theSun | TUESDAY APRIL 28 2009  11

news without borders NOW OPEN !

AT BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE

Japan’s opposition wins key local election

TOKYO: Japan’s main opposition
party won a key weekend local poll
in a landslide, official figures showed
yesterday, handing it a significant and
much-needed boost ahead of national
elections later this year.
“It is very significant that we scored
a landslide victory in a major city
when a general election is drawing
near,” Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)
secretary-general Yukio Hatoyama
said in a statement late on Sunday.
“We will be fully prepared for the
general election to topple the govern-
ment,” he said after Takashi Kawa-
mura won the mayoral election in the
central industrial city of Nagoya.
Kawamura, 60, won 514,514 votes
against 282,990 votes for runner-up
Masahiko Hosokawa, backed by the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party and
its junior coalition partner, the New
Komeito party.
The opposition DPJ has suffered
two election defeats in local polls
since leader Ichiro Ozawa was hit by
a funding scandal last month.
Ozawa, who had been widely
tipped as a likely future premier, has
seen his popularity slide since, and
recent opinion polls have showed
public support for Taro Aso’s cabinet
recovering, fuelling speculation of
early elections.
Despite that, pundits have said the
general election, which must be held
by September, will be the toughest yet
for the ruling conservative party in its
almost unbroken rule of Japan lasting
more than half a century. – AFP

Moscow cop kills 3

Troops kill 20 Taliban

briefs
S’porean jailed for
hoax terror threats
in shooting spree
MOSCOW: A Russian police
major yesterday went on a
killing spree at a Moscow shop
leaving three people dead and
at least six injured, Russian

SINGAPORE: A Singaporean
suffering from depression was
jailed for five years yesterday
for sending hoax e-mail mes-
sages warning of terror plots to
airlines, the Pentagon and the
White House, a report said.
Josemaria Miguel Ye Yong
Qiang, 40, pleaded guilty to five
charges under an anti-terrorism
law, the Straits Times said.
Ye sent the e-mails, which
warned of bomb and rocket at-
tacks, between Sept 6 and 27.
Some went to US embassies.
The man was found to be
suffering from a major depres-
sive disorder at the time of the
offences, the newspaper added.
He masqueraded as an
informant within the Al Qaeda
militant network when he sent
the e-mails, the report said.
In one instance, he used an
internet cafe in Johor Baru to
send an e-mail to the Pentagon
about crashing a plane within
the next few days, prompting a
security alert.
Ye was arrested following
information provided by the FBI,
the report said. – AFP
Psychiatric cases
rise in Hongkong
HONGKONG: The number of
people seeking psychiatric
help in Hongkong has risen by
around one quarter since the
onset of the economic crisis,
a leading public doctor said
yesterday.
Patient numbers have risen
by between 20 and 30% since
last October, mental health
specialist Dr Lee Wing-king
told government-run radio
station RTHK.
Separately, a survey by the
Democratic Alliance political
party found that 80% of people
in the wealthy city of 7 million
had suffered from insomnia
or mood disorders because of
the downturn.
Share prices have slumped
by 50% since the beginning
of 2008 and the city’s jobless
rate has risen to 5.2%. – dpa
Opposition icon’s
son to lead party
SINGAPORE: A fledgling opposi-
tion party in Singapore yesterday
announced the appointment of
British-trained economist Ken-
neth Jeyaretnam, son of late
pro-democracy icon J.B. Jeyaret-
nam, as its new leader.
The Reform Party said Jeyaret-
nam was appointed secretary-
general at a meeting of its central
executive committee on Sunday.
The younger Jeyaretnam, 50,
had worked in the financial sector
in London after earning a double
first-class honours degree from
the University of Cambridge. He
returned to Singapore last year,
before his father died. The party
was founded by his father after
the 2006 general elections. –AFP
news agencies reported.
Major Denis Yevsyukov,
head of police of Tsaritsyno
district, first shot dead the
driver of a car he was travel-
ling in and then entered a shop
where he unleashed a barrage
of gun fire on those inside.
Yevsyukov “fatally shot the
driver of the Chevrolet Lanos
he was being driven in,” a
spokesman for the Russian
prosecutor’s investigative
committee, Vladimir Markin,
told RIA Novosti.
“The police head then en-
tered the Ostrov supermarket
... and continued firing. As a
result a female cashier and
a man were killed. Another
six people received gunshot
wounds of varying degrees.
The shooter was detained.”
Investigation is under way,
with initial reports suggesting
he is of unsound mind. – AFP
Sex criminal flees
jail in helicopter
SAINT DENIS (Reunion): A cult
leader jailed for sex attacks on
children escaped in a helicopter
from a prison on the French Indian
Ocean island of Reunion yesterday,
the regional administration said.
Juliano Verbard, who was serv-
ing a 15-year term for rapes and
sex assaults on children, and two
of his jailed followers were hauled
on board a chopper hijacked by
three accomplices, senior official
Jean-Francois Moniotte said.
The helicopter landed a few
hundred metres away and the
gang escaped in a van that had
been waiting for them, he said.
Earlier, the hijackers had
boarded the chopper pretend-
ing to be tourists, before seizing
control and directing the pilots
to Domenjod prison, where it
landed in the exercise yard and
took on the escapees. – AFP
Pope mocker goes
free in Australia
SYDNEY: Australian police
have given up trying to
prosecute civil libertarian
Ian Bryce for driving around
Sydney in a fake pope-mobile
during the real pope’s visit in
July for World Youth Day.
Charges were dropped
yesterday after the police case
collapsed for a fourth time.
“It was against the pope’s
claims to have supernatural
authority and all the harm he’s
doing in the world in banning
condoms and trying to avoid
family planning,” Bryce said.
“And now he’s said gays are
an equal threat to mankind as
climate change, and I can’t for
the life of me see what harm
they’re doing anyone.”
Police alleged the modified
car was a distraction for other
motorists. Bryce had fitted an
illuminated canopy to the roof
with a mannequin dressed as
the pope inside. – dpa
militants in Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Pakistan forces demanding the army halt its lat- lamic justice system in the region.
yesterday pounded suspected est operation against militants in Interior ministry chief Rehman
militant hideouts after the Taliban which around 30 insurgents have Malik accused the militants of
suspended talks with the govern- been killed, Ameer Izzat Khan, a violating the deal.
ment over the Swat valley, the spokesman for a cleric who ne- The Pakistan military, under
military said. Paramilitary troops gotiated a peace deal between the US pressure to stop the advance
Residents and helicopter gunships bombed two sides, said. of the extremists in the region,
attend a the suspected bases in Lower Dir The talks were aimed at restor- launched its offensive against
meeting for the second day running, killing ing peace in the Malakand region, Taliban militants in the northwest
in Buner, at least 20 militants, a military of- which includes the district of Swat, of the country on Sunday.
adjacent to ficial said. after Taliban fighters infiltrated “Our council of leaders met
Swat valley, “Helicopter gunships targeted nearby Buner town despite the on Sunday night and decided to
where Taliban different militant hideouts” the peace deal signed with the provin- suspend peace negotiations with
militants are official said on condition of ano- cial government in February. the government in North West
seeking to nymity. The government had insisted Frontier Province,” Khan said.
expand their The Taliban had earlier sus- the militants lay down their arms “We, however, still adhere to
control. pended talks with the government after it agreed to implement Is- the February deal,” that put three
million people under syariah law,
EPAPIX
he said.
Despite the deal Taliban mili-
tants yesterday took control of a
telephone exchange in Behrain
town, 30km north of Swat valley,
police officials said.
“About 30 armed Taliban took
control of a telephone exchange
in Behrain yesterday morning,” a
police official said on condition of
anonymity.
Another police official con-
firmed the incident, saying the
militants were still in control of
the exchange.
The military said on Sunday
that Frontier Corps paramilitary
launched an operation against
the Taliban in Lower Dir after
militants killed a soldier in an
ambush.
It said a “number” of militants
had been killed and that the dead
bodies of at least 26 insurgents had
been found. Lower Dir is 75km
west of Swat, once a popular ski
resort frequented by Westerners
but where the government has ef-
fectively lost control after a violent
two-year Taliban campaign to
enforce syariah law. – AFP
Correa claims re-election victory in Ecuador
GUAYAQUIL (Ecuador): President Rafael since Ecuador’s democracy began in 1979. ans and should continue with adequate
Correa claimed an easy re-election victory Flag-waving supporters packed Correa’s social spending. If not, his administration
on Sunday as voters ignored a sputtering party headquarters shouting “Just one will not last long,” said veterinarian Karen
economy to give the charismatic socialist round, Ecuador.” Cabrera, 32.
four more years in power. Correa, a popu- Correa has vowed to keep standing up A close ally of Venezuela’s socialist
lar former economy minister, won more to foreign investors and big oil companies President Hugo Chavez, Correa was also
than 50% of the vote, two leading pollsters in a second, four-year term after bringing hoping to win a majority in the newly
said. The result put him way ahead of his relative stability where street protests top- formed National Assembly after a lively
nearest rival and means he comfortably pled three presidents in the decade before campaign in which the boisterous incum-
avoided a run-off election. he took office in 2007. bent frequently burst into song.
“This revolution is on the march, and But the fierce nationalist must now He is trusted by Ecuador’s poor for
nobody and nothing can stop us,” the 46- tackle a weakening economy and sliding squeezing hundreds of millions of dollars
year-old president said minutes after exit oil revenues to deliver on his promises of from foreign companies and spending it on
polls showed he won easily. more housing, roads and jobs or he risks pensions, schools and health programmes
“The people ... have given us the most eroding his popularity in the world’s top in the country of 14 million people known
splendorous victory of probably the last 50 banana exporter. for its Galapagos Islands, Andean moun-
years,” Correa said at a news conference A new constitution passed in Septem- tains and remote Amazon tribes.
in his home town of Guayaquil. ber gave Correa broader powers, allowed Correa is a bold leader who has made
A Correa victory in line with the polls him to stand for re-election and also lets risky moves such as defaulting on billions
would be the first time a president has him run for another four-year term in 2013. of dollars of debt and also reining in his
won an election without a run-off vote “Correa is being watched by all Ecuadore- own left-wing party’s radicals. – Reuters