BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s tense national election got underway Sunday amid signs of disruptions at several polling stations and fears of violence, a day after gun battles between protesters and would-be voters broke out at a busy Bangkok intersection. The extent of disruptions was not immediately clear when polls opened nationwide, but there were early indications that dozens of polling stations in Bangkok would not open because protesters blocked delivery of ballots or stopped voters from entering.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A senior United States diplomat said on Saturday that Sri Lanka’s government has made little progress on justice, reconciliation and accountability more than four years after the end of the civil war, as the U.S. prepares to press that government at the U.N.’s top human rights body. Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal said lack of progress has frustrated her government and the international community.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An insurgent ambush killed four soldiers in western Afghanistan Saturday, according to an official. Provincial spokesman Fawad Askari said another four were wounded Saturday afternoon in the attack on an Afghan National Army foot patrol along the main highway in western Afghanistan’s Farah province.
MOUNT SINABUNG, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian volcano that has been rumbling for months unleased a major eruption Saturday, killing 14 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes, saying that activity was decreasing, officials said. Among the dead on Mount Sinabung were a local television journalist and four high-school students and their teacher who were visiting the mountain to see the eruptions up close, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. At least three other people were injured, and authorities feared the death toll would rise.
BEIJING (AP) — Business should be picking up for Zhao Guoping, a Beijing shopkeeper, as Chinese leaders try to build a consumer society to replace a worn-out economic model based on trade and investment. But his financial struggle highlights the hurdles that ambitious effort faces. Squeezed by higher costs and weak sales to budget-minded shoppers, Zhao said the income from his neighborhood shop has fallen by half to 50,000 yuan ($6,000) a year.
MUNICH (AP) — Afghanistan’s police force and army still need more training to handle the country’s security on their own, making it critical for a new security agreement to be signed to allow international forces to remain after 2014, NATO’s top two leaders said Saturday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has so far refused to sign the security agreement that could allow some 10,000 U.S. troops and 6,000 troops from allied nations to stay in Afghanistan after the end of this year, largely to help train Afghan forces.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The posters are printed. The rallies are organized. A televised debate is planned. Campaign season for Afghanistan’s presidential election kicks off Sunday, and the stakes are high for the 11 candidates vying to succeed President Hamid Karzai and oversee the final chapter in a NATO-led combat mission.
Some of the leading contenders in Afghanistan’s presidential election: ABDULLAH ABDULLAH: Having gained 31 percent of the vote as runner-up to Hamid Karzai in the disputed 2009 elections, Abdullah has an advantage in name recognition and political organization. He was a close aide to the late Ahmad Shah Masood, the Northern Alliance rebel commander famed for his resistance to Soviet occupation and the Taliban. Abdullah has a strong following among ethnic Tajiks in Afghanistan’s north, but his perceived weak support among Pashtuns — Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group at 42 percent — could keep him from gaining a majority of votes, even though he is half-Pashtun.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A homemade bomb that was likely set off by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines on Saturday wounded 12 people, including six soldiers and two television journalists, the military said. The blast happened near an area where government troops have been battling Muslim insurgents who broke away from a larger rebel group after it signed a peace deal with the government.
NEW DELHI (AP) — The beating and subsequent death in New Delhi of a university student from India’s remote northeast has sparked a furious outcry against racism and criticism of police in the Indian capital. Several hundred people protested outside a Delhi police station Saturday, shouting demands for justice against what they called a hate crime. The capital’s newly elected chief minister asked that a magistrate investigate the incident as well as the police response.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s Asia policy took a hit this week, and it came from a member of his own party. The top Democratic senator, Harry Reid, announced that he opposes legislation that’s key for a trans-Pacific trade pact that is arguably the most important part of Obama’s effort to strengthen American engagement in Asia.
MOHENJODARO, Pakistan (AP) — Folk dancers and singers wearing traditional multicolored dresses took the stage Saturday at one of the world’s most ancient archaeological sites in southern Pakistan for a festival that organizers say aspires to promote peace in a nation where political violence has left some 40,000 dead in recent years. The festival at Mohenjodaro aims to publicize the cultural heritage of the country’s south. But it drew controversy when some archaeologists said the event posed a threat to the site’s unbaked brick ruins dating to the 3rd millennium BC.
HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese communities around the world were ushering in the year of the horse starting Friday with equine-themed decorations and celebrations. The annual Lunar New Year holiday is marked with a particular verve in Hong Kong, the semi-autonomous Chinese financial center that expects nearly 8 million visitors from Jan. 29 to Feb. 6 — more than the local population of 7.1 million. Most of those travelers will be mainland Chinese, who have been flooding into Hong Kong in increasing numbers in recent years thanks to rising incomes and a strengthening yuan.
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — An official says Nigeria’s military has helped rescue three Indian nationals who were kidnapped from a cargo ship off Equatorial Guinea and held hostage in Nigeria. Marilyn Ogar, a spokeswoman for Nigeria’s government, says no ransom was paid and five kidnappers were arrested during Thursday’s operation that freed the captives in Nigeria’s Rivers state.
RISALPUR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants in Pakistan have found clever ways to hide homemade bombs. They’ve been strapped to children’s bicycles, hidden inside water jugs and even hung in tree branches. But the most shocking place that Brig. Basim Saeed has heard of such a device being planted was inside a hollowed-out book made to look like a Quran, Islam’s holy book. A soldier who went to pick up the book from the floor was killed when it exploded.
Top Asian News at 2:00 a.m. GMT
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