World, nation briefly: Border will be defended, Kurdish president warns

IRBIL, Iraq — The most senior leader in Iraq’s Kurdish region appeared to raise the stakes in the standoff over northern Iraq on Friday, warning Turkey that the region would defend itself against any cross-border military strike on rebel bases. The tough line taken by the Kurdish region’s president, Massoud Barzani, further stoked worries that a Turkish incursion could ignite a wider cycle of conflict and unrest in one of the few stable corners of Iraq. Turkey’s parliament on Wednesday gave the government a one-year window in which to launch cross-border offensives against Turkish Kurd rebel strongholds in Iraq.

Philippines: Terror blast in mall

A blast in a busy, upscale Manila shopping center killed at least eight people and wounded more than 100 on Friday in what the country’s national security chief said was a militant bomb attack. “This is definitely an act of terrorism, although we have not yet pinpointed what group is responsible for it,” the national security adviser said. Muslim insurgents in the southern Philippines frequently bomb civilian targets, but such attacks are rare in Manila.

Mexico: 24 migrants die at sea

The bodies of two dozen people washed ashore Friday in southern Mexico after emergency officials received reports that a boat carrying Central American migrants capsized in the Pacific Ocean, a state official said. Mexican authorities were searching the waters for more bodies around the coastal town of San Francisco del Mar, 200 miles up the coast from the Guatemalan border. An official in San Francisco del Mar’s municipal government office said the victims were traveling in a small boat that capsized because there were too many passengers aboard.

Japan: Marines suspected in rape

Japanese authorities are investigating the alleged rape of a teenager by four U.S. Marines in southwestern Japan last weekend, officials said Friday. The 19-year-old woman allegedly met the men, believed to be Marines from the nearby Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, at a restaurant or bar in Hiroshima early Saturday, media reports said. The men allegedly took the woman outside to a car and drove her to a parking lot about a mile away where they raped her, according to the reports.

India: Five rare lions found dead

Five rare Asiatic lions were found electrocuted Friday on the edge of western India’s Gir National Park, authorities reported. Gujarat state’s chief wildlife warden said the lions were killed by an electrified fence that he alleged was put up illegally by a farmer to protect crops near the sanctuary. “The carcasses bore the marks of electrocution,” he said. He said police had arrested the farmer, who faces seven years in prison if convicted of building an unauthorized fence that killed animals.

D.C.: New Myanmar sanctions

For the second time in two months, President Bush announced sanctions against Myanmar to punish the military-run government and its backers for the recent violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Bush ordered the Treasury Department Friday to freeze the financial assets of additional members of the repressive military junta. He also acted to tighten controls on U.S. exports to Myanmar, also known as Burma, and called on the governments of China and India to do more to pressure the government of the Southeast Asian nation.

Maryland: Assault at Annapolis

The Navy is investigating an allegation of sexual assault involving two midshipmen last weekend in the Annapolis campus dormitory, a spokeswoman said Friday. No charges have been filed in the alleged assault, the latest of several sexual misconduct reports at the military college that have surfaced in the past year. The spokeswoman would not release the names of the midshipmen or their status at the academy but said, “measures (have been) taken to prevent both parties in this case from coming into contact.”

California: Crash victims can sue

Victims of a 2003 crash in which an elderly driver plowed into a crowded farmers market can sue the city of Santa Monica for failing to protect them, a state appeals court ruled. The ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeals reinstated allegations that the city failed to adequately shield shoppers from George Russell Weller, who was 86 years old when he crashed his car through barricades and into the open-air market. The July 16, 2003, crash killed 10 people and injured more than 70.

Texas: Microwave-burning plea

A man accused of putting his 2-month-old daughter in a microwave, causing burns to her face and hand, was insane at the time, his lawyer said Friday. “This kid has voices talking to him, all kinds of other issues,” said the attorney, who filed notice Wednesday in state district court in Galveston of the intent to plead insanity in the case. Joshua Maldin, 19, of Arkansas is accused of putting his infant daughter in a microwave for 10 to 20 seconds. The child suffered third-degree burns to the left side of her face and left hand.

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