YANGON (Reuters) –
Myanmar’s military government has allowed the party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to reopen regional branch offices that have been closed since May 2003, a party spokesman said on Thursday.

“So far as we have heard, about 100 branch offices have been reopened across the country, effective Wednesday,” said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD).

The government closed down NLD branch offices after an attack on Suu Kyi’s convoy by pro-regime elements on May 30, 2003. Scores of NLD followers were killed, according to her supporters.

Nyan Win gave a guarded welcome to the government’s move.

“Yes, it’s a positive step,” he said. “I think they want us to take part in the election, but we still haven’t made up our mind about this. We still need to talk it over among the top leaders, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

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HARARE (Reuters) –
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Sunday Zimbabwe should invite international observers and a peacekeeping force to ensure that its next national election is free and fair.

Tsvangirai formed a coalition government with President Robert Mugabe a year ago to end a political and economic crisis, but analysts say mutual suspicion and strategic positioning are delaying democratic reforms meant to clear the way for a poll next year.

Addressing a party rally just outside Harare, Tsvangirai told supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that Zimbabwe could guarantee that violence which has marred previous parliamentary and presidential elections is avoided by accepting observers and a peacekeeping force.

“Lets bring in foreign observers for the next elections… We can use the African Union and SADC (Southern African Development Community) forces for peacekeeping during the election period,” he said.

There was no peacekeeping force in 2008. Mugabe allowed poll observers from SADC and the AU but refused those from Western countries, saying they were biased against his ZANU-PF party.

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AUSTIN, Texas – Before Rick Perry can parlay his tea party-powered victory in the Texas governor’s primary into something bigger — a 2012 Republican presidential ticket, perhaps — he’ll have to actually win a record-setting, third four-year term.

Doing that will require beating Bill White, the former Houston mayor who might be the only Democrat with the cash and base of support to counter Perry’s Texas swagger and cutthroat campaign style and end his undefeated streak at the ballot box.

“This will be the toughest race that Rick Perry has ever been in,” said Craig Varoga, a Houston-based political consultant who has known the mild-mannered White for years.

Perry, who defeated Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the GOP primary Tuesday with a relentless anti-Washington message, plans to keep up that theme ahead of the November general election. He’ll say that White aligned himself with President Barack Obama on issues like health care and climate change and try to paint the ex-mayor as a “liberal Democrat trial lawyer that’s out of touch with mainstream Texans,” said Perry spokesman Mark Miner.

The Perry game plan also centers on raising questions about Houston’s city finances while portraying it as too friendly with illegal immigrants, Perry associates say.

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JERUSALEM – Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian stone-throwers at two contested holy sites and in a West Bank village Friday, seriously injuring a Palestinian woman and a 14-year-old boy, officials and witnesses said.

At the Jerusalem shrine, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, hundreds of Muslim worshippers emerging from prayers threw stones at policemen and Jews praying below at the Jewish shrine known as the Western Wall, according to Israeli police.

Riot police carrying plexiglass shields rushed in, firing tear gas and stun grenades, and charged the youths throwing stones amid the compound’s stone buildings and cypress trees.

It was one of the most violent clashes in several years at the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

Friday’s events were sparked, in part, by rising anger over Israel’s decision to add two West Bank shrines to its list of national heritage sites.

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TALCAHUANO, Chile – One man swings a thick metal chain. Another grips an ax. An older gentleman favors a wooden pole. And a 20-year-old spoiling for a fight has prepared a garrote — a menacing wire tied between two handles — to confront any intruders.

These and hundreds of other survivors of Chile’s devastating earthquake have organized neighborhood watch groups, arming themselves and barricading streets to protect their damaged homes from looters. The groups have stepped in as police were overwhelmed by looting and soldiers were slow to restore order after an earthquake and tsunami.

“We take care of ourselves here,” said 51-year-old Maria Cortes. She stood watch in Poblacion Libertad — “Freedom Community” — a gritty collection of small duplexes along an industrial road in the port town of Talcahuano. About 2,000 people live here around a common area three football fields long.

Most of Talcahuano was destroyed by Saturday’s magnitude-8.8 quake and tsunami, which ravaged a 700-kilometer (435-mile) stretch of Chile’s Pacific coast. Downed bridges and damaged or debris-strewn highways made transit difficult if not impossible in many areas. The official death toll reached 799 on Wednesday.

But Poblacion Libertad largely escaped damage. Here, residents talk about the “human earthquake” — a growing desperation of people without power, water, cooking gas and food. Many of its residents join the looting, taking food, drinks and anything else they can use from ruined stores — but return home fearful that others will do the same to them.

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