Community Comes Together Shocked citizens of Aurora, Colorado, gather spontaneously near the scene of Friday's movie-theater shooting rampage to mourn the 12 victims. China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi sent condolences from the nation to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Photo by Xinhua

Russia

Minister says defense cuts likely

Russia is likely to cut its defense spending in the next three years by about 20 percent, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday.

He said a decision on the cuts, representing about 200 billion rubles ($6.25 billion), was "likely" to be made soon.

Siluanov said his ministry had been trying to persuade the Defense Ministry to postpone the funding for some rearmament programs.

Russia's rearmament program, which was launched in 2008, envisaged spending 20 trillion rubles (about $680 billion) until 2020.

The 2012 defense budget is more than 880 billion rubles (about $28 billion).

Myanmar

1 dead, 10 missing after ferry sinks

Five university football players and their coach are among at least 10 people missing after a passenger ferry accident in northern Myanmar that left at one person dead.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Saturday that 73 people were rescued in the accident in the Irrawaddy River in Kachin state.

People living along Myanmar's major rivers and in the vast southern delta region often travel and transport goods by boat because of the lower cost and the inaccessibility of many areas by road.

United States

Air Force rapist faces sentencing

An Air Force instructor convicted of raping a female recruit and sexually assaulting several others is due back in court on one of the nation's busiest training bases Saturday for the start of the sentencing phase of his court-martial.

Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, who faced the most serious charges in a sweeping sex scandal involving Lackland Air Force Base instructors, could be sentenced to up to life in prison and dishonorably discharged. A military jury convicted him Friday on all 28 counts he faced, including rape, aggravated sexual contact and multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault.

Bush will not attend convention

Former president George W. Bush will not attend the Republican convention next month, his office said on Friday, skipping Mitt Romney's expected coronation as the party's White House nominee.

Bush supports Romney and believes he would be a great president, "but he's still enjoying his time off the political stage and respectfully declined the invitation to go to Tampa," a spokesman said.

Bush has largely stayed out of politics and the public eye since leaving the White House in 2009 amid an economic crisis, an unpopular war in Iraq and growing budget deficits.

Japan

Under-reporting of radiation probed

Japan's health ministry said it would investigate reports that workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant were urged by a subcontractor to place lead around radiation detection devices in order to stay under a safety threshold for exposure.

Japanese newspapers reported on Saturday that an executive from Build-Up, a subcontractor to the plant owner, told workers to cover the devices called dosimeters when working in high-radiation areas.

Indonesia

Fasting begins for Ramadan

Muslims have begun fasting for the start of the Ramadan holy month in Indonesia, Malaysia and elsewhere around Asia, but the somber occasion was marred in Thailand by two bomb blasts that killed one person and injured seven. Ramadan's start varies from Friday to Sunday because Muslim countries and groups use different ways of calculating when the new moon crescent is sighted.

Peru

Court trims ex-spy chief's sentence

Peru's Supreme Court has reduced the murder sentence of former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos along with the sentences of 15 members of a military death squad also convicted in the killings of 25 people in 1991 and 1992.

President Ollanta Humala criticized Friday's decision and his justice minister, Juan Jimenez, called it "an embarrassment for the country."

News Watch

Hunt for ferry victims ends

Tanzanian authorities have halted rescue operations seeking missing passengers of an overloaded ferry that capsized this week. Government officials said on Saturday the final figures showed that 69 passengers died and that 77 were still missing - resulting in a total of 146 people now presumed dead.

Xinhua - Reuters

(China Daily 07/22/2012 page2)