NEW ZEALAND
Lawmakers approve gay-marriage bill
Hundreds of jubilant gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday as the country became the 13th in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. Lawmakers voted 77 to 44 in favor of the gay-marriage bill on its third and final reading. Since 2005, New Zealand has allowed civil unions, which confer many legal rights to gay couples. The new law will allow gay couples to jointly adopt children for the first time and will also allow their marriages to be recognized in other countries. The law will take effect in late August.
ISRAEL
Rockets fired at southern resort town
Militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula fired at least two rockets at Israel’s southern resort town of Eilat early Wednesday, officials said, highlighting what Israel says is a dire security situation across its border. Nobody was hurt in the attack, police said, although one rocket exploded near the courtyard of a house. A shadowy hard-line Muslim group, likely based in the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for the attack. A police spokesman said the remains of two Grad-style rockets were found, and bomb experts were looking for more.
PAKISTAN
Thousands homeless after earthquake
Thousands of people are homeless and desperate for aid in southwestern Pakistan following a deadly earthquake centered in neighboring Iran that toppled scores of mud brick homes and killed at least 36 people, officials said Wednesday. The Pakistani army has deployed several hundred soldiers to help the relief effort in Mashkel, the area of Baluchistan province hit hardest by Tuesday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake. At least 35 people were killed and 150 injured in Pakistan, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority. Iran’s main state TV channel said Wednesday that only one person was killed in Iran — a woman who was struck by falling rocks while she was collecting herbs — and that 12 people were injured.
IRAQ
21 men convicted of terrorism are executed
Iraq has executed 21 prisoners convicted on terrorism charges and links to al-Qaida, the Justice Ministry said Wednesday, setting off fresh criticism from a human rights expert over Baghdad’s insistence on enforcing capital punishment. The prisoners were executed by hanging, and all the convicts were Iraqi al-Qaida operatives who were involved in bombings, car bomb attacks and assassinations, the statement said. The hangings brought the number of prisoners executed in Iraq so far this year to 50, according to Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim. According to the London-based Amnesty International, Iraq ranked fourth among the top five executioners in the world in 2011, after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
POLAND
Show remembers Warsaw ghetto, its fighters
Israel’s ambassador to Poland opened a 3-D show of Warsaw ghetto photos Wednesday as part of observances marking the 70th anniversary of the ghetto’s ill-fated revolt against Nazi Germans. The 48 pictures shown at Warsaw’s Fotoplastikon are images of people walking or begging in the streets, street vendors, German troops, and the Jewish cemetery. On April 19, 1943, a few hundred poorly armed Jews put up resistance to the German forces, who were sending ghetto residents to death camps. The revolt was crushed in May, and the ghetto was razed to the ground, its residents killed.
ANTARTICA
97 saved from Chinese ship afire off coast
A Chinese factory fishing ship caught fire Wednesday just off the coast of Antarctica, and 97 crew members were rescued by a nearby Norwegian vessel as Chile’s military mobilized to prevent any environmental damage. The crew members abandoned the burning Kai Xin and were taken aboard the Juvel about 34 miles from Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins research base near the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, Chilean officials said. The ship was not immediately at risk of sinking, and nearby vessels could tow it away from the Antarctic coast if necessary, officials said.
INDONESIA
Zoo’s Sumatran tiger might have to be euthanized
An emaciated female Sumatran tiger was in critical condition at Indonesia’s largest zoo Wednesday and might have to be put down. Another rare tiger died at the problem-plagued facility earlier this month. Melani was born at the Surabaya Zoo 15 years ago and has been suffering from an undiagnosed digestive disorder for the past five years. Her weight has dropped to less than 132 pounds. Her eyes look sunken and bones can be seen beneath her skin. Melani is one of 10 Sumatran tigers — the world’s most critically endangered tiger subspecies — left in the zoo following the death two weeks ago of Rozek, a 13-year-old male. He suffered similar gastrointestinal problems for four years.
About the Author
