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YANGON: Over 300 monks marched on Tuesday
peacefully in Yangon, chanting Buddhist prayers in protest at
Myanmar’s military regime, in a major sign of defiance against the
junta. The monks tried to march to the famous Shwedagon Pagoda, but
authorities sealed off all the entrances to Myanmar’s most
important landmark. Pro-government militia stood guard around the
pagoda, but the monks continued to march through the city and
appeared headed toward downtown Yangon. The march by the monks was
one of the biggest in Yangon since antigovernment protests broke out
on August 19 in anger at an enormous hike in fuel prices.
--AFP
PHNOM PENH: An Austrian
man has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing three
Cambodian teenage boys, court officials said Tuesday. Olaf
Achleitner, reported in local media as being aged 64, faces up to 20
years in prison if convicted, deputy court prosecutor Sok Karyal
told AFP. Achleitner, who was arrested in Cambodia for sex crimes in
2002 but released because of lack of evidence, was detained Friday
after relatives of the three boys filed complaints with the police,
Sok Karyal said. Court officials did not give any details, but they
said Achleitner has been charged with debauchery, a Cambodian legal
term covering a range of sex crimes.
--AFP
TEHRAN: President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran does “not take seriously”
a warning from the French foreign minister that the world should
brace for war over its nuclear program. “We do not take these
declarations seriously. Comments to the media are different to the
real positions,” Ahmadinejad told reporters after a speech to
parliament. The remarks were Ahmadinejad’s first public reaction
to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s warning on Sunday
that the world should brace for war against Tehran.
--AFP
GHAZNI, Afghanistan:
International and Afghan forces killed a dozen Taliban overnight
including a commander involved in the July kidnapping of 23 South
Koreans, a provincial police chief said Tuesday. The US-led
coalition confirmed the operation in the central province of Ghazni
had killed “several” militants but did not say if the commander,
Abdullah Jan, was among the dead. The interior ministry in Kabul
could also not immediately confirm Abdullah Jan was dead. The
commander regularly spoke to the media during the kidnapping saga in
which two of the hostages were killed before the remainder was freed
last month. International warplanes bombed a house in Ghazni’s
Giro district in the raid that killed the 12, including Abdullah
Jan, provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai told AFP.
--AFP
BEIJING: China’s
government vowed Tuesday to continue to crack down on shoddy and
fake food products, but a top official cautioned the task was far
from easy and problems remained unsolved. We have “undertaken the
heavy task of inspecting product quality and food safety, this task
is arduous and the responsibility huge,” said Zhou Bohua, the
director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Zhou
was speaking a month after China kicked off a campaign to restore
confidence in consumer products at home and abroad, following a
spate of safety scandals involving goods ranging from toys and tires
to seafood and toothpaste. The four-month campaign aims to
strengthen inspection and monitoring efforts, and tighten production
licensing and labeling requirements in order to overhaul the quality
and safety of Chinese products, he said.
--AFP
BAGHDAD: US security firm
Blackwater could be tried in an Iraqi court over a shootout in a
Baghdad neighborhood, which killed eight people, a top judge told
AFP on Tuesday. “This company is subject to Iraqi law and the
crime committed was on Iraqi territory and the Iraqi judiciary is
responsible for tackling the case,” said Abdul Sattar Ghafour
Bairaqdar from Iraq’s Supreme Judiciary Council, the country’s
highest court. On Monday, Iraq’s interior ministry ordered the
cancelation of Blackwater’s operating license after the
company’s guards who were escorting US officials were involved in
a shootout, which killed eight people and wounded 13. The judge said
the case against Blackwater could be filed either by the relatives
of the victims or by the government.
--AFP
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