World Scene


August 1, 2008

AFGHANISTAN

Bike bomb targets Pakistani consulate

KABUL | An explosives-rigged bicycle detonated outside a Pakistani consulate in western Afghanistan on Thursday, wounding two people at the gates of the building, officials said.

Pakistan's government, which has had tense relations with Afghanistan, was quick to remind the Afghan government of its duty to protect diplomatic offices. The Afghan government said it also "strongly condemned the blast."

The explosives detonated outside the gates of the consulate in the city of Herat. No one was injured inside the consulate, a spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul said.

CUBA

Interrogation allowed to aid terror case

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE | A U.S. military judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors can use a disputed interrogation to support their case against a former driver for Osama bin Laden in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial.

Attorneys for Salim Ahmed Hamdan said the May 2003 interrogation, in which prosecutors claim he swore allegiance to bin Laden, was not reliable and should not be admitted into evidence.

The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, did not immediately release his ruling and did not explain his reasoning in open court. The ruling cleared the way for Robert McFadden, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, to describe the interrogation to jurors as the final prosecution witness.

Mr. Hamdan, a Yemeni, faces up to life in prison if convicted of conspiracy and aiding terrorism.

JAPAN

Navy captain fired after mishap on ship

TOKYO | The U.S. Navy has fired the captain of the first U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be stationed abroad after a fire onboard injured dozens of sailors and raised alarm in host Japan.

The USS George Washington is set to arrive in late September in Yokosuka, a naval hub near Tokyo, despite public protests in the only nation to have sustained nuclear attack.

The U.S. Navy, releasing details of an investigation, said a fire in May in waters off South America was caused when crew members smoked near improperly stored flammable liquids.

A Navy statement Wednesday said it was relieving Capt. David C. Dykhoff as commanding officer. One sailor suffered first- and second-degree burns, while 37 others were treated for minor injuries. The carrier needed $70 million in repairs at a dockyard in San Diego, delaying its arrival in Japan.

CANADA

Bus passenger stabbed, decapitated

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE | A man aboard a Greyhound bus repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated a fellow passenger, witnesses said Thursday.

Police made an arrest in the killing, which occurred Wednesday night aboard a bus traveling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Passenger Garnet Caton said a man stabbed the person sitting next to him dozens of times and then severed the victim's head with a large knife.

A Greyhound spokeswoman said 37 passengers and one driver were on the bus.

RUSSIA

'California' wiped off the map

MOSCOW | California will no longer exist on the Russian map.

Russia's northwestern region of Nizhny Novgorod has decided to eliminate the tiny village of California because of the lack of inhabitants, ITAR-Tass news agency reported Thursday.

The village was set up in the 19th century by a Russian landowner as a snub to the government for selling Alaska to the United States in 1867, Tass said.

The once vibrant village has been in decline since the Soviet collapse, and the last of its residents left in 2000 to seek better lives elsewhere.

IRAQ

Troops to face tribunal in killings

BERLIN | Four American soldiers accused of involvement in the slaying of prisoners in Iraq will be brought before a military tribunal in Germany, the Army said Thursday.

The enlisted soldiers are scheduled for an Article 32 hearing Aug. 26 to determine whether there is enough evidence to court-martial them on charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, the Army said.

The four - Staff Sgt. Jess Cunningham, Sgt. Charles Quigley, Spc. Stephen Ribordy and Spc. Belmor Ramos of the Germany-based 172nd Infantry Brigade - have not entered pleas.

The charges stem from allegations that they were part of a unit that killed "male detainees of apparent Middle-Eastern descent" between March 10 and April 16, 2007, in and around Baghdad, the Army said.


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World Scene


August 2, 2008

ISRAEL

Polls show Livni leads party race

JERUSALEM | Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has a clear edge in the Kadima party race to replace scandal-tainted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, polls showed Friday.

Two of the three polls published in major Israeli newspapers also showed Mrs. Livni running nearly neck and neck with rightist Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, should snap parliamentary elections be called.

Polls in all three major newspapers showed Mrs. Livni with a wide lead of eight to 18 percentage points over her closest Kadima rival, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz.

Mr. Olmert threw Israel into political turmoil that could hamstring Middle East peacemaking by announcing Wednesday that he would stand down as prime minister after a Sept. 17 Kadima leadership contest.

Israeli police questioned Mr. Olmert for three hours Friday over allegations he took bribes from an American businessman and made duplicate claims for travel expenses when he was trade minister and mayor of Jerusalem.

GERMANY

Farmer gets double arm transplant

MUNICH | A German farmer who lost both his arms in an accident has been successfully fitted with two new limbs in what is thought to be the first complete double arm transplant, his surgeons said Friday.

Reiner Gradinger, medical director at the Munich University Clinic, said doctors spent 15 hours on July 25-26 grafting the arms onto the body of a 54-year-old man who had lost his just below the shoulder in the accident six years ago.

The farmer's name was not released.

CUBA

9/11 plotter denies Hamdan role

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE | The accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks told a U.S. war crimes court at Guantanamo on Friday that Osama bin Laden's driver had no role in al Qaeda attacks and was unfit to carry them out.

Anyone who thought all bin Laden's associates were involved in his plots "is a fool and does not understand al Qaeda," Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said in written comments submitted as defense evidence in the trial of Yemeni prisoner Salim Hamdan.

The jury of six military officers is scheduled to begin deliberating on their verdict after the attorneys give closing arguments Monday.

GAZA STRIP

Hamas arrests Abbas aides

GAZA CITY | Hamas security forces arrested Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' top Fatah representatives Friday in the Gaza Strip, ratcheting up tensions between the rival factions.

Hamas security men detained Ibrahim Abu an-Naja and Zakaria al-Agha, who were appointed by Mr. Abbas to oversee Fatah in the Gaza Strip after Hamas Islamists seized control a year ago, Fatah officials said. Hamas forces also arrested three local governors appointed by Mr. Abbas, whose West Bank-based government is backed by the United States and other Western powers.

CANADA

Bus attack suspect appears in court

TORONTO | A man who witnesses said stabbed and beheaded his seat mate on a Greyhound bus in Canada made his first court appearance Friday, while police offered no motive for the savage attack against a 22-year-old carnival worker.

Vince Weiguang Li, 40, of Edmonton, Alberta, has been charged with second-degree murder. He shuffled into the courtroom Friday in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with his head bowed and feet shackled. He only nodded slightly when asked whether he was exercising his right not to speak. He was not required to enter a plea.

Authorities have not released the victim's name, but friends identified him as Tim McLean and said he was headed to Winnipeg after working with the carnival in Edmonton.

AUSTRALIA

400 Iraqis to be resettled

CANBERRA | Australia has resettled about 400 Iraqis and their relatives who were at risk for helping Australian troops and diplomats in their troubled homeland, officials said Friday.

The Iraqis who accepted a government offer of humanitarian visas to settle permanently in Australia were flown in secretly by military aircraft over the past two months, a Defense Ministry official said.

The governing Labor Party, which opposed the Iraq war while in opposition, announced the visa offer to Iraqis after winning elections last November.

PAKISTAN

Pro-Taliban agents seen as problem

ISLAMABAD | A Pakistani spokeswoman conceded Friday that the government needs to root out Taliban sympathizers from its main intelligence agency, but officials rejected allegations that the spies helped plan a bloody bombing at the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan.

Government spokeswoman Sherry Rehman said there are "probably" still individual agents whose ideological convictions were formed in the 1980s, when the Inter-Services Intelligence agency marshaled Islamic warriors to battle Soviet troops in Afghanistan with U.S. support.

Such agents "act on their own in ways that are not in convergence" with Pakistan's interests or policies, Ms. Rehman said. "We need to identify these people and weed them out."

The New York Times reported Friday that American intelligence agencies concluded ISI agents were involved in the July 7 embassy attack in the Afghan capital, which killed about 60 people. The Times said the conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack.


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World Scene


August 3, 2008

IRAQ

Two soldiers charged in prisoner's death

BAGHDAD | Two U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been charged in the slaying of an Iraqi prisoner, the U.S. military said Saturday.

First Lt. Michael Behenna and Staff Sgt. Hal Warner were each charged with multiple offences after the death of Ali Mansur Mohammed, the U.S. military said.

The charge sheet said Lt. Behenna used a pistol to shoot Mr. Mohammed "at or near Forward Operating Base Summerall, Iraq."

Sgt. Warner was charged with "premeditated murder, accessory after the fact, assault, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice," the statement said.

SWEDEN

Downpour drenches gay parade turnout

STOCKHOLM | Hundreds of thousands of people braved pouring rain in Stockholm Saturday to watch or participate in this year's EuroPride parade to protest discrimination against homosexuals.

Sweden is hosting the weeklong EuroPride 2008 festival, which takes place in a different European country each year.

Organizers expected as many as 100,000 to take part in the parade and about 500,000 spectators. But heavy rain pounding the Swedish capital appeared to have dissuaded many.

SRI LANKA

Pakistani leader vows bombing probe

Gilani

COLOMBO | Pakistan's prime minister on Saturday promised to investigate accusations that his country's intelligence agency was involved in the deadly July 7 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, a top Indian diplomat said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also told his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, that he would discuss the matter with Afghanistan's president, Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters.

Both India and Afghanistan have accused Pakistan of involvement in the suicide bomb attack outside the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital on July 7, which killed more than 60 people.

On Saturday, Mr. Gilani told reporters that if Afghan President Hamid Karzai provided any evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the attack, he would order an independent inquiry. He also asked the Indian side to share any information that it had to substantiate its charge that elements in Pakistan were behind the blast, the Indian foreign secretary said.

SOMALIA

10 of 15 ministers resign from Cabinet

MOGADISHU | Two-thirds of Somalia's Cabinet ministers resigned Saturday, officials said, widening a rift between the president and prime minister that threatens to wreck the country's interim government.

The 10 ministers who quit were all allies of President Abdullahi Yusuf, who has appeared increasingly at odds with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. This week, Mr. Yusuf revoked an order by Mr. Hussein sacking Mogadishu's powerful mayor.

It was not immediately clear what effect the move would have on the work of the interim government, which has struggled to impose its authority on the chaotic Horn of Africa nation since coming to power at the start of last year.

One Somali member of parliament who asked not to be named said one group of lawmakers was calling on Mr. Hussein to resign over financial irregularities in his administration.


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World Scene


August 4, 2008

INDIA

Stampede turns deadly for pilgrims

NEW DELHI | Thousands of panicked pilgrims stampeded Sunday at a remote mountaintop temple in northern India during celebrations to honor a Hindu goddess, sending dozens of people plummeting to their deaths and trampling scores more. Police said 145 people were killed.

Rumors of a landslide apparently started the panic at the shrine in the foothills of the Himalayas, said C.P. Verma, a senior government official in the Bilaspur district.

Pilgrims already at the Naina Devi Temple began running down the narrow path leading from the peak. There, they collided with devotees winding their way up.

With a concrete wall on one side and a precipice on the other, there was nowhere to escape and they were crushed. At one point, a guardrail broke and dozens of people fell to their deaths.

At the Bilaspur hospital in Himachal Pradesh state, rescue workers unloaded bodies wrapped in brown blankets from a truck and laid them in neat rows so they could be identified by relatives.

Tens of thousands of worshippers had flocked to the remote temple in the foothills of the Himalayas to celebrate Shravan Navratras, a nine-day festival that honors the Hindu goddess Shakrti, or divine mother.

EGYPT

Al Qaeda confirms death in air strike

CAIRO | Al Qaeda confirmed Sunday the death of a top commander accused of training the suicide bombers who killed 17 American sailors on the USS Cole eight years ago.

Abu Khabab al-Masri, who had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States, is thought to have been killed in an air strike apparently launched by the U.S. in Pakistan last week.

An al Qaeda statement posted on the Internet said al-Masri and three other top figures were killed and warned of vengeance for their deaths. It did not say when, where or how they died but said some of their children were killed along with them.

Pakistani authorities have said they think al-Masri is one of six people killed in an air strike on July 28 on a compound in South Waziristan, a lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.

Al-Masri is thought to have conducted experiments in chemical and biological weapons, testing materials on dogs.

ZIMBABWE

Rivals resume power-sharing talks

JOHANNESBURG | Zimbabwe's rival parties resumed power-sharing talks on Sunday, one day before the expiration of a deadline to conclude discussions over ending the country's ruinous political crisis.

After nearly a weeklong break and suggestions the talks were deadlocked, negotiators met again in South Africa to resolve the crisis, which intensified after President Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election.

"They started this afternoon," said Mukoni Ratshitanga, spokesman for South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mediating the talks that have been held in a secret location.

He said more talks were to occur on Monday, but declined to provide further details.

A spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Tapiwa Mashakada, confirmed that the party's negotiators had returned to Pretoria for Sunday's meeting.

The meeting came after a bomb exploded at Harare's main police station Saturday night, shattering windows and damaging 13 offices and a kitchen, but causing no injuries, police said. It was not clear who was responsible.

ISRAEL

Officer suspended in child's shooting

JERUSALEM | Israeli police have questioned and suspended a border policeman suspected of fatally shooting a Palestinian boy during a protest against Israel's separation barrier last week, a spokesman said Sunday.

Twelve-year-old Hamed Mussa was killed Tuesday by a live bullet fired by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank village of Nilin, a site for regular demonstrations against the controversial barrier.

"One border policeman that was at the scene at the time of the incident was questioned for 24 hours and sent for house arrest for five days in connection with the incident," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France-Presse.

The police investigation, still under way, is being carried out among all border police units present near the flash-point village at the time, he added.

Israel says the projected 454 miles of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire is needed for security, while Palestinians view it as a land grab that undermines their future state.

To date, Israel has built 57 percent of the projected barrier, most of it in the West Bank.


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World Scene


August 5, 2008

IRAQ

Compromise sought in Kirkuk standoff

BAGHDAD | Iraqi political leaders reached a tentative compromise on Monday that could resolve a stalemate over the fate of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and allow local elections to go ahead, the deputy speaker of parliament said.

Lawmakers rescheduled for Tuesday a vote on a provincial election law, which had been held up by wrangling over Kirkuk that has threatened to escalate into renewed ethnic strife.

Washington has been pressing hard on Iraqi leaders to resolve the standoff before it jeopardizes the elections, originally scheduled for Oct. 1 and seen as vital to reconciling the country's factions and solidifying its fragile democracy.

"The new date has been set after fresh hope appeared of reaching an agreement," said Khalid al-Attiya, deputy parliament speaker and a member of Iraq's largest Shi'ite bloc.

A vote had been planned for Sunday but it was scrapped when lawmakers failed to agree on how the elections would affect Kirkuk, which minority Kurds want to make part of their semiautonomous northern region.

Although violence has fallen to its lowest level since 2004, Iraq remains a dangerous place. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and one was wounded on Monday when a bomb struck their vehicle in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Vice President Adil Abd al-Mahdi, a member of the Shi'ite majority, gathered rival politicians at his home to broker an end to the standoff over the elections, which the United States and United Nations are urging Iraq to hold this year.

ITALY

Troops in cities to fight crime

ROME | More than 1,000 troops fanned out across Italy on Monday to help police fight crime on orders from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, an unorthodox use of the armed forces dismissed by critics as a publicity stunt.

The deployment, which will soon rise to 3,000 troops, was the most visible initiative so far in a law-and-order campaign by the conservative leader. He was elected in April on a pledge to make the country safer.

Soldiers were sent to Rome, Milan, Turin and Palermo with orders to patrol streets along with police and help protect "sensitive" sites, from Milan's Duomo cathedral to embassies and consulates.

PAKISTAN

Battles rage in tribal areas

MINGORA | Pakistan's army killed 94 Islamist militants and lost 14 soldiers in fighting in the northwestern Swat Valley in the past week and plans a major operation against the insurgents, a senior officer said on Monday.

The ferocity of the clashes sounded the death knell for a peace deal between the government and militants seeking to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the alpine valley that was once one of Pakistan's main tourist destinations.

Among the 14 soldiers killed were three members of the Inter-Services Intelligence, who were killed on July 28 in an ambush by fighters loyal to a radical cleric called Fazlullah.

Mr. Fazlullah launched a campaign of violence last year, drawing the army into a conflict at a time when militants across northwest Pakistan had launched a wave of suicide attacks on security forces and leading politicians.

KENYA

Militants charged over al Qaeda escape

NAIROBI | Kenya charged three people on Monday with helping a top al Qaeda operative escape over the weekend, nearly 10 years after two U.S. Embassy blasts put the militant group on the world stage. He is accused of planning them.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed has evaded capture since his indictment by the United States for the twin attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 240 people on Aug. 7, 1998.

Police arrested three Kenyans after a raid late on Saturday on a private villa in the resort town of Malindi, and charged them in a Mombasa court on Monday. They seized mobile phones, documents and a camera.

The suspects - Mahfoudh Ashur Hemed and his son, Ibrahim Mahfoudh, and Mr. Mahfoudh's wife, Lutfiya Abubakar - all pleaded not guilty during their appearance in court.

Mohammed, the Comorian-born leader of al Qaeda's east African cell, had sneaked into Kenya from nearby Somalia for treatment of a kidney ailment, Kenyan police have said.

Mohammed is the most-wanted al Qaeda operative in Africa with a $5 million bounty on his head for the 1998 bombings, the first major attack reliably attributed by the United States to the militant group led by Osama bin Laden.



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World scene


August 6, 2008

RWANDA

France accused of genocide role

KIGALI | Rwanda formally accused senior French officials on Tuesday of involvement in its 1994 genocide and called for them to be put on trial.

Among those named in a report by a Rwandan investigation commission were former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the late President Francois Mitterrand.

Kigali has previously accused Paris of covering up its role in training troops and militia who carried out massacres that killed upwards of 800,000 people, and of propping up the ethnic-Hutu leaders who orchestrated the slaughter.

France denies that and says its forces helped protect people during a U.N.-sanctioned mission in Rwanda at the time.

The latest accusations came Tuesday with the publication of the report by an independent Rwandan commission set up to investigate France's role in the bloodshed.

KYRGYZSTAN

Police seize weapons from U.S. officials

BISHKEK | Kyrgyzstan's police raided an apartment rented by U.S. officials and seized dozens of firearms before finding out that the Americans were training Kyrgyz secret services, the government said Tuesday.

Washington operates a military base in Kyrgyzstan to support operations in nearby Afghanistan and counts the ex-Soviet nation as a key ally in Central Asia. But their relations have been soured after a string of incidents at the base in past years.

The Interior Ministry said police had seized six machine guns, 25 assault rifles and a number of smaller firearms on Monday night from a house rented by U.S. officials.

BOLIVIA

Summit canceled after protests

TARIJA | The leaders of Venezuela and Argentina canceled a trip to Bolivia on Tuesday after protests roiled the country and two miners were killed before a recall vote facing President Evo Morales.

In Tarija in southern Bolivia, dozens of protesters tried to storm the main airport, forcing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to call off a trip there for energy talks with Mr. Morales.

Tensions are high across South America's poorest country before a recall vote Sunday that will either ratify Mr. Morales and eight of nine regional governors or force them out of office.

BRITAIN

Court delays extradition to U.S.

BRUSSELS | Britain agreed Tuesday to delay the extradition of a radical Muslim preacher to face charges that he helped set up an al Qaeda terrorist training camp in Oregon.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ruled Monday that Abu Hamza al-Masri should not be extradited until judges can examine his case. Britain's Home Office said it would abide by the court's request.

In June, Britain's High Court ruled that he should be sent to the U.S. to face the charges. The House of Lords, Britain's highest court of appeal, upheld the ruling.

A former imam at the British capital's Finsbury Park Mosque, the Egyptian-born Briton is blind in one eye and has hooks in place of the hands he says he lost fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

IRAQ

Palestinians to be resettled

GENEVA | Iceland and Sweden will take in nearly 200 Palestinian refugees stranded in makeshift desert camps on Iraq's border with Syria.

The Palestinian community in Iraq has become a target for persecution largely because others thought they were favored under the regime of the now-deceased Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Over two dozen Palestinians will leave the Al Waleed refugee camp in the next few weeks for Iceland, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Tuesday. Another 155 Palestinian refugees from the Al Tanf refugee camp will be resettled in Sweden, he said.

RUSSIA

Thousands honor Solzhenitsyn

MOSCOW | Thousands of Russians braved a pelting rain Tuesday to pay tribute to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, attending a formal mourning for the author, dissident and patriot that had all the trappings of an official lying-in-state ceremony.

A military honor guard stood next to Mr. Solzhenitsyn's open casket, placed in a hall at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Mourners filed by and placed long-stemmed flowers at the foot of the bier for the Nobel Literature Prize winner.

Vladimir Putin, now prime minister after eight years as president, was among the mourners who stopped to express his condolences.

Mr. Solzhenitsyn, who died Sunday at his home outside Moscow at age 89 from a chronic heart condition, is to be buried Wednesday at the Russian capital's Donskoi Monastery.

SOUTH AFRICA

Judge to rule Sept. 12 on Zuma

PIETERMARITZBURG | A South African judge announced Tuesday he will rule Sept. 12 whether to dismiss fraud and corruption charges against the country's strongest presidential candidate, Jacob Zuma.

Judge Chris Nicholson also set Dec. 8 as the provisional date for Mr. Zuma's criminal trial in case he does not throw out the case before then.

The 66-year-old president of the governing African National Congress party and former guerrilla leader stands accused, along with a French arms company, of bribery in a 1999 arms deal.

MONTENEGRO

4 Americans convicted in plot

PODGORICA | Four Michigan residents were among 12 ethnic Albanians convicted Tuesday of plotting a rebellion to carve out a homeland within the tiny Balkan republic of Montenegro.

The Americans of Montenegrin origin were part of a group arrested in September 2006 on the eve of a key parliamentary election in Montenegro, which had just become independent of Serbia. Authorities say they were planning attacks on institutions in a predominantly ethnic-Albanian-populated eastern part of Montenegro with the aim of creating an autonomous region.

Three of the Americans, Sokol Ivanaj and cousins Kola Dedvukaj and Rrok Dedvukaj, had lived for decades in Michigan, but were on a visit to Montenegro when apprehended. A fourth American, Doda Ljucaj, was the purported mastermind of the plot. He was born in Montenegro, but lived in the United States and was arrested in Vienna, Austria, later in 2006.


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World Scene


August 7, 2008

IRAQ

Parliament fails to pass voting law

BAGHDAD | Iraqi lawmakers adjourned for the month Wednesday after failing to agree on a provincial election law, thus casting doubt on whether U.S.-backed balloting can be held in the country's 18 provinces this year.

The development is a setback to U.S. hopes for reconciliation among rival communities despite the decline in violence.

The decision to go into summer recess came after lawmakers failed to break a deadlock over Kurdish opposition to a power-sharing formula for the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk despite days of intense negotiations and heavy pressure from U.S. and U.N. officials.

ISRAEL

Olmert offers to free 150 Palestinians

JERUSALEM | Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to free at least 150 Palestinian prisoners in a meeting Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a gesture meant to energize their sluggish peace talks.

The release could also boost the prestige of the embattled Palestinian leader, whose Fatah movement is engaged in a tense power struggle with the militant Islamic Hamas.

The meeting at Mr. Olmert's official Jerusalem residence was the first since the Israeli leader announced last week that he would resign next month because of corruption investigations against him.

AFGHANISTAN

Pakistan accused of aiding insurgents

KABUL | Afghanistan's spy agency asserted Wednesday that a Pakistani consulate official directed and funded terrorist activities carried out by a Taliban commander.

Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said a diplomat at the consulate in the southern Kandahar province gave "orders and money" to Mullah Rahmatullah, a Taliban militant in the region who was captured by Afghan intelligence agents on Tuesday in Kandahar city.

Afghanistan and reportedly the United States believe Pakistan's powerful spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, orchestrated the July 7 bombing outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul that killed more than 60 people. Pakistan denies the claim.

PAKISTAN

Musharraf delays China trip

ISLAMABAD | Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf delayed a visit to China on Wednesday by a day, the foreign ministry said, as opponents in the coalition government consulted over his possible impeachment.

Mr. Musharraf was to fly Wednesday to attend opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics and meet China's leadership but he put off his departure.

Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the ruling alliance, was meeting with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resolve their differences over the issues of Mr. Musharraf's impeachment and the restoration of Supreme Court judges who were dismissed by the president last November during a brief period of emergency rule.

COLOMBIA

Red Cross objects to misuse of emblem

GENEVA | The International Red Cross said Wednesday that Colombia violated the Geneva Conventions by deliberately using its humanitarian emblem during the covert military mission that freed Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages.

New video footage of the operation contradicts an earlier claim by Colombia's government that the emblem was a last-minute addition to the daring ruse that rescued 15 hostages from the FARC rebel group last month, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Use of the Red Cross symbol in a military operation violates the first Geneva Convention because it could damage the relief group's neutrality in conflicts, endangering medical personnel on the battlefield who are using the cross for protection.

UNITED NATIONS

Karadzic seeks U.S. witnesses

AMSTERDAM | Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic applied Wednesday to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to summon three former U.S. officials and a former prosecutor to support his claim that he was offered an immunity deal.

Mr. Karadzic, who is charged with genocide and war crimes, petitioned the court to call former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her envoy, Richard Holbrooke, to testify about an agreement he contends he made in 1996 to quietly leave Bosnian politics and "disappear."

He also sought to call Richard Goldstone, a former chief war crimes prosecutor, and the U.S. special adviser to the prosecutor, William Stuebner, to testify that the State Department requested to have the indictment against Mr. Karadzic suspended.

Last week, Mr. Holbrooke repeated his denial of Mr. Karadzic's account, calling "it an invented story" that no one should believe.

ISRAEL

Al Jazeera 'party' draws rebuke

JERUSALEM | Israel said Wednesday it would no longer assist Al Jazeera because of what it said was a televised party hosted by the influential Arabic television station for a Lebanese prisoner freed last month.

The head of Israel's Government Press Office said Al Jazeera would get only minimal services until it provided a "reasonable answer" about a program that featured a birthday party for Samir Qantar, who spent 29 years in an Israeli jail for a 1979 attack in which five Israelis were killed.

During the program, produced and hosted by Al Jazeera, Mr. Qantar uses a scimitar to slice a cake with his picture on it, while fireworks are set off around him and a band plays Arabic music.

THAILAND

Air force helicopter crashes, killing 10

YALA | A Thai military helicopter crashed while transporting officers to a base in the country's restive south Wednesday, killing all 10 on board, an air force spokesman said.

The cause of the late-morning crash was under investigation but authorities had ruled out the involvement of Islamic separatists in the downing of the chopper. The helicopter was carrying two pilots and two engineers. The rest were search and rescue officers.

The helicopter crashed in Yala province's Bethong district, near the Malaysian border. Yala is among three Muslim-dominated provinces where an insurgency has raged for four years.


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CHINA

Koreas refuse to march together

BEIJING | South and North Korea will not march together in Friday's opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said Thursday that negotiations for a joint march failed, calling it a "setback for peace" and reunification efforts on the divided peninsula.

Athletes from the two Koreas marched together in the same uniform under the blue and white "unification flag" at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2004 Athens Games.

Mr. Rogge said there had been a "great willingness" among the two national Olympic committees for a joint march, but the political leaders did not agree.

The two sides fought the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving them still technically at war.

ISRAEL

Soldiers in shooting video charged

JERUSALEM | The Israeli army charged two soldiers Thursday over the purported shooting with a rubber bullet at point-blank range of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian, a military spokesman said.

Lt. Col. Omri Borberg, a regimental commander suspended last month pending a military investigation, was transferred from his position a day earlier over allegations he ordered the soldier, identified only as Staff Sergeant L., to fire the bullet.

The Military Advocate General said it was charging the soldiers with the offense of "unworthy conduct." An army spokesman said the two could each receive a maximum one-year jail sentence.

The incident took place five weeks ago in the West Bank village of Nilin during protests against the construction of Israel's barrier in and around the occupied territory.

MAURITANIA

Junta pledges vote but U.S. freezes aid

NOUAKCHOTT | Leaders of a military coup in Mauritania promised Thursday to hold a free and transparent presidential election as soon as possible, but the United States suspended aid and demanded an immediate return to civilian rule.

Soldiers ousted the nation's first freely elected president, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, on Wednesday after he tried to dismiss military chiefs widely seen to have turned against Abdallahi in a political crisis in Africa's newest oil producer.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the military's overthrow of the democratically elected government in Mauritania and at present, all non-humanitarian foreign assistance is suspended and under review," a State Department spokesman said. He said more than $20 million of aid was suspended.

SYRIA

Top dissident freed from prison

DAMASCUS | Syria on Thursday released one of the country's most prominent dissidents after nearly seven years in prison - a man whose freedom was urged by international rights groups and President Bush.

Aref Dalila, a former head of economics at Damascus University, was freed under an amnesty by President Bashar Assad, his brother, Mustafa, told the Associated Press.

Mr. Dalila, 68, was arrested in 2001 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of attempting to change the Syrian constitution, inciting armed rebellion and spreading false information.

BRITAIN

'Great Escape' veteran dies at 92

LONDON | Eric Dowling, nicknamed "Digger" for helping excavate tunnels used in the breakout from a World War II German prison camp that became known as the "Great Escape," has died. He was 92.

Mr. Dowling played a key role in planning the 1944 escape by 76 prisoners from Stalag Luft III prison near Sagan in eastern Germany - now Zagan, Poland. He forged documents, made maps and helped dig three tunnels code-named Tom, Dick and Harry.

The daring breakout was one of the most celebrated incidents of the war and inspired the 1963 film "The Great Escape" starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough. All but three of the escapees were recaptured, and 50 of them were shot on the orders of Adolf Hitler to deter future attempts.


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World Scene


August 9, 2008

BRITAIN

Flu higher risk than terrorism

LONDON | Pandemic flu, not terrorism, is the most serious risk to the British public, says the country's first national threat assessment published Friday.

The document, part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's overhaul of homeland security strategy, considers the likely dangers posed by threats including terrorism, climate change, extreme weather and pandemic disease.

Britain's Cabinet Office — which drafted the document — said a potential flu pandemic poses the most imminent danger over the next five years.

Previous government assessments have suggested an outbreak could cause as many as 750,000 deaths in Britain and acknowledged it could take several months to develop adequate vaccines against a particular strain of the virus.

IRAQ

Baghdad zoo gets tiger cubs from U.S.

BAGHDAD | The Baghdad Zoo on Friday welcomed a pair of rare Bengal tiger cubs that were donated by the North Carolina-based Conservators' Center, despite protests by animal rights activists.

The tigers — a male and a female named Riley and Hope — arrived Monday after being flown to Baghdad from the United States in a $66,000 trip funded by the U.S. Embassy and transported to the zoo by the U.S. military.

Animal rights activists led by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals criticized the move, saying it was premature as Baghdad continues to reel from violence and destroyed infrastructure.

They also pointed to past violence against animals at the zoo, many of which were killed amid widespread fighting and looting that ensued after the Americans captured Baghdad. A U.S. soldier fatally shot a tiger at the zoo in September 2003 after the animal bit another soldier who had reached through the bars of the cage to feed it.

U.S. actress Kim Basinger also sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unsuccessfully asking it to revoke the export permit for the Bengal tigers, which are an endangered species.

SUDAN

Accord reached on oil region

KHARTOUM | Sudan's former north-south foes have agreed on an administration for the disputed oil-producing Abyei region where clashes this year had threatened to derail a 2005 peace deal, officials said Friday.

Clashes in Abyei in May killed scores and drove 50,000 from their homes. Abyei is home to oil wells that have fueled an economic boom in Sudan.

After the fighting in May, the two sides agreed to a road map to resolve the crisis with a joint force to patrol there and discussions on how the region would be run.

The north-south peace deal in 2005 ended Africa's longest civil war, shared power and wealth, enshrined democratic transformation and created separate north and south armies.

WEST BANK

Phone firm to help pay salaries

JERUSALEM | Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank economist, has found an unconventional way to get cash to pay salaries for the month. He secured a last-minute lifeline from a mobile phone company that was keen to speed its entry into the Palestinian market, and which had the help of Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

Western and Palestinian officials said the financial arrangement came together last week when Israel agreed to assign radio frequencies enabling Wataniya Palestine Mobile Telecommunications Co. to begin operations. The company, in turn, agreed to quickly pump an initial $78 million into the Palestinian Authority's cash-strapped accounts.

Mr. Fayyad paid salaries to workers Thursday after announcing that he had received $42 million from the United Arab Emirates. He made no mention of cash from Wataniya Palestine, an arm of Kuwait's National Mobile Telecommunications Co., which is in turn controlled by Qatar Telecommunications Co.

BRITAIN

Paper apologizes for royals story

LONDON | One of Britain's most-read newspapers was forced to apologize Friday after falsely reporting that Queen Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, had prostate cancer.

London's Evening Standard made the apology after Buckingham Palace complained to the Press Complaints Commission about the Aug. 6 front-page story.

"We now accept that the story was untrue and that he is not suffering from any such condition," the Evening Standard said.

The Standard's apology came two weeks after a High Court judge ruled that the tabloid newspaper News of the World had breached the privacy of motor racing chief Max Mosley by revealing his part in German-themed sex orgies with prostitutes.

JAPAN

Chinese jet returns after bomb threat

TOKYO | An Air China passenger jet was forced to return to Japan and four others were delayed Friday after a bomb threat was e-mailed to the airline's Tokyo office, the Japanese Transport Ministry said.

The anonymous e-mail, written in Japanese, told the Chinese airline to suspend its flights or the writer would "bomb the aircraft," ministry official Fumio Yasukawa said.

The opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was held later Friday. China's official Xinhua News Agency said the airline ordered all of its flights not to depart from Japan until their safety was ensured.

The plane that was forced to return to Japan, which was carrying 70 people from Nagoya to Chongqing via Shanghai, and four other delayed Air China flights took off later Friday after no bombs were found on them, ministry officials said.


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Marwatone.

World Scene


August 10, 2008

MEXICO

Border city fines American drivers

MEXICO CITY | A Mexican border city has begun fining American drivers who cross the border to fill extra drums, tanks or barrels with government-subsidized fuel.

The city of Ciudad Acuna, across the border from Del Rio, Texas, said Friday that it fined four U.S. residents for carrying extra diesel and would impound their cars until they pay. The fines equal 70 percent of the value of the diesel confiscated.

American drivers can fill up their own vehicles, but carrying extra fuel containers back across the border violates customs regulations and possibly safety rules, a report from the city said.

Mexico, one of the world's top 10 oil producers, sells diesel fuel domestically at subsidized prices of about $2.25 per gallon, about half the U.S. price.

MAURITANIA

Deposed president held for 'security'

NOUAKCHOTT | The leader of Mauritania's coup said the democratically elected president he deposed would not be released because of "security concerns," a London-based Arabic newspaper reported Saturday.

Ousted President Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi, overthrown Wednesday, is in good health, junta leader Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was quoted as saying by the pan-Arab, Saudi-funded newspaper Asharq Awsat.

Gen. Aziz promised elections would be held but could not give a date. Gen. Aziz engineered the coup after Mr. Abdallahi fired him and three other top military officials.

IRAQ

Death toll rises in market bombing

BAGHDAD | The death toll from a blast in a market in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar rose to 25 on Saturday, after four of the six dozen people injured died from their wounds, a security official said.

The predominantly ethnic Turkoman town was under an indefinite curfew following Friday's bombing, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to the speak to the media.

The official, who was familiar with the investigation, said the blast was carried out by a lone Sunni Turkoman suicide bomber from Tal Afar, whose identity was established after forensic tests on his remains.

ITALY

Terror suspicions lead to 5 arrests

ROME | Police broke up a suspected terror cell Saturday and arrested five North Africans, including the leader who Italian officials said recruited Islamic extremists for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authorities also suspect the cell sent tens of thousands of dollars to groups in Bosnia that offer training and logistical support to Iraqi and Afghan terror organizations, Italian authorities said.

Police arrested the five suspects - four Tunisians and one Moroccan - in Bologna and the nearby towns of Faenza and Imola.

ZIMBABWE

Deal appears close on unity government

HARARE | Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will meet opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday to discuss the formation of a possible unity government, Mr. Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba said.

News of the meeting is the clearest sign yet that the parties could be close to a deal after a disputed election in March. Mr. Charamba said the meeting would also include Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a breakaway MDC faction.



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