BRITAIN’S BURDEN: A parliamentary panel warned Monday that Britain’s military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are likely to cost $6.7 billion this budget year, almost double the last, despite a drawdown in Iraq.
MEXICO TRAGEDY: A sports utility vehicle fell into a canal in the central Mexican town of Cardenas on Monday, killing nine small children but leaving their teacher unhurt, an official said.
CHINA’S BABIES: China’s top population official said the country’s one-child-per-couple policy won’t change for at least another decade, refuting speculation.
SRI LANKA VOTE: A pro-government militia composed of former Tamil Tiger rebels won a local election in Batticola, a turbulent eastern city in Sri Lanka, despite allegations that the Karuna Group used child soldiers and carried out killings, according to a state television report Tuesday.
ARGENTINA MONKEY: Thieves stole a baby titi monkey from a packed Argentine zoo by creating a distraction, grabbing the animal and fleeing over a fence, officials said.
PHILIPPINES TRIAL: A Manila court acquitted former First Lady Imelda Marcos of 32 counts of illegal money transfers, in one of a series of corruption trials she has been subject to over roughly two decades.
THAILAND INMATE: Victor Bout, the Russian arrested Thursday and accused of running guns to the Taliban, said he is innocent and wants to be freed from a Thai prison on bail, his lawyer said Monday.
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Page compiled from Tribune news services
