■ 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.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
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