Thailand: Magazine banned for article on royalty

Thai police are blocking distribution of the latest issue of The Economist magazine because it contains an article perceived to be critical of the monarchy, police and magazine officials said Saturday.

The March 2-8 Asian edition of The Economist contains a comprehensive survey of Thailand that includes an analysis speculating on the future of the monarchy.

Police Maj. Gen. Tritos Ronnarithwichai said officials agreed the article “does affect the highest institution and tarnishes Thailand’s image.”

The “highest institution” refers to the monarchy, criticism of which is considered a social and legal taboo. In extreme cases, offenders can be charged with a crime punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

Peter Bakker, The Economist’s circulation manager for Asia, said, “We didn’t think it would cause such an uproar.”

Cuba: Hunger strikers enter fourth day

About 75 detainees at what the United States calls Camp X-Ray were in their fourth day of a hunger strike Saturday.

Commanders said those refusing to eat were both Taliban and al-Qaida forces.

Six men have been fed intravenous fluids after becoming dangerously dehydrated.

The hunger strike began Wednesday, a day after soldiers removed a turban from a detainee’s head.

Macedonia: Suspected terrorists killed in gunfight

Police said they killed seven men who opened fire Saturday at a patrol near the capital of Skopje and described them as foreigners probably Pakistanis suspected of planning terrorist attacks on Western embassies and Macedonian officials.

The men tried to ambush a police patrol near Butel, a suburb of Skopje, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said. He said they opened fire with machine guns when police told them to identify themselves, and police fired back, killing all seven. No police were hurt.

The “group was in the area with an aim of attacking vital installations, Macedonian officials and the embassies of Germany, Great Britain and the U.S. in Skopje,” Boskovski said.

Moscow: Pope’s virtual visit cheered, jeered

Hundreds of Roman Catholics in a Moscow cathedral burst into applause and tears Saturday when Pope John Paul II addressed them by video as part of a prayer service linking believers in six countries.

The pope’s first-ever visit to Russia albeit by video linkup had more than 1,000 members of the country’s small Roman Catholic community cheering.

The inclusion of Russia in the linkup was the latest step in the pontiff’s efforts to reach out to his flock in the largely Orthodox Christian nation.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy denounced the pope’s electronic linkup, saying, “We regard it as an invasion of Russia.”