World

DOCTORS in Singapore battled Thursday to save the life of an Indian student who sustained horrific injuries in a gang-rape after she was dramatically airlifted overnight from a hospital in New Delhi.

As India's prime minister vowed that the attackers of the 23-year-old would face swift justice, medics at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital described her condition in the intensive care unit as "extremely critical".

"She is being examined and the hospital is working with the Indian High Commission (embassy)," the hospital added in a brief statement.

TEA plantation workers torched the home of their boss, killing both him and his wife, following a labour dispute in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, officials said on Thursday.

Around 1,000 workers at the privately-owned M.K.B. Tea Estate attacked the plantation owner's bungalow on Wednesday and set it on fire in violence blamed on festering labour unrest in the tea-growing region, police said.

Mridul Bhattacharya and his wife Rita were burned to death as workers armed with home-made weapons prevented police from rescuing them, they said.

HUMAN Rights Watch on Thursday accused Kuwaiti police of using "excessive force" against opposition protesters and called on the Gulf state's rulers to respect the right to peaceful assembly.

The New York-based group said riot police had on several occasions used "what appears to be excessive force to disperse largely peaceful protesters at a series of demonstrations".

"There is no justification for attacking peaceful protesters," said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at HRW.

AN explosion hit an area believed to be storing fireworks in the Nigerian economic capital Lagos on Wednesday, causing a fire that has begun to spread in the densely packed neighbourhood, an official said.

It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties and details of the incident were sketchy.

A strong explosion could be heard in parts of the sprawling city followed by smoke. An official with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said initial information was that a shop storing fireworks had caught fire.

JAPAN'S conservative leader Shinzo Abe is to be named as the country's new prime minister Wednesday, after he swept to power on a hawkish platform of getting tough on diplomacy while fixing the economy.

The powerful lower house will name the 58-year-old as leader in an extraordinary session Wednesday afternoon, following a resounding national election victory for his Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month.

REBELS waging an offensive in the Central African Republic seized another major town Tuesday, a military source said, bringing them a step closer to the nation's capital.

The rebel coalition known as Seleka, an alliance of three groups, reached Kaga-Bandoro, the fourth regional capital they have captured during their offensive that began on December 10.

 
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday put Iran at the top of on his re-election campaign, pledging that halting Tehran's nuclear programme would be his first priority as premier.

"Who do (Israeli voters) think is the most suitable candidate to deal with the Iranian threat? With the missile threat? With the threat of terror?" he asked supporters in Jerusalem in a speech at the official launch of his campaign for January 22 polls.

CHINA started service Wednesday on the world's longest high-speed rail route, the latest milestone in the country's rapid and - sometimes troubled - super fast rail network.

The opening of the new 2,298-kilometre (1,425-mile) line between Beijing and Guangzhou means passengers will be whisked from the capital to the southern commercial hub in less than a third of the 22 hours previously required.

A MAN in northern China has driven a car carrying a gas canister and firecrackers into a crowd of schoolchildren, injuring 13, state media reported Tuesday.

It follows a wave of recent attacks on children in China, which have prompted authorities to increase security around schools and led to calls for research into the root causes of such violence.

In the latest attack on Monday, the man drove into a crowd of students in Hebei province, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local police.