South Korea
North Korea cancels talks
North Korea has abruptly called off Cabinet-level talks with South Korea that were scheduled to begin today, the South Korean government said.
North Korean chief delegate Jon Kum Jin did not give a reason for the cancellation of the talks in a telephone message that was relayed to his South Korean counterpart, Unification Minister Park Jae-kyu.
"Considering various circumstances, today's meeting cannot be held," the South Korean ministry quoted Jon as saying hours before the talks were to start. He did not elaborate.
Park expressed strong regret and urged that the meeting be held as soon as possible, according to a ministry statement.
Netherlands
Anne Frank diary has new entries
A new edition of Anne Frank's diary was released Monday with five previously secret pages that described her parents' loveless marriage and her troubled relationship with her mother.
The handwritten pages, kept hidden for more than 40 years, deepened the poignant image of Anne struggling with the normal teen-age growing pains while confined in a tiny attic in Amsterdam for two years with her family to evade the Nazis.
Anne portrays her mother, Edith, as having "cold eyes," and agonizes that she cannot talk to her perhaps one reason why she confided her thoughts and emotions to her diary. She laments that her parents are not in love, that their marriage, which seemed so perfect to others, was nothing more than a union of convenience.
Anne began scrawling her diary on June 12, 1942, in a small album of the sort meant to collect autographs she had received that day for her 13th birthday. Her last entry was Aug. 1, 1944, three days before she was arrested.
She and her sister, Margot, died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the spring of 1945.
Chile
Pinochet no longer under house arrest
A Chilean judge lifted the house-arrest order on Gen. Augusto Pinochet on Monday, four days after a court dropped homicide and kidnapping charges against the former dictator and said he must instead be tried for covering up crimes.
Judge Juan Guzman set bail at $3,450 for Pinochet, 85, who was confined to his country estate 80 miles southwest of Santiago 40 days earlier. The decision must still be upheld by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which is expected to approve it today or Wednesday.
Last week, the Court of Appeals dropped charges filed by Guzman, who is probing the "Caravan of Death," a military group that executed 75 political prisoners in various cities shortly after the 1973 coup led by Pinochet. He ruled Chile until 1990.
The indictment that was dropped had charged Pinochet with homicide for 57 victims whose bodies were recovered and with kidnapping for 18 who remain unaccounted for.
Australia
NASA scientists hunt for downed balloon
NASA scientists set out Monday to recover a giant research balloon that landed in northwestern Australia after a failed attempt to circumnavigate the globe at the edge of space.
The helium balloon, made of plastic as thin as sandwich wrap, came down near Carnarvon, some 1,240 miles west of its launch site at Alice Springs. The balloon came down several hours after it was sent aloft Saturday.
NASA had hoped the Ultra Long Duration Balloon would circle the Earth at an altitude of 20 miles, scraping along the edge of the atmosphere and studying outer space, but shifting high-altitude winds forced it down.
The U.S. space agency hopes to develop helium-filled balloons for use as cheap alternatives to rocket-launched satellites.
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