■ INDONESIA
Air force jet crashes
An air force jet crashed into a sugar cane plantation soon after takeoff yesterday, killing one of two people on board, a military spokesman and witnesses said. The second pilot in the OV-10 Bronco counterinsurgency aircraft managed to eject from the plane before it crashed and was unhurt, Rear Marshal Daryatmo said. The plane was on a routine training flight when it came down close to the Abdul Rahman Saleh airforce base in East Java Province, Daryatmo said. The cause of the crash was being investigated, he said. Malang is 850km east of Jakarta.
■ VIETNAM
Assembly chief re-elected
The National Assembly voted overwhelmingly yesterday in favor of maintaining its current chairman, a widely expected decision because he was the only candidate. Nguyen Phu Trong, 63, won nearly 98 percent of the votes from 493 new-elected legislators, state-run Radio Voice of Vietnam reported. Trong, a former Communist Party secretary in Hanoi was elected to his current position in a reshuffle last year. The assembly was scheduled to elect a new president today while a new prime minister and his Cabinet were to be appointed tomorrow. President Nguyen Minh Triet, 64, and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, 57, were widely expected to be reappointed.
■ SRI LANKA
Five Tamil Tigers killed
At least five Tamil Tiger guerrillas were killed in fresh fighting with government troops in the northwest, the rebels said yesterday. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resisted an advance by government forces in Mannar District on Sunday evening, a rebel spokesman said in a statement. "Unable to face stiff retaliation of the LTTE defenders, the Sri Lanka armed forces formation fell back with heavy casualty and material loss," he said. "After chasing intruders away, the LTTE fighting units are consolidating the positions and searching the area. Five valiant front liners of the LTTE lost their lives in this clash." There was no immediate reaction from the military.
■ MALAYSIA
Vengeful wives seek lovers
Women whose husbands have cheated on them are increasingly opting to have affairs of their own, while suspicious husbands are calling for more genetic tests on newborns, the New Straits Times said yesterday. Marriage counsellors report a rise in the number of working women seeking professional help to sort out marriages troubled by affairs aimed at avenging themselves on cheating husbands or seeking solace from abusive spouses, the paper said.
■ FRANCE
Pilgrims die in bus crash
Twenty-six Polish pilgrims were killed on Sunday when their bus careened off a steep mountain road in the French Alps, smashed into a river bank below and burst into flames, officials said. Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, visited the injured in Grenoble, including 14 who were seriously hurt. The crash occurred around 9:30am as the pilgrims were returning to Grenoble from the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, officials said. Local residents said the bus was speeding and missed a sharp bend in the road. Polish officials said there were 50 people on the bus and that the group had left Poland on July 10 for a two-week visit to famous sanctuaries in France, Spain and Portugal.
■ BELGIUM
Politician fails holiday test
The man likely to be the next prime minister, Yves Leterme, cut a poor figure on national day on Saturday, when he could not say why it was being marked and fumbled over the national anthem. When asked by RTBF state TV what Belgians were celebrating, Leterme replied: "The proclamation of the constitution." The holiday commemorates the July 21, 1831 accession of King Leopold I to the throne. Leterme was asked to sing a few bars of the national anthem, La Brabanconne. "Les enfants de la patrie," he began, singing the opening line of the French anthem, the Marseillaise.
■ EGYPT
Moustaches fly in clan war
When an elderly man was kidnapped in a clan dispute, the Al-Arab family's worst fears were soon realized -- they received a package containing his moustache, local media reported on Sunday. The man himself was returned uninjured, but the use of the new shaving tactic sent shockwaves through the town of Mahrusa, near Luxor, where a man's honor is measured by the size of his moustache, the Al-Gomhuria daily said. The conflict that started with a coffee shop brawl swiftly spiraled out of control, with the Al-Arab carrying out a humiliating reprisal shave on a leading member of the Fallaheen family, followed by battles with sticks and clubs.
■ EGYPT
Bird flu case confirmed
A 25-year-old woman has contracted bird flu, bringing to 38 the number of those afflicted with the H5N1 strain of the disease, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday. The woman was admitted in a government hospital on Saturday and has since been transferred to a hospital in Cairo where she was in stable condition, the ministry said. She contracted the virus after coming into contact with dead chicken in the Mediterranean province of Damietta, about 175km northeast of Cairo. Fifteen of the 38 people infected with H5N1 in Egypt have died.
■ SPAIN
Media baron dies
Jesus de Polanco, a billionaire media baron viewed by many people as crucial to restoring the free press during the country's transition to democracy in the 1970s, died on Saturday. He was 77. De Polanco cofounded El Pais, the best-selling newspaper in the country, in 1976 as Spain emerged from the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. His funeral on Sunday was attended by prominent cultural figures and senior politicians , including former prime minister Felipe Gonzalez .
■ IRAQ
US, Iran to talk security
The US embassy in Baghdad yesterday confirmed its head of the mission will hold direct talks with his Iranian counterpart in the Iraqi capital this week over the security situation in war-torn Iraq. "Yes, I can confirm that Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker will participate in the trilateral talks, including his Iranian counterpart and hosted by the Iraqi ministry of foreign affairs," embassy spokesman Philip Reeker said. The talks are scheduled for today. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Sunday the envoys of the US and Iran were set to meet in Baghdad to hold a second round of talks on the security situation in Iraq.
■ NICARAGUA
US accused of subversion
President Daniel Ortega has accused the US embassy of meeting with opposition groups in secret, manipulating the media and paying people to demonstrate, all to subvert his leftist Sandinista government. "We have information ... of meetings at the behest of US embassy officials. Obviously they are held in secret, in private, to provide guidance to these groups calling themselves the people's representatives," the Cold War foe of the US said in a speech late on Saturday. "They're paying people to go on marches, they pay for television ads and for entire pages in newspapers," Ortega said on the third day of his campaign against opposition lawmakers trying to join forces against the ruling FSLN.
■ UNITED STATES
Plane lands on highway
A World War II-era plane made an emergency landing on a highway. There was snarling traffic as authorities worked to remove it. No injuries were reported after the Warbird fighter plane landed on US Highway 41 near Fon du Lac County Airport in southeastern Wisconsin shortly before 8pm on Sunday, authorities said. "A person called and said that there was smoke as the plane came down," said Andy Dothone, a state patrol dispatcher. The highway was closed in both directions as authorities worked to move the plane from the highway. The Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper reported that a man and his son were flying the plane to an air show in Oshkosh.
■ UNITED STATES
Chihuahua saves toddler
Zoey is a Chihuahua, but when a rattlesnake lunged at her owners' one-year-old grandson, she was a real bulldog. Booker West was splashing his hands in a birdbath in his grandparents' Masonville, Colorado, back yard when the snake struck. Zoey, weighing 2km, jumped in the way and took the bites. The dog required treatment and for a time it appeared she might not survive. Now she prances about.
■ UNITED STATES
Hemingway double chosen
A white-bearded insurance agent from Florida won the Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest, a highlight of the annual festival honoring the famed writer. Larry Austin defeated 122 other contenders in the competition at Sloppy Joe's Bar, Hemingway's favorite watering hole when he lived in the Keys in the 1930s. The final round was held late on Saturday, which would have been Hemingway's 108th birthday. Austin, of Palm Harbor, said he shares Hemingway's fondness for Key West, cats and having a good time, though he has never attempted writing anything except insurance policies. "When they called my name, I was in shock," said Austin, a 10-year veteran contestant who said his favorite Hemingway novel is The Old Man and the Sea.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
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