Junta threatens protesting monks

100,000 take to the streets in biggest demonstrations for nearly 20 years but fears of crackdown grow

Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
Tuesday September 25, 2007
Guardian 

Burma’s military rulers last night threatened to “take action’ after up to 100,000 demonstrators protesting against the regime flooded the streets of Rangoon in the biggest show of dissent in almost two decades.

Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and pink-robed nuns led the marchers who snaked for nearly a mile through the former capital, one of several marches that slowed traffic to a crawl and prompted the closure of shops and schools.

Singapore to keep anti-gay legislation

The Financial Times

By John Burton in Singapore

Published: September 22 2007 07:30 | Last updated: September 22 2007 07:30

Earlier this year, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s elder statesman, raised hopes among the city-state’s gay community that a long-standing law banning homosexual acts would be abolished.

Luciano Pavarotti, Italian Tenor, Is Dead at 71

from The New York Times 

 

By BERNARD HOLLAND

Luciano Pavarotti, the Italian singer whose ringing, pristine sound set a standard for operatic tenors of the postwar era, died early this morning at his home in Modena, in northern Italy. He was 71.

His death was announced by his manager, Terri Robson. The cause was pancreatic cancer. In July 2006 he underwent surgery for the cancer in New York and had made no public appearances since then. He was hospitalized again this summer and released on Aug. 25.

Malaysia judges join Bench

from The Fiji Times 

TWO judges from Malaysia were appointed to the Fiji Court of Appeal by the President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, yesterday.

Interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Justices Dato Dr Cyrus Das, 58, and Dato Cecil Abraham, 61, had been appointed and more appointments would be made shortly.

Australian, NZ judges quit Fiji

 from news.com.au

FIJI faces a judicial crisis after six expatriate judges, including an Australian, quit over the behaviour of the country’s military-appointed chief justice.

The six, including Queensland judge Bruce McPherson, informed Fiji’s president of their resignations yesterday.

Asians Say Trade Complaints Bring Out the Bully in China

from The Washington Post 

JAKARTA, Indonesia — After hearing about dangerous Chinese products elsewhere, Indonesia this summer began testing popular Chinese-made items on its own store shelves. What it found has added to the list of horrors: mercury-laced makeup that turns skin black, dried fruit spiked with industrial chemicals, carcinogenic children’s candy.

Singapore jails opposition leader over bid to leave

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore has jailed a prominent opposition leader for three weeks after he failed to pay a fine for trying to leave the city-state without permission from the government, as required of him as a bankrupt.

Modern Singapore’s Creator Is Alert to Perils

from The New York Times

Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, shown in May, says Singapore’s strength is that it is “ideology free” and pragmatic.

SINGAPORE, Sept. 1 — Lee Kuan Yew, who turned a malarial island into a modern financial center with a first-world skyline, is peering ahead again into this city-state’s future, this time with an idea to seal it off with dikes against the rising tides of global warming.