Greece poll results

ATHENS: Greek conservatives swept to a resounding victory in parliamentary elections that ended more than 10 years of Socialist government. With nearly 98 per cent of votes counted, the New Democracy party led the Socialists 45.4 per cent to 40.6 per cent in Sunday’s vote as part of a deep reshuffling of Greece’s political order. Socialist leader George Papandreou conceded defeat after various exit polls showed New Democracy with a strong lead. — AFP

Roh impeachment backed

SEOUL: South Korea’s conservative Grand National Party said on Monday it would back a bill to impeach President Roh Moo-Hyun for breach of electoral law, Yonhap news agency reported. The bill proposed by the smaller opposition Millennium Democratic Party could be submitted to parliament as early as Tuesday after floor leaders of the two opposition parties reached agreement, Yonhap said. However, GNP floor leader Hong Sa-Duk said in a statement that the timing had yet to be determined. — AFP

Statute changes mulled

TOKYO: Japan’s ruling party is considering a referendum on revising the country’s pacifist constitution to reflect the fact that Japan has armed forces, a report said on Monday. The Liberal Democratic Party plans to submit a bill for a plebiscite before June 16 when the current parliamentary session ends, Kyodo reported. The constitution, drawn up during the Allied occupation after Japan’s defeat in World War II, renounces the use of force in settling international disputes and bars Japan from maintaining armed forces. — AFP

4 killed in P’pine clashes

MANILA: Two soldiers and two communist guerrillas have been killed in separate clashes in the central and southern Philippines, military spokesmen said on Monday. A Marine lieutenant and an enlisted man were killed in an ambush by unknown gunmen near the town of Balabagan on Sunday, a Navy spokesman said. Meanwhile, two communist New People’s Army guerrillas were slain in a clash with an Army Special Forces unit near the town of Catigbian on the central island of Bohol on Friday, a military spokesman said. — AFP

Saudi ban on US channel

RIYADH: The US-financed Arabic television channel Alhurra is “forbidden” for Muslims, a leading Saudi cleric declared in a fatwa or Islamic ruling published on Monday. “This channel is a source of corruption” intended to “fight Islam and support American hegemony,” thundered Sheikh Ibrahim bin Nasser Al-Kudheiri, a judge at the grand Islamic court in Riyadh, in the fatwa printed by Al-Hayat newspaper. — AFP

P’pine ferry fire toll 22

MANILA: The number of bodies recovered from a ferry destroyed by fire in the Philippines has risen to 22 with over 100 still missing more than a week after the blaze. Coastguard spokesman Arman Balilo said six more bodies had been recovered over the weekend from inside the Superferry 14 as searchers combed the cabins of the half-submerged wreck. — AFP

Child sex trial resumes

ARLON: Belgian child rapist Marc Dutroux withdrew a ban on being photographed on Monday, as his trial over a shocking spate of abductions, rapes and murders resumed for a second week. The unemployed electrician, whose alleged crimes in the mid-1990s convulsed Belgium and shocked the world, had asked not to be filmed when the trial opened last week in the southeastern town of Arlon. Dutroux faces life in prison on multiple counts of abduction, rape and murder. The bodies of four girls, including two eight-year-olds, were unearthed from properties owned by Dutroux. — AP

Couple commits suicide

TOKYO: The owner of a Japanese poultry business accused of covering up the spread of deadly bird flu among its chickens hanged himself with his wife on one of their farms. Hajimu Asada, 67, and his wife, Chisako, 64, were found dead on Monday outside a chicken pen in Himeji, 480 km west of Tokyo. A suicide note said: “We have caused so much trouble.” Some 18,000 chickens had died of flu on his farm. — AP