World Briefs

CAMBODIA  One of four refugees resettled in Cambodia just three months ago in a multimillion-dollar deal that saw them sent from an Australian-run detention camp on the Pacific island nation of Nauru has decided he wants to go home, an official said yesterday. The man, an ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar, said he wanted to give up his refugee status and return to his homeland, according to Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak.

TIBET is “now in its golden age,” according to a Chinese government paper released ahead of the 50th anniversary of the autonomous region’s foundation. Tibetan people fulfill the right to participate equally in the management of state affairs, China’s State Council Information Office said in an eight-chapter white paper released by the official Xinhua News Agency yesterday.

USA An annual freshman pillow fight at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point turned bloody this year when cadets swung pillowcases packed with hard objects, injuring 30 cadets, according to a newspaper report Saturday.

Gay Marriage KentuckyUSA The Kentucky clerk who refuses to give marriage licenses to gay couples is spending her Labor Day holiday in isolation at a jail with her Bible. Around 300 of her supporters rallied Saturday, chanting outside the jail house, “Thank you, Kim” and praying that she could hear them. They called her a Christian hero in a war against the godless and waved signs that read “no to sodomite perversion.”

SPAIN Police say two people are in serious condition in the hospital and 11 others are receiving treatment after a race car lost control during a rally in northwestern Spain and crashed into onlookers. Six people were killed in Saturday’s accident. A police spokeswoman said four of the dead were female, including a pregnant woman and a 13-year-old.

SYRIA Anti-government violence erupts in a southern Syrian province, and unconfirmed reports suggesting that Russia was planning to expand its military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad prompt a warning from the U.S. that such actions could lead to a confrontation with coalition forces.

GUATEMALA The wave of political turmoil that toppled Guatemala’s president overshadows yesterday’s vote to elect a new leader — an election many fear could put a lid on the anti-corruption drive. President Otto Perez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti were forced to resign. Both are currently in custody, accused of being involved in a customs kickback scheme.

ARGENTINA An Argentine man kept his troubled wife and autistic son in a filthy cage by day for at least two years, a prosecutor said Saturday. Prosecutor Alejandro Pellegrini said police found the dirt-floor cell at the house of 66-year-old Eduardo Oviedo in the city of Mar del Plata, acting on a complaint by two of his other children. Pellegrini said Oviedo’s 61-year-old wife has psychiatric problems and the 32-year-old is autistic.

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