Protesters attack a Chinese envoy

TAIPEI - Protesters in southern Taiwan assaulted an envoy from China yesterday, part of an escalating reaction by the pro-independence opposition to President Ma Ying-jeou's policy of greater engagement with Beijing. The attack on Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait is a personal embarrassment to the Harvard-educated Ma, who has made closer economic and political ties with the communist mainland the centerpiece of his new administration. In yesterday's attack, about a dozen protesters surrounded Zhang at a Confucian temple in the southern city of Tainan, then knocked him to the ground while shouting anti-communist and pro-independence slogans. Zhang was helped to his feet by an escort and rushed to a waiting vehicle. (AP)

CHENNAI - More than a dozen trucks carrying apples, honey, rice, and rock salt rumbled across a disputed frontier between India and Pakistan in the Himalayan region of Kashmir yesterday as an ancient trade route was reopened. It had been shut down after the countries split 61 years ago. The opening of the 106-mile road, running along a mountain valley from Srinagar in India to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan, is seen as another tentative step by the two governments toward building peace in Kashmir. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over the region. (Washington Post)

The Security Council yesterday sought an immediate cease-fire in eastern Congo to quell fighting that it said could renew a wider conflict in central Africa. The 15-nation council's members share "grave concern at the resurgence of violence" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's eastern provinces, said Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui, the council president. (AP)