■Myanmar
Suu Kyi in good health
Red Cross officials, allowed for the first time to meet detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said yesterday she was in good health and high spirits after two months in government custody. The visit came as the US slapped tough new sanctions on the impoverished Southeast Asian country, a move military-ruled Myanmar and some of its neighbors said would only hurt the country's poor.
■ Indonesia
Aceh rebels go on trial
Three former Aceh rebel peace negotiators went on trial yesterday in the Indonesian province and could face the death penalty if found guilty of terrorism. Another two former negotiators for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are to be tried tomorrow. Police have said all five may face a death sentence if convicted. The five were arrested hours after last-ditch peace talks in Tokyo broke down and just before Indonesian troops on May 19 launched a huge operation to crush GAM. Teuku Kamaruzzaman, 42, was the first of the three to go on trial yesterday.
■ China
Factory blast kills 29
A blast ripped through a fireworks factory in northern China, killing 29 people and injuring at least 141, state media said yesterday. The explosion occurred Monday at the Guoxi fireworks factory in the town of Wangkou in Hebei Province, China Central Television reported. It wasn't immediately clear how many workers were in the factory. "I thought it was an earthquake. I was really scared. My sister and I just ran out of the house," Qian Yun, a 19-year-old living about 5km away from the factory, said by telephone. The injured were hospitalized and 50 people with minor injuries were released, CCTV said.
■ New Zealand
Chinese student set for jail
A 19-year-old student from China who killed a little girl when he lost control of his speeding car must go to jail, the New Zealand Parole Board ruled yesterday, rejecting his bid to serve a one-year sentence under home detention. Ding Yanzhao was originally jailed for two years for dangerous driving causing the four-year-old's death, but the sentence was halved on appeal after the court took into account his parents' offer of a NZ$40,000 (US$23,200) gift to the girl's family. But they declined the money which then went to the kindergarten attended by Georgina McCarten-Graham, who died when the sports car Zhao was driving at 110kph in a 50kph zone crashed into a service station, where her father was checking the tire pressures on his vehicle. Zhao did not have a New Zealand or Chinese driver's license and had bought the car with money his parents had given him for English-language classes.
■ Thailand
Boy kills friend over smoke
A 15-year-old Thai boy stabbed his friend to death after asking him for a cigarette and getting turned down, a news report said yesterday. The killing happened Monday afternoon at a food shop in Phra Prom district of Nakhon Si Thammarat, 560km south of Bangkok, where four teenagers were drinking liquor. According to the Bangkok Post, the 15-year-old, whose name was withheld because he is a minor, asked Apichart Phetmalai, 19, for a smoke. Apichart told him no because he had only one cigarette left in his pack, triggering an argument during which Apichart was stabbed three times. Police were searching for the young murder suspect, who fled the scene.
■United States
Arnold reluctant to run
Arnold Schwarzenegger is "leaning strongly against" entering the race for governor of California and will announce his decision by the end of the week, a senior adviser said on Monday. Schwarzenegger, star of the hit Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, is the most prominent possible Republican candidate to replace Governor Gray Davis if Davis, a Democrat, is recalled in the statewide special vote on Oct. 7. The deadline for candidates to file to appear on the ballot is Aug. 9. The actor met with his political advisers on Monday morning and told them that he was concerned about the effect the race would have on his school-age children, one adviser said.
■ Italy
Minister tries to block probe
Italy's center-left opposition on Monday formally sought a no-confidence vote against Justice Minister Roberto Castelli for trying to block a probe by prosecutors into Premier Silvio Berlusconi's media empire. Castelli's attempt to thwart the prosecutors by citing a new immunity law that has already benefited the premier in his legal woes has badly split the governing, center-right coalition as well as caused an uproar in the opposition. A Christian Democrat party in the coalition has threatened to quit the government if Castelli doesn't let the probe go forward.
■ Brazil
Squatters square off with VW
Thousands of squatters occupying land owned by Volkswagen won a temporary reprieve when a judge suspended their eviction order, according to a lawyer for the squatters. The court's decision Monday came just hours after police threatened to enforce the order and remove the squatters from the shantytown they built. The estimated 4,000 squatters took over the land 10 days ago, seeking title to the area. Negotiations Monday failed to resolve the dispute. A lawyer for the squatters said the group wants to buy the 22-hectare lot.
■ Italy
Senior suspected in robbery
A man was confined by judicial order to his house in the town of Borgo Ticino in north western Italy Monday, suspected of being the getaway driver for a bank robbery. Nothing unusual about that, except for the fact that the suspect -- identified only as Antonio S -- is 77 years old. He is accused of having led Carabinieri patrols on a high-speed car chase through the winding lanes of Piedmont. Last Thursday two men brandishing pistols burst into a bank in the village of Marano Ticino, ordered the staff to hand over euros 15,000 euros and made off with a screech of tires. Carabinieri from the nearby town Novara were called in to intercept the speeding getaway vehicle, but all they found was a car in a lay-by with an elderly driver.
■ France
Loitering law draws protests
The first convictions under a draconian new French law that makes hanging around in the hallway of an apartment block a crime punishable by prison has drawn an angry response from social workers and human rights groups. Two teenagers from the industrial town of Roubaix in northern France were each sentenced to a month in jail on Friday for "illicit occupation of the communal areas of a collective building." At the youths' trial the prosecutor demanded a suspended sentence and community service, but the magistrate said he wanted "to set an example."
Agencies
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
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