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World News Quick Take

■ South Korea
Lawmakers oppose Iraq aid
A group of South Korean lawmakers said yesterday they would seek a parliamentary resolution to block the deployment of thousands of troops to Iraq. Some 20 ruling and opposition lawmakers met anti-war civic group leaders and decided to submit the resolution to the National Assembly as early as this month, Kim Won-Wung of the ruling Uri Party said. "To put a brake on the troop dispatch plan, we must have the resolution adopted in June," said Kim, who has teamed up with other opposition lawmkers critical of the US-led war in Iraq..

■ Hong Kong
Man sweats in color
Doctors in southern China are baffled by a man whose sweat is green, a news report said yesterday. The Guangzhou man sought help after discovering his white T-shirts were turning green under the arms within a few minutes of him putting them on. Doctors were unable to find a cause for the green sweat, which they believe is a medical first, and think it may be caused by a parasite in his body, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported.

■ South Korea
Boats from north cross line
Two North Korean patrol boats briefly crossed a disputed border in the Yellow Sea yesterday, South Korea said. The two boats crossed the so-called Northern Limit Line boundary for about nine minutes, about 1km south of the border, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said North Korean patrol boats were watching Chinese fishing boats at the time of the incident. It also said the two boats returned to their own waters as a South Korean naval ship headed toward them -- just hours after the North and South Korean militaries agreed to prevent naval clashes. The Northern Limit Line is the de facto sea border, drawn by US-led UN forces when the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armed truce.

■ china
Private-eye ban to be lifted
Officials in Shanghai are getting ready to lift a 10-year ban on the burgeoning private detective trade, granting sleuths the right to operate legally, state press reported yesterday. At an informal meeting of private eyes in the eastern metropolis, Sun Yingjun, chief detective at Shanghai FMS Commercial Consultation, claimed a broad legalization of the industry was in the works. The Ministry of Public Security is conducting research in 10 cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou on the possibility of making the largely underground industry legal, the News Times quoted Sun as saying. Some 1,000 small private-eye outfits have sprouted around China in the past two years and Shanghai has about 30 firms.

■ United States
Troop realignment proposed
The Pentagon has proposed a plan to withdraw two Army divisions from Germany and make other changes in its European forces in a sweeping global realignment of the US military, The New York Times reported on yesterday. The aim of the plan is to give the US military greater flexibility in sending forces to the Middle East, Central Asia and other potential battlegrounds, the newspaper said, citing Pentagon policy makers. Officials said major decisions on the reorganization are expected to be made in a month or two, the newspaper reported.

■ United States
Castrated molester freed
A former camp counselor voluntarily castrated after he was imprisoned for molesting 40 children was released after a judge threw out a new, more serious charge against him. David Wayne Jones, 33, had been eligible for mandatory release after serving nearly 13 years of a 15-year prison sentence for sexual abuse. He was released Thursday. Jones was freed from his prison sentence in March but was immediately transferred to a jail when prosecutors leveled the new charge of aggravated sexual assault against him. It, like the earlier charges, stemmed from the abuse of a child when Jones worked at a Dallas YMCA. Jones' attorney successfully argued that prosecutors violated speedy trial laws by doing little to pursue the new charge Jones was about to be freed.

■ United States
Abuser wants Cheney to talk
An American woman soldier at the center of the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has asked that US Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testify on her behalf, her attorneys said on Thursday. The soldier, Private Lynndie England, 21, is due to appear at a preliminary hearing in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she is based, on June 22. England appeared in at least two notorious photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. England's lawyer, Rose Mary Zapor, said that Cheney and Rumsfeld were on a list of more than 130 people that the defense would like to call as witnesses. Zapor said England's defense that she was only following orders could be bolstered by Rumsfeld and Cheney.

■ Guatemala
Six die in kidnap rescue
Police shot and killed six kidnappers on Thursday in an operation to rescue an abducted university student from a house in the Guatemalan highlands, the government said. Student Irma Alejandra Molina, found tied and blindfolded at a house in a corn field just outside the village of Agua Tibia, was rescued during the shootout. "There was a battle ... the criminals fired at the police, and the information that we have is that there are six dead," Deputy Interior Minister Angel Conte told local radio. Molina's family did not pay a US$300,000 ransom.

■ Chile
Pipeline bombed
More than 20,000 liters of oil has been lost following a bomb attack on a pipeline in southern Chile, reported officials on Thursday. The pipeline was damaged near Talcahuano in Bio-Bio province, 500km south of Santiago. The bomb probably exploded the night before, but the decrease in pressure wasn't noticed until the following day, it was reported. Oil from the Argentine province of Neuquen is pumped by the pipeline to Chile.

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