■THAILAND
Red Shirts stage protest
Several hundred Red Shirt protesters defied a state of emergency in Bangkok to stage a symbolic protest, with hundreds of people sprawling on the ground and chanting, “People died here!” The demonstration on Sunday at the Democracy Monument was peaceful, but it was the latest sign of simmering discontent since the army cracked down May 19 to disperse a sprawling anti-government protest camp and end 10 weeks of demonstrations calling for early elections. Rolling clashes between troops and Red Shirts killed 90 people and wounded more than 1,400 in the demonstrations’ final weeks. Two grenades have exploded in Bangkok over the past week, killing one bystander and wounding 11. There have been no claims of responsibility but both are presumed linked to ongoing political tensions. Thai media reported on Sunday that an unexploded grenade was found in a sewer on the grounds of the prime minister’s office compound over the weekend.
■MALAYSIA
Arrests made at vigils
Dozens of activists including a top opposition leader were arrested for holding candlelight vigils to mark the 50th anniversary of tough anti-security laws, organizers said yesterday. Police in riot gear broke up the main vigil held on Sunday evening in a field in suburban Kuala Lumpur, and targeted other gatherings in northern Penang and Kelantan states, organizers and reports said. The protests targeted the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial and has been used against government opponents as well as suspected terrorists in the past. “We were just trying to hold a candlelight vigil, but we got arrested before we can even light the candle,” said Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, chairman of the Abolish ISA Movement. Public protests are illegal without a permit and police rarely give approval to such events.
■SOUTH KOREA
‘Provocation’ punished
New US sanctions against North Korea are designed to push the regime to abandon its “provocative activities” and give up its nuclear weapons, a senior envoy on nonproliferation said yesterday. Robert Einhorn, the US State Department’s special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, met with Seoul officials to discuss the new financial sanctions that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced two weeks ago. The new penalties target the sale and purchase of arms and related goods used to fund Pyongyang’s nuclear activities, and the acquisition of luxury items to reward its elite, Clinton said. The details of how and when the sanctions will be carried out have not been released.
■AFGHANISTAN
Blast kills five children
A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in the southern province of Kandahar yesterday, killing five children and injuring one other, a police official said. “Five children were killed in the first blast and one child is wounded,” said Kandahar deputy police chief Fazel Mohammad Shairzad. The car bomb was followed by a roadside bomb explosion 10m away, after police arrived at the scene, and wounded two policemen, said district criminal investigations chief Mohammad Hussain. The suicide bomber was targeting Dand district governor Ahmadullah Nazick, but the explosives detonated prematurely, the Kandahar provincial government said in a statement.
■ISRAEL
Cabinet tightens residency
The Cabinet on Sunday approved new residency criteria that could result in the deportations of hundreds of children of migrant workers. The decision represented a small step by the government to clear up the status of thousands of foreign workers. It states that children of migrants whose parents entered the country legally may remain if they are enrolled in school, speak Hebrew and have stayed longer than five years. An Israeli advocacy group, the Hotline for Migrant Workers, estimates 700 of 1,200 school-age children are at risk of deportation, along with their parents. About 200,000 migrant workers live in the country, mostly from the Philippines, China and Africa. About half have overstayed their visas, thousands for many years. Many have children who were born in Israel and know no other home.
■SOUTH AFRICA
Fire at senior home kills 18
A fire swept through the Pieter Wessels home for the elderly in Johannesburg on Sunday night, killing 18 people and leaving 84 homeless, paramedics said yesterday. “Eighteen people are dead and 84 rescued,” private emergency services provider Netcare 911 spokesman Chris Botha said. “The building was engulfed in flames and emergency personnel leaped into action to rescue the aged from the burning building.” Dozens were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Two people had serious injuries, while one had burns on 40 percent of his body. The cause of the fire was still under investigation.
■IRAN
Prisoners on hunger strike
Seventeen political prisoners, including journalists and student activists, have been on hunger strike for a week demanding better treatment, opposition Web sites reported yesterday. “So far, five of the hunger strikers have been taken to hospital and the condition of the others is worsening,” said Kaleme.com, the Web site of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. Those on the hunger strike have been in jail since they were rounded up in the wake of protests that followed the disputed presidential election in June last year. The group “went on hunger strike after being transferred to solitary confinement and in protest at insults and humiliation,” the Web site said. Another opposition site, Rahesabz.net, said the hunger strike was triggered by an argument between some prisoners and wardens over the treatment of their families who had come for a visit on July 26.
■ITALY
Italian men fail to impress
The nation’s fabled “Latin lovers” are missing the mark with foreign belles, according to a poll released on Sunday that said nearly four in five women tourists were unmoved by Italian men’s charms. Seventy-nine percent said they would not fall for an Italian, with many saying they lacked cheerfulness and a sense of humor (51 percent), while others complained they were childish (49 percent). Another reason for the lack of attraction is that today’s Italian men show more of their feminine than their masculine side, according to 57 percent of the 1,000 women polled by tourist and gastronomy magazine Vie del Gusto. The most likely to make a woman’s heart flutter were students, businessmen and holiday resort DJs and entertainers, the survey said. But although not seen as dream partners, Italian men still won points for being gallant (78 percent) and well-dressed (67 percent). And seduction aside, Italians in general continued to impress foreigners with their style (73 percent), charm (69 percent) and friendliness (55 percent).
■UNITED STATES
Plane crashes in Alaska
A large cargo-type plane crashed in Alaska on Sunday and burst into a deadly fireball that sparked a forest fire at Denali National Park, officials said. The park service said in a statement that the three people aboard the plane were killed. The aircraft crashed into the south-facing slope of Mount Healy about 200m north of the only major road in the park and within a 1.5km of the park headquarters, a park official said. The fire was challenging responders, who did not immediately know who owned the multi-engine aircraft. The plane went down about 3pm near the eastern edge of the park. The first responders arrived within minutes, but the plane was already engulfed in flames, the official said.
■UNITED STATES
Cheney out of intensive care
Former vice president Dick Cheney is out of intensive care, but still in hospital more than five weeks after being admitted for his latest heart problems, his daughter said on Sunday. Last month, doctors implanted a pump that improves heart function in the 69-year-old Cheney at a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. He was admitted in late June. “He is still in the hospital, but he’s doing well,” his daughter, Liz Cheney, told Fox News Sunday. “He’s out of the intensive care unit and hopefully will be home later this week. He’s looking at fly fishing and hunting dates for later on this year, so we’re very hopeful.”
■UNITED STATES
Rare Batman comic for sale
A longtime Alaska comic book buff is selling one of the gems in his vast collection, a rare copy of Batman No. 1 published 70 years ago. Mike Wheat of Fairbanks has put the 1940 comic book on the auction block through Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, where it’s expected to fetch more than US$40,000. Online bids have already climbed to US$35,000 for the book, believed to be one of fewer than 300 still in existence. Online bids will compete with a live auction set for Thursday. The second and fourth Batman issues also will be part of Thursday’s auction. They are expected to bring more than US$5,000 combined.
■CANADA
Firefighters battle wildfires
Firefighters and fire specialists poured into British Columbia on Sunday to help battle more than 350 wildfires raging across the province, with authorities issuing a warning that the danger was “extreme.” The reinforcements came a day after a water bomber crashed near Lytton, northeast of Vancouver. Both crew members, the pilot and co-pilot were feared dead, officials said. “The fire danger rating for most of British Columbia is high to extreme and weather forecasters are not expecting it to improve any time soon,” the province’s Ministry of Forests announced in a bulletin.
■UNITED STATES
Independence activist dies
Lolita Lebron, a Puerto Rican independence activist who spent 25 years in prison for participating in a gun attack on the US Congress half a century ago, died on Sunday. She was 90. Lebron died at a hospital in San Juan of complications from respiratory disease, said Francisco Torres, president of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico. She had been hospitalized repeatedly in recent months for her ailments. Lebron was a leading figure in the nationalist movement. “Lolita was the mother of the independence movement. This is an insurmountable loss,” said Maria de Lourdes Santiago, a member of the Puerto Rican Independence Party.
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
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
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