Briefs, November 28, 2012
DHAKA - Bangladeshi police hunted a fugitive factory boss yesterday after claims that workers were told that an alarm for a deadly fire was a routine drill. Police had opened a murder investigation as a result of criminal negligence at the plant. Meanwhile activists urged US rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs to push for better working conditions for workers after revealing clothing for his fashion line was made in the factory. AFP
YANGON - Myanmar has charged a group of activists who protested against a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine with defaming the state. The eight were picked up a day after they joined a gathering of about 50 people in central Yangon calling for a halt to the Monywa project and urging Chinese joint owner Wanbao Mining to quit Myanmar. The suspects were taken to Yangon's Insein Prison pending a trial scheduled for December 3. AFP
TOKYO - Japan's widely watched year-end TV show will feature only Japanese acts this year, with popular South Korean performers left out of the line-up amid territorial frictions with Seoul. Taxpayer-funded broadcaster NHK insisted politics had played no role in the selection of performers for the New Year's Eve broadcast watched by up to 40 per cent of the nation's TV audience. Korean girl groups KARA and Girls' Generation and male group Tohoshinki (TVXQ) were among the headline acts last year. AFP
MANILA - More than 140 paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh and other masters which were bought with stolen funds by former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos remain missing, the government said. Marcos distributed his priceless collection of at least 300 artworks to cronies when his regime crumbled in 1986. Only about half have been recovered by the government by Manila, said Andres Bautista, head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government. AFP
KATHMANDU - The leader of Nepal's Maoists proposed a new unity government, offering political rivals the pick of the top cabinet posts in a bid to end a deadlock crippling the restive Himalayan nation. Maoist party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said he would let his rivals in the two largest opposition parties choose their ministries if they agreed to unite behind a Maoist premier in a cross-party administration. AFP
SEOUL - A South Korean church group has scrapped plans to display Christmas lights near the border with North Korea after residents voiced fears Pyongyang might shell the illuminations. The Military Evangelical Association of Korea had planned to set up the giant display on three tree-shaped steel towers on hills near the heavily-fortified border. AFP
