■ India
26 troops killed
Twenty-six Indian troops were killed and around 12 people were injured yesterday when a massive landmine planted by Islamic rebels exploded on a key Kashmir highway, police said, giving a new toll. A bus was carrying troops of the paramilitary Border Security Force from the summer capital Srinagar to the winter capital Jammu when it was torn apart by the landmine and then caught fire, a police official said. He said the impact of the blast hit a civilian bus that was following the troops. Twenty-six soldiers were killed and 12 people, including three civilians, were injured, the official said.
■ Pakistan
Commonwealth opens arms
The Commonwealth group of nations readmitted Pakistan on Saturday, citing the country's progress on democratic reforms since its suspension after a military coup five years ago. The decision ends the exclusion imposed after President Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999 and seals Pakistan's reintegration into the international fold. "The [Commonwealth] welcomed the progress made in restoring democracy and rebuilding democratic institutions in Pakistan," Secretary-General Don McKinnon said. But the group of 53 mostly former British colonies said after a meeting of foreign ministers and diplomats it would monitor further reforms and expected Musharraf to meet a pledge to stand down as army chief by year's end.
■ China
SARS vaccine tested
Scientists have begun testing a SARS vaccine on four volunteers at a Beijing hospital, state media said yesterday, in what appears to be the first such experiment on humans. The volunteers, all in their 20s, were injected with the vaccine on Saturday at the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital under tight security, reported the Beijing Youth Daily and the Guangzhou Daily, two of China's largest newspapers. A hospital official, contacted yesterday, said she could not confirm that the tests took place.
■ China
Officials threaten Liverpool
China has threatened to strip Liverpool of its twin city status with Shanghai if officials from the British city meet exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama next week, a report said yesterday. A diplomatic row has broken out between Beijing and London over the visit of the 68-year-old Buddhist leader, with China trying some distinctly strong-arm tactics, The Observer newspaper said. Among these is an ultimatum from the Chinese embassy in London to Liverpool City Council to cancel meetings with the Dalai Lama or lose its links with Shanghai, China's commercial capital and, like Liverpool, a major port city. However the Dalai Lama's program, which will see him head to London and Glasgow as well as Liverpool, is expected to go ahead as planned, The Observer said.
■ China
Net dissident's trial `unfair'
International press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Sunday condemned the trial of Chinese Internet dissident Du Daobin as "unfair" and "shocking." Du was tried on May 18 for "incitement to subvert state power" in Xiaogan, Hubei, even though his lawyer Mo Shaoping could not prepare reach the city in time. Du was appointed another lawyer who refused to enter a not guilty plea and only wanted to argue for a lighter sentence in the closed trial.
■ Colombia
Car bomb kills three
Three people were killed in a Colombian town on Saturday by a car bomb which the army blamed on Marxist rebels marking the 40th anniversary of their armed struggle. A car packed with 20kg of ANFO, an explosive used in the mining industry, blew up in the town of San Carlos, 320km northwest of the capital, Bogota, said the army, blaming the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The authorities have also blamed the rebel army, known by its Spanish initials FARC, for a bomb in the city of Medellin on Thursday, which killed four people, and for attempting to explode a tonne of ANFO in a truck near Bogota on Friday.
■ Saudi Arabia
German caterer killed
A German man who worked as a caterer for Saudi Arabia's national airline was shot and killed Saturday by unknown assailants, an Interior Ministry official said. Authorities are investigating whether the attack was a terrorist or a criminal one, the official said on condition of anonymity. The man was shot on Prince Abdullah Highway, a popular shopping thoroughfare in eastern Riyadh. Police cordoned off a strip mall where the shooting occurred and would not let journalists approach.
■ Ivory Coast
Morocco sends troops
Hundreds of Moroccan troops flew into Ivory Coast on Saturday to bolster a UN peacekeeping force as a political crisis threatening the West African country's fragile peace process deepened. In a letter to Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, Ivory Coast Prime Minister Seydou Diarra denied he had proposed three ministers from the rebel side should be booted out of a government of national reconciliation in the world's top cocoa grower. The spat over the cabinet posts has raised tensions in the former French colony because a breakdown in government undermines a French-brokered peace deal struck in January of last year to end a civil war that left thousands dead.
■ Malawi
Election gets confusing
With no official results announced, opposition leader Gwanda Chakuamba accused electoral officials of conspiring with the ruling party to rig Malawi's third multiparty elections and declared himself the winner of the presidential vote. Earlier Saturday, security forces fired tear gas to disperse more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting the delay in announcing results from Thursday's parliamentary and presidential elections. Voting in one of Africa's poorest countries had already been marred by delays and irregularities, according to international observers.
■ Brazil
Clinton blasts Bush
Former US president Bill Clinton slammed what he called the "unilateral" foreign policy of the administration of US President George W. Bush, telling an audience of about 1,000 Brazilian business and political leaders Saturday that the US needs more international partners to fight terrorism. "Rather than taking a unilateral path, we need to strengthen international organizations," said Clinton. "We need more international partners." Clinton spoke at the inauguration of an academic institute founded by former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who led the country from 1995 through last year.
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
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
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