Opinion

“A gunfight broke out Wednesday between Thai and Cambodian troops at a disputed border zone near a landmark 11th-century temple, killing two Cambodian soldiers and escalating a conflict that has raised fears of war between the neighboring countries.”

“A beached whale has died in Malaysia after swallowing a plastic bag, a rope and a bottle cap, a marine researcher said Wednesday.”

“If all hospitals performed as 5-star facilities, as ranked by an independent healthcare ratings company, 237,420 U.S. Medicare patient deaths could have been prevented between 2005 and 2007.”

An Arab Israeli citizen who drove on Yom Kippur was arrested “for reckless endangerment and harming religious sensitivities.” Presumably, the reckless endangerment was because he angered right-wing Israelis and set off four days of rioting.

“The European Union aims to launch a planned air and naval force in December to combat piracy threatening sea lanes off Somalia, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said Tuesday.”

“In a Nairobi slum, more than one in four children under 5 will die, but in a wealthier part of the Kenyan capital, the mortality rate is one in almost 67, according to a World Health Organization report released Tuesday.”

“Somali forces on Tuesday freed the 11-man crew of a hijacked ship and captured the 10 pirates who seized the vessel last week, according to the foreign minister for Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of northern Somalia.”

“Saudi Arabia beheaded two men Tuesday, the latest state-sanctioned killings in a country where use of the death penalty has risen sharply in recent years and a disproportionate number of those executed are foreigners, a rights group said.”

“Vietnam on Tuesday put on trial two reporters who helped expose state corruption in a case seen as a test of media freedoms in the communist country.”