YANGON: Myanmar’s president will make the first state visit to the US by a leader of the former pariah nation in almost half a century, state television said yesterday. It did not say when former general Thein Sein, whose quasi-civilian government has won international plaudits for political reforms since taking power two years ago, would travel to Washington. Officials said they were aware of the planned visit but did not know the precise dates. The trip will be the first to Washington by a head of the country since military leader Ne Win was invited in 1966 by president Lyndon Johnson. Sein has previously visited the US to attend the UN General Assembly.
Men hired to kill dad, sister
BEIJING: A school pupil was arrested in China for hiring hitmen who killed his father and sister because of the pressure they put on him to study, reports said yesterday, highlighting educational stress in the country. The teenager was detained in the central province of Henan following the death of his father Gao Tianfeng, a senior court official, and his 20-year-old sister, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local police. “According to police interrogation of the boy, the junior hired two men that he got to know via the Internet to kill his father and elder sister, because ‘they had given him too much pressure in study’,” Xinhua said. Surveillance cameras showed two men had climbed over a wall and entered the house in Zhoukou at the time of the murder early on Sunday, the report said, adding two of the three suspects allegedly involved, including Gao’s son, had been held.
Researcher ‘left suicide notes’
SINGAPORE: A US high-tech researcher whose family claims he was murdered in Singapore was under treatment for depression and left suicide notes before he was found hanged, a public inquiry was told yesterday. Senior state counsel Tai Wei Shyong, opening a coroner’s inquest into the death of electronics engineer Shane Todd, said there were no signs of foul play when his body was found in his apartment last year. Investigators found a handwritten note with a password to Todd’s laptop, which revealed messages to his family, friends and girlfriend, Tai said. He reproduced one note addressed to “Mom and Dad” saying: “I hope that you understand that I am sorry for the pain this causes. I just know how much of a burden I will be to you in the future so I feel it is better to do this now rather than wait until I have caused more damage.”
Dhaka issues cyclone alert
CHITTAGONG: Bangladeshi authorities yesterday warned millions of people living along the coast that a brewing cyclone was gathering strength and could barrel into their homes later this week. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department raised its warning level about cyclonic storm Mahasen to four, meaning “there are increased chances that the cyclone will hit the coast”, its deputy head Shamsuddin Ahmed said. Ahmed said that Mahasen was currently in the Bay of Bengal, 1,355km south west of the second city of Chittagong, and could make landfall in the southeast of the country on Thursday. “Mahasen is a cyclonic storm. It has not gathered enough strength to become severe. But it is likely to intensify,” he said. AGENCIES
