RUNNING IN CIRCLES: Instead of parading the torch through the streets, about 80 people carried it in laps inside a stadium guarded by thousands of security guards
The Olympic torch was paraded through a heavily guarded stadium in Jakarta yesterday after police stopped about 100 anti-China protesters from disrupting the latest leg of the torch’s fraught journey around the world.

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One person was killed and five critically wounded when police in southwest China clashed with protesters trying to block construction of a mine, the government and a rights group said yesterday.

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ACTIVE INSURGENTS: Also, two employees of a US security company have gone missing in Afghanistan’s western province of Herat, a company official said
Militants torched two mixed-sex schools near the Afghan capital, police said yesterday, and the Taliban said it had kidnapped two teachers and a school superintendent.

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North Korea has almost completed a major dam above its heavily fortified border with South Korea, causing concern about a water shortage in parts of the South, officials in Seoul said yesterday.

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Dozens of Japanese politicians yesterday paid their respects to war dead at a controversial shrine, but put no pressure on Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to visit amid improving ties with Asian neighbors.

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ISLAMIC LAW: A court sentenced Sufi Muhammad to three years for illegally possessing a weapon, but he stayed in custody until officials signed an accord
A fugitive Pakistani militant leader welcomed the release of a prominent pro-Taliban cleric, but vowed yesterday to continue an armed struggle for Islamic law in the country’s northwest despite the signing of a peace accord.

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CRISIS: As criticism of President Robert Mugabe grew, observers said that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s absence had created a dangerous vacuum in the country
Zimbabwean church leaders said people are being tortured, abducted and some murdered in a campaign of political retribution that could escalate to genocidal proportions if nothing is done.

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The US is intervening with governments in southern Africa to prevent a Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe’s security forces from unloading its cargo.

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A beleaguered French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to use a prime-time TV appearance this week to claw back public support after polls showed a majority of French people think his first year in office has been a failure.

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A Hamas official says the group has softened its demands for a ceasefire with Israel.

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An increasing number of illegal immigrants smuggled by boat to Italy are children sent by their families in Africa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday.

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HIGH-SEAS DRAMA: Somali regional forces rescued a hijacked cargo vessel yesterday and arrested seven pirates after a clash in the Gulf of Aden, an official said
The US and France are drafting a UN resolution that would allow countries to chase and arrest pirates off Somalia’s coast, responding to a spate of attacks including this week’s hijacking of a Spanish tuna boat, UN diplomats said.

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Surgeons have fitted “bionic eyes” to two men in their 50s to partially restore their eyesight. They are the first in Britain to have the artificial retinas fitted, in three-hour operations at Moorfields Eye hospital in London, it was confirmed on Monday.

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OUT IN THE COLD: Nuri al-Maliki’s government is still getting short shrift from Sunni Islamic states that refuse to even post diplomatic representatives in the Iraqi capital
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki rebuked neighboring states yesterday for not doing enough to strengthen ties with Baghdad, write off Iraq’s debts or stop militants entering the war-torn country.

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Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri criticized Muslims for failing to support Islamist insurgencies in Iraq and elsewhere in a new audiotape posted yesterday on the Internet.

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PERILOUS JOURNEY: An official could not confirm that everyone who died was Haitian, and doubted the ill-fated voyage was connected to food riots
Haitians fleeing their impoverished homeland met tragedy when their boat went down off the Bahamas, killing at least 20 people and leaving only three known survivors, including an alleged migrant smuggler, authorities said on Monday.

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Short-term exposure to smog, or ozone, is clearly linked to premature deaths that should be taken into account when measuring the health benefits of reducing air pollution, a National Academy of Sciences review said.

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Paraguayan president-elect Fernando Lugo, a leftist former bishop who ended Colorado Party’s 61 years in power, said in an interview that he dreams of a united Latin America in which his country plays an important role.

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■ SINGAPORE

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