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LOS ANGELES: Robin Williams’ Filipina wife has filed for
divorce from the Oscar-winning actor after a 19-year marriage, a
spokeswoman for the actor confirmed on Wednesday. Marsha Garces-Williams,
a member of the prominent Philippine showbiz family of Salvador,
filed for divorce petition at a court in San Francisco on March 21
citing irreconcilable differences, reports said. Williams’
representative, Mara Buxbaum, confirmed the divorce in an e-mail to
Agence France-Presse. Garces, 51, and Williams, 56, married in 1989,
shortly after the actor’s divorce from his previous wife. The
couple has two children, an 18-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old
son.
-- AFP
WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential hopeful
Barack Obama appeared to have escaped unscathed from controversy
over his outspoken pastor as Hillary Clinton’s popularity has
plunged to a seven-year low, a poll revealed Wednesday. According to
the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Obama saw no significant change
among respondents in his positive rating, which was down only
slightly to 49 percent from 51 percent two weeks ago. On the other
hand, Clinton received a 37-percent positive rating among the sample
of registered voters—her lowest rating since March 2001, two
months after she first took office as New York senator.
-- AFP
BANGKOK: Gay activists in Thailand said Thursday
they are joining with worried parents to urge doctors to stop
castrating minors who want to take the first step toward a sex
change. Leading gay activist Nathee Teerarojanapong said underage
boys who hope eventually to have sex-change operations are
increasingly seeking castrations as a first step toward becoming
women. The boys believe that in doing so their bodies will not
develop masculine features so their appearance will be more feminine
when they save enough money for the complete gender reassignment
surgery.
-- AFP
NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar’s junta chief Than Shwe
said Thursday that civilians would take the reins of government
after elections in 2010, once a constitution is approved giving
broad powers to the military. But he did not say when the public
would be allowed to see the final version of the proposed
constitution, nor did he announce an exact date for a planned
referendum to approve it. The 74-year-old general insisted on the
junta’s “ultimate aim to hand over the state power to the
people.”
-- AFP
BAGHDAD: Followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
staged noisy protests on Thursday against a crackdown on Shiite
fighters in Basra, as the southern oil hub was rocked by a third
straight day of fighting. Demonstrations were held in Sadr City and
Kadhimiyah, two Baghdad bastions of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia,
even as preliminary contacts were held between the government and
Sadrist officials in a bid to resolve the crisis.
-- AFP
SOFIA: The Bulgarian government decided to send
six servicemen from the Bulgarian Armed Forces with their personal
weapons and equipment to participate in the operation of NATO’s
Kosovo Force (KFOR), the government Information Service announced
Wednesday. The Bulgarian troops will join the newly established
Military-Civil Cooperation unit at the KFOR Headquarters. Its tasks
include providing consultations and support for the local security
forces, as well as controlling over the disbandment of the Kosovo
Protection Corps.
-- Xinhua
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