nuclear facilities from November 1 and faithfully implement its
second-phase denuclearization measures under the February
agreement...” Lim Sung-Nam told reporters. In return, he said,
“it expects the other five nations to provide the economic and
energy assistance promised in the February 13 agreement in a timely
manner.” AFP
BEIJING: A Chinese
journalist jailed since June in eastern China after reporting on
local corruption has been beaten in jail by police interrogators,
his lawyer said Monday. Qi Chonghuai said he was beaten repeatedly
in August by police interrogating him on extortion charges that he
has pleaded innocent to, his lawyer, Li Xiongbin, told AFP.
“Police beat Qi on the face nearly 20 times,” Li said. “They
told him that they could beat him as much as they liked, and call it
suicide if he died.” Qi, a veteran journalist who once worked for
the China Work Safety Production News, was arrested at his home in
Tengzhou, Shandong province, in late June, but not formally charged
until August 20, according to his wife, Jiao Xia. AFP
BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s
First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was set to become her
country’s first elected woman president, partial results showed,
as her closest rival conceded defeat on Monday. With three-quarters
of votes counted, she held an apparently unbeatable lead: 43.5
percent of the vote, almost double that of her nearest challenger.
The score would make Fernandez the outright victor of the election
without the need for a runoff in November. When confirmed as the
winner, she will take office on December 10. AFP
TOKYO: Japan’s justice
minister Monday defended controversial new measures to fingerprint
foreign visitors, saying he had personal information that al-Qaeda
had penetrated the country. From November 1, nearly all adult
foreigners will be photographed and electronically fingerprinted
when they enter Japan, under a system similar to the one introduced
by the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks. “It’s
sad that when we visit the United States, even parliament members
are required to come under strict scrutiny including fumbling around
inside our shoes, if not our underpants,” Justice Minister Kunio
Hatoyama said.
 --AFP
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