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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police will question opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Monday over allegations of sodomy by his former aide, a senior party official said. Anwar has vowed to fight the accusations leveled by 23-year-old Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, which he says have been fabricated by the government to prevent him from seizing power after landmark March elections. Mohamad Saiful has been under police protection since accusing Anwar of sodomizing him-the same charge that saw the opposition leader jailed a decade ago.
-- AFP
TAIPEI: Taiwan's new President Ma Ying Jeou is planning to head to Latin America next month to visit some of the island's only allies on his first overseas trip as leader, diplomats and reports said Sunday. The Chinese-language United Daily News said Ma could head in August to the Dominican Republic and Paraguay-two of the 23 nations that recognize Taipei instead of China, from which the island split in 1949 after a civil war. When asked to comment on the trip, Ma refused to provide any details, only telling reporters late Saturday, "It is not postponed, nor is it ahead of schedule." Taiwan and China have in the past used generous financial packages, or "checkbook diplomacy", to ensure the loyalty of governments or persuade them to switch allegiance, especially in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific.
-- AFP
TOKYO: Japan's foreign minister warned North Korea Sunday against any deception in the international deal to disable its nuclear facilities in return for economic and other rewards. "Sanctions are something that can be lifted and imposed again," Masahiko Komura said on public broadcaster NHK. "What I want to tell the North Korean people is that they had better not underestimate or insult the United States much," he said. "It is a big mistake if they regard it as a profit when they get what they want, and get away without delivering on what they have promised." On Saturday, North Korea agreed to completely disable its main nuclear facilities by the end of October and to allow thorough site inspections to verify that all necessary steps had been taken.
-- AFP
HONG KONG: Hong Kong Marine Police said on Sunday that a large quantity of computer hard disks worth about HK$2 million (US$256,410) was seized in an anti-smuggling operation in Sai Kung on July 12. At about 9:45 p.m. on Saturday (local time), officers of Marine Outer Waters District and Marine East Division of Hong Kong spotted people unloading goods from a light goods vehicle onto two speedboats outside No. 99 A Nam Wai Road. When police officers swooped, all people boarded the speedboats and sped away. Police seized the light goods vehicle and a total of 96 boxes of computer hard disks worth about HK$2 million.
-- Xinhua
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: A suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden car into a police vehicle at a bazaar in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 18 people, a police commander told Agence France-Presse. Five of the dead in the attack in Uruzgan province were policemen and the remainder were civilians, provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said. The police vehicle was destroyed in the attack in the Deh Rawood area, which took place about 400 kilometers southwest of Kabul. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
-- AFP
ISTANBUL: Anti-terror police detained three more people after a deadly attack at the US consulate in Istanbul this week, bringing the number of suspects to 13, Anatolia news agency reported Sunday. The detentions were made late Saturday in raids on houses in Istanbul's Kucukcekmece district, where the three gunmen killed in Wednesday's attack lived. The assailants opened fire on a guard post at the main public entrance of the heavily fortified consulate building in the upscale district of Istinye, killing three Turkish policemen before being shot dead. The authorities have described the attack as a "suicide act" in which the gunmen did not intend to make it back alive.
-- AFP
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