■ Myanmar
Suu Kyi may be freed
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi may be freed from house arrest in a day or two, the chairman of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said yesterday. Speculation has been rife that the Nobel peace laureate would be freed after the military government allowed the NLD to reopen its Yangon headquarters on Saturday, nearly a year after it was shut and its leader Suu Kyi detained. Suu Kyi, 58, and her vice chairman, Tin Oo, are the last senior NLD leaders still confined since the May 30 clash, which critics blamed on the junta. Yangon denied orchestrating the violence. The military government has promised fresh constitutional talks next month as part of its "road map to democracy" announced last August.
■ North Korea
Praise for South's election
North Korea praised South Korean voters yesterday for handing a majority to a liberal party and for dealing a blow to opposition "flunkeyist traitors" in last week's parliamentary election. The liberal Uri Party, which backs impeached President Roh Moo-hyun, won a slender majority in last week's election, pushing the main conservative Grand National Party into second place in the unicameral National Assembly. North Korean media had urged South Koreans to vote against the Grand National Party, an anti-communist group that had imposed strict curbs on South Korean aid to the North. North Korean issues barely registered in the election.
■ China
Dumped man tries zooicide
A jilted husband tried to kill himself by throwing himself into the tiger enclosure at a zoo in central China, a news report said yesterday. The depressed man hoped to be eaten alive after climbing into the tiger enclosure in Wuhan Dongxihu Shengshan Happy World, according to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. Zookeepers managed to distract the tigers by throwing them chickens and then hauled the man, who became suicidal after his wife dumped him, to safety, the newspaper said.
■ Australia
Cops fired over prank
Two police officers who dressed up in Ku Klux Klan-style white hoods and drove their unmarked squad car past a traffic camera at more than twice the speed limit will be fired, their commander said yesterday. Western Australian Police Commissioner Barry Matthews has recommended the two officers, whose identities have not been released, be removed from the service over the August 2001, prank in Bunbury, south of the state capital Perth. "I accept it was done as a prank, and I accept there was no racist intention. There was no suggestion they were trying to masquerade as Ku Klux Klan," Matthews told local radio.
■ China
Naked sushi diner fined
A restaurant in southwestern China has been fined for offering to serve sushi on the bodies of naked women, a newspaper reported yesterday, after advertisements for the event sparked a rush of both indignation and curiosity. Health authorities in the city of Kunming, Yunnan Province, who early this month banned the dinner before it could take place, have now also fined the Yamato Wind Village restaurant 2,000 yuan (US$240), the Beijing Daily Messenger newspaper reported.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
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