World Scene
April 1, 2008
CHINA
Tibet arson suspects reportedly arrested
BEIJING — Suspects accused of setting fire to shops in Tibet and causing the deaths of 12 persons during recent anti-government violence have been taken into custody, China's state-controlled press said yesterday.
The suspects are implicated in attacks on three shops in Lhasa — including a clothing outlet where five young women burned to death and one in nearby Dagze county, the Tibet Daily newspaper said.
The government has highlighted the deaths in an attempt to fend off global criticism of its handling of recent deadly political protests in Tibet, arguing that Tibetans themselves are responsible for the violence that mainly targeted ethnic-Han Chinese.
China says 18 civilians, most of them Han Chinese, died in the riots, but Tibet's government-in-exile said 140 Tibetans were killed during the protests.
CUBA
Hotels for foreigners opened to Cubans
HAVANA — President Raul Castro's government is allowing Cubans to stay at hotels previously reserved for foreigners, ending a restriction that had been especially irksome to ordinary citizens under the long rule of his brother Fidel.
"They have informed us that with a national ID card, anyone can stay here," said an employee at the Ambos Mundos Hotel in Old Havana. She insisted on anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to foreign reporters, but she said Cuban nationals who are not guests will be allowed to buy other hotel services.
Front-desk workers and managers at the Nacional, Valencia and Santa Isabel hotels in Havana said Tourism Ministry officials told them that Cubans can stay in hotels across the island starting today. Like other guests, they will be charged in convertible pesos worth 24 times the regular pesos earned by state employees.
Catering to tourists and foreign executives, many of Havana's best-known hotels charge more than $100 per night. A nightly stay during peak season at the four-star Ambos Mundos costs $173, more than eight times the average monthly state salary.
SERBIA
Vote planned in Kosovo enclave
BELGRADE — Serbia said yesterday it will open polling stations in Serb-dominated parts of Kosovo — in defiance of Kosovo's recent declaration of independence. The May 11 Serbian elections will be the first since Kosovo split from Serbia in February.
Kosovo Serbs, who constitute about 10 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, have voted in every Serbian election since Belgrade lost control of the province in 1999 following a NATO bombing campaign to protect ethnic-Albanian separatists.
Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said ethnic Serbs will participate in the vote despite the objections of U.N. authorities in Kosovo, who say they are the only ones who can organize elections in the former province.
AFGHANISTAN
NATO troops killed ahead of summit
KABUL — Two British Marines and a Danish soldier were killed in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, days before a NATO summit in Romania is to hear appeals for more forces to fight Taliban extremists.
The troops were slain in the southern province of Helmand, a region caught in the throes of the Taliban-led insurgency and the center of Afghanistan's massive drug trade — a source of funding for the rebels.
NETHERLANDS
Muhammad cartoon cut from film
AMSTERDAM — A Dutch lawmaker whose anti-Koran film drew worldwide condemnations from Muslims will edit out a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad after complaints of copyright infringement, his office said yesterday.
Geert Wilders used the cartoon by Danish artist Kurt Westergaard twice in his film, "Fitna." The drawing, which depicts Islam's prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse, provoked violent protests in Muslim countries when it was published by European newspapers two years ago.
BURMA
Army keeps control in new constitution
RANGOON — Burma's draft constitution perpetuates military domination of politics and protects junta members from prosecution for past actions, according to a copy of the document obtained yesterday.
The private draft was completed in February and will go before voters in a May referendum. A copy of the 194-page text was obtained by the Associated Press.
Among other provisions, it effectively bars pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president or running for parliament because she was married to a foreigner.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/artic...2/1003/foreign