■ Nepal
Communist leaders set free
The government freed the chief of the country's biggest communist group from house arrest, an official said yesterday, two days after King Gyanendra ended a state of emergency. They said Madhav Kumar Nepal, chief of Nepal-UML, was released on Sunday three months after Gyanendra sacked the government and detained top politicians, blaming them for failing to tackle a deadly Maoist insurgency. Another communist leader, Amrit Kumar Bohara, was also freed, Kathmandu district administrator Baman Prasad Neupane said. But UML officials said hundreds of other activists were still under detention and new arrests were being made.
■ China
Editor blocked from award
An editor whose newspaper broke stories about China's SARS outbreak and a fatal police beating has been ordered not to attend a ceremony to accept a UN press freedom award, a news report said yesterday. Cheng Yizhong (程益中), former editor-in-chief of the Southern Metropolis News in Guangdong Province, was to receive the US$25,000 award today in Dakar, Senegal, the South China Morning Post said. Citing an unidentified source, it said he was ordered not to attend the ceremony. Cheng was named this year's recipient of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for breaking "new ground in Chinese journalism," a UN press release said.
■ New Zealand
Police in phone rescue
A police operation spanning two countries and 2,650km came to the rescue of a suicidal woman in Australia, New Zealand police said yesterday. A woman threatening to kill herself called police in the city of Palmerston North in the North Island of New Zealand early on Friday. Dispatching a patrol car proved to be out of the question when it was found out she was calling from Melbourne in Australia. The woman was kept talking in the early hours of Friday morning while the police enlisted the help of their counterparts in Melbourne to trace the call and go to the woman's home.
■ Afghanistan
Arms cache blast kills 28
An arms cache hidden by an Afghan warlord exploded in a bunker beneath his home early yesterday, killing 28 people and devastating surrounding buildings, officials said. At least 70 people were injured, and there was fear that the death toll could rise. The weapons were stored in Bashgah, a remote village in Baghlan province, 125km north of the capital, Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said. Officials said it was unclear what triggered the blast, which occurred at about 6am. The warlord's house was destroyed and he was believed to be among those killed, Mashal said, forecasting that the overall death toll would rise.
■ Cambodia
Cancer grips Sihanouk
Former king Norodom Sihanouk will delay his return home as his cancer has become "very serious," he said from Beijing, days after he had said he was fit and ready to come back. "On May 1, 2005, International Labor Day and a holiday across the world, Chinese doctors who are very worried about my health did not stop working and discussed my cancer, which has returned again and is very serious," the 82-year-old Sihanouk said on his Web site.
■ United Kingdom
Blair wants new weapons
Prime Minister Tony Blair has decided to equip Britain with a new generation of deterrent nuclear weapons, to replace those currently deployed on Trident submarines. "The decision [to replace Trident] has been taken in principle very recently," a senior defense source said. A new nuclear deterrent would cost some ?10 billion (US$18.5 billion). Blair, who is currently campaigning hard for his Labour Party to win a third consecutive election on Thursday, said last week he not yet decided on a new deterrent. "We have got to retain our nuclear deterrent. But I believe that is the right thing," he said. It takes a long time to build new nuclear weapons, which is why the decision has to come far in advance of decommissioning the Tridents, expected in 2024.
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