1. Judge upholds Dotcom extradition ruling

    A New Zealand judge on Monday upheld an earlier court ruling that flamboyant* Internet entrepreneur* Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues can be extradited* to the United States to face criminal charges.

    The decision came five years after U.S. authorities shut down Dotcom’s file-sharing website Megaupload and filed charges of conspiracy*, racketeering* and money laundering against the men. If found guilty, they could face decades in prison.

    Dotcom, who lives in New Zealand, has been fighting extradition in a case that has moved with glacial* slowness at times.

    2. At least 14 killed in Philippine bus crash

    At least 14 people, most of them college students on a camping trip, were killed on Monday when their rented bus lost its brakes on a downhill road then slammed* into an electric post, Philippine officials said.

    Ten of the victims were killed on the spot and four others died in two hospitals following the accident in the hilly town of Tanay in Rizal province east of Manila, Tanay disaster-response officer Darlito Bati Jr. said.

    More than 40 others, including the driver, were injured. The bus was in a convoy* of several vehicles transporting hundreds of college students to a camping resort.

    3. One dead in Belgium train derailment

    One person died and 27 others were injured — three of them seriously — when a train derailed on Saturday shortly after leaving a station east of Brussels in Belgium, officials said.

    The train carrying 85 passengers derailed four minutes after leaving Louvain bound for the North Sea coast via the Belgian capital, the SNCB railway authority said.

    The cause of the derailment, which occurred shortly after 1 p.m., was not immediately known and investigators were on the scene.

    4. DPRK suspects fled Malaysia

    The Malaysian police said on Sunday that four suspects from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) related to the death of a DPRK man believed to be Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of the DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un, had fled the country.

    A postmortem* on the victim had been conducted, but the cause of death remained unknown as the police were waiting for the pathology* and toxicology* results, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim said.

    The 46-year-old man was found dead on February 13 at the Kuala Lumpur airport. But the deputy police chief said they still needed DNA samples from the next-of-kin* of Kim to help identify the dead man.

    5. Thai police order worshippers out of temple

    Thai police ordered thousands of worshippers to leave the country’s biggest Buddhist temple on Sunday so it can intensify its search for its former abbot*, who is wanted on money-laundering charges.

    Thailand’s ruling junta* used a special emergency law on Thursday to let police explore the scandal-hit Dhammakaya Temple after months of failing to get it to hand over Phra Dhammachayo.

    Police said that all non-residents must vacate the premises to expedite* the search of the 400-hectare facility because temple activities were hindering police.

    6. 19 killed in Argentina coach crash

    At least 19 people were killed on February 18 when a coach overturned* on a remote road in the Argentinian Andes, near the border with Chile, officials said.

    A survivor who was not identified said that the coach had been traveling too fast, despite the concerns of passengers. The crash happened near Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of Asia. The Chilean company that operated the vehicle said it was striving to ascertain* the identities of the dead. (SD-Agencies)