theSun | WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 10 2008  15

news without borders

S’pore students and the United Arab Emirates.

top in science,
beaten in math
BOSTON: Young students
in Singapore are the world’s
top performers in science but
have been overtaken in math
by their peers in Hongkong
and Taiwan, a study released
yesterday showed.
Boston College’s Trends
International Mathematics
and Science Study found that
Singapore’s fourth and eighth
graders were tops in the world
in science, while Hongkong
fourth graders and Taiwanese
eighth graders led in math.
The fourth graders studied
were on average 10 years old,
with eighth graders averaging
14. The study of 425,000 stu-
dents in 37 countries bench-
marks performance against
students in the US, Canada
It has been conducted four
times since 1995. – Reuters
Bible, evolution
not at odds: Bush
WASHINGTON: US Presi-
dent George W. Bush said
in an interview on Monday
that the Bible is “probably
not” literally true and that a
belief that God created the
world is compatible with
the theory of evolution.
“I think you can have
both,” Bush, who leaves of-
fice on Jan 20, told ABC TV,
adding “You’re getting me
way out of my lane here. I’m
just a simple president.”
But “evolution is an in-
teresting subject. I happen
to believe that evolution
doesn’t fully explain the
mystery of life”, he said.
“I think God created the
Earth, the world; I think
the creation of the world
is so mysterious it requires
something as large as an
almighty and I don’t think
it’s incompatible with the
scientific proof that there is
evolution,” Bush said. – AFP
Fighter jet crash
kills 3 on ground
SAN DIEGO: A fighter jet
on a training flight careened
into a suburban neighbour-
hood in the Californian city
of San Diego on Monday and
slammed into two homes,
killing three people. The pilot
safely ejected, officials said.
San Diego Mayor Jerry
Sanders said the victims might
have been in a home where
there were reports that a
mother, grandmother and two
children were present at the
time of the crash. – Reuters

No leader yet,
Thailand still in limbo
BANGKOK: Thailand’s government
continued to be at a standstill yesterday as
the country’s leadership crisis remained
unresolved.
Two main political parties lobbied for
support ahead of a crucial vote for a new
prime minister which both the toppled
ruling party and the opposition claim they
can win.
The Democrat Party, the second largest
in parliament, said yesterday it has wooed
enough smaller parties and defectors from
the former ruling People Power Party (PPP)
to form a government with leader Abhisit
Vejjajiva as premier.
It is vying to fill the vacuum created
when a court last week dissolved the PPP
over vote fraud charges, although the
PPP’s MPs have simply moved into a party
known as Puea Thai (For Thais) and insist
they can cling on to power.
The Democrats have called for an
emergency session of parliament to prove
their parliamentary majority and nominate
the 44-year-old, Oxford-educated Abhisit.
The request is awaiting royal approval,
which could take days.
The fierce power struggle comes after
the Nov 25 to Dec 3 blockade of Bangkok’s
main airport by a royalist anti-government
protest group, which brought Thailand to
a standstill and badly dented the nation’s
image abroad.
“I am still confident that we are ready to
find a solution for the country,” Abhisit told
reporters. “Currently there are many types
of pressure and lobbying, but I am still
convinced that all parties and groups will
give the Democrat Party a chance to lead
the country out of this crisis,” he said.
Democrat Party leaders claim to have
won over about two-thirds of the 447
lawmakers currently sitting in parliament.
But Puea Thai – which is made up of
allies of ousted and exiled premier Thaksin
Shinawatra – continues to insist it has the
support of at least 220 MPs in the House of
Representatives.
Thais are hoping for a political solution
to more than six months of protests by the
so-called People’s Alliance for Democracy
(PAD), which wanted to bring down the
PPP-led government elected last December.
Their campaign reached its peak in late
November when PAD supporters marched
on Bangkok’s two main airports and
forced their closure, stranding hundreds of
thousands of passengers.
PAD leaders – whose supporters include
elements in the military, palace and
middle and upper classes – accused the
PPP of being a puppet of Thaksin, who was
toppled in a 2006 coup and lives abroad to
avoid corruption charges.
The protesters dispersed from the
Suvarnabhumi international airport and the
smaller Don Mueang hub last Wednesday
after a court disbanded the PPP, but have
vowed to return to the streets if they do not
approve of the new premier. – Agencies

Governor arrested for trying

to sell Obama’s Senate seat
CHICAGO: The governor of
Illinois was arrested yesterday
for conspiring to sell an appoint-
ment to president-elect Barack
Obama’s recently open US Sen-
ate seat, prosecutors said.
Governor Rod Blagojevich
and his chief of staff, John Harris,
were also accused to trying to
“induce purge of newspaper
editorial writers” critical of him
at the Tribune Company, the US
attorney’s office said.
“The breadth of corruption
laid out in these charges is stag-
gering,” US attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald said in a statement.
“They allege that Blago-
jevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on
the naming of a United States
senator; involved himself per-
sonally in pay-to-play schemes
with the urgency of a salesman
meeting his annual sales target;
and corruptly used his office
in an effort to trample editorial
voices of criticism.”
Blagojevich was intercepted
on court-authorised wiretaps
discussing obtaining how he
could profit from the fact that
it is the governor’s role to ap-
point a US senator when a seat
becomes vacant, according to
a 76-page FBI affidavit.
Blagojevich allegedly dis-
cussed getting paid a substantial
salary working for a non-profit
foundation or labour union,
placing his wife on corporate
boards where he speculated
she might get paid as much
as US$150,000 (RM530,000)
a year, promises of campaign
funds, and a cabinet post or
ambassadorship for himself.
“Many, including myself,
thought that the recent con-
viction of a former governor
would usher in a new era of
honesty and reform in Illinois
politics,” said Robert Grant,
special agent-in-charge of the
Chicago office of the FBI.
“Clearly, the charges an-
nounced today reveal that the of-
fice of the governor has become
nothing more than a vehicle for
self-enrichment, unrestricted by
party affiliation and taking Illinois
politics to a new low.”
Blagojevich, 51, and Harris,
46, were each charged with
conspiracy to commit mail
and wire fraud and solicitation
of bribery. – AFP