The Malaysian Insider

ROME, Nov 21 — A Brazilian transsexual caught up in a scandal which prompted the resignation of a senior Italian politician — the centre-left governor of Lazio region, which includes Rome — was found burnt to death in his home on Friday.

Police found a body following a fire in a basement flat in a neighbourhood frequented by transsexual sex-workers and court sources said magistrates were treating the death as murder.

Forensic tests were expected to identify the remains as those of a transsexual known only as Brenda, police said.

HARBIN, Nov 21 – A gas explosion killed 42 miners in a Chinese mine on Saturday and 66 remain trapped hundreds of metres underground after the latest accident to hit the world's deadliest mining industry, state media said.

The blast ripped through the mine at about 2.30am when there were 528 people at work, but more than 400 have now got out safely, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing rescue team spokesman Zhang Jinguang.

The blast was so violent it shook the surrounding area. Buildings near the mine mouth have partially collapsed, and some survivors were knocked unconscious temporarily.

GENEVA, Nov 21 — Four years after cartoons of Prophet Muhammad set off violent protests across the Muslim world, Islamic nations are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery — essentially a ban on blasphemy that would put them on a collision course with free speech laws in the West.

Algeria and Pakistan are believed to be taking the lead in lobbying to eventually bring the proposal to a vote in the United Nations General Assembly.

If ratified in countries that enshrine freedom of expression as a fundamental right, such a treaty would require them to limit free speech if it risks seriously offending religious believers. The process, though, will take years and no showdown is imminent.

BOGOTA, Nov 21 — Colombia will not be provoked into armed conflict with Venezuela despite its neighbor’s aggressive rhetoric and dynamiting of two border bridges, Colombia’s defense minister said yesterday.

“We will not be provoked. The insults bounce off us,” Gabriel Silva said a day after Venezuelan troops blew up two wooden plank pedestrian bridges connecting the countries.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez this month ordered his army to prepare for war after Colombia signed a military cooperation pact with Washington allowing US troops greater access to its territory to run anti-narcotics surveillance flights.

HAVANA, Nov 21 — The husband of Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said he was attacked by government supporters as he waited  yesterday to confront state security agents accused of detaining and beating his wife two weeks ago.

Sanchez, whose writing about the hardships of Cuban life were praised this week by US President Barack Obama, said men believed to be government agents forced her into a car and hit her repeatedly in a brief detention on Nov 6.

Reinaldo Escobar, also a blogger, said he had gone to a Havana intersection hoping that state security agents would respond to a challenge he issued earlier to meet there for a “verbal duel” about his wife’s incident.