HK suspends poultry trading over bird flu

HONG KONG • Hong Kong has ordered a city-wide suspension of live poultry trading starting yesterday, following the discovery of the potentially deadly H7N9 bird flu virus in a sample test, reported the Sunday Morning Post. The government has not announced how long the suspension would last, but standard practice is a 21-day hiatus following the discovery.

Bangladeshi anti-terror cop's wife shot dead

DHAKA • The wife of a police official known for battling Islamist extremism was shot dead in south-eastern Bangladesh yesterday, in what police suspected was the latest in a series of attacks by militants in the mainly Muslim South Asian nation.

Three assailants riding a motorcycle stabbed and then shot Ms Mahmuda Aktar, 33, when she was on her way home after putting her son onto a school bus in the port city of Chittagong, said Mr Humayan Kabir, deputy police commissioner of Chittagong.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Protesters call for Japan PM's resignation

TOKYO • Thousands of Japanese protesters gathered in downtown Tokyo yesterday to call for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to resign and for a law allowing the military to fight overseas to be overturned as an election for Parliament's Upper House draws near. The protesters, many of them elderly, rallied in front of Parliament and in a nearby park, holding placards with slogans such as "Step down, Abe government" and "Citizens change politics".

REUTERS

Taiwan train derails as tracks buckle in heat

TAIPEI • High temperatures led to the derailment of a train in Hualien on Saturday after the rail tracks buckled under record temperatures, reported the China Post yesterday.

The driver managed to slow down to avoid a major impact after seeing the distorted track, with none of the 50 people on board suffering any injuries in the incident, said the Taiwan Railway Administration.