■ Indonesia
Military predicts long war
Indonesia's current offensive against separatist rebels in Aceh province will take longer than the six months originally predicted and could take years, the military chief said. A long campaign in Aceh risks alienating the province's 4.3 million people and is likely to be a drain on the resources of Indonesia's cash-strapped government. The only winner from a drawn-out offensive will likely be the military itself, which analysts say benefits from alleged involvement in legal and illegal businesses in the oil- and gas-rich province.
■ The Philippines
Charges filed in bombing
Prosecutors charged suspected leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group yesterday with plotting and financing almost-simultaneous bombings that killed 22 people in one of the Philippines' worst terrorist attacks. Among those charged before the Manila regional trial court were Isamuddin Riduan, who is at large; Abubakar Bafana Faiz, who is detained in Singapore and Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, who is detained in Manila, prosecutor Peter Ong said. Five Filipinos, all believed to belong to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a large Muslim group waging a bloody separatist uprising in the southern Philippines, were also charged for the Manila bombings, which injured more than 100 people, Ong said.
■ Japan
PM denies N Korea trip plan
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on yesterday he was not considering a trip to North Korea but the top government spokesman left the door open for a future effort to break the deadlock in ties with Pyongyang. "I am not thinking about this at all," Koizumi told reporters when asked about a report that he was exploring the possibility of a visit to Pyongyang in September -- the anniversary of his historic 2002 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
■ New Zealand
Snowstorm strands hundreds
Hundreds of skiers and motorists in New Zealand spent a freezing night in makeshift shelters and mountain huts after the worst blizzard in years trapped them overnight, emergency services said yesterday. About 350 skiers and 70 ski field staff were trapped on Mt. Ruapehu in central North Island Sunday night after driving snow blocked access roads, forcing them to huddle for shelter in ski huts and other buildings, operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts said. The storm hit the mountain with ``amazing speed,'' said company marketing manager Mike Smith, making it ``too dangerous'' for skiers to leave the Whakapapa ski field.
■ Australia
Targets called `disgraceful'
A row has broken out in Australia's Queensland state following reports that police there used photographs of real-life people, including Aborigines, during target practice. The police minister in the northeastern state, Tony McGrady, ordered an inquiry after Channel Seven television reported on Sunday that Queensland's counter-terrorism squad used 28 pictures or mug shots, including those of two Aborigines, in training exercises. Civil rights activists reacted with outrage but police maintained they had done nothing wrong. "It's absolutely disgraceful in that it reinforces prejudices," said Cameron Murphy, secretary of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties.
■The Vatican
Pope urges purity
Pope John Paul II, who heads to his summer retreat Thursday for a few weeks of rest, urged the faithful on Sunday to use their summer vacations for spiritual renewal -- not just amoral fun. In his weekly Sunday comments, John Paul told tourists and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square that today's fast-moving world makes it harder and harder to reflect on spirituality and the need for personal sacrifice -- particularly among the young. "Today we often exalt in pleasure, egoism or adherence to immortality in the name of false ideals of liberty and happiness," the pope said. "We must clearly reaffirm that the purity of the heart and body be defended, because chastity is the guardian of true love."
■ United States
Hacker war wreaks havoc
Parts of the Internet erupted Sunday in a battle among hackers, as factions disrupted a loosely coordinated ``contest'' among other groups trying to vandalize thousands of Web sites around the world. Unknown attackers for hours knocked offline an independent security Web site, zone-h.org, that was verifying reports of online vandalism and being used by hackers to tally points for the competition. Some experts said it could be later this week before damage from this weekend's hacking would be known. By late Sunday afternoon, hackers claimed responsibility for vandalizing hundreds of mostly obscure Web sites.
■ Mexico
Divided congress elected
Voters issued a severe judgment on President Vicente Fox's first three years in office, electing another divided congress in which his party will have fewer seats and increasing the power of the former ruling party and the leftist opposition. No party gained a majority in Sunday's midterm congressional elections. Voters, frustrated with Fox's inability to deliver on promises of reform, economic growth and a migration accord with the US, set the stage for three more years of inaction. Preliminary vote counts showed the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the old ruling party that Fox ousted in 2000 elections, leading in congress.
■ United States
Firefighters kept busy
Firefighters battled a wildfire Sunday in a drought-stricken pine forest just a few kilometers outside a central Arizona city, while crews in the southern part of the state kept a mountaintop fire away from homes and cabins. The central Arizona fire started late Saturday about 13km south of Prescott near Walker, a community of cabins and houses in the Prescott National Forest. Several hundred homes are in the area, but none had burned as of midday Sunday. Residents of about 100 cabins and houses in Walker were advised to evacuate.
■ Guinea
Mystery plane spotted
A Boeing 727 cargo plane which caused panic among US intelligence agencies after mysteriously disappearing from Angola's main airport turned up last week in Guinea. The plane, which was feared to be in the hands of international terrorists, was spotted on June 28 in Conakry, Guinea's capital, by Bob Strother, a Canadian pilot. It had been resprayed and given the Guinean registration 3XGOM. But at least the last two letters of its former tail-number were still showing. "There's no absolutely doubt it's the same aircraft," said Strother.
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