■PHILIPPINES
Teens arrested in abduction
Two teenagers have been arrested for the kidnapping of a television crew in the south, the military said yesterday. The suspects, aged 14 and 18, were detained at a marine checkpoint on Jolo Island on Friday in connection with the abduction last month of Manila television presenter Cecilia Drilon, two crew members and a local guide. Military intelligence agents identified the teenagers as among the armed group that seized Drilon and her companions on Jolo on June 8, marine spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said. The hostages secretly filmed their captors during their nine-day ordeal, providing the authorities invaluable evidence, Arevalo added.
■BANGLADESH
Young man killed at border
A young man was gunned down by suspected Indian security forces near the border amid mounting tension along the common frontier of the two neighbors, local police said yesterday. Omar Shareef, chief of Benapole police station in the northwest, claimed the body also bore marks of multiple wounds. With the latest casualty, the number of people killed since Friday in border violence rose to seven. Officials said the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has taken up an aggressive posture since the paramilitary outfit was ordered to shoot at sight any person near the frontier after sunset. At least 73 civilians were killed allegedly by BSF in the past six months, official records said.
■GUAM
B-52 crashes before show
A US B-52 bomber that was due to fly in a Liberation Day parade in the US territory of Guam yesterday crashed into the Pacific Ocean soon after take-off, news reports and officials said. At least six crew were missing, according to the Web site of Kuam News, a local station. The US Air force said in a statement it had no information on the status of the crew. It did not say how many people were on board the bomber or give a reason for the crash, which happened at 9:45am, 15 minutes before the parade was about to start.
■TURKEY
Hostages free in Afghanistan
Two Turkish engineers kidnapped last week in western Afghanistan have been set free and are returning home, a Turkish foreign ministry official said yesterday. “They are safe and now are flying to Turkey with a private aircraft,” said the foreign ministry official, who declined to be named. Unknown gunmen kidnapped the two Turkish nationals who were working on a construction project in western Afghanistan last Monday. The ministry official did not say whether a ransom was paid for the release of the men.
■NEPAL
Nepal chooses president
Lawmakers yesterday voted in the country’s first post-royal president, Ram Baran Yadav, rejecting a candidate backed by the Maoists, state television said. Nepal’s governing assembly began voting early Monday to elect the new republic’s first president since it abolished the centuries-old monarchy in May. Constituent Assembly members were choosing between two candidates — Ram Baran Yadav of the Nepali Congress party and independent politician Ramraja Singh — in Monday’s election. Yadav had the backing of his party, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) and Madhesi People’s Rights Forum — the second, third and fourth largest parties. He secured the most votes in initial voting on Saturday.
■NORWAY
Hookers to receive help
Foreign prostitutes working in the city of Bergen are to be offered language courses and information about their legal rights, reports said on Sunday. “With better knowledge of Norwegian it will be easier to cope in society and have a better life,” Red Cross official Lene Steimler said. More than half the prostitutes in the city come from outside Norway, many from eastern Europe and Nigeria. The courses are due to start in September. One of the aims is to increase the sex workers’ trust in the police and health services. Norway is also planning to introduce a bill making it illegal to pay for sex. It will apply inside the country and to Norwegian residents when they are outside Norway. A ban is likely to pass in parliament since it has the backing of the ruling coalition as well as the opposition Christian Democrats. Prostitutes who offer their services will not be punished.
■ISRAEL
Video leads to investigation
Video footage of an Israeli soldier firing what appears to be a rubber bullet at point-blank range at a bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainee has led to an army investigation. The incident occurred three weeks ago during protests in the village of Nilin against the construction of Israel’s barrier in the occupied West Bank. A video, taken by a villager and released on Sunday by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, showed a soldier firing his rifle toward a Palestinian detained at the protest. The rifle appeared to have been modified to fire rubber-coated metal bullets.The protester had been tied up and blindfolded and was standing only a few centimeters away. B’Tselem said the man sustained bruises. An army statement said a military doctor who examined him found he had been “very slightly wounded with swelling to a toe on his right foot.” “This was a serious incident in stark violation of the [military’s] rules of conduct and safety,” the army statement said. “The advocate-general ... ordered a military police investigation into the incident upon receiving the footage.” Israeli media reports said the soldier who fired the shot had been arrested.
■ISRAEL
Olmert case continues
Ehud Olmert’s defense lawyers have begun their fourth day of cross-examining a leading witness in a corruption case that threatens to bring down the Israeli prime minister. The 76-year-old American businessman at the center of the case has testified that he transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to Olmert. Morris Talansky said in testimony given in May that some of the money went to fund an extravagant lifestyle. Talansky has at times contradicted himself in his statements to police and during the cross-examination, which continued yesterday. Talansky’s lawyer says his failure to remember details about the dates and exact sums that he gave Olmert do not significantly weaken his allegations.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Benefits set for shake-up
The long-term unemployed could be forced to work for their benefit payments under plans for the biggest reform of the welfare system in 60 years, the government said yesterday. Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said he wanted to help those on state benefits to return to work rather than relying on long-term handouts. “The longer you claim, the more you’ll be expected to do,” he said. “After a year ... you’ll be required to do at least four weeks’ full-time work in return for your benefits.” Those unemployed for more than two years or who abuse the system will be made to work full-time, he said.
■CANADA
Funeral held for slain model
Family and friends have gathered on one of British Columbia’s famed Gulf Islands to remember a young model who was killed while on assignment in Shanghai earlier this month. The memorial for Diana O’Brien on Sunday was organized by the woman’s best friend and drew hundreds of locals to a Salt Spring Island golf club. They gathered to remember the 22-year-old who was killed when she tried to fight off a mugger who had followed her into her high-rise apartment in Shanghai. Media members were not permitted to attend the service at the request of her family.
■MEXICO
Dolly approaches
Tropical Storm Dolly approached the Yucatan Peninsula, an area popular with tourists, and was forecast to move into the southern Gulf of Mexico yesterday, the US National Hurricane Center said. Authorities in the state of Quintana Roo recommended evacuations of eco-tourist hotels in coastal areas outside the town of Cancun, the Universal newspaper reported, citing the government. State authorities in Quintana Roo issued a red alert for coastal areas as the storm approached, the newspaper said. Dolly was centered “very near” Cancun at 1am, the center said. The storm was moving northwest at 24kph.
■VENEZUELA
Chavez wants a hug
President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday he would like to hug Spanish King Juan Carlos when he visits Spain this week, as the two move beyond a spat last year when the monarch told the Venezuelan leader to “shut up.” Chavez said in his weekly radio talk show Alo Presidente that the visit with Juan Carlos came after an invitation extended by the king. “The king has invited us,” Chavez told his radio audience. Then, addressing his remarks to the monarch, Chavez said: “I’d like to give you a hug ... but Juan Carlos, you know I won’t shut up.”
■UNITED STATES
New law on underwear
Be careful if you have saggy pants in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood, Illinois. Village leaders have passed an ordinance that would levy US$25 fines against anyone showing three inches (7.62cm) or more of their underwear in public. Eugene Williams is the mayor of Lynwood. He says young men walk around town half-dressed, keeping major retailers and economic development away. The American Civil Liberties Union said the ordinance targets young men of color. Young adults in the village, like 21-year-old Joe Klomes, said the new law infringes on their personal style. He said leaders should instead spend money on making the area look nicer.
■UNITED STATES
Group shows its guns
Idaho members of a group that advocates for the right to openly carry handguns in public are turning heads by touring the Zoo Boise while packing guns on their hips. Ten members of OpenCarry.org were allowed into the zoo on Saturday after some initial confusion at the entrance about whether it was legal to bring an unconcealed handgun inside. Group member Carol Schultz of Nampa said: “Coming to the zoo was something we could do together, like any family would.” Schultz said she was never without her handgun that she keeps in a holster attached to a heart-studded belt.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
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