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AHMEDABAD, India: Indian leaders appealed for calm
Sunday as the army was called out after a wave of bombings killed 45
people in Ahmedabad, a city rocked by deadly Hindu-Muslim riots six
years ago. The string of 16 bombings, which left more than 160
people injured, ripped through crowded places in the tinderbox
western city—markets, buses and then hospitals struggling to treat
the scores of victims. They came just one day after another wave of
nine bombings in the southern high-tech capital of Bangalore left
one dead and several injured—prompting the government to put the
entire country on high alert.
--AFP
BELGRADE: Bosnian Serb wartime
leader Radovan Karadzic is unlikely to be transferred to The Hague
to face war crimes charges until Wednesday or Thursday at the
earliest, his lawyer said. Lawyer Svetozar Vujacic refused to give
details of his client’s transfer appeal, which was lodged at the
last minute before the expiry of a midnight Friday deadline. Once
the appeal has been received, a three-judge panel of Serbia’s war
crimes court will have three days to decide on its merits before the
justice ministry must issue a final order for the transfer.
--AFP
BANGKOK: Thailand’s Supreme
Court on Monday agreed to accept another corruption case against
ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, which also implicates three
ministers in the current Cabinet. Under the constitution, Finance
Minister Surapong Suebwonglee, Labor Minister Uraiwan Thienthong and
a deputy transport minister, Anurak Jureemas, must be suspended from
their posts because of their links to the case. Thaksin and 46
others are accused of violating the law when they legalized a
lottery scheme, which an anti-graft body has said led to nearly 37
billion baht ($1.1 billion) in lost revenue for the government.
--AFP
TAIPEI: Typhoon Fung-wong slammed
into Taiwan’s east coast Monday, bringing fierce winds and heavy
rains that forced the closure of schools and offices across the
island and severely disrupted travel. The stock market was closed
for the day, along with all schools and offices in Taiwan, railway
traffic was halted and many flights were canceled as winds of up to
144 kilometers per hour blew across, uprooting trees. Hundreds of
residents were evacuated from an eastern village threatened by flash
floods before the typhoon made landfall in the eastern county of
Hualien at 6:50 a.m. (2250 GMT).
--AFP
BAGHDAD: At least 25 Shiite
pilgrims were killed in three suicide bombings on Monday as they
headed to a holy shrine in Baghdad for a major religious ceremony
that has been marred by bloodshed in the past. Initial police
reports indicated the attacks were carried out by women. Among the
dead were women and children, security and hospital officials told
Agence France-Presse, adding that about 70 other people were
wounded.
--AFP
ANKARA: Sixteen people including
a 3-year-old child were killed and 154 others injured in two
separate bomb attacks in Gungoren neighborhood of Istanbul late
Sunday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.
Two bombs exploded minutes apart in one of Istanbul’s busy
shopping districts, according to the report. “It is certain that
this is a terror attack,” Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said, adding
that the bombs were quite powerful and caused heavy damage in the
neighborhood.
--Xinhua
TOKYO: Kanazawa city authorities
of Ishikawa prefecture on Monday ordered a brief evacuation of some
50,000 residents amid concerns over river flooding caused by heavy
rain, said reports from the western port city. The city government
issued the evacuation instruction at about 8:50 a.m. (2350 GMT
Sunday) to some 20,000 households along the Asano River and revoked
the order at around 11:45 a.m. (0245 GMT). Authorities said that
houses along the river were likely to be flooded as water overflowed
more than four points of the riverbank. No casualties have been
reported.
--Xinhua
SIEM REAP, Cambodia: Foreign
ministers from Cambodia and Thailand opened a new round of talks
Monday on a nearly two-week military standoff over an ancient temple
that has raised tensions in the region. Cambodian Foreign Minister
Hor Namhong and his newly appointed Thai counterpart Tej Bunnag
began the talks with a handful of top military officials from both
countries, Thai and Cambodian officials said. Neither country
expects a resolution to the conflict Monday, but they hope to lay
out a plan for tackling unresolved issues on the border.
--AFP
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