■Indonesia
Rebels agree to dialogue
Separatist rebels from Indonesia's Aceh province said yesterday they were willing to meet Indonesian government officials in Japan for peace talks to prevent a landmark peace deal from collapsing. The announcement comes less than 12 hours after Indonesia, under pressure from key foreign donors, gave the rebels another two days to resume talks to avert an all-out military assault in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. "Yes, we have decided that we will continue dialogue on May 17 in Tokyo," rebel spokesman Sofyan Daud said.
■ Japan
Defense bills make headway
A set of bills to bolster Japan's ability to respond to attack passed a critical vote yesterday, marking a major victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi but raising concerns over this country's commitment to the strictly defensive policy it has pursued since World War II. The legislation, which won approval in parliament's lower house, would give the Cabinet and ministries greater control over local governments and other strategically important public and private institutions in case of war. It would also create guidelines for troops to use privately owned property and allow authorities to punish people who flout emergency laws.
■ Hong Kong
Illegal immigrants arrested
A gang of 23 Vietnamese illegal immigrants believed to be carrying weapons and explosives was arrested yesterday after arriving in Hong Kong by boat, police said. Police were called after two men held up a store in Pokfulam, on the west of Hong Kong, at 4am yesterday while another six men were involved in a mugging in the same area. Thirteen more men were arrested nearby and two others were found on a boat off Pokfulam which the gang is believed to have sailed in on. Three detonators and bullets believed to belong to the gang were also retrieved by officers. The 23 men are all suspected to be illegal immigrants from Vietnam and were being held for further questioning yesterday morning, a police spokesman said.
■ Malaysia
US issues travel warning
The US State Department on Wednesday advised Americans living or traveling in the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia to be aware of a persistent threat posed by extremist groups in the region. The announce-ment said there was continuing concern about the possibility of "terrorist" attacks against US citizens and American interests in Malaysia, especially in the state of Sabah, close to the southern Philippines. The State Department also said it was concerned about Jemaah Islamiya, another extremist group believed to be active in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
■ Nepal
Army rejects restriction
The Nepalese army (RNA) will not restrict its movement to within 5km of its military barracks as previously agreed upon at peace talks until it recovered all its weapons looted by the Maoists, newspaper reports said yesterday. Last week the government and Maoists in the most recent round of peace talks agreed that the Nepal army would restrict its troops to within a radius of 5km of their barracks. "The Maoists still pose a grave threat to the maintenance of internal security and providing people with a sense of security," army spokesman Colonel Deepak Gurung was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post.
■France
Anti-racists sue Bardot
It takes a lot for the French to lose patience with their ageing stars, and Brigitte Bardot was given a lot of rope. On Wednesday the free ride for her tirades against the decadence of modern society ended after two anti-racist and human rights movements announced they would take the 68-year-old to court. Her latest outburst, a book called Un Cri Dans Le Silence, attacks Islam, gays, the unemployed, teachers and illegal immigrants, and calls for a return of the guillotine. The Movement Against Racism and For the Friendship of Peoples (MRAP) and the League of Human Rights said they would sue Bardot.
■ Algeria
Hostages arrive home
Seventeen European tourists were reunited with their families in emotional scenes Wednesday after being freed from their Islamic extremist abductors deep in Algeria's Sahara desert, but there were fears for another 15 still held captive. Six Germans, 10 Austrians and one Swede were freed when Algerian troops stormed a desert hide-out of the Islamic Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, reportedly linked to the al-Qaeda network, near the Sahara's largest city of Tamanrasset. The remaining tourists were being held by a "second terrorist group", Algerian officials said.
■ Israel
Clashes erupt in Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers killed at least three Palestinians in clashes which erupted after a large armored force raided the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun early yesterday, Palestinian medical and hospital sources reported. Dozens of Israeli army tanks, armored personnel carriers and jeeps, backed by Apache attack helicopters, entered the town before dawn. The force destroyed two buildings which according to Israel were structures used by militants to fire rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, outside the Gaza Strip but not far from Beit Hanoun.
■ United States
Court decides fetus's fate
A judge postponed debate over whether a guardian should be appointed for the six-month-old fetus of a mentally disabled rape victim. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and two other groups filed a brief Tuesday, claiming such a judgment would go against a 1989 Florida Supreme Court ruling that said fetuses cannot have guardians because they are not legally people. An attorney for the ACLU said a delay could endanger the mother's life. The 22-year-old woman has lived in a nursing home since she was three. She has no family, is too disabled to speak and cannot help police find who impregnated her.
Agencies
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not