Augusta National names first women members
AUGUSTA, Ga., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and businesswoman Darla Moore have been selected as the first female members of Augusta National Golf Club.
Augusta National, the site of the Masters golf tournament, has faced calls for years to accept female members. The protests were most apparent in 2003 and 2004 when Martha Burk staged demonstrations near the course during the Masters.
But the private club, which didn't have an African-American member until 1990, kept its male-only policy until Monday.
"This is a joyous occasion as we enthusiastically welcome Secretary Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore as members of Augusta National Golf Club," club President Billy Payne said.
Both women accepted the invitations to join Augusta.
Military discusses Afghan 'insider' deaths
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. military leaders were in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday to discuss the frequency of so-called green-on-blue or "insider" killings of coalition troops.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was consulting with senior U.S. and Afghan commanders and government officials just hours after another U.S. soldier was killed in a shooting, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Authorities in Kandahar province said the latest American death occurred Sunday when two Afghan policemen fired on a group of coalition and Afghan troops. Also killed was a police officer and one of the shooters, police said.
An Afghan interpreter was wounded. The second gunman escaped, police said.
The shootings have been referred to as green-on-blue or "insider" atacks.
The latest was the 10th such U.S. death in August, officials said.
Woman nominated for president in S. Korea
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- South Korea's ruling New Frontier Party announced Monday it had nominated Park Geun-hye, daughter of a former dictator, as its candidate for president.
The choice of Park, whose father Park Chung-hee was president from 1961 until his assassination in 1979, was announced at the conservative party's convention, Voice of America reported.
She is the first woman to become the presidential candidate of a major political party in South Korea.
During her 15-minute acceptance speech, Park, 60, acknowledged that South Korea faces many problems, including the global economic crisis and threats from North Korea, but said she is prepared to confront them.
The main opposition Democratic United Party is set to announce its candidate in September. The DUP's front-runner for the December election is Moon Jae-in.
Under South Korean law, current President Lee Myung-bak cannot run for re-election.
Newspapers no longer censored in Myanmar
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Myanmar's 50-year-long practice of censoring local publications came to an end Monday as part of a series of reforms in the country, officials said.
The Ministry of Information announced the move, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"When we started the media reform in June 2011 we intended to abolish press censorship in one year," ministry official Ye Htut said. "During this process we faced some challenges but after 13 months we reached our goal."
Prior to abolishing censorship, Myanmar reporters were required to submit articles to government censors for evaluation before publication and words, sentences and sometimes even whole pages were crossed out, the Journal reported.
Newspapers and magazines now will be able to publish without pre-approval from censors, the ministry said, though they must still submit articles to the government's Press Scrutiny Department to determine if any publishing laws have been broken.
