Lahad Datu intrusion: 19 to enter defence

KOTA KINABALU • The High Court ordered 19 people facing multiple charges for the 2013 Lahad Datu intrusion, including treason which carries the death sentence, to enter their defence yesterday.

High Court Judge Stephen Chung who made the ruling also acquitted 11 others, all Filipinos, who are to be deported to their country of origin, New Straits Times reported yesterday. It said the proceeding, held at the state Prison Headquarters under tight security, took about 40 minutes.

India ratifies pact over nuclear liability

NEW DELHI • India ratified an international convention on nuclear energy accident liability, the government said on Thursday, the final piece in its efforts to address the concerns of foreign nuclear suppliers and draw them into a market worth billions of dollars.

Energy-starved India plans to construct about 60 nuclear reactors and has been in talks with Westinghouse Electric Co, GE as well as France's Areva for setting them up at sites already selected around the country.

Russia is separately building six reactors in southern India and is in talks for another six. The size of the Indian market is estimated at US$150 billion (S$210 billion), making it equal to or just behind China's.

REUTERS

Roadblocks at Nepal border now open

KATHMANDU • Residents and traders in southern Nepal yesterday dismantled tents and roadblocks set up by protesters at a key border crossing, allowing trucks to cross freely from neighbouring India for the first time in four months.

More than 50 people have died in an agitation against Nepal's first republican Constitution led by minority Madhesis, who say the Charter ignores their demands for a united homeland and greater say in running the Himalayan nation.

REUTERS