W O R L D

China suspends exchanges with Vietnam over riots
Beijing, May 18
Stung by anti-China riots in Vietnam over the South China Sea dispute, Beijing today hit back by suspending plans for bilateral exchanges with Hanoi even as it evacuated over 3,000 Chinese workers from the southeast Asian nation. Staff members, from the China’s 19th Metallurgical Corporation (MCC19), arrived at the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

Taking on protesters: Security forces in action in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh city on Sunday. Reuters

5 African nations declare ‘total war’ on Boko Haram
Paris/London, May 18
Nigeria and four neighbouring countries have declared a “total war” on Boko Haram saying the dreaded Islamist militant group holding over 220 schoolgirls must be crushed as it had become a “regional Al-Qaida” that threatened all of them.

Floods threaten Serbia power plants
Kostolac, May 18
Soldiers, the police and villagers battled to protect power plants in Serbia from rising flood waters on Sunday as the death toll from the Balkan region's worst rainfall in more than a century reached 37. Twelve bodies were recovered from the worst-hit Serbian town of Obrenovac, 30 km southwest of the capital, Belgrade, but the number was likely to rise as waters receded.

Some relief: Evacuees from the Serbian town of Obrenovac at a shelter hall in Belgrade. Reuters

Geo TV owner booked for blasphemy
Islamabad, May 18
The Pakistan police today registered a criminal case against Geo TV owner Mir Shakeel-ur Rehman and Jang media group for showing a programme that allegedly contained blasphemous content, an official said. Geo channel on Wednesday staged a mock marriage ceremony of controversial actress Veena Malik as a religious song was played in the background.

Lanka celebrates victory over LTTE; Prez flays West
Colombo, May 18
President Mahinda Rajapaksa today slammed countries that stayed away from the celebrations to mark the fifth anniversary of Sri Lanka’s victory over the LTTE, and called them “blind, deaf, and dumb.” He accused them of being ignorant to the progress Sri Lanka has made since the end of the war with the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

Pro-government activists take part in a protest march to the Norwegian Embassy, in Colombo on Sunday. AFP

North Korean elite offer rare apology
Seoul, May 18
Senior North Korean officials have publicly apologised for an “unimaginable” accident at an apartment construction site, state media said today, a rare admission of culpability by the secretive hardline state.

China suspends exchanges with Vietnam over riots

Beijing, May 18
Stung by anti-China riots in Vietnam over the South China Sea dispute, Beijing today hit back by suspending plans for bilateral exchanges with Hanoi even as it evacuated over 3,000 Chinese workers from the southeast Asian nation. Staff members, from the China’s 19th Metallurgical Corporation (MCC19), arrived at the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

“They returned to China with the assistance of (the) Chinese Embassy to Vietnam,” China’s Foreign Ministry said today in a statement.

China will suspend some of its plans for bilateral exchanges with Vietnam in response to the deadly violence against Chinese nationals in the country, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said without elaborating.

He made the remarks while commenting on the possible repercussions of the incidents in Vietnam that have left two Chinese nationals dead and more than 100 others injured, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Hong said China has also lifted the level of security warning for Chinese tourists in Vietnam, asking its citizens not to travel to the country.

“The severe violence targeting foreign companies in Vietnam since May 13 has caused casualties and property losses for Chinese nationals. This sabotaged the atmosphere and conditions for bilateral communication and cooperation,” he said.

China will also consider taking further measures according to the further developments, he warned. China has already blamed Vietnam for conniving with anti-China forces to instigate the riots.

Unofficial reports said 21 Chinese were killed and over 100 injured in a spate of attacks on Chinese factories in mob attacks in the last few days after China and Vietnam clashed over the deployment of a Chinese oil rig in the disputed South China Sea waters on May 1. China confirmed two deaths.

Naval vessels of the two countries rammed into each other over 500 times even though there was no incident of firing so far. — PTI

Worst violence since 1979

• Anti-China violence in Vietnam is stated to be the worst since the war between the two countries in 1979
• Over 460 factories, mostly Chinese and Taiwan-funded, were torched by mobs
• China began evacuating thousands of its stranded citizens by special planes and ships
• So far over 3,000 Chinese nationals have been evacuated and five ships were sent today to bring back the rest
  

5 African nations declare ‘total war’ on Boko Haram

For a cause: Actress Salma Hayek holds up a sign reading ‘Bring back our girls’ as part of a campaign calling for the release of abducted Nigerian schoolgirls at Cannes. AP/PTI

Paris/London, May 18
Nigeria and four neighbouring countries have declared a “total war” on Boko Haram saying the dreaded Islamist militant group holding over 220 schoolgirls must be crushed as it had become a “regional Al-Qaida” that threatened all of them.

Under a “global and regional action plan” firmed up to face the challenge posed by Boko Haram, the governments of Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad will share intelligence and border surveillance in the hunt for the girls still held by the militants.

Western nations will provide technical expertise and training to the new regional African effort against the extreme Islamists.

“Boko Haram is no longer a local terror group. It is clearly operating as an Al-Qaida operation” in central Africa, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said while speaking at a summit hosted by French President Hollande in Paris yesterday.

“We have shown our commitment for a regional approach. Without West African countries coming together we will not be able to crush these terrorists,” he said amid criticism that his government has done enough to rescue the schoolgirls abducted last month.

Jonathan said Nigeria has deployed 20,000 troops, aircraft and intelligence sources in areas where Boko Haram is active. Boko Haram translates as “Western education is a sin”. — PTI

Joining hands against terror

• The governments of Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad will share intelligence and border surveillance in the hunt for the girls still held by militants
• France, the US, the UK and the EU "will coordinate their support for this regional cooperation" through technical expertise and training programmes
• The participants agreed that the United Kingdom will host a follow-up meeting next month to review the action plan

Floods threaten Serbia power plants

Kostolac, May 18
Soldiers, the police and villagers battled to protect power plants in Serbia from rising flood waters on Sunday as the death toll from the Balkan region's worst rainfall in more than a century reached 37. Twelve bodies were recovered from the worst-hit Serbian town of Obrenovac, 30 km southwest of the capital, Belgrade, but the number was likely to rise as waters receded. "The situation is catastrophic," Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told reporters.

Hundreds of soldiers and residents scrambled to raise sandbag barriers around the perimeter of the Kostolac power plant east of Belgrade, where a Reuters cameraman said waters from the swollen River Mlava, a tributary to the much larger River Danube, had come to within a kilometre.

Workers at the plant joined the effort, digging up a road in a bid to divert waters that threatened to flood nearby coal mines. The Kostolac plant supplies 20 per cent of Serbia's electricity needs.

Russian cargo planes carrying boats, generators and food joined rescue teams from around Europe and thousands of local volunteers in evacuating people and building flood defences after the River Sava, swollen by days of torrential rain, burst its banks.

Rains eased and flood waters receded on Sunday in some of the worst-hit areas of Serbia and Bosnia, but the Sava was forecast to rise further. Thousands of people have been displaced. Serbia's EPS power utility said a fresh flood wave also threatened Serbia's largest power plant, the Nikola Tesla in Obrenovac. — Reuters

Geo TV owner booked for blasphemy

Islamabad, May 18
The Pakistan police today registered a criminal case against Geo TV owner Mir Shakeel-ur Rehman and Jang media group for showing a programme that allegedly contained blasphemous content, an official said. Geo channel on Wednesday staged a mock marriage ceremony of controversial actress Veena Malik as a religious song was played in the background.

District and sessions judge of Okara in Punjab province yesterday ordered that a case be registered against Geo media group owner Rehman, anchor Shaistan Lodhi, actress Veena, her husband Asad Khatak and others over the programme.

Police officer Rana Aziz said Veena, her husband Asad and programme hostess Lodhi were also named in the case registered with Margalla police station in the capital Islamabad.

"They have been charged under Section 295 A, 295 C and 298 A of Pakistan Penal Code, which deal with insulting the religion, and Section 7 of anti-terrorism act," he said. — PTI

Lanka celebrates victory over LTTE; Prez flays West

Colombo, May 18
President Mahinda Rajapaksa today slammed countries that stayed away from the celebrations to mark the fifth anniversary of Sri Lanka’s victory over the LTTE, and called them “blind, deaf, and dumb.” He accused them of being ignorant to the progress Sri Lanka has made since the end of the war with the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

“Some governments are blind, deaf and dumb. They are opposed to our celebrating this victory,” he said addressing a victory parade in his birthplace in the Sinhalese heartland of Matara in the south.

Most of the western envoys, including that of Canada who had said she would decline an invitation to attend the parade, stayed away from the event.

Rajapaksa said despite views expressed by some quarters that Lanka must not celebrate the event he was determined to carry on with the celebrations. Lanka said the ceremony was a tribute to some 30,000 forces personnel who had made the sacrifice to rid country of terrorism. — PTI

North Korean elite offer rare apology

Seoul, May 18
Senior North Korean officials have publicly apologised for an “unimaginable” accident at an apartment construction site, state media said today, a rare admission of culpability by the secretive hardline state.

South Korean officials said the incident involved the collapse of a 23-storey apartment building in Pyongyang’s Pyongchon district, which already had close to 100 families in residence.

It is extremely unusual for the North to report negative news of this type, and its official KCNA news agency also reported equally rare apologies from top officials. Leader Kim Jong-Un “sat up all night, feeling painful” after being told about the accident, the agency said.

The accident happened last Tuesday and was the result of “irresponsible” supervision by officials in charge of construction.

An intensive operation had been mounted to rescue survivors and treat the wounded, it said. — AFP

BRIEFLY

A first: Saudi school kicks off sports for girls
Riyadh: In a first for ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, a state school has introduced sports for girls, after a call for the lifting of a ban on women in sports, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Girls at Amal Institute in the Red Sea city of Jeddah competed in a volleyball tournament last week after the school built new sports facilities, also for basketball, tennis and hockey, Al-Hayat said. afp

Egypt courts jail over 163 Morsi backers
Cairo: An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced 126 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to 10 years in prison each in a mass trial over protest violence, judicial sources said. Another court, in Cairo, sentenced a further 37 alleged Morsi supporters to 15 years in prison for trying to set off bombs during a protest at a metro station last year. AFP

Head of Syrian air defence killed
Damascus: The head of Syria's air defence was killed in clashes near the capital, Damascus. He is one of a few high-ranking military officers to be killed in the country's three-year-old civil war. Lt. Gen. Hussein Ishaq's death may boost morale for those fighting against President Bashar Assad's government, as they've faced a series of setbacks over the last year. Pti

Indian jailed for attacking ex-wife at public place
Melbourne: An Indian man, who punched his estranged wife in the face and stabbed her at a pizza shop here, has been sentenced to eight months in jail, a media report said on Sunday. The man, who was not named, jumped the counter of the pizza shop where his ex-wife works and tried to throttle her. He told her that if she didn't die, he'd come back, saying: "I'll kill you. Pti