PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a key leader in post-civil war Cambodia, has resigned as his party's chief and also quit politics just days after returning home from 18 months in exile. Suth Dina, the party spokesperson, said the prince told supporters he had spent enough time pursuing a political career and it was time to retire. He said Ranariddh had informed King Norodom Sihamoni, his half brother, about his decision. Last week, Ranariddh returned from 18 months in exile in Malaysia after the king pardoned him for an embezzlement conviction.
LHASA, Tibet
Three Japanese climbers have been killed in an avalanche while scaling a mountain in Tibet. The men were trying to climb Mount Kulagangri, one of the peaks greatly revered in Tibet, when the avalanche hit. Other team members waiting at a camp 5 900m above sea level heard the avalanche and went to investigate. They found the bodies. The climbers were among a team of seven Japanese who had left the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on September 20.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
A Malaysian couple was beaten to death by family members in a bizarre ritual to cure them of a smoking habit and illnesses, reports said. A 15-year-old daughter of one of the four relatives who carried out the beating was also attacked after stumbling onto the scene and is fighting for her life in hospital. The four relatives are believed to belong to a "deviant" cult. Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country and authorities periodically crack down on unauthorised sects.
BEIJING, China
Mao Zedong's personal airplane has been put up for sale by the owner of a shopping centre in southern China to make more space for parking. Wang Zhilei, general manager of property developer Ridong Group in Zhuhai, a city in southern Guangdong province, confirmed the company had put the 46-metre-long plane up for sale. The jet is one of three that the Chinese airforce bought from Pakistan in 1969.
One was given to Mao, the founder of modern China, the other was given to Lin Biao, Mao's heir apparent, and the third was reserved for the military.
SINGAPORE
Over a thousand people attended the funeral of veteran Singapore opposition figure J.B. Jeyaretnam last weekend, paying their last respects to a dogged human rights advocate who never gave up despite crippling lawsuits by members of the ruling party. Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, popularly known as JBJ, died last week of heart failure at the age of 82. A fierce critic of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), Jeyaretnam became in 1981, the first opposition politician to break the PAP's monopoly in parliament, where he frequently clashed with the country's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
NEW DELHI, India
Customs authorities at Brussels airport have seized over two million counterfeit medical pills from India which were bound for Africa, the biggest such seizure ever in Europe. Blister packs of the fake medication – copies of Tramal, a strong analgesic made by German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal, and Swiss- based Roche’s antimalarial treatment Fansidar – were discovered in large bags . Customs officers’ suspicions were aroused first because the pills were not transported in boxes, and then by spelling mistakes on the packaging.
BANGKOK, Thailand
A US tourist was badly beaten up by a bar owner at Thailand's Pattaya beach resort for refusing to pay 170 baht (US5 dollars) for a bottle of beer. Dennis Leo Greenwood, 51, was hospitalized at Pattaya Memorial Hospital for treatment of facial injuries, a head wound and several missing teeth, said The Nation online news service. His Thai girlfriend, Suparp Mahasen, told police Greenwood was beaten after he argued that he had been overcharged. Locally-brewed beers usually sell for about 100 baht a bottle at Pattaya's plethora of beer bars.
JAKARTA, Indonesia
At least 427 people were killed and more than 1,400 others injured in traffic accidents across the country during this year's Eid al-Fitr holiday season, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Last year, police recorded 1,875 accidents during Eid al-Fitr that killed 798 people, which was up by 82 per cent compared from the fatality figures in 2006. The return influx of holiday travelers is expected to cause more accidents.
BEIJING, China
The world’s tallest man, China’s Bao Xishun, became the world’s tallest father last week with the birth of his first child, a boy whose initial height seems a compromise between his gigantic dad and average-sized mum. Bao’s son measured 22 inches long at birth. Bao, a 7-foot-9-inch herdsman from Inner Mongolia, last year married Xia Shujuan, a pygmy by contrast at 5-foot-6 inches. Bao briefly lost his Guinness World Records title as the tallest man to Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk but regained it in August when Stadnyk refused to be measured under new guidelines.
MANILA, Philippines
Three pineapple growers were killed by lightning in a southern Philippine town. Nine other plantation workers of Del Monte Philippines Inc were also hurt when lightning struck them in Manolo Fortich town in Bukidnon province, 840km south of Manila. Police said the victims were harvesting pineapples when lighting struck them. The three men died instantly while the nine injured suffered third-degree burns and were being treated at a nearby hospital.
HONG KONG
A 51-year-old man has been charged with arson after allegedly setting fire to Hong Kong’s tax headquarters and fleeing with his trousers on fire. The Chinese suspect, whose dramatic attack led to 600 people being evacuated from the Inland Revenue offices in central Hong Kong, emptied a bottle of petrol over two counters and set them on fire before fleeing with his trousers ablaze. The South China Morning Post reported that the suspect was a laundry owner who had a dispute over his tax bill.
