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World news quick take

■Myanmar
Suu Kyi goes walkabout
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi left Yangon for a month-long trip to northern Myanmar yesterday, the first anniversary of her release from house arrest, a party spokesman said. Suu Kyi plans to open branch offices of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Kachin state during the trip, expected to be her longest upcountry tour since her release, said NLD spokesman U Lwin. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was released by the military government after 19 months of house arrest on May 6, last year, and has since been allowed to travel freely around the country. But on at least two occasions she has been obstructed by unidentified people, and her supporters have been intimidated and harassed, according to the NLD.

■ Nepal
Everest celebration falls flat
Mount Everest climbers are known to be tough and fearless, but the outbreak of severe acute respiratory (SARS) is keeping many of them away from a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the conquest of the world's highest mountain. Organizers of the celebration say many Japanese, Chinese and Southeast Asian climbers have canceled their trips to Nepal to attend the anniversary later this month because of concerns about being infected with SARS while traveling. "The fear of SARS could hamper the celebrations. We have had a lot of cancellations from Everest summiteers from these countries," Nepal Mountaineering Association's Bhoomi Lama said yesterday.

■ Vietnam
Blast kills soldier
One person was killed and 25 injured when a powerful explosion ripped through a military ammunition dump north of the Vietnamese capital, local officials said yesterday. "One soldier was killed and nearly 25 people, including military personnel and civilians living near the depot were injured," said an official from the Thinh Dan commune People's Committee. Military sources had earlier confirmed that a soldier had died in Monday evening's blast at the army's Z115 depot, 100km north of Hanoi in Thai Nguyen Province.

■ Philippines
Peace talks cancelled
The Philippine government said yesterday it was pulling out of informal talks with Muslim separatist rebels scheduled for this week in Malaysia, citing a guerrilla attack that left 28 people dead. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the government could not tolerate "terrorism in the guise of a fight for freedom." Government negotiators had been scheduled to meet with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels on Friday in Kuala Lumpur. Arroyo said the meeting would have to wait "until we can establish more auspicious circumstances to move the peace process forward."

■ Hong Kong
Finance chief has car trouble
Hong Kong's financial chief faces a no-confidence motion in the territory's legislature because of a scandal over a luxury car purchase made before a tax increase, but the motion will likely fail, lawmakers said Tuesday. Financial Secretary Antony Leung came under fire after buying a new Lexus in January and then raising auto taxes in March, saving himself HK$190,000 (US$24,359). But the motion probably won't get enough votes in the Legislative Council, which is dominated by pro-government lawmakers, said independent legislator Albert Chan, who supports the motion.

■South Africa
ANC leader dies
Walter Sisulu, a towering figure in the struggle for majority rule in South Africa, has died at the age of 90, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) announced Monday. Sisulu became ANC secretary general in 1949, a post he held until 1954 when banning orders forced him to resign the position. He was one of the accused in a celebrated treason trial of black leaders of the resistance to the apartheid regime. Sisulu served 26 years in prison alongside Nelson Mandela, who was to become South Africa's first black president. He had little formal education, worked as a "kitchen boy," as a baker, and as a miner, working deep underground in dangerous conditions.

■ Liberia
UN sanctions to be renewed
The UN Security Council said on Monday that it would renew sanctions against the government and rebels in Liberia for 12 months in hope of halting the spread of the conflict to neighboring countries. The sanctions, including an arms embargo, a ban on trade in rough diamonds and restrictions on air travel by senior Liberian government and military officials and their wives, expired yesterday.

■ Russia
Baby-seller sentenced
A Russian court Monday sentenced a woman to eight years in prison for selling babies into adoption in Israel, legal officials said. The Supreme Court of the southern republic Kabardino-Balkaria, in the Russian Northern Caucasus, convicted Lyubov Shanibeyeva and seven accomplices of setting up a ring that sold eight infants to Israel. A ninth baby was sold for adoption in Russia and later traced, judge Boris Malbakhov said. Three of the accomplices were given prison sentences and the four others amnestied.

■ United States
Moralist quits habit
William Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues, said on Monday he was quitting gambling amid media reports that he lost US$8 million in the last decade playing slot machines and video poker. "I have done too much gambling, and this is not an example I wish to set. Therefore my gambling days are over," he said in a statement. Praised by admirers as a cogent moral voice and vilified by critics as a sanctimonious national scold, Bennett has been a public fixture in Washington since the Reagan era. There was a bit of media chortling after the story broke, with Washington Post columnist Michael Kinsley acknowl-edging that Bennett's predicament provoked unusual levels of schaden-freude. "Sinners have long cherished the fantasy that William Bennett, the virtue magnate, might be among our number," Kinsley wrote. Reports on this news began their accounts of Bennett's gambling. "We should know that too much of anything, even a good thing, may prove to be our undoing. ... [We] need to set definite boundaries on our appetites," both stories wrote, citing Bennett in The Book of Virtues.

Agencies
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