■ PAKISTAN
Anti-Musharraf proposal
Lawmakers in the country’s northwest have passed a resolution against President Pervez Musharraf, the second major act in the ruling coalition’s campaign to impeach and oust the embattled leader. The North West Frontier Province assembly’s resolution yesterday came a day after lawmakers in Punjab Province passed a similar proposal. As in Punjab, the resolution in the northwest passed overwhelmingly, with a vote of 107-4.
■ SRI LANKA
Soldiers kill 26 rebels
New fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in the country’s north killed 26 rebels and six soldiers, the military said yesterday. The fighting took place on Monday along the front lines in the Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Welioya regions, said Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman. In the worst clash, soldiers attacked rebels in Kilinochchi with artillery and small arms, triggering a battle that killed nine guerrillas and three soldiers, he said. Scattered battles in nearby Vavuniya killed 10 rebels, while fighting in Welioya killed seven rebels and three soldiers, Nanayakkara said.
■ INDIA
Cabbies sentenced to death
A court handed down the death penalty to two taxi drivers for the rape and murder of an Australian woman who visited India four years ago for a meditation course, reports said yesterday. Dawn Griggs, 59, was killed soon after hiring a taxi following her arrival at New Delhi airport in March 2004. “The victim in the present case was a foreigner lady, who was totally dependent on the hospitality provided to her by our people,” Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said in his order. Griggs, a frequent traveler to India, had asked the taxi drivers to take her to her destination, but instead was driven to a deserted stretch near the airport where she was murdered.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Court eases drug sentence
A trafficker who swallowed narcotics in a suicide bid when facing arrest did not commit a drugs offense, the Supreme Court has ruled. The court was hearing the case of a man surnamed Huh who was caught trying to sell 10g of methamphetamine last October, newspapers reported yesterday. The man, who feared being sent to prison, swallowed all 10g. He was taken to a hospital and recovered. A lower court convicted him both of trafficking and drug-taking and sentenced him to one year in prison. The appeal court convicted him of trafficking only and cut the sentence to eight months, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court.
■ JAPAN
Tojo wanted to fight on
Hideki Tojo, Japan’s prime minister for much of World War II, wanted to keep fighting after the atomic bombings, journal entries published yesterday showed. Tojo ordered the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor that brought the US into World War II but was forced out as prime minister in 1944. He was hanged as a war criminal in 1948. In the run-up to Friday’s anniversary of Japan’s surrender, the Nikkei Shimbun said it had discovered Tojo’s diaries from the last days of the war. “Without fully employing its abilities even at the final moment, the imperial nation is surrendering before the enemies’ propaganda,” Tojo wrote. “I never imagined the torpor of the nation’s leaders and people.” Tojo warned Japan “will come off as a complete loser by accepting unconditional surrender, even if it makes a few demands.”
■ Turkey
Defense negotiator fired
Turkish Prime Minister Donald Tusk dismissed the official leading talks with Washington on placing part of a US missile defense system in the country, saying on Monday his performance was not satisfactory. Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski had been the chief negotiator in talks with the US over placing a missile interceptor base in northern Poland since they officially started early last year under a previous government. Waszczykowski, 51, who is on vacation abroad, refused to comment when contacted by phone about Tusk’s comments. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski will assume the post, starting with talks this week in Warsaw.
■ Turkey
Three die in boat plunge
Anatolia news agency reported that three workers died when a lifeboat broke free from a ship under repair at an Istanbul shipyard and plunged into the sea. It cited Governor Muammer Guler as saying 12 other workers were injured in the accident on Monday. A labor union leader said earlier that four died. More than two dozen workers have died this year at the Tuzla shipyard. Most of the work there is outsourced to smaller companies, which have been accused of employing untrained workers and adopting poor safety practices.
■ France
Drivers to get saliva test
Police on the French Riviera on Monday started carrying out roadside saliva tests as part of a nationwide plan to crack down on drug use at the wheel. French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie was in the Mediterranean town of Antibes for the launch of the operation, which will see about 50,000 drug screening kits handed out across the country. Quicker to use than urine or blood tests, the experimental tests could help save hundreds of lives, officials say. Drivers are asked to spit onto a stick which is dipped into a chemical substance to test for the presence of cannabis or harder drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine, heroin or amphetamines.
■ United Kingdom
Brits nabbed for boozing
Bad behavior abroad, often fueled by excessive drinking, has sent the number of Britons arrested overseas soaring, a report by the Foreign Office showed yesterday. In its annual report, British Behavior Abroad, the Foreign Office said “many arrests” of Britons abroad were due to “behavior caused by excessive drinking.” Arrests in Spain went up by a third (32 percent) to 2,032 — the highest number of any country — in the April 2006 through March last year period. The report found that on a proportional basis Britons were most likely to be arrested in Cyprus — home to British sovereign military bases.
■ Israel
Gazans line up for cash
A severe cash shortage gripped the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Monday as tens of thousands of people were unable to withdraw money from banks in the poverty-stricken territory. Israel promised to transfer more money to Gaza yesterday. But the shortage highlighted the daily hardships still faced by Gaza’s 1.4 million residents despite a June ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The delicate truce suffered a setback on Monday when unidentified Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel, Israeli police said. Lacking a currency of their own, Gazans use Israeli shekels. But with little new Israeli money entering Gaza, the bank notes in circulation are either being hoarded or have been damaged from overuse.
■ UNITED STATES
Man cleared of rape crime
A judge freed a man on Monday who had spent nearly 18 years in prison on a charge of raping a 10-year-old girl after a lab re-examining Ohio cases showed that his DNA profile didn’t match the evidence. Robert McClendon, 52, was released by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Charles Schneider, who cited the DNA test. Jennifer Bergeron, a lawyer with the Ohio Innocence Project, said she expects prosecutors to drop charges against McClendon within the next two weeks. DNA Diagnostics Center, a lab near Cincinnati, agreed to conduct tests on McClendon and other inmates for free as a public service after the Columbus Dispatch published a series in January featuring 30 inmates whose applications for new DNA testing had been stalled.
■ GUATEMALA
Violent deaths soaring
A rights group on Monday denounced the violent deaths of more than 1,600 people in the first half of the year, including 77 urban bus drivers. “The wave of violence includes men, women, children and all professions and social levels,” a statement from the Group of Mutual Aid said. The tally includes 85 extrajudicial killings in the country of more than 12 million. Many killings are blamed on organized youth gangs that completely control certain city areas and extort “taxes” from local residents for their safety.
■ CANADA
‘Mafioso’ awaits hearing
One of Italy’s most wanted men will remain in a Toronto jail awaiting a hearing to determine whether he will be sent home. Alleged Mafia leader Giuseppe Coluccio appeared before the Immigration and Refuge Board on Monday. Board member William Willoughby said Coluccio posed a danger to the public and would likely not appear for his admissibility hearing if he were released. The 41-year-old was arrested last week in Toronto. Italian authorities have been after Coluccio since 2005 for his alleged role in masterminding a drug trafficking operation as the head of the Calabrian Mafia. Police say he had lived illegally in Canada for several years.
■ UNITED STATES
Man hustles for free porn
A man posing as a police detective tried to get an adult novelty shop to give him free pornographic videos, saying he wanted to make sure the performers weren’t underage, authorities said. He made three tries within nine days last month and was turned down each time. The store manager called police after the third try. Authorities said on Monday that the man showed a badge and left a business card from the Longmont police “age verification unit.” Commander Tim Lewis said there is no such unit. The business card didn’t have a name on it, but the store gave officers surveillance video of the man. Police are looking for him.
■ UNITED STATES
Sheehan to run for House
Cindy Sheehan, an icon of the anti-war movement, has qualified to challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her seat in Congress. Sheehan, 51, says Pelosi failed to persuade her party to end funding for the Iraq War after Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2006 midterm elections. She also accused the speaker of failing to hold the administration accountable for the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Sheehan, who lost her son in the war, is best known for beginning a vigil outside President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch in August 2005.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not