Myanmar

Japan suspends aid to protest detention

Japan, Myanmar’s largest donor, froze all financial aid to the country on Wednesday to punish its military government for detaining pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Also Wednesday, U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, the only outsider to see Suu Kyi since her arrest more than three weeks ago, said U.N. officials were “increasingly alarmed” about the government’s refusal to release her.

Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy party were taken into “protective custody” after a clash between her supporters and government backers during a political tour in northern Myanmar on May 30.

She has been held incommunicado since then, and the government has refused to disclose her whereabouts or say when she will be released.

Suu Kyi, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her nonviolent democracy campaign and has spent most of the time since then under house arrest or strict surveillance.

Vatican City

Pope to finish writing book this summer

Pope John Paul II, the author of verse, essays and plays, is writing another book about his years as a bishop, the Vatican said Wednesday.

The 83-year-old pope hopes to complete the work — about his “pastoral and human experience” as a bishop in Poland — while vacationing at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo this summer, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

John Paul plans to leave Vatican City for his annual stay in the hills south of Rome on July 10, he said.

In March, the Vatican released “Roman Triptych” — the first book of poetry John Paul had written since becoming pope in 1978. He wrote it during his vacation at Castel Gandolfo last summer, inspired by his nostalgic trip to his beloved Poland in August.

A collection of poems John Paul wrote before becoming pope was published in Poland in 1980.

Poland

Dutch ship carrying contraceptives fined

Polish harbor officials fined Dutch abortion rights campaigners on Wednesday for disregarding docking rules as they brought their controversial ship into a Baltic Sea port over the weekend.

The visit by the Langenort has angered Poland’s influential Roman Catholic church and anti-abortion groups. Women on Waves, the Dutch group, plans to take Polish women out to international waters — out of reach of Polish abortion law, one of Europe’s strictest — and offer advice on contraceptives and medical services.

Harbor officials levied the $3,150 fine on the ship because its crew failed to answer calls from the harbormaster Sunday asking it to identify the ship as it approached the port of Wladyslawowo.

Anti-abortion groups say they will photograph women boarding the ship and pass on the information to police.

Kenya

U.S. Embassy reopens after terrorism alert

The U.S. Embassy in Kenya reopened Wednesday after closing temporarily because of a Pentagon alert about a possible terrorist attack.

The embassy in Nairobi was first closed Friday as part of an ongoing process to close the mission at least one day a week.

The one-day closures have been taking place since May 15, when the U.S. State Department issued a beefed-up terrorism advisory for American citizens warning against travel to the East African nation.

But following a U.S. Defense Department terrorism alert Friday that raised the threat level in the country to “high,” officials decided to keep the embassy closed Monday and Tuesday.

Embassy officials would not say whether the embassy would be closed again.