Advertisement
Advertisement
Officials inspect the site of the second explosion. Photo: AFP

Briefs, March 2, 2013

Agencies

PHNOM PENH - Phnom Penh ordered urgent action to stem the "worrying" number of bird flu deaths in Cambodia after a surge in the number of fatalities. Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a directive for police, agriculture and health departments to join forces to combat the virus, which has killed eight people this year. The latest fatality was a 35-year-old man who died after eating infected duck. AFP

COLOMBO - Authorities in the Maldives have called on the country's Islamic ministry and judiciary to stop the public flogging of a teenaged girl for having sex outside marriage, a government official said. A

court in Feydhoo sentenced the 15-year-old to 100 lashes after she admitted to having consensual sex, a court official said. Details of the consensual sex emerged when police investigated her complaint against her stepfather and another man of sexually abusing her, the official said. AP

GUWAHATI - Thirteen endangered one-horned rhinos have been slaughtered in northeast India in the past two months, officials said, as another death added to worries about a recent surge in killings. The attacks have taken place around the Kaziranga National Park in Assam state, home to more than two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos. The main market for rhino horn is China, where it is used for medicine and jewellery. AFP

BANGKOK - A motorcycle bomb wounded six people in southern Thailand, a day after a landmark agreement between the government and a Muslim rebel group to start talks aimed at ending the conflict. No group claimed responsibility for the device, which exploded outside a market in Narathiwat province. The blast was followed by a car bomb explosion in front of a police station in Narathiwat, but no one was injured in the second attack. Reuters

Post