World Scene
March 2, 2008
SOUTH KOREA
U.S. kicks off joint exercises
SEOUL — Tens of thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops today kicked off a massive drill that the North has condemned as provocative and aggressive, officials said.
The U.S. aircraft carrier Nimitz has been deployed off the Korean Peninsula, and about 27,000 American troops will take part in the weeklong "Key Resolve" exercise, a spokesman for the U.S. military in South Korea said.
A Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman said "a significant portion" of South Korea's 680,000 troops were participating in the exercise, due to last until Friday, though Seoul disclosed no exact figures.
North Korea reacted angrily, with Pyongyang's Cabinet-published newspaper Minju Joson yesterday denouncing the exercise as preparing "a war of aggression" against the communist state.
ARMENIA
Emergency declared after violent protests
YEREVAN — Armenia's opposition ended a standoff with riot police in the capital, Yerevan, today after the government declared a state of emergency and mobilized the army in response to the worst unrest in a decade.
Earlier, police fought pitched battles with opposition supporters who had held daily protests since a Feb. 19 election that the opposition said was rigged in favor of Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan to become president. At least one person was killed.
About 2,000 protesters stayed on in a square in the center of Yerevan armed with metal rods and Molotov cocktails as army trucks headed toward the capital of the former Soviet republic.
IRAQ
Insurgent training female bombers held
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military yesterday announced the capture of an insurgent leader who was recruiting and training women, including his wife, to wrap themselves in explosives and blow themselves up. The man was arrested Thursday in an operation near the town of Kan Bani Sad, north of Baghdad in Diyala province — still an al Qaeda hotbed.
An Iranian-trained sniper instructor also was arrested along with three other men, the military said on the eve of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Iraq today.
The U.S. military said it had killed six insurgents and detained 13 suspects Friday and yesterday during operations against al Qaeda in Iraq in central and northern Iraq. In the south, a British airman was killed late Friday in a rocket attack on a base near Basra.
SINGAPORE
Interpol issues alert for terrorist leader
SINGAPORE — Interpol has issued an international red alert for a purported Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant leader who escaped from a detention center in Singapore, the global police body's Web site said today.
Authorities were combing Singapore for Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the purported JI leader in the city-state, who escaped Wednesday after he was allowed to use the toilet during a visit from his relatives.
Kastari was accused of plotting to hijack an airplane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001, but he was never charged in court. He was being held under an internal-security law that allows for detention without trial.
ZIMBABWE
Top party official backs Mugabe rival
BULAWAYO — A senior official in Zimbabwe's ruling party said yesterday he will support one of the main challengers to President Robert Mugabe in the March 29 election in a major political blow to the longtime leader.
Dumiso Dabengwa, a Politburo member in Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, threw his weight behind former Finance Minister Simba Makoni during the kickoff of Mr. Makoni's presidential campaign.
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