■South Korea
Swiss official crosses DMZ
Switzerland's foreign minister traveled across the world's most heavily fortified border yesterday, crossing from North Korea into South Korea, in what she called a symbolic act showing that divisions can be overcome. Micheline Calmy-Rey became the first foreign government minister to travel from North Korea to South Korea through the border village of Panmunjom. Panmunjom is located inside the 4km wide Demilitarized Zone, a buffer separating the two Koreas. "My crossing is a symbolic act," Calmy-Rey said after arriving in South Korea. "It demonstrates the possibility to overcome lines and borders which are symbols of separation and confrontation," she said.
■ Sri Lanka
Authorities fight floods
Sri Lanka fought yesterday to feed and clothe more than 200,000 survivors of the worst floods and landslides to hit the island in half a century as the death toll rose to 237, officials said. Estimates of those missing rose above 200 as relief agencies assessed damage to homes, farms and livestock. People living in low-lying areas were warned about the possibility of more floods and earthslips three days after the south of island was battered by torrential rain.
■ Thailand
Policeman shot dead
A police officer was gunned down in southern Thailand yesterday in the latest of several violent incidents involving police and the military in the region, police said. Sergeant Major Aware Leeming, 42, was pronounced dead at Bacho district's hospital in Narathiwat province after he was shot four times by assailants who trailed him as he rode his motorcycle from home to work, they said. National Police Chief General Sant Sarutanond told reporters it was the work of extortionists. Interior Minister Wan Mohamed Noor Matha said that the murder of another policeman earlier in the week may have been part of an ongoing campaign by criminals to procure arms.
■ Indonesia
Minister condemns riots
Indonesia's manpower minister has described as "shameful" a weekend clash between Indonesian workers in Malaysia which left one person dead, a report said yesterday. "We are very concerned about the incident. It's a very shameful act as it involves our workers who are making money in another country," Jacob Nuwa Wea was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post. "More of these incidents would likely prompt the Malaysian government not to accept Indonesian workers to work in that country," he said.
■ The Philippines
Rebels reject Bush plan
Muslim separatist rebels yesterday welcomed US President George W. Bush's offer of financial and political assistance to end their decades-old insurgency, but said they have no choice but to fight a continuing Philippine military offensive. Bush told Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, during a White House reception Monday to honor a long-standing ally in the war on terror, that Washington wanted to back a renewed peace process between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said the rebels agreed with Bush about renouncing the use of terror and force. He said the MILF has pursued peace with the government and has come up with several agreements, but that the process was derailed by a major military offensive in February that drove the rebels from a key camp on the main southern island of Mindanao.
■North Pole
Man fulfills undertaking
A British explorer has become the first person to trek solo and unsupported from northern Canada to the geographic North Pole -- the northernmost point on the earth's surface -- a London newspaper reported yesterday. "Erm ... I've done it," Pen Hadow, 41, was reported as telling The Times of London. "The overwhelming immediate feeling is of utter relief. But I am exhausted. Exhausted," he said. Hadow reached the North Pole on Mondaya day ahead of his target of 65 days, according to The Times. "I gave my father an undertaking shortly after he died in 1993 to make it to the North Pole solo and with no resupply, and to have completed that -- after my third attempt -- is everything to me," the paper reported.
■ Ivory Coast
Fighting triggers exodus
Refugees, many paddling dugout canoes, were streaming from Liberia into Ivory Coast, part of a massive 10,000-person exodus in 48 hours to escape fighting in a major new rebel push there, the UN refugee agency said. The flight started when the coastal Liberian town of Harper fell to rebels over the weekend, the UN refugee agency said Monday. "We don't know if this is a few days' panic or something that will last and increase. But for now, it's sure chaos," refugee agency spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said in Abidjan, commercial capital of neighboring Ivory Coast.
■ Ireland
PM opposes alcohol abuse
Alarmed that Ireland has become one of the hardest-drinking countries in Europe, the government announced Monday it plans to require health warnings on alcoholic drinks and limit booze advertisements that invade every corner of Irish life. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern insisted, in a speech to European brewers in Dublin, that young people shouldn't be exposed to saturation marketing of alcohol, which he said was fueling a "drink to get drunk" culture.
■ United States
Chimp hypothesis touted
Chimpanzees are more closely related to people than to gorillas or other monkeys and probably should be included in the human branch of the family tree, a research team says. The idea, sure to spark renewed debate about evolution and the relationship between humans and animals, comes from a team led by Morris Goodman at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. Currently, humans are alone in the genus Homo. But Goodman says humans and chimps share 99.4 percent of their DNA.
■ Uganda
AIDS resistance found
Scientists believe an AIDS vaccine might be a step closer after studying a response to the HIV virus in individuals in Uganda who appear immune to infection. Over two dozen people near Lake Victoria have been found to remain uninfected even though they have unprotected sex with HIV-positive partners. Some of the resistant individuals had a lower measured immune response than infected partners but their immune systems attacked the virus more effectively, keeping them HIV negative. The finding suggests that what matters is quality, not quantity, of immune response. Similarly, Lancet last Thursday released a report saying researchers found that some die from SARS because the body's defenses react overly aggressively to the SARS infection.
Agencies
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
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