■ Myanmar
Suu Kyi may be freed
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi may be freed from house arrest in a day or two, the chairman of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said yesterday. Speculation has been rife that the Nobel peace laureate would be freed after the military government allowed the NLD to reopen its Yangon headquarters on Saturday, nearly a year after it was shut and its leader Suu Kyi detained. Suu Kyi, 58, and her vice chairman, Tin Oo, are the last senior NLD leaders still confined since the May 30 clash, which critics blamed on the junta. Yangon denied orchestrating the violence. The military government has promised fresh constitutional talks next month as part of its "road map to democracy" announced last August.
■ North Korea
Praise for South's election
North Korea praised South Korean voters yesterday for handing a majority to a liberal party and for dealing a blow to opposition "flunkeyist traitors" in last week's parliamentary election. The liberal Uri Party, which backs impeached President Roh Moo-hyun, won a slender majority in last week's election, pushing the main conservative Grand National Party into second place in the unicameral National Assembly. North Korean media had urged South Koreans to vote against the Grand National Party, an anti-communist group that had imposed strict curbs on South Korean aid to the North. North Korean issues barely registered in the election.
■ China
Dumped man tries zooicide
A jilted husband tried to kill himself by throwing himself into the tiger enclosure at a zoo in central China, a news report said yesterday. The depressed man hoped to be eaten alive after climbing into the tiger enclosure in Wuhan Dongxihu Shengshan Happy World, according to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. Zookeepers managed to distract the tigers by throwing them chickens and then hauled the man, who became suicidal after his wife dumped him, to safety, the newspaper said.
■ Australia
Cops fired over prank
Two police officers who dressed up in Ku Klux Klan-style white hoods and drove their unmarked squad car past a traffic camera at more than twice the speed limit will be fired, their commander said yesterday. Western Australian Police Commissioner Barry Matthews has recommended the two officers, whose identities have not been released, be removed from the service over the August 2001, prank in Bunbury, south of the state capital Perth. "I accept it was done as a prank, and I accept there was no racist intention. There was no suggestion they were trying to masquerade as Ku Klux Klan," Matthews told local radio.
■ China
Naked sushi diner fined
A restaurant in southwestern China has been fined for offering to serve sushi on the bodies of naked women, a newspaper reported yesterday, after advertisements for the event sparked a rush of both indignation and curiosity. Health authorities in the city of Kunming, Yunnan Province, who early this month banned the dinner before it could take place, have now also fined the Yamato Wind Village restaurant 2,000 yuan (US$240), the Beijing Daily Messenger newspaper reported.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the