BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand held nationwide elections without bloodshed Sunday despite widespread fears of violence. But the country’s bitter political crisis is far from over, and one of the next flash points is likely to be an effort to nullify the vote. Although balloting was largely peaceful, protesters forced thousands of polling booths to close in Bangkok and the south, disenfranchising millions of registered voters. Not all Parliament seats will be filled as a result, meaning the nation could stay mired in political limbo for months with the winning party unable to form a new government.
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) — Campaigning officially opened Sunday in Afghanistan’s presidential election, with 11 candidates vying to succeed President Hamid Karzai in polls seen as a crucial test of whether the country can ensure a stable political transition. The April 5 presidential vote will be held in a climate of uncertainty as NATO combat forces ready their withdrawal at the end of 2014. If successful, the election will usher in the first handover from one elected president to another in Afghan history.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has agreed to hold talks to discuss arranging reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea last month agreed to restart the reunions for the first time in more than three years and asked South Korea to pick the date. Seoul subsequently chose Feb. 17-22 and proposed working-level talks to discuss details about the reunions but Pyongyang hadn’t responded for a week.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka on Sunday reacted sharply to a move by the United States to sponsor a third resolution at the United Nations human rights body criticizing its post-war reconciliation, saying it could polarize the island nation. Sri Lanka has faced questions over the tactics it used to defeat Tamil rebels in 2009 to its 25-year civil war. Government troops have been accused of targeting civilians and hospitals, blocking food and medicine for civilians and deliberately under-countering civilians trapped in the war zone.
DERA ISLAMIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban wants five well-known political and religious figures including ex-cricketer Imran Khan to represent them in peace talks with the government, according to a statement from the militant group Sunday. Khan’s party said he was unlikely to accept the role. But the Taliban statement is one of their clearest signs to date welcoming the negotiations proposed by Pakistan’s prime minister.
SYDNEY (AP) — A Japanese whaling ship and an anti-whaling protest boat collided in the remote, icy seas off Antarctica, with both sides on Monday blaming each other for the crash. No one was injured, though both ships received minor damage in Sunday’s collision — the latest drama in an annual battle between the conservationists and the whalers.
MOUNT SINABUNG, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll from an Indonesian volcano that has been rumbling for months rose to 16 Sunday after rescuers found another charred corpse and a critically injured college student died in a hospital, officials said. Mount Sinabung erupted again Saturday just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes, saying volcanice activity was decreasing. Rescuers found 14 bodies and rescued three people with burn wounds, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
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.
SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — An endangered komodo dragon and a pregnant barking deer have been found dead in the latest animal deaths in Indonesia’s largest and problem-plagued zoo, a spokesman said Sunday. Zoo spokesman Agus Supangkat said a 7-year-old giant lizard was found dead Saturday in his cage at the zoo in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city and the provincial capital of East Java. A day earlier, a pregnant barking deer died shortly after a visitor reported to a zookeeper the animal was having convulsions and was foaming at the mouth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Top Asian News at 3:00 a.m. GMT
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