By Susan Spano Los Angeles Times APT, France ~ Some people say it served Peter Mayle right when a fan tracked him down in Provence and walked into his sitting room uninvited. The English writer’s books – A Year in Provence (1991), Toujours Provence (1992), Encore Provence (2000) and Provence A-Z (2006) – turned the [...]

SANTIAGO ~ A protest by Easter Island locals against excessive hordes of tourists and residence-seekers eased this week when officials negotiated the reopening of the Pacific Island’s only airport after two days of disturbances. “The airport is fully operational,” a senior interior ministry official, Patricio Rosende, told reporters in the Chilean capital Santiago on Monday. [...]

VATICAN CITY ~ The Vatican Museums, whose treasures include Michelangelo’s prized frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, will stay open late on Fridays in September and October, arts chiefs said. The collections will be on view from 7 to 11pm by reservation only at the Vatican website, http://mv.vatican.va. Since the circuit through the vast collections takes [...]

BEIJING ~ A total of 1.2 million tourists visited Tibet last month – a record for July – state media said, as travellers returned to the Himalayan region 17 months after deadly unrest there. The domestic and foreign tourists generated revenue of 1.1 billion yuan (US$160 million) in the month, nearly double the amount for [...]

By J. Peter Scoblic Last week, peace activists around the world commemorated the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, arguing that nuclear weapons should be abolished so that such destruction will never be repeated. Their call for peace through disarmament has traditionally been a rallying cry of the left. In fact, the [...]

By Thant Myint-U Twenty years of sanctioning and lecturing Burma’s military regime have failed. The West needs to engage with Burma’s leaders, increase humanitarian aid and reopen commercial relations with the country. If it doesn’t, not only will positive change remain as elusive as ever, but the country will turn quickly and irreparably into an [...]

By Rachel Dry The universe of notoriety is bigger than it was in 1968 when Andy Warhol proclaimed, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Today, though, 15 minutes no longer feels temporary. On the internet, 15 minutes is a long time. Too long to watch a video of a guy dressed [...]

JAKARTA ~ The son of late president Suharto has launched a bid to become president despite a “track record on legal matters” that includes a murder conviction, an aide said this week. Hutomo Mandala Putra, popularly known as Tommy Suharto, has thrown his hat into the ring to become next leader of the Golkar party, [...]

JAKARTA ~ Twenty-five people were killed when a truck packed with plantation workers and their families overturned in Kalimantan, police said. The truck was carrying about 60 people when it flipped after swerving to avoid a damaged stretch of road near Sampit, Central Kalimantan province, on Tuesday night, traffic police official Anwar said on Wednesday. [...]

KUALA LUMPUR ~ Malaysian police arrested more than 100 Indonesians who were trying to return to their country illegally via the Malacca Strait, a senior police official said. State marine police chief Marzuki Ismail said the group was caught hiding in a mangrove swamp off Port Klang, west of the capital Kuala Lumpur. The 102 [...]

JAKARTA ~ Almost 2,500 scuba divers set a new world record this week for the largest mass dive, Guinness World Records said. A total of 2,486 divers were involved in the bid off the coast of North Sulawesi, Guinness adjudicator Lucia Sinigagliesi said. “This event was amazing and well-organised and made possible because of the [...]

JAKARTA ~ Seven people were injured after a 6.9-magnitude quake struck western Sumatra on Sunday, an official said. The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 2:38pm, was located 43 kilometres southeast of Siberut island off western Sumatra. It was measured at a depth of 32 kilometres. West Sumatra provincial health crisis centre chief Jasmarizal [...]