North Korean border guards apparently detained an American missionary as soon as he walked into the communist nation in an effort to call attention to Pyongyang’s human rights abuses, an activist said today. Robert Park, 28, of Tucson, Ariz., slipped across the frozen Tumen River into the North from China on Christmas Day carrying a letter calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to shut down the country’s political prison camps. There has been no word from him since.
Thailand: Hmong asylum seekers sent back to Laos
Thailand sent army troops with shields and batons to evict some 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum seekers today and send them back to Laos despite strong objections from the U.S. and rights groups who fear they will face persecution. The Thai government claims most of the Hmong are economic migrants who entered the country illegally and have no claims to refugee status, and says it has assurances from Laos that the Hmong will be well-treated. Hmong tribe members fought during the Vietnam War era on the side of a pro-American government in Laos before it fell to the communists in 1975, and the Hmong claim they have been persecuted by the government ever since.
Pakistan: Bomber kills five at religious gathering
A suicide bomber targeted a large gathering of Shiite Muslims in the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Sunday, killing five people and wounding 80. The suicide bomber detonated his explosives as police tried to search him at a checkpoint outside a commemoration of the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson.
New Zealand: 125 pilot whales die, 43 saved
About 125 pilot whales died in New Zealand after stranding on Colville Beach over the weekend, but vacationers and conservation workers Sunday managed to coax 43 others back out to sea. A Conservation Department ranger said some of the whales may have been sick, or their sonar may have led them into the shallow harbor and they couldn’t find their way out again.
Vatican: After attack, Pope back among the faithful
Pope Benedict XVI waded into a crowd of well-wishers in Rome on Sunday, just days after he was knocked down by a woman at a Christmas Eve Mass. It the 82-year-old pontiff’s first appearance outside the Vatican since the attack, which left him unhurt but raised security concerns. Security was tight but Benedict greeted well-wishers as usual. He kissed some children and caressed the hands of others as he entered a soup kitchen operated by the Sant’Egidio Community, a lay Catholic group based in Rome, a few miles from the Vatican. At the Mass, a woman jumped a barricade in St. Peter’s Basilica and pulled the pope to the ground as she was taken down by guards. It was the second time the same woman had jumped the barrier at a Christmas Eve Mass. In 2008, she failed to get to the pope.
Tugboat that hit reef towed into Alaska port
A crippled tugboat that spilled fuel into Alaska’s Prince William Sound after hitting the same reef that caused the Exxon Valdez oil disaster 20 years ago reached port early Sunday morning, a spokesman for the tug’s owner said. The Pathfinder arrived under tow into Valdez, and crews will now work to determine how much diesel fuel spilled into the bay after the tug ran aground on Wednesday. The Coast Guard said two of the tug’s tanks — containing an estimated 33,500 gallons of diesel fuel — were damaged. Officials said no animals were injured and the fuel didn’t reach land.
From Herald news services
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