JAKARTA: Indonesia’s religious affairs minister has called for the Miss World beauty pageant to be cancelled, as opposition in the Muslim-majority country mounts a week before the contest opens in Bali. Suryadharma Ali said the organisers should follow the advice of the top Islamic clerical body, which last week called for the contest to be scrapped even after organisers agreed to axe the bikini round. “The Indonesian Ulema Council has expressed strong opposition to Miss World because it doesn’t fit with Islamic teachings that say Muslim women should cover their bodies,” the minister said late Thursday.
Thailand seizes 100kg of ivory
BANGKOK: Thai customs yesterday said they had arrested two Vietnamese air passengers with 100kg of ivory in their luggage on a flight from Angola. The haul, which included whole tusks, ivory beads and shaped cubes which could be used for carving, was worth around $500,000. The couple had arrived in Bangkok on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from the Angolan capital Luanda.
Ex-official faces graft probe
BEIJING: China will launch a probe into former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, one of Beijing’s most powerful politicians of the last decade, a Hong Kong newspaper said. The probe into Zhou, a recently retired member of the ruling Communist party’s Politburo Standing Committee, was reported by the South China Morning Post, which cited “sources familiar with the leadership’s thinking”.
Dozens hit by turbulence
BANGKOK: More than 50 passengers and crew were injured yesterday when a Thai Airways A380 superjumbo hit turbulence during a flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong, the carrier said. One stewardess suffered a broken collarbone, while another bruises. About 500 passengers were on board the plane when it was preparing to land at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok airport shortly after noon.
August hottest in 50 years
BEIJING: China has experienced its hottest August for more than half a century, weather authorities said, after a heatwave saw meat cooked on pavements. A map on the website of the China Meteorological Administration shows large parts of central and eastern China, and the western province of Xinjiang, had average daily maximum temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius between July 31 and August 29. Ten people died in Shanghai.Agencies
