■FRANCE
Sarkozy wants flags, anthem
President Nicolas Sarkozy is calling for more French flags to be flown in the country, and the Marseillaise anthem sung widely to instill a greater sense of pride. In an eight-page mission letter sent to the Minister of Immigration, Integration and National Identity Eric Besson e-mailed to the press on Tuesday, he asked members of his government to make national symbols more visible. He said they needed to reinforce the space for emblems and symbols of the Republic, its language, its flag, its anthem and the values of liberty, equality and fraternity. The letter also called for the government to firmly clamp down on immigration. France wants to integrate migrants already in the country, he said, and will only take in new immigrants selectively. It will give the ones it chooses temporary visas.
■FRANCE
Soldier kills three people
A French soldier allegedly killed two fellow Foreign Legion members and a peacekeeper from Togo in an unexplained shooting on Tuesday in Chad, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said late on Tuesday in Paris. The suspected killer was being sought by Chadian security forces. The three legionaries were reportedly members of a French regiment based with European EUFOR troops in Abeche, Chad. The slain Togolese soldier was assigned to the UN’s MINURCAT peacekeeping mission. There was no immediate explanation or motive for the shooting. Several thousand foreign troops are stationed in northern Chad to protect refugees from neighboring Sudan.
■FRANCE
Hijacked yacht located
A French yacht that was captured by pirates off Somalia over the weekend has been located, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday, without giving details of any rescue efforts. The sail boat, the Tanit, which was carrying two couples and a three-year-old child, was taken far from the coastline of Somalia, Kouchner told RTL radio. “Yes, they have been located. This has been the case since yesterday,” he said.
■GERMANY
Skeleton on tree found
The skeleton of a German pensioner who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker. Police in southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing. An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11m up, near the top of the spruce tree. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.
■GERMANY
Felix the cat is alive
A cat named Felix was found alive and well beneath the rubble of a six-storey building in Cologne that collapsed five weeks ago, the city fire brigade said on Tuesday. The 12-year-old cat was in surprisingly good health, authorities said. He was found beneath the city archives building that collapsed on March 3. Rescue workers were clearing away the rubble from the ruins, in which two people were killed, when they spotted a pair of small paws. “The men lifted some concrete blocks when suddenly a little cat came to light,” said Dietmar Paust, fire brigade spokesman.
■VENEZUELA
Chavez bashes bishops
President Hugo Chavez railed against Roman Catholic leaders on Tuesday for condemning a law that has weakened his political opponents. Chavez took issue with the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference for accusing him of sidelining adversaries with a new law that let him take control of airports and seaports previously under the administration of opposition politicians. “This group of bishops is shameless,” Chavez told state television from China, where he is wrapping up a tour that also included visits to Japan, Iran and Qatar. “They side with all those who attack the government.” Quoting the Bible, Chavez said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
■BRAZIL
Nun case to be retried
A court on Tuesday ordered the arrest and retrial of an Amazon rancher acquitted of orchestrating the murder of US nun and rain forest activist Dorothy Stang. Para state’s top court reversed last year’s not-guilty verdict for Vitalmiro Moura on a technicality, ruling that a video used by the defense was not admissible as evidence, the state prosecutor said. “We’re elated and we are convinced we will get a guilty verdict in the new trial,” prosecutor Edson Souza said. Souza said Moura is charged with ordering Stang’s murder and that he had yet to be arrested. Moura is accused of masterminding the 2005 death of the 73-year-old Stang, who was shot six times at close range with a revolver.
■UNITED STATES
Chinese cases in court
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Chinese businessman with conspiracy in the sale of materials to Iran that could be used in missiles and atomic weapons, in violation of UN restrictions on trade with Tehran. The 117-count indictment charges Li Fangwei (李方偉) and his company Limmt Economic and Trade Co with conspiring to conceal bank transactions through New York. Meanwhile in Virginia, a judge sentenced a physicist to 51 months in prison for illegally exporting space launch technical data and defense services to China and offering bribes to Chinese government officials. Shu Quansheng (舒泉聲), 68, a US citizen of Chinese origin, has already been ordered to forfeit US$386,740 in connection with the case.
■MEXICO
Caretaker admits killing
The caretaker of a Texas priest’s home in Nuevo Laredo admitted on Tuesday to killing the 69-year-old reverend and said the two were intimately involved. Manuel Martin Torres told police and reporters during a news conference that he stabbed and attacked Reverend Jesse Euresti with a machete after learning the priest was kicking him out of the home. Torres said he had demanded Euresti pay him between US$10,000 and US$15,000. Torres said he had been seeing the priest for the past year.
■UNITED STATES
Sex costs pilot license
A judge says a commercial helicopter pilot videotaped in a sex act while flying over San Diego committed gross negligence and cannot have his license back. National Transportation Safety Board administrative law Judge William Mullins upheld a Federal Aviation Administration order revoking the license of David Martz after a hearing on Tuesday. Martz had no comment after the ruling. A passenger was videotaping when Martz let an adult film actress perform a sex act on him during the 2005 flight and an edited version eventually became public. The judge watched the unedited tape in chambers and took testimony before his decision.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing