■Myanmar
Junta blasts Suu Kyi again
Myanmar's official media lashed out against detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the second day yesterday, describing her as being steered by the US when making crucial political decisions. The attacks indicated that despite an international outcry, the Nobel Peace Prize winner would probably not be released soon by the ruling military from more than a month under custody in a secret location. "Auntie Suu's change from a flexible attitude to a hard-line stance coincides with the number of visits by meddlesome foreigners, especially politicians and diplomats from a Western power," the unnamed author wrote. In the context of the commentary, "auntie" didn't appear to be a term of endearment.
■ Japan
Koizumi eyes N. Korea visit
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is exploring the possibility of a visit to North Korea in September, a major Japanese daily reported yesterday. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said talks were going on behind the scenes to arrange what would be Koizumi's second visit to the reclusive communist state, after a trip in September 2002. A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said he was unaware of such a possibility. "There is no such plan whatsoever, as far as I know," ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said. "However, we have had communications through various channels with an eye to re-opening normalization talks and also resolving the abduction and the nuclear issues."
■ Sri Lanka
Tamil politician shot dead
Unidentified gunmen killed a Tamil politician in eastern Sri Lanka in the latest assassination of an opponent of Tamil Tiger rebels, police said yesterday. Vairamuththu Mehanathan, 32, was fatally shot late on Friday by two gunmen on a motorbike as he was riding home on a bicycle, police in the town of Batticaloa said. Mehanathan was a longtime member of the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam, a former separatist armed group which renounced violence and joined Sri Lanka's political mainstream about a decade ago. The group is opposed to the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam.
■ The Philippines
Man beaten over snub
A 28-year-old man was mauled by his neighbors in Taytay town in Rizal Province for not inviting them to his birthday party, a policeman said yesterday. Police officer Rolando Crisostomo said Salvador Perez suffered contusions on his body after he was mauled before dawn Saturday by three neighbors. "Perez was already sending off his guests after an all-night birthday party when the suspects approached and began punching him," he said. "The suspects apparently got irked because they were not invited to the party." Perez has filed physical-injury charges against his attackers who remained at large.
■ Australia
Tree saves man
An Australian had a miraculous escape yesterday when he fell 100m to the ground after the rigging of his hang-glider failed. The 39-year-old man was saved from death when his parachute snagged in a tree at Widgee Mountain, 170km north of Brisbane. "He's fractured every bone in his right leg and right arm," an ambulance spokesman told Australia's AAP news agency. He was flown by helicopter to Nambour Hospital where he reported to be in stable condition.
■United States
Florida sees red over nudity
Florida's politicians are planning a cover-up as a furor grows about nudist summer camps for teenagers across America. Governor Jeb Bush promised last week to launch an investigation into whether illegal or inappropriate activity had taken place at the camps, designed for children aged 11 to 18. Now a Republican state lawmaker wants to make it illegal for children to be naked outdoors without their parents being present. "When we're dealing with children, we have to make sure we protect them from negative exposure," said John Quinones, who represents Kissimmee, where one of the state's largest nudist camps is based.
■ United States
Woman attacks ex-boyfriend
A woman critically wounded her former boyfriend and fatally stabbed the man's 13-year-old son in his bedroom before fleeing and leaving a 5km trail of blood, police said. Jean Marc Weber, 45, head chef at the California Club, an exclusive private club in downtown Los Angeles, crawled to a neighbor's front porch and pleaded for help after the attack on Friday morning. His son Alex, who had just turned 13, was found dead in his bedroom, police said. The woman, Tamara Bohler, was arrested late Saturday after a security guard spotted her in front of a condominium complex about 13km south of the scene of the attack.
■ Mexico
Voters head to the polls
Voters were choosing new lawmakers yesterday for all 500 seats in Mexico's lower house of congress, elections that will likely influence whether President Vicente Fox can deliver on the long list of promises he made after his victory three years ago. Yesterday's elections were the first nationwide vote since Fox's historic win in 2000. Polling was expected to be peaceful, although campaigns were filled with allegations of misconduct -- including complaints about vote buying and Roman Catholic priests and bishops who urged Mexicans to vote against parties favoring abortion and gay marriage.
■ Finland
Couple captures title
Leaping over timber and wading through waist-high water, the Estonian couple Margo Uusorg and Egle Soll won this year's wife-carrying world championships on Saturday, capturing the title for a third consecutive year. The winning couple cleared the 253.5m track in just over a minute, beating 22 couples from six countries, including Denmark, England, the US, Ireland and Finland. Margo Uusorg's younger brother, Madis, and his partner Ivi Loomets finished second.
■ United States
Swimmers drown in lake
Four swimmers drowned in Lake Michigan, and a search continues for three other people who have been missing since Friday, officials said Saturday. The swimmers were caught in dangerous conditions along a 4.8km stretch of the southern part of the lake when strong thunderstorms blew into the area Friday. The bodies of two swimmers from Cherry Beach and one swimmer from Harbor Beach washed ashore Friday, said Officer Paul Roszkowski of the US Coast Guard's public affairs office in Wilmette, Illinois. The body of another swimmer was recovered Saturday, Roszkowski added. All of the drownings occurred within a 5km stretch around Sawyer, Michigan. Coast Guard units assisted the Berrien County, Michigan Sheriff's Department Friday in a search for the swimmers, Roszkowski said.
Agencies
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather in July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad. Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm. The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the
CODIFYING DISCRIMINATION: Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in prison, while same-sex relations could land a person in jail for more than a decade Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the