2 Filipinas kidnapped in Iraq after car breakdown

BAQUBA (Iraq) • Two Filipino women were kidnapped yesterday in Iraq on a road connecting Baghdad to oil city Kirkuk, the military, police, and local officials said.

The women had been travelling with three other Filipinos on their way to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, when their car broke down, two military sources said.

After the two women got out of the vehicle, unknown men drove by in a yellow car and took them, a military source said.

REUTERS

Japan on alert after cult executions

TOKYO • Japan was on alert yesterday amid fears that the executions of the former leader and members of a doomsday cult behind the deadly Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995 could spark acts of retaliation by supporters or newly formed groups.

Japan hanged Shoko Asahara on Friday along with six other members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which killed 13 people in an attack that shattered the country's myth of public safety.

REUTERS

5 charged in India with killing rape victim's dad

SEOUL • Indian police yesterday charged five people, including the brother of a lawmaker from the ruling party, in relation to the death of the father of a teenage rape victim.

Atul Singh Sengar, the brother of the lawmaker, along with four others were accused of assaulting the rape victim's father, who "sustained serious injuries", federal police said in a statement.

The five are in custody.

The police arrested Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a member of the state legislature of Uttar Pradesh, in April in connection with the rape of the teenager which took place last year.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE