World Scene


July 10, 2008

ISRAEL

Two accused of aiding al Qaeda

JERUSALEM | Two Israeli Arabs have been arrested on suspicion they gave strategic information to al Qaeda, Israel's Shin Bet security agency said Wednesday, the first time Israel has accused any citizens of cooperating with the global terrorist network.

The Bedouin Arabs from southern Israel, who were arrested at the end of May and beginning of June, transferred information about strategic sites including army bases, skyscrapers and an international airport near Tel Aviv and other crowded places that could be targets in attacks, the Shin Bet said.

Security-affairs analyst Yossi Melman said the arrests highlight a rising radicalism within Israel's Bedouin population. The New York-based Human Rights Watch group said in a report earlier this year that Israel discriminates against its Bedouin Arab citizens in allocating housing, land and infrastructure in the Negev, a desert that makes up much of Israel's territory, where most of the country's Bedouins live.

BULGARIA

Rice honored in medics' release

SOFIA | Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepted Bulgaria's highest honor Wednesday for helping secure the release of six medics in Libya.

"I'm glad and pleased to have played a role," she said after the ceremony, the silver and white medallion draped around her neck on a thick white ribbon. At the U.S. Embassy, Miss Rice met with Dr. Ashraf al-Hazouz, 38, and one of the nurses, Snezhana Dimitrova, 55, who were among those detained in Libya. The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were accused of infecting Libyan children with AIDS.

Miss Rice later travels to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

GERMANY

Zoos wrangle over Knut's millions

BERLIN | No animal in Europe has generated more cash for a zoo than polar bear Knut, and there's a legal fight over all those millions.

A German zoo that claims ownership of Knut said Wednesday it's going to court to force the Berlin Zoo to disclose how much Knut has generated in proceeds.

The Neumuenster Zoo in northern Germany owns Knut's father, Lars, and said it is the legal owner of his first offspring, Knut, under a deal made with the Berlin Zoo, where the cub was born in 2006.

The Berlin Zoo has said it recognizes Neumuenster's ownership in principle, but maintains that does not give Neumuenster a right to any proceeds from the polar bear's huge success.

Knut - raised by hand in Berlin after his mother rejected him at birth - became a media phenomenon in early 2007. The Berlin Zoo reported a 27 percent increase in visitors last year compared with 2006 and had a 2007 profit of nearly $10.7 million.

TURKEY

Kurds kidnap Germans

ANKARA | Separatist Kurdish rebels have kidnapped three German mountaineers on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, a senior local official told the Anatolia news agency Wednesday.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels seized the climbers, part of a group of 13 mountaineers, late Tuesday as they were camping at an altitude of 10,498 feet on the mountain in Agri province, Gov. Mehmet Cetin said.

The five rebels told the tourists they were taking hostages in protest of the German government's crackdown on PKK-affiliated bodies and its supporters in Germany.

Mount Ararat, situated close to the Iranian and Armenian borders, is the highest mountain in Turkey at 16,853 feet and is thought by many to be the final resting place of the biblical Noah's Ark.


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World Scene


July 11, 2008

TURKEY

Four detained in consulate attack

ISTANBUL | Authorities detained four suspects Thursday in connection with the attack on the U.S. consulate in Istanbul that ignited a fire fight and left three policemen and three assailants dead.

Police and Turkey's intelligence agency also were investigating whether one of the slain gunmen had any relationship with al Qaeda when he visited Afghanistan. Police suspect the attackers had ties to al Qaeda but so far say they have no proof.

Interior Minister Besir Atalay said Thursday that four people were in custody. One of the attackers escaped in a getaway car, but it was not immediately clear if he was among the four detained.

KENYA

Robbers attack missionary couple

KITALE | Police say Kenyan robbers armed with clubs and machetes attacked a missionary couple from Canada and the United States.

Police said John Bergen and his wife, Eloise, suffered deep slashes on their heads and faces in an attack overnight in the restive Mount Elgon region of western Kenya. He said they were in a hospital in critical condition.

Authorities said 70-year-old Canadian Bergen and his 65-year-old American wife from Georgia arrived in the country last month. They were working with the Canadian charity Hope for the Nations.

ISRAEL

Date set for primary elections

JERUSALEM | Israel's governing Kadima party on Thursday set a leadership election for mid-September under a deal to quell a crisis over the latest scandal to embroil Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, media reports said.

Kadima's steering committee met in the late afternoon and ratified the agreement hammered out by Mr. Olmert and the party leadership to hold the election in the middle of September, the private Channel 10 television station reported.

Kadima Chairman Tzahi Hanegbi said the party primary would take place between Sept. 14-18.

TURKEY

Rebels refuse to free hostages

ISTANBUL | Kurdish rebels Thursday refused to release three German hostages until Berlin renounces a crackdown on the guerrilla group.

A band of rebels kidnapped the three German climbers from Mount Ararat in far eastern Turkey late Tuesday, authorities said. A spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK, said Thursday the Germans were in good condition.

In Berlin, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for the immediate and unconditional release of the kidnapped Germans.

ITALY

EU: Gypsy policy discriminatory

STRASBOURG | The European Parliament on Thursday called the fingerprinting of Gypsies in Italy a clear act of racial discrimination and urged authorities to stop it.

In a resolution, the EU assembly said the measure was not supported by EU human rights treaties and that EU citizens of Roma, or Gypsy, origin must not be treated differently from others in Italy, who are not required to submit their fingerprints.

The Italian government began the Gypsy fingerprinting as part of a wider crackdown on street crime.


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World Scene


July 12, 2008

ZIMBABWE

China, Russia veto U.N. sanctions

UNITED NATIONS: A U.N. resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe for holding a violent June 27 presidential poll boycotted by the opposition candidate was vetoed in the Security Council Friday by Russia and China.

The resolution would have imposed an arms embargo on the southern African country and financial and travel restrictions on President Robert Mugabe and 13 other officials. It would also have called for a U.N. special envoy for Zimbabwe to be appointed.

Nine countries voted for the resolution. Five - including Russia and China - opposed it, and one abstained.

GEORGIA

Russian planes put on notice

TBILISI | A Georgian official warned Russia on Friday that it will have to "collect the shattered fragments" of its planes if they intrude on Georgian airspace again.

Russia has confirmed that four of its planes circled over the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia late Wednesday for about 40 minutes, and that the mission was ordered to head off a possible "invasion" of the region by Georgian troops.

Georgia, which has accused Russia of aiming to annex the province, said the mission was an illegal invasion of Georgian airspace.

Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have been outside the Georgian government's control since the end of separatist wars in the mid-1990s.

RUSSIA

British diplomat accused of spying

MOSCOW | Russia has accused the British Embassy's top trade official in Moscow of espionage, the British Foreign Office confirmed Friday.

The accusation appears likely to worsen Russian-British relations, already strained in part by the continuing fight for control at the TNK-BP oil producer, which is jointly owned by the British company and a group of Russian billionaires.

The British Foreign Office said the accused diplomat was acting head of United Kingdom Trade and Investment at the embassy and confirmed his name was Chris Bowers.

The espionage accusation was first made Thursday in a report carried by the Interfax news agency, which cited a source in Russia's secret services as saying Mr. Bowers was believed to be a senior British intelligence officer.

KOSOVO

U.S., other donors pledge $1.9 billion

BRUSSELS | Kosovo received a total of $1.9 billion in pledges from international donors, including the United States and the European Union on Friday to help build much-needed infrastructure and democratic institutions and to foster economic growth.

Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said his country "scored an extraordinary success" at the conference of 37 countries and 16 international organizations, including the U.N. and the World Bank.

The conference was the first time international donors had the opportunity to back their recognition of Kosovo's independence from Serbia with financial aid since it declared itself sovereign in February. The EU said it would give $785 million, and the United States about $400 million for 2009 to 2011.


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World Scene


July 14, 2008

BERMUDA

Weakened storm may brush island

HAMILTON | Bertha weakened Sunday into a tropical storm as it hovered near Bermuda, but forecasters say it might still deal a glancing blow to the Atlantic island.

Bertha's outer bands expected to brush the island in the coming days.

Over the weekend, most tourists chose to hang out in pools and walk along the beach instead of battle the storm-whipped surf and rip currents along Bermuda's southern coast. Signs were posted announcing that beaches are closed.

"You can go out and swim if you like, but lifeguards will not come out and get you," said Darnell Joell, a bartender at Coco Reef resort.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm's maximum sustained winds decreased to about 70 mph. Bertha was centered about 220 miles southeast of Bermuda.

TURKEY

Suspect held in attack on U.S.

ISTANBUL | A Turkish court on Sunday ordered a man to be held in custody over an attack on the U.S. consulate in Istanbul in which six people were killed, the state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

The court ordered that the man, identified only as Dursun P., be held on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group while prosecutors continued questioning nine other people and prepared an indictment.

Two people were released but might still face prosecution, Anatolian said.

The suspects were being questioned about Wednesday's attack in which three police officers and three attackers were killed when gunmen opened fire on security personnel at the entrance to the high-security consulate complex.

A man suspected to have driven the car used by the attackers was detained Thursday.

Police were investigating possible al Qaeda involvement - newspapers said the gunmen received weapons training in Afghanistan. Some security experts were skeptical about an al Qaeda link, given the small scale and amateurish nature of the attack.

BRITAIN

Afghan, Iraq wars stress armed forces

LONDON | Britain's armed forces cannot maintain their level of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq indefinitely, the head of the armed forces said Sunday.

And the international commitment in Afghanistan would have to last "decades" if it was to be successful, he said.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of the defense staff, confirmed British troop numbers in Basra, southern Iraq, would come down during 2009.

Britain currently has about 7,800 soldiers based in Afghanistan, a figure soon set to rise to 8,000. It has another 4,000 in Iraq.

"We are structured and resourced for a certain level of commitment on an enduring basis," Marshal Stirrup told BBC TV regarding the dual commitment.

SUDAN

Rulers warn against indictment by ICC

KHARTOUM | Sudan's ruling party warned Sunday there will be more violence in Darfur if the country's president is indicted for crimes against humanity and genocide as hundreds of people rallied in Khartoum to show their support for the longtime leader.

A prosecutor at the International Criminal Court is expected to seek an arrest warrant Monday charging President Omar al-Bashir with orchestrating violence in Darfur that has left hundreds of thousands of people dead since 2003.

In Sudan, the ruling National Congress Party called the case against the Lt. Gen. Bashir "irresponsible cheap political blackmail" that has no legal basis, according to a statement from the party that was broadcast on state TV. It also warned there would be "more violence and blood" in Darfur if an arrest warrant is issued against the president, TV reported.

Lt. Gen. Bashir huddled with Cabinet ministers and advisers Sunday, weighing how the government would response to any action taken by the ICC. Sudan has also asked the Arab League for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers.

Outside the meeting, hundreds of Sudanese, many carrying flags and pro-government banners, demonstrated to show their support for Lt. Gen. Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup.


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World Scene


July 15, 2008

SOUTH KOREA

Envoy to be recalled in island dispute

SEOUL | South Korea said Monday it will recall its ambassador from Japan over a rekindled debate about disputed islands between the countries, as the new Seoul government seeks to lift its sagging popularity at home with an appeal to nationalism.

Japan announced its intention Monday to recommend in a government teaching manual that students learn about Tokyo's claims to the nearly uninhabitable islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, that are currently under South Korean control. The dispute has been a long-standing thorn in relations between the Asian neighbors. Japan's Chief Cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Seoul was informed of the plan.

FRANCE

Betancourt receives Legion of Honor

PARIS | Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt has been presented with France's highest award, the Legion of Honor.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who presented the award Monday at France's traditional Bastille Day garden party, says the award is a way of saying "we love you" and acknowledging Mrs. Betancourt as a symbol of hope.

Mrs. Betancourt, who holds dual Colombian-French nationality, spent six years in the hands of Colombian rebel group FARC. Colombian agents freed her and 14 other hostages in a daring operation July 2.

GREECE

Bishop bans scenic weddings

ATHENS | A Greek Catholic bishop on Monday said tourists could no longer be married in some of Greece's top Aegean island destinations including Santorini and Crete in reaction to a growing trade in "wedding with a view" packages offered by travel agents.

"We have taken the decision to bar [all weddings] to protect the sacrament's holiness ... and to prevent its commercialization," Bishop Frangiskos of Syros, Santorini and Crete told private Flash Radio.

Malaysian opposition members of Parliament protest as an emergency motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is rejected on Monday. (Associated Press)

In the last two years, hundreds of couples from the United States, Britain, Australia and even China have tied the knot on Greek islands renowned for scenic beauty and stunning sunsets, Eleftheros Typos daily reported.

CHINA

Migrant workers attack station

BEIJING | Hundreds of migrant workers attacked a police station in eastern China after one was purportedly beaten while trying to get a residence permit, highlighting enduring tensions between temporary workers and authorities.

The three days of unrest in coastal Zhejiang province began Thursday when a crowd gathered in front of the Kanmen town police station to protest the treatment of the beaten worker, with some demonstrators throwing rocks at officers, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday.

AUSTRALIA

'Oldest blogger' dies at 108

SYDNEY | A 108-year-old Australian woman who was promoted as the world's oldest blogger has died, two weeks after making her last post about "singing a happy song," her great-grand son and her online forum said.

Olive Riley wrote 74 entries in her blogs, first www.allaboutolive.com.au and later http://worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com. A friend introduced Mrs. Riley to blogging early in 2007, and she was hooked.

Mrs. Riley, who was born in the remote mining town of Broken Hill in 1899, entered a nursing home in Woy Woy, 50 miles north of Sydney, last month, from where she blogged about having a bad cough and feeling weak.

RUSSIA

Scientists quit melting ice floe

MOSCOW | Russian scientists are evacuating a research station built on an Arctic ice floe because global warming has melted the ice to a fraction of its original size, a spokesman said.

The North Pole-35 station, where 21 researchers and two dogs live in huts, will be taken off the floe in the western Arctic Ocean this week instead of in late August as originally planned, said Sergei Balyasnikov of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

ITALY

Gay driver given disabled license

ROME | The Italian government was ordered to pay $160,000 to a gay man who received a driver's license for the disabled after he volunteered information on his sexual orientation to military authorities, the man and a gay rights group said Monday.

Danilo Giuffrida, 27, said he told officials about his homosexuality when he took a physical after being called up in 2000 for Italy's mandatory year of military service, which has since been abolished.

Mr. Giuffrida's lawyer said a military official sent his client's paperwork to motor-vehicle officials in Catania, who changed his standard driver's license to one for the disabled. Mr. Giuffrida said the disabled license must be renewed every year instead of every 10 years, as is the case for standard licenses.


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July 16, 2008

GERMANY

3 Iraqis convicted of plot to kill Allawi

STUTTGART | Three Iraqis were convicted and sentenced to prison Tuesday for plotting to kill then-Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a visit to Germany in 2004.

The Stuttgart state court convicted the three of attempted participation in murder and membership in the terrorist organization Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamic group linked to al Qaeda.

Ringleader Ata Abdoulaziz Rashid was given a 10-year sentence. Co-defendants Rafik Mohamad Yousef and Mazen Ali Hussein, also known as Mazen Salah Mohammed, were sentenced to eight and seven years. The men were arrested in pre-dawn raids in December 2004.

MALAYSIA

Arrest warrant issued for Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR | Police issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in connection with a sodomy accusation by a former male aide, his lawyer said.

Counsel Sankara Nair said police told him Mr. Anwar was formally "a suspect" in the case and faxed him a letter asking the politician to appear at a police station for questioning before Wednesday at 2 p.m.

The sodomy accusation, made last month, injected an unexpected twist into Malaysia's politics, already in turmoil. The ruling party suffered badly at the hands of Mr. Anwar's three-party People's Alliance in the March 8 general elections.

SPAIN

Madrid opposes Basque referendum

MADRID | The Spanish government filed a lawsuit Tuesday with the Constitutional Court to block plans by the Basque region to hold a referendum that many see as a move toward independence.

State lawyers acted after the Basque regional government on Tuesday published its plan to hold the referendum Oct. 25, the Justice Ministry said.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government says the referendum is unconstitutional because only the central government, not a regional administration, can authorize such a vote.

The Basque government insists the nonbinding vote is a popular consultation, and not a referendum. With it, the regional government seeks the views of Basque residents on the separatist group ETA's armed conflict and the region's future political status.

BELGIUM

French-Dutch divide topples government

BRUSSELS | Belgium's government collapsed Tuesday, unable to resolve an enduring divide over more self-rule for the country's Dutch and French speakers. The gap was so wide the prime minister suggested the end of Belgium as a country was looming.

King Albert II immediately began discussions with lawmakers to try to resolve the situation, talks expected to take several days. He did not formally accept the resignation of the government offered by Prime Minister Yves Leterme late Monday, so Mr. Leterme's government stays on in a caretaker capacity.

Mr. Leterme failed to get his Cabinet - an unwieldy alliance of Christian Democrats, Liberals, Socialists and nationalist hard-liners from both language camps that took office March 20 - to agree on a future together by devolving more federal powers to Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia.

ITALY

Ultra-light aircraft eyed as terror tool

ROME | A judge in Venice indicted an Iraqi on Tuesday who is suspected of plotting a terrorist attack on U.S. bases in Iraq using ultra-light aircraft.

Saber Fadhil Hussien was ordered to face a fast-track trial starting Nov. 18 on international terrorism charges, said his lawyer, Giorgio Pietramala.

Investigators believe Mr. Hussien, a former member of ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, had been in touch with followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the founder of al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by a U.S. air strike in 2006.

Mr. Hussien had been living in Italy for 25 years, operating kiosks that sold kebabs.

WEST BANK

Israel rounds up Hamas activists

NABLUS | Israeli troops arrested seven Hamas activists Tuesday, including two municipal council members, in a widening crackdown on the Islamic militant group in Nablus, residents said.

The Israeli military confirmed that it arrested seven Palestinians in the city but did not elaborate.

Residents said troops seized the two Hamas city council members, a senior Hamas activist and other Palestinians known for their close ties to the group, including Hanin Darwazi, the head of a local women's organization.

Hamas, a militant Islamic group, has a large, active women's section. But arrests of Hamas women are infrequent. Tuesday's pre-dawn sweep followed the closure in Nablus last week by the Israeli military of a shopping mall, a TV station and a newspaper, all with purported ties to Hamas.

JAPAN

Striking fishermen protest fuel prices

TOKYO | Fishermen across Japan went on a massive one-day strike Tuesday to protest skyrocketing fuel prices, the latest blow to the country's foundering fishing industry.

The strike was the largest ever for the industry, involving 200,000 boats and 400,000 workers, organizers said. More than 3,000 fishermen from across the country gathered in central Tokyo and marched around the fisheries ministry in protest.

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July 17, 2008

COLOMBIA

Red Cross image used in rescue

BOGOTA | Colombia's president said a Red Cross symbol was worn by a member of the military rescue mission that freed 15 hostages from leftist rebels.

President Alvaro Uribe said his government has apologized to the International Red Cross for the incident, which he said was not authorized.

A team of Colombian military intelligence agents posing as members of a fake international humanitarian group airlifted the hostages to safety July 2. Those rescued included French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors.

Mr. Uribe said in a speech Wednesday that a single member of the rescue team got nervous and affixed a cloth International Red Cross symbol on his vest.

A fleeting image of a portion of the cloth is visible in video taken of the operation by an agent posing as a cameraman that was officially released.

Use of the Red Cross symbol for a military operation violates the first Geneva Convention because it would damage the relief group's image of neutrality in conflicts and could endanger medical personnel using the symbol.

NETHERLANDS

THE HAGUE | The U.N.'s highest court ordered U.S. authorities on Wednesday to do everything possible to halt the executions of five Mexicans in Texas until their cases are reviewed.

The Bush administration has unsuccessfully tried to get Texas courts to review the cases and said it expected the World Court's order to have little impact.

The World Court told U.S. authorities in 2004 to review the cases of 51 Mexicans sentenced to death by state courts after finding they had been denied the right to seek help from consular officials.

The World Court has no enforcement powers but President Bush issued a directive to the Texas courts to abide by the 2004 ruling. The state courts refused to review the cases and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in March that the president cannot compel the state courts to comply.

Mexico turned again to the U.N. court in The Hague last month, arguing that the United States was defying the 2004 World Court order and asking the judges to issue an emergency injunction to stop the killings of five men whose executions were imminent.

NIGERIA

Gunmen attack naval houseboat

PORT HARCOURT | A band of suspected militants attacked a naval houseboat stationed in Nigeria's restive, oil-rich south Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left five people dead, military officials said.

About 30 gunmen attacked a boat housing naval personnel assigned to protect strategic oil facilities just before 2 a.m., Rivers State army spokesman Sagir Musa said. An ensuing two-hour gun battle left three attackers, a naval officer and a civilian dead, Mr. Musa said. Several other attackers were shot but fled on stolen patrol boats, he said.

The houseboat was stationed near an oil piping station run by Shell Petroleum Development Co., a joint venture whose major owners are Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian government. The station was not targeted, and the attackers might have been after weapons on board the boat, Mr. Musa said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility Wednesday.

SUDAN

Another Darfur peacekeeper killed

UNITED NATIONS | U.N. officials say another peacekeeper with the United Nations-African Union force has been shot and killed.

The peacekeeper, believed to be a Nigerian company commander, died Wednesday while on patrol near a peacekeeping camp, officials said. His death comes a week after seven U.N.-AU peacekeepers were killed in Darfur during an ambush by about 200 gunmen on horseback and in sport utility vehicles.

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday strongly condemned the July 8 attack, and suggested it could be considered a war crime. Council members also were expected to renew the Darfur peacekeeping mission for another year.

Their talks came days after a prosecutor announced he was seeking to arrest Sudan's president on genocide charges.

ARGENTINA

Grain-export tax plan up for vote

BUENOS AIRES | Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez faced one of her government's biggest tests Wednesday: a tight Senate vote on grain-export taxes that have spawned nationwide farm strikes and scattered food shortages.

The narrow margin by which the measure is expected to pass reflects Mrs. Fernandez's flagging popularity, which dipped to 20 percent in a recent poll amid the ongoing tax dispute. Her ruling coalition holds 40 of the Senate's 72 seats, but will likely muster only a narrow win as many of the president's one-time backers defect to oppose her controversial tax package.

Mrs. Fernandez decreed a more than 10 percent sliding-scale increase in export taxes on soy and other grains in March, in a bid to trap farm products on the Argentine market and drive down prices. Instead, farmers responded with widespread strikes, letting their produce sit in silos rather than sell on the president's terms.

ITALY

Snacking banned near monuments

ROME | City Hall has banned snacking near its famous monuments in the historical center.

Officials say they want to preserve artistic treasures and decorum in a city that has millions of visitors every year.

The ordinance also bans the homeless from making makeshift beds and takes to task people who loiter in central areas at night, who, "often drunk, not only leave all manner of litter on public grounds and in the fountains, but also disturb the peace."

The ban was passed July 10 and remains in effect until the end of October. Violators face an $80 fine.


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July 18, 2008

ZIMBABWE

Inflation rate to 2.2 million percent

HARARE | Official inflation soared to 2.2 million percent in Zimbabwe - by far the highest in the world - and has shot as high as 70 million percent in the past year for some basic goods sold on the black market, the state central bank said Thursday.

Worsening shortages of basic goods, and the deadly political and economic turmoil surrounding the national elections March 29 and a disputed presidential runoff vote June 27, helped spur the spike in inflation in recent months.

The last announcement of official annual inflation, in February, put the rate at 165,000 percent.

ARGENTINA

Senate rejects export tax raise

BUENOS AIRES | Argentine President Cristina Fernandez suffered a stunning defeat Thursday when the Senate rejected a tax increase on soy exports that sparked months of anti-government protests.

In a cliffhanger vote, Mrs. Fernandez's own vice president, Julio Cobos, broke ranks and cast the deciding ballot against the government after nearly 18 hours of debate in the upper house, where the ruling party's majority evaporated.

Mr. Cobos is a member of a bloc from the opposition Radical party, which backs the ruling Peronist party. Mrs. Fernandez tapped him as her running mate last year in a bid to demonstrate broad political support for her candidacy.

The center-left president asked Congress to approve the tax system she put in place in March, raising levies on shipments of soy, the top national crop. The lower house of Congress narrowly approved the measure, but Peronist senators from rural provinces rebelled as farm groups persuaded them it would hurt the agricultural sector.

RUSSIA

Officials urged to learn computers

MOSCOW | Russia's new 42-year-old president showed frustration with government officials who do not know how to use a computer and warned Thursday that they could soon be out of a job.

"They either should learn or, as they say, goodbye," President Dmitry Medvedev said. "We don't hire people who can't read and write. Computer literacy today is the same."

Internet penetration in Russia is among the lowest in Europe, with only 12 percent of people 15 or older online, according to a 2007 study by Internet research company comScore. But Russia also has the fastest growing Internet population in Europe, the study showed.

IRAQ

Kuwait names ambassador

BAGHDAD | Kuwait on Thursday named its first ambassador to Iraq since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in a major step toward healing the two countries' painful past and boosting regional ties with Baghdad's postwar government.

Kuwait's official news agency quoted the country's foreign minister as saying retired Lt. Gen. Ali al-Momen, a former military chief of staff, will take the ambassador post.

The country closed its embassy in Iraq in 1990 after Saddam Hussein invaded the tiny, oil-rich neighbor. The attack spurred the 1991 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam's forces. The two neighbors resumed ties after 2003, and an Iraqi Embassy reopened in Kuwait. Kuwait had held back from reopening its embassy in Baghdad, however, citing security concerns.

ISRAEL

Olmert attorneys question American

JERUSALEM | Lawyers defending Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert against a web of corruption allegations launched their cross examination of a key witness Thursday by painting him as a lying, litigious businessman with an unsavory reputation and a faulty memory.

American businessman Morris Talansky claimed last month that Mr. Olmert accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. According to the original accusations, Mr. Olmert received the cash as bribes or illegal campaign financing, and used it in part to fund his high living.

The outrage provoked by Mr. Talansky's testimony in May seriously damaged Mr. Olmert's credibility and prompted his Kadima Party to set new leadership elections, to be held by Sept. 25. Mr. Olmert has denied wrongdoing but promised to resign if indicted.



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July 19, 2008

UNITED NATIONS

U.S., Indian officials brief IAEA

VIENNA, Austria | Senior U.S. and Indian officials met the International Atomic Energy Agency chief on Friday and briefed IAEA governors to resolve questions about India's plan for expanded nuclear inspections.

India negotiated the safeguards plan with IAEA experts and the text is to be considered by the U.N. watchdog's 35-nation governing board in a special Aug. 1 session. Approval is a precondition for launching a U.S.-Indian nuclear trade accord.

If it passes, India and the United States must win clearance from a 45-nation group that regulates sensitive nuclear trade, then ratification by the U.S. Congress for the 2005 nuclear agreement to take force.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon consulted with IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday hours before an afternoon briefing with agency governors as well as delegates from the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

ISRAEL

6 men arrested in al Qaeda links

JERUSALEM | Israeli investigators have arrested six men suspected of trying to set up an al Qaeda-linked terror network, including one who wanted to shoot down President Bush's helicopter, the Shin Bet security service said Friday.

Two of the men are Arab citizens of Israel, both of them students at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to the statement. The other four are Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. The men range in age from 21 to 24.

The new charges follow the arrest this month of two Israeli Arabs on suspicion they gave strategic information to al Qaeda. Those arrests marked the first time Israel had accused any of its citizens of cooperating with the terror network.

The men were arrested in June and July, but the information was only approved for publication Friday, the day the men were to be indicted in a Jerusalem court.

UNITED NATIONS

South African judge to head rights post

UNITED NATIONS | A South African judge who was the first black woman to serve on her country's highest court will be the next U.N. human rights commissioner, diplomatic and U.N. officials said Friday.

The appointment of Navanethem Pillay, an appeals chamber judge with the International Criminal Court in The Hague is expected to be announced next week by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, officials said. The appointment must be approved by theU.N. General Assembly.

Ms. Pillay, who holds a degree from Harvard Law School, will succeed Louise Arbour, a former Supreme Court judge in Canada, as human rights commissioner, one of the most high-profile positions at the United Nations.

CUBA

More land given to private farmers

HAVANA | Communist officials decreed Friday that private farmers and cooperatives can use up to 100 acres of idle government land, as President Raul Castro works to revive Cuba's floundering agricultural sector.

The law published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma did not say how much state land will be turned over to private hands and gave no indication of how many Cubans might apply.

But it described the measure as a way to help Cuba solve the problem of underused land while cutting food imports that are expected to cost the government $2 billion this year.

Ownership will stay with the state. Private farmers can get concessions of up to 10 years, renewable for another 10. Cooperatives and companies can have renewable 25-year terms. And all will have to pay taxes for the land.

BHUTAN

King signs new statute

THIMPHU | Bhutan's parliament endorsed the country's first constitution Friday, formally turning the former absolute monarchy into a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy.

The 27-year-old king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, signed the first copy of the constitution, using a wooden pen dipped in golden ink inside a 17th-century fortress after parliament had ratified it.

His father, Bhutan's fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, not only surrendered power without a struggle, but also imposed democracy against the will of many of his subjects before abdicating in favor of his Oxford-educated son in 2006. The Himalayan nation held its first general election in March.

NETHERLANDS

Navanethem Pillay

Red panda adopted by zoo's cat dies

AMSTERDAM | Amsterdam's Artis zoo said a baby red panda adopted by a zookeeper's cat after being rejected by its mother has died. The zoo said an autopsy on the tiny panda found its windpipe filled with milk, indicating it choked to death.

The zoo had hoped the panda would be able to suckle from the cat for three months before moving onto a diet of bamboo and fruit.

The tabby cat came to the cub's rescue July 1 after it was spurned by its mother. A second cub died shortly after the cubs' birth on June 30.


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World scene


July 20, 2008

EGYPT

Arab League slams ICC prosecutor

CAIRO | The Arab League on Saturday criticized the International Criminal Court's "unbalanced" prosecutor for seeking the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Bashir, saying Sudan's courts should judge claims of Darfur war crimes.

Arab foreign ministers stressed "the mandate of Sudan's civil judiciary in achieving justice," in a resolution following crisis talks in Cairo over how to deal with ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's request on Monday for Lt. Gen. Bashir to be arrested on genocide charges.

The resolution also criticized Mr. Moreno-Ocampo's "unbalanced stance" for asking ICC judges to issue a warrant for Gen. Bashir's arrest, which, if granted, would be the first ever issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.

BRAZIL

Police recover Picasso print

SAO PAULO | Police have arrested a suspect in the heist of two Pablo Picasso prints from a museum in Sao Paulo and recovered one of the works, police and a museum official said Saturday.

Police said information obtained through wiretaps of gang members involved in unrelated robberies led them to Ueslei Barros, the suspect in the July robbery.

Mr. Barros led police to one stolen Picasso print, "The Painter and the Model," hidden in an attic of a building on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. Thieves also stole the Picasso print "Minotaur, Drinker and Women" and two other paintings having a combined estimated value of $630,000.

AFGHANISTAN

Violence kills 14, including NATO troop

KANDAHAR | Afghan troops clashed with Taliban insurgents attacking a supply convoy for NATO troops, killing nine militants, officials said Saturday. Roadside bombs killed a NATO soldier in a separate convoy and four policemen.

The militants were killed after they attacked a supply convoy for NATO-led troops in Zabul province, provincial police said. There were no casualties among Afghan troops.

In neighboring Kandahar province, a blast struck a police patrol in Maywand district, killing four officers and wounding another, police said.

Another bomb struck a NATO convoy in Kandahar's Panjwayi district, killing a soldier, a NATO spokesman in Kabul said. NATO did not release the dead soldier's nationality or say how many were wounded. Most of the troops in the area are Canadian.

INDIA

10 soldiers killed in bomb blast

SRINAGAR | A bomb exploded near an army convoy in Indian Kashmir on Saturday, killing at least 10 soldiers and wounding 14 others, a police official said.

The bomb was apparently buried along a highway north of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, and exploded as the army convoy passed nearby, a senior police official said. At least seven soldiers were in "very critical condition," officials said.

It was one of the worst attacks since 2005, when militants frequently used roadside bombs to attack Indian troops.

BURMA

Security tight for 'Martyrs Day'

RANGOON | Hundreds of riot police and soldiers ringed a monument in downtown Rangoon on Saturday as officials gathered to commemorate the shooting death 61 years ago of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's father.

Burmese independence hero Gen. Aung San and other government leaders were assassinated by gunmen during a Cabinet meeting July 19, 1947, shortly after Britain granted independence to the Southeast Asian colony.

Opposition activists have suggested that the ruling military junta is trying to downgrade the importance of Aung San's legacy as a way of undercutting the popularity of his daughter, who remains under house arrest.

ZIMBABWE

Mbeki may mediate political talks

HARARE | Zimbabwe's main opposition party could sign an agreement as early as Monday to begin substantive talks with President Robert Mugabe's party on ending a political impasse that has worsened the country's severe economic crisis, opposition officials said on Saturday.

The apparent breakthrough came after South African President Thabo Mbeki proposed forming a team drawn from African regional bodies and the United Nations to help him mediate the worsening crisis in Zimbabwe.

A statement said Mr. Mbeki had proposed during a meeting on Friday creating a team representing the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and the United Nations, with which he would work to foster dialogue between Zimbabwe's warring parties.


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