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■Japan
Coast guard stops Chinese
The Japanese Coast Guard stopped a boat carrying activists from China and Hong Kong from landing yesterday on a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea. The 15 activists were planning to raise a Chinese flag on the small, uninhabited islands called Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyutai by China. But as the boat approached one of the five isles it was surrounded by Japanese naval vessels and patrolling helicopters began raining down slips of paper telling them to leave, said Albert Ho, a Hong Kong lawmaker and vice chairman of the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyutai Islands. There were some minor collisions, but no one was injured, Ho said. Japanese Coast Guard spokesman Matsuyoshi Iramina said the activists were escorted out of the area and that their boat was currently outside territorial waters.

■ Japan
Tokyo says release Suu Kyi's
A senior Japanese official arrived yesterday in Myanmar to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and try to clarify the events that led to the pro-democracy leader's arrest last month, a diplomat said yesterday. Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano was expected to convey a message from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi demanding that Myanmar's military rulers release Suu Kyi, who has been detained since a clash between her supporters and government backers on May 30 in northern Myanmar. Suu Kyi's detention has stirred international outrage, and the US, the EU and Britain have initiated sanctions to press for Suu Kyi's release. The US sanctions would bar most trade, dealing a harsh blow to Myanmar's export earnings. Japan is Myanmar's biggest donor and has generally taken a softer line on the military government than other nations.

■ Indonesia
Skeleton cut from womb
Indonesian naval doctors removed the skeleton of a fetus that had been stuck in its mother's womb for more than seven years, the navy said yesterday. The mother, identified only as Mariyati, said she knew she was pregnant in late 1995 but when she failed to deliver a child did not return to hospital because she was worried about expensive medical bills, said Lieutenant Colonel Guntur Wahyudi, a naval spokesman. Mariyati went to doctors complaining of stomach pains. Naval surgeons initially thought she had a tumor, but when they operated on her last week they discovered the skeleton of a fetus in her womb, Wahyudi said in a statement. The operation was performed aboard a warship in Maluku as part of a trip to the region to carry out medical and social work.

■ Tajikistan
Voters plump for change
An overwhelming majority of voters approved a constitutional change that will allow Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov to stay in power until the year 2020, according to preliminary results released yesterday. The central electoral commission said that with practically all the ballots counted, 93.13 percent of voters had voted in favor of the change and 6.13 percent had voted against it. It said 96.37 percent of the Central Asian nation's approximately 3 million registered voters had turned out for Sunday's referendum. Now presidents will be able to serve two seven-year terms instead of one.

■United Kingdom
Royal gatecrasher released
A stand-up comedian has been released on bail after crashing Prince William's 21st birthday party, police and the father of the man said on Sunday. The man, who had earlier paraded around in a pink dress and false black beard outside Windsor Castle where the party was held Saturday, was identified by his father as Aaron Barschak, 36. Fred Barschak, 72, said he recognized his son as the man being led away by police following the incident but stressed he would not have intended to harm anyone. He suggested his son was seeking to publicize his act.

■ Greece
Explosives ship detained
Greek special forces boarded a cargo ship carrying 680 tonnes of explosive material on Sunday and forced it to port for inspection, authorities said. The Comoros-flagged Baltic Sky was escorted by coast-guard vessels to the tiny port of Platiyali, 235km northwest of Athens, for a "detailed search," said a statement from the Merchant Marine ministry. The statement said the vessel, with a crew of five Ukrainians and two from Azerbaijan, was boarded by special forces from the coast guard in Greek territorial waters following a tip.

■ Belgium
War-crimes law to change
Belgium, apparently bowing to American pressure, said on Sunday that it would change a law that has been used to charge US officials with war crimes. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said the law would be amended to make it harder to abuse the statute, under which the former president George Bush senior and several members of the current White House administration have been charged with crimes. Earlier this month, the US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, threatened to withhold American financing for a new North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Belgium if the country did not scrap its law.

■ United States
Wildfire moves on
The uncontrolled fire that destroyed more than 250 homes in mountaintop community in Arizona moved on a course that would take it into an area where terrain and lighter vegetation will make it easier to fight, fire officials said. However, crews didn't know how soon they would be able to attack the fire in that area, and the blaze's growth in other forested areas was still creating difficulties. "This fire's going to be here for a while and it's going to be very large," said Jeff Whitney, deputy commander of the team battling the fire. The fire had burned across more than 4,560 hectares in the mountains northeast of Tucson since it began on Tuesday and was only about 5 percent contained on Sunday. Firefighters don't expect to totally control it for a few weeks.

■ Macedonia
Capital struck by bombs
Two powerful bomb blasts ripped through the center of Macedonia's capital Skopje on Sunday slightly injuring one person and damaging more than a dozen shops, police said. The bombs went off simultaneously around 7pm on a quiet Sunday, one near the main square in the capital and the other in a trash can located in shopping mall less than a mile away. "Only one person was slightly injured, but there is greater damage to surrounding shops," said a police spokesperson. She said that no one had so far claimed responsibility for the attack and that anti-terrorist units have sealed off the area of the blasts.

Agencies
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