World briefs

  MALAYSIA revived detention without trial when lawmakers approved an anti-terror law Tuesday that the government said was needed to fight Islamic militants, but critics assailed as a giant step backward for human rights in the country.

PHILIPPINES Armed men have abducted the mayor of a southern Philippine town from her house and fled with her on motorboats, officials said yesterday.

KENYA He was a soccer player with a fighting spirit, a talented keyboard player with “golden fingers” who was intent on succeeding in life, his guardian (pictured) said. But Bryson Mwakuleghwa, a 21-year-old student at Garissa University College in Kenya, never had the chance to make his dreams happen.
IRAN Dozens of Iranian hard-liners rallied yesterday against the framework deal struck last week between Iran and six world powers on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program. The gathering of about 200 hard-liners took place in front of the parliament in the Iranian capital without permission by authorities, IRNA reported.

YEMEN Fighting intensifies in Yemen’s second largest city, Aden, leaving streets littered with dead bodies, as Shiite rebels and their allies wage their strongest push yet to seize the bastion of supporters of the country’s embattled president.

USA-IRAN Facing deep skepticism on multiple fronts, President Barack Obama ramps up lobbying for a framework nuclear deal with Iran, one of the toughest sells of his presidency.

CUBA-USA American hopes of opening an embassy in Havana before presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro meet at a regional summit this week have been snarled in disputes about Cuba’s presence on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror and U.S. diplomats’ ability to travel and talk to ordinary Cubans.

USA Sen. Rand Paul, a favorite of the ultraconservative tea party movement and frequent antagonist of Republican Party leaders, is ready to declare his candidacy for U.S. president. Paul, a first-term senator for Kentucky, is set to begin his White House campaign today, kicking off the presidential run with a rally in his home state.

USA A small study suggests that a brain-scanning technique might one day help identify people with a disease linked to concussions in football and other sports, an illness now diagnosed only after death.