INDONESIA: A high-voltage cable snapped above an electric commuter train traveling from Bogor, West Java, to Jakarta on Saturday morning, killing two passengers and injuring eight others. All of the victims were sitting on the roof of the train.
The incident occurred a day after the roof of an overcrowded train car collapsed under the weight of dozens of people riding illegally on the roof, injuring at least 46.
A spokesman for the state railway company, Ahmad Sujadi, said Saturday's accident occurred between the Cikini and Gondangdia train stations in Central Jakarta.
Bojong Gede resident Mohammad Ery Sucipto, 26, was electrocuted and died at the scene. Dedi Junaidi, whose age was not released, died later at Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital, Central Jakarta.
""The passengers sitting on the train roof panicked and started jumping from the roof,"" Ahmad said.
Those injured in the ensuing panic were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. -- JP
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Americans censured for 'proselytizing'
INDONESIA: Hardliners burned the United States' national flag in front of an American couple's home and demanded they leave Indonesia for allegedly trying to convert residents to Christianity.
The couple, identified as Timothy and Barbara Friberg, were not at the house in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, at the time.
About 100 members of the Laskar Jundullah group claimed the Americans had been translating Bibles into the local Konjo dialect as part of their efforts to convert people, and demanded they leave the world's most populous Muslim nation, said police Lt. Col. Haryono.
The Fribergs have been living in the province since 1986 and were lecturers at a university in Makassar, police said. -- AP
Clock reverted after 10 years
SRI LANKA: The government will put the clock back by half an hour and revert to its original time after a 10-year experiment that largely failed to save energy, state radio said Saturday.
President Mahinda Rajapakse ordered that Sri Lanka revert to its original standard time, 5.5 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which the country maintained until May 1996.
""The change will take place from the Tamil and Sinhala New Year on April 13,"" SLBC radio said.
Faced with an electricity crisis in May 1996, the then-government advanced the clock by an hour to extend daylight hours. In October that year it brought it back by half an hour to put Sri Lanka six hours ahead of GMT.
After the reversion, the island will be on the same time zone as its giant neighbor India. -- AFP
Roadside bomb kills five
AFGHANISTAN: A roadside bomb killed an Afghan intelligence official, three bodyguards and one other man in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said.
The blast in Nadali district of Helmand province killed Mohammad Ali Borak, a local official of the National Security Administration, said Asadullah Sherzad, head of national security in the province.
The attack was the latest in a spate on insurgent violence to hit Helmand. On Friday, Taliban gunmen killed the chief government official in Sangin district, hours after police killed eight guerrillas and arrested 10 in a two-hour battle. -- Reuters
'Secession' ups military budget
CHINA: The military budget of China will increase almost 15 percent this year to US$35 billion, a senior official said Saturday, amid warnings that Taiwan's ""secessionist forces"" were moving towards independence.
""I want to stress that China is a peace-loving country...China insists on a road of peaceful development and China has no desire nor the ability to considerably expand its military armaments,"" said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People's Congress (NPC).
The National People's Congress, or parliament, which is constitutionally the state's highest body, opens on Sunday and is expected to approve the budget.
Military spending is expected to constitute 7.4 percent of the nation's fiscal budget, roughly the same level as in the past few years, Jiang said, adding that the defense budget was ""still relatively low"" compared with countries like the United States. -- AFP
U.S. 'ok' with Iran pipeline
PAKISTAN: United States President George W. Bush said Saturday he had no objections to a proposed pipeline to supply Iranian natural gas to India and Pakistan, signaling a change in Washington's position on the controversial project.
However, he indicated that the U.S. was unlikely to agree to a civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan like it had with India.
""Our beef with Iran is not the pipeline, our beef with Iran is the fact they want to develop a nuclear weapon, and I believe a nuclear weapon in the hands of the Iranians will be very dangerous for all of us,"" Bush told a joint news conference with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. -- AFP
