1. 16 killed in Pakistan train derailment

    At least 16 people were killed and more than 100 injured on November 17 when a train derailed* in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, administration and railway officials said.

    The accident occurred near Quetta city, the provincial capital, after the train’s brakes failed as it sped down the side of a mountain, officials said.

    “Four carriages of a Rawalpindi-bound train, which left Quetta railway station, were derailed near Abegum area of Bolan district, some 75 kilometers from Quetta city,” Akbar Hussain Durrani, Baluchistan home secretary, said.

    2. ASEAN creates ‘community’ at summit

    Southeast Asian nations on Sunday established a formal community that hopes to create freer movement of trade and capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic output of US$2.6 trillion.

    The community declaration* was signed by leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Kuala Lumpur, this year’s host for the group’s annual summit. The ASEAN Community includes a political, security and socio-cultural dimension in a region with governments ranging from socialist in Vietnam and quasi-military in Myanmar to the kingdom of Brunei.

    3. Landslide in Myanmar kills about 100

    A landslide near a jade* mine in northern Myanmar killed about 100 people, most of them villagers digging for scraps* in a towering* mountain of displaced* earth, a witness and a community leader said on Sunday. Many more people were missing.

    The collapse occurred Saturday evening in the Kachin state community of Hpakant, said Brang Seng, a jade businessman, who watched as bodies were pulled from the debris and taken to a hospital morgue*.

    “People were crying,” he said, adding that some lost loved ones when boulders and earth ripped down the slopes. “I’m hearing that more than 100 people died. In some cases, entire families were lost.”

    4. Former South Korean president dies

    Former President Kim Young-sam, who formally ended decades of military rule in South Korea and accepted a massive international bailout* during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, died on Sunday. He was 87.

    The chief of Seoul National University Hospital, Oh Byung-hee, told a televised briefing that Kim died there early on Sunday. He said Kim was believed to have suffered from a severe blood infection* and acute heart failure before he died. Kim was an important figure in South Korea’s pro-democracy movement and opposed the country’s military dictators for decades.

    5. Conservative Macri wins Argentina vote

    Conservative challenger Mauricio Macri turned Argentine politics on its head on Sunday, kicking the ruling Peronist* movement out of power with a promise to liberalize the ailing economy and end a culture of divisive* politics.

    Macri, the son of an Italian-born construction magnate*, won the election by tapping into frustration over anemic* growth, high inflation and corruption and will become only the third non-Peronist leader since the end of military rule in 1983. The other two failed to finish their terms, however, a reminder of the difficulties that Peronist labor unions, state governors and opponents in Congress could cause Macri if he is unable to get the economy growing quickly.

    6. Blast damages toilet at Japan’s shrine

    An apparent explosion at Japan’s controversial* Yasukuni Shrine for the war dead in Tokyo on Monday damaged the ceiling and the wall of a public bathroom near the south gate of the shrine, Kyodo news agency reported.

    Nobody was injured in the incident and the police sent a bomb disposal* unit to the shrine to deal with suspicious objects that have not exploded, media said. A hole in the ceiling of the public bathroom was discovered, as well as a battery and a lead wire, public broadcaster NHK said.(SD-Agencies)