World Scene


October 4, 2008

BRITAIN

Brown brings foe into Cabinet

LONDON | British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revamped his Cabinet on Friday, recalling old hand and one-time political opponent Peter Mandelson in an effort to shore up his prime ministership at a time of economic crisis.

The return of Mr. Mandelson, the European Union trade commissioner, was a surprise given a history of rows between him and Mr. Brown, and his preference for the policies and leadership of Mr. Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair.

Mr. Mandelson will be business minister and is expected to play a central role in a newly created economic council that will meet twice a week to frame policies and help people cope with the fallout from the economic crisis.

KENYA

Dispute brewing over U.S. visa ban

NAIROBI | A diplomatic dispute was brewing Friday between the U.S. and Kenya over a potential visa ban for Kenyan officials who oversaw last year's catastrophic elections.

More than 1,000 died in clashes following the Dec. 27 disputed vote, which returned the incumbent president to power by a narrow margin after the opposition's wide lead suddenly evaporated.

Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula says Kenya's 22 electoral commissioners have been threatened with a visa ban after they refused to resign as recommended by a government commission.

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement Friday saying it did not comment on visa applications. However, the same statement said Kenyans had lost confidence in the commissioners and urged the government to replace the entire electoral board as recommended by a commission of inquiry chaired by a South African judge.

UNITED NATIONS

Syria drops bid for IAEA seat

VIENNA, Austria | Faced with stiff opposition among 145 member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Syria on Friday dropped a bid for a seat on the IAEA's governing body, clearing the way for rival Western-backed Afghanistan to get the post, diplomats said.

Syria later said it was cooperating fully with a U.N. inquiry into allegations of secret nuclear work in the country, but would not go as far as opening up military sites because this would undermine its security.

The Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog has been probing Syria since May over U.S. intelligence allegations that it was close to completing a secret, plutonium-producing reactor before Israel flattened the site in an air strike a year ago.

SRI LANKA

Fighting kills 42; food reaches war zone

COLOMBO | Sri Lanka unleashed more air strikes Friday on the seat of the separatist Tamil Tigers' quasi-government, and the first food aid to the war zone in weeks arrived after intense combat the army said had killed 42.

As battles raged across the front in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation, aid workers offloaded more than half of a 51-truck convoy, the first major shipment of food into the battle zone since the government barred aid groups last month.

Humanitarian groups say 200,000 people are trapped between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who will not let them leave, and an army that has promised safe passage but which most victims fear and distrust after 25 years of war.


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World Scene


October 5, 2008

IRAQ

Iraqi killed in copter collision

BAGHDAD | Two U.S. helicopters collided while landing at a base in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi soldier.

A U.S. military statement said two Americans and two Iraqis were injured when the UH-60 Black Hawks crashed at about 8:55 p.m. in a northern section of the capital.

Military spokesman Capt. Charles Calio said it was not clear how severe the collision was, but hostile fire was not suspected as a cause.

The military said it was unclear how many people were on board the aircraft and an investigation was under way.

RUSSIA

Security tightened after bomb kills 8

MOSCOW | Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday ordered a tightening of security in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region after a bomb killed eight Russian soldiers amid tensions over a planned troop pullback.

Mr. Medvedev ordered a "painstaking investigation" into Friday's car bomb blast at a Russian military base in the separatist capital Tskhinvali after the administration there said the toll had risen from seven to eight Russian soldiers. Three civilians also died.

The Russian leader ordered the defense ministry, in coordination with Georgia's Moscow-backed separatist administration, to take "all necessary steps to prevent criminal acts against Russian peacekeepers and the civilian population," the Kremlin said.

CHINA

Beijing denounces Taiwan arms sale

BEIJING | China on Saturday denounced proposed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan worth $6.5 billion, according to state media, warning "there is only one China in the world" and "Taiwan is a part of China."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the government firmly opposed the move, which would seriously damage Chinese interests and Sino-U.S. relations.

Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei summoned the charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy to protest the move, according to a spokesman, the state Xinhua news agency said.

IRAQ

Poland marks end of mission in Iraq

DIWANIYAH, Iraq | Poland marked the end of its military mission to Iraq with a ceremony on Saturday at its main base south of Baghdad, the latest in a string of countries to leave the U.S.-led coalition.

As a band played Poland's anthem, Polish soldiers hoisted their nation's red and white flag on a parade field at Camp Echo, the base just outside Diwaniyah, a city on the fertile banks of the Euphrates River.

Poland, the third largest force in the U.S.-led coalition after the United States and Britain, plans to send its 900 troops home by the end of this month.

ZIMBABWE

Power-sharing deal remains elusive

HARARE | Zimbabwe's political rivals were still deadlocked Saturday on the makeup of a new government after failing to agree on the allocation of key portfolios in talks here.

President Robert Mugabe, opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, the head of a small MDC offshoot, met in the capital Harare but the talks broke up without an agreement on the allocation of the finance and home affairs Cabinet posts.


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World Scene


October 6, 2008

ISRAEL

Livni spells out desire for peace

JERUSALEM | Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in her first policy address since being nominated to form Israel's next government, voiced on Sunday her commitment to continue peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

"Annapolis will continue," Mrs. Livni said, referring to a U.S.-sponsored peace conference last November that restarted negotiations on a Palestinian state.

"Let us not allow dates or political changes to stand in our way," she said in an address at Israel's Foreign Ministry.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have expressed doubts they could meet Washington's goal of reaching at least a framework peace deal by the end of the year, before President Bush leaves office. Mrs. Livni is expected to be named prime minister shortly.

MEXICO

Tropical storm grows in Pacific

MEXICO CITY | The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Norbert is strengthening off Mexico's southern Pacific coast and could become a hurricane in the next 24 hours.

The center says Norbert is centered 215 miles south of the Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa resort area with winds of 60 mph.

Norbert formed late Saturday, and the hurricane center says it could become a hurricane by Monday. Its northwestern path could bring it west of the Baja California Peninsula by Friday morning.

Tropical Storm Marie, meanwhile, lingered 845 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, posing no threat to land

SWEDEN

Female doctors candidates for Nobel

STOCKHOLM | Two scientists who have won acclaim for research into the growth of cancer cells could be candidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine when the 2008 winners are presented on Monday, kicking off six days of Nobel announcements.

Australian-born U.S. citizen Elizabeth Blackburn and American Carol Greider have already won a series of medical honors for their enzyme research, and experts say they could be among the front-runners for a Nobel.

Only seven women have won the medicine prize since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901. The last female winner was U.S. researcher Linda Buck in 2004, who shared the prize with Richard Axel.

Among the pair's possible rivals are Frenchman Pierre Chambon and Americans Ronald Evans and Elwood Jensen, who opened up the field of studying proteins called nuclear hormone receptors.

Alfred Nobel, the Swede who invented dynamite, established the prizes in his will in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. The economics prize is technically not a Nobel, but a 1968 creation of Sweden's central bank.

IRAQ

Egyptian minister visits government

BAGHDAD | Egypt sent its foreign minister to Iraq on Sunday for the first time in nearly two decades in a sign of growing Arab acceptance of the country's Shi'ite-led government.

In the north, 11 people including women and children died during a U.S. raid on a house in Mosul, where an extremist detonated a suicide vest - a stark reminder that Iraq still faces security challenges despite the drop in violence.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said his visit was aimed at helping Iraq face its "many challenges," including extremism, violence and sectarian hatred.

The United States has been urging the mostly Sunni-run Arab countries to shore up relations with Shi'ite-led Iraq as a counterweight to the influence of Shi'ite-dominated Iran. But the Arabs were reluctant during the height of Shi'ite-Sunni fighting, which receded last year after the U.S. troop surge.

KUWAIT

Kiss on stage ends concert

KUWAIT CITY | A Kuwaiti official says authorities abruptly ended a music concert by an Egyptian singer in this conservative Muslim country when a young female fan jumped on stage, hugged the male singer and gave him a kiss.

Qanas al-Adwani, who heads the government department that monitors public entertainment, says the girl's behavior at Friday's concert "defied the conservative traditions" of Kuwait.

Mr. al-Adwani also said Sunday that the fan's behavior broke controls on public entertainment, which were imposed by influential Muslim hard-liners after they failed in 1997 to ban concerts altogether.

Concerts have to be licensed by the government, and monitors from the Information Ministry watch the crowd to make sure nobody stands up to dance.

HONG KONG

Chinese poison hits Cadbury candy

HONG KONG | Hong Kong authorities says tests have shown the amount of melamine in Britain's Cadbury chocolate and cookies exceed a safe level for human consumption.

The two contaminated samples announced Sunday are among a list of 11 Chinese-made products being recalled in parts of Asia and the Pacific by the British candy maker.

The center says samples of the brand's Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate and Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate Bulk Pack have been found to contain melamine above the city's legal limit.

Calls to Cadbury offices in London and Asia Pacific went unanswered Sunday.

Cadbury has said preliminary tests showed traces of melamine in chocolates produced at its Beijing factory, but the exact level was not known.

ZIMBABWE

Talks continue; deal still elusive

HARARE | Zimbabwe's political factions are back in talks but have yet to agree on a unity Cabinet.

President Robert Mugabe and his main rivals signed a power-sharing agreement last month brokered by then-South African President Thabo Mbeki. Since then, though, they have made no progress on deciding who would hold which posts in the Cabinet.

Mr. Mbeki has agreed to resume mediating. But the two sides met without him Saturday.

Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, said Sunday that negotiators were going back to the table to find what he called "a domestic remedy" before deciding whether it was necessary to call back mediators.

VATICAN

Benedict warns of godless culture

ROME | Pope Benedict XVI warned Sunday that modern culture is pushing God out of people's lives, causing nations once rich in religious faith to lose their identities.

Benedict celebrated a Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to open a worldwide meeting of bishops on the relevance of the Bible for contemporary Catholics.

"Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture," said Benedict, who has been pushing for religion to be given more room in society.

The meeting of 253 bishops, known as a synod of bishops, will run from Monday through Oct. 26. The Vatican said that despite Benedict's efforts to improve relations with Communist China, no bishops have come from the mainland, although there are prelates from Macau and Hong Kong.

Many of China's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church with bishops loyal to the pope.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Vote expected to favor nationalists

SARAJEVO | Bosnians voted Sunday in their fourth post-war local elections, which are expected to confirm the dominance of the ruling nationalists in the ethnically divided Balkan country.

More than 3 million Bosnians were eligible to elect 140 mayors and local councils in 149 municipalities after a campaign marked by widespread nationalistic rhetoric and a neglect of local issues.

They were choosing between 29,000 candidates from 72 parties and 41 coalitions.

SERBIA

Milosevic ouster commemorated

BELGRADE | Serbia's democratic parties Sunday marked eight years since a popular uprising that ousted strongman president Slobodan Milosevic, pledging to keep leading their country toward EU membership.

"October 5 is the day when Serbia irretrievably took a path of democratization, modernization and developing of European values," the ruling Democratic Party (DS) of President Boris Tadic said in a statement.

Top DS officials laid wreaths on the grave of Zoran Djindjic, the architect of the uprising and first democratic prime minister, slain three years later in front of government buildings.

Mr. Milosevic was forced to step down after hundreds of thousands of Serbians took the streets of central Belgrade, stormed into the parliament and state television buildings and demanded he concede defeat in a Yugoslav presidential election after more than 10 years of autocratic rule.

Mr. Milosevic died in 2006 in prison in The Hague before the end of his war-crimes trial.

RUSSIA

Israel to return Czarist property

JERUSALEM | The Israeli government voted Sunday to hand over Sergei House, a Jerusalem property of the Romanov family which ruled Czarist Russia, to the Russian state, government spokesman Mark Regev said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to announce the long-anticipated news, which follows complex negotiations, when he visits Russia on Monday.

The building in the heart of west Jerusalem has long-term tenants whose departure has yet to be negotiated. It would then revert to a home for growing number of Russian Orthodox pilgrims to the Holy Land.


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World Scene


October 7, 2008

SRI LANKA

Suicide bomber kills ex-general, 26 others

COLOMBO | A suicide bomber who hugged a former army general before detonating his explosive-laden vest killed 27 people gathered in a crowded opposition party office in northern Sri Lanka on Monday.

The attack by a suspected rebel came as government troops, in the midst of an offensive against the Tamil Tigers de facto state in the north, closed in on the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The bomber blew himself up as officials from the opposition United National Party gathered to open a new office in the northern town of Anuradhapura.

The blast killed retired Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera, his wife and 25 others, including a television journalist covering the event. It wounded at least 80 people, Brig. Nanayakkara said.

CHINA

Twin quakes shake Tibet; nine dead

BEIJING | Two earthquakes jolted the capital of Tibet and surrounding areas, killing at least nine people and collapsing hundreds of houses, China's state news agency said Tuesday.

Rescuers rushed in to try to save people buried in the rubble.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday's first quake measured magnitude 6.6 and struck at 4:30 p.m. 50 miles west of Lhasa, more than 1,600 miles from Beijing.

The second temblor measuring magnitude 5.1 hit about 15 minutes later, some 60 miles west of the Tibetan capital, it said.

Hundreds of houses collapsed in Gedar township near the epicenter in Dangxiong County, and traffic and telecommunications were cut. Nineteen people were injured, Xinhua said, citing Hao Peng, deputy chairman of the Tibetan regional government.

IRAN

Defiance continues over nuclear effort

TEHRAN | Iran delivered a letter to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Monday that stressed, according to Iranian media, that foreign pressure on Tehran would not resolve the dispute over its nuclear program.

The letter was handed to Mr. Solana, who has represented six major powers in nuclear talks with Iran, by Iran's ambassador to the European Union, Mr. Solana's spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.

Iranian reports said the letter from Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was addressed to the foreign ministers of the six powers: the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia.

THAILAND

Police, protesters clash in streets

BANGKOK | Police fired tear gas Tuesday at several thousand demonstrators attempting to block access by lawmakers to the parliament building in the Thai capital.

Reporters at the scene saw at least one person injured by the gas. Sounds of gunfire were also heard but senior police officials said that only tear gas was being used against the crowd.

The protests are part of an effort by the People's Alliance for Democracy to bring down the government, which it says is merely a proxy for ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006 by military leaders who accused him of corruption and who now resides in exile.

The alliance, which is also occupying the prime minister's residence, marshaled the protesters around streets leading to the parliament during the night.

GEORGIA

Russia pullout moves forward

TBILISI | Russian forces stepped up preparations Monday to withdraw from bases and checkpoints surrounding two separatist regions in Georgia four days ahead of a deadline closely watched by the West.

Moscow must pull back thousands of troops from buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Friday under a deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Russia left troops in the areas after routing Georgia in an August war.

Heavy activity was observed at installations across Georgia - from around the central city of Gori, near South Ossetia, to Zugdidiin in the west, near Abkhazia on the Black Sea.

TURKEY

Warplanes bomb rebel hideout in Iraq

ANKARA | Turkish warplanes bombed a Kurdish rebel hideout in northern Iraq on Monday - the third air strike in retaliation for an attack that killed 15 soldiers three days ago.

The military said its warplanes bombed the Avasin Basyan region of northern Iraq after spotting a group of rebels. Turkish fighter jets had struck suspected rebel hideouts in northern Iraq on Friday and Saturday. And Turkish artillery units pounded suspected rebel positions in the Avasin Basyan region Sunday, the military statement said.

In northern Iraq, a rebel spokesman said the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, had suffered no casualties.

FRANCE

Elite on trial over arms deal

PARIS | The son of late President Francois Mitterrand, a former interior minister and several other men who were once among France's most powerful went on trial Monday over the sale of $790 million in weapons to Angola.

The case centers on two arms traders, Frenchman Pierre Falcone and Israeli Arkady Gaydamak, who sold arms to Angola's government during its war against UNITA rebels in the early 1990s. They are accused of paying a network of political contacts to help them, as well as of illegal arms trading.

The affair, dubbed "Angolagate," was one of several to taint Mr. Mitterrand's 14-year presidency which ended in 1995 and involves political figures from the right and left.

EGYPT

Mubarak pardons newspaper editor

CAIRO | Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday decreed that an outspoken editor need not serve the two-month jail term to which he was sentenced last month for his newspaper's reporting on the president's health.

The state news agency MEAN said Mr. Mubarak issued the decree "to affirm his solicitude for freedom of opinion and expression ... and to ensure that there be no feud between him as president and any Egyptian citizen."

An appeals court in Cairo sentenced Ibrahim Issa, executive editor of al-Dustour newspaper, on Sept. 29 and Issa said at the time that he would start serving the sentence immediately.

INDIA

Christians arrested, charged in killing

BHUBANESWAR | Police arrested two Christians in an eastern Indian state on Monday in connection with the death of a Hindu leader that sparked weeks of deadly clashes, a killing which is also blamed on Maoist rebels.

The arrests were the first in the killing of Laxmanananda Saraswati in August, a Hindu proselytizer linked with India's main Hindu-nationalist opposition party.

The killing unleashed a wave of retaliatory attacks by Hindus on Christians in the rural Kandhamal district of Orissa state - leaving at least 35 people dead - that has been a zone of Christian missionary activities for decades.

Police have arrested about 1,000 people, mostly Hindus, in connection with the attacks in Orissa.

PERU

Energy minister quits over scandal

LIMA | Peru's mines and energy minister, Juan Valdivia, said Monday he has resigned over a scandal that involved steering oil concessions to favored bidders.

The departure of Mr. Valdivia, who has worked to lure billions in foreign investment to the country's vast mining sector and growing petroleum industry, comes as two other high-ranking energy officials were forced out.

"Yes, the president has accepted my resignation," Mr. Valdivia told Reuters news agency.

Alberto Quimper, a board member of the state energy agency Perupetro, which organizes auctions of exploration lots, and Cesar Gutierrez, president of state oil and gas company Petroperu, were both fired, the country's official gazette said.

The scandal was exposed late on Sunday when an audiotape surfaced on an investigative TV news show that included a conversation between Mr. Quimper and Romulo Leon, a prominent member of President Alan Garcia's APRA party, in which they apparently agreed to favor Discover Petroleum of Norway in a round of energy auctions.

The small Norwegian company, which partnered with Petroperu, was later awarded five blocs after the audio recording was made in February.

Peru's justice ministry said it would investigate the banking records of the Peruvian executives, and suspend the contracts awarded to Discover.

MEXICO

PRI rebounds in local election

ACAPULCO | The party that governed Mexico for 71 consecutive years has rebounded in local elections, returns showed on Monday, and a poll had it jumping into the lead for next year's national congressional vote.

Nearly complete results from the southern state of Guerrero showed the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) recapturing mayorships in the major tourist centers of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo while holding onto the state capital, Chilpancingo.

The PRI appears to have benefited from splits in the leftist opposition and by the government's struggle with drug violence and a slowing economy.

The PRI has struggled since losing its seven-decade grip on Mexico's presidency in 2000. It finished third in the 2006 presidential and congressional races. But a poll published Monday by El Universal newspaper showed a clear PRI lead for the 2009 congressional elections.

BRAZIL

Lula's party falls short in races

BRASILIA | Brazil's ruling Workers' Party increased the number of municipalities it governs in Sunday's mayoral elections, but it gained less than expected from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's enormous popularity.

The election result, which could still change in 29 cities with a runoff election on Oct. 26, did not give Mr. Lula da Silva's Workers' Party, or PT, the boost it had hoped for to increase its chances at electing a successor to him in 2010.

The PT won 547 mayors' races Sunday, an increase of 148 over the first round in the last local election in 2004.

But the PT still only placed fourth, lagging behind the centrist PMDB party with 1,200 municipalities, the center-left PSDB with 784 and the Progressive Party with 548.

In Sao Paulo, the largest city and a barometer for national politics, the PT's Marta Suplicy placed second after the incumbent mayor, Gilberto Kassab of the conservative DEM party.

VENEZUELA

Bureaucrats told to trim high living

CARACAS | Bureaucrats in oil-rich Venezuela can look forward to fewer expensive SUVs, top-of-the-line mobile phones and whiskey-fueled parties next year.

Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said Sunday that Venezuela's 2009 budget "will have significant restrictions" compared with this year's $63.9 billion plan as President Hugo Chavez's government keeps a close watch on slumping international oil prices.

"Flamboyant spending is common within Venezuela's bureaucracy-bloated administration and whiskey usually flows freely when state-run institutions throw extravagant parties in December.

Mr. Chavez last year criticized political allies who purchase Hummers, saying true socialists must do without such luxuries. He hinted last month at spending cuts, saying that "zero waste" should be a mantra for government agencies.


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World Scene


October 8, 2008

IRAN

Hungarian plane forced to land

TEHRAN | Iran forced an aircraft carrying Hungarian military officials to land after it entered its airspace, Hungary's Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The plane was allowed to continue to Afghanistan after it was determined the entry was accidental.

The ministry said the airplane, carrying a four-member Hungarian military delegation, had permission to fly over Iran, but that because of an "administrative error," characters in the craft's call signal were changed around and Iranian authorities did not recognize it. It said the incident occurred on Sept. 30.

The military personnel were part of a Hungarian team that took over direction of Kabul's international airport this month.

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency had initially reported that the plane was American and was carrying five military officials and three civilians from Turkey to Afghanistan when it was forced by the Iranian air force to land at an airport for questioning.

The report prompted a denial from the U.S. military's Central Command, which said in a statement from its headquarters in Doha, Qatar, that no American plane was involved.

GUATEMALA

Mexico extradites ex-leader Portillo

GUATEMALA CITY | Mexico extradited former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo on Tuesday to face corruption charges, and the ex-leader told a judge there is no evidence to support the allegations against him.

Mr. Portillo, Guatemala's leader from 2000 to 2004 before fleeing to Mexico, arrived in Guatemala early Tuesday on a Mexican government plane. He is accused of authorizing $15 million in transfers to Guatemala's Defense Department, where officials close to him purportedly pocketed most of the cash.

SOMALIA

Pirates cut ransom to $8 million

MOGADISHU | A man on a hijacked ship carrying tanks and heavy weapons said Tuesday that the ransom had been reduced to $8 million. It was not clear whether he was officially speaking for the pirates holding the vessel.

The man identified himself as Jama Aden and answered the satellite telephone of the pirates' normal spokesman, Sugule Ali. He said in Somali that Ali was not immediately available because he was resting.

The pirates originally demanded $20 million.

GERMANY

Cabinet extends Afghan mission

BERLIN | Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet voted Tuesday to extend Germany's military mission in Afghanistan for 14 months, a German official said.

The decision keeps the German military in Afghanistan until after next year's national elections in Germany.

With the new mandate, the ceiling for the number of German troops serving with the NATO-led international force is expected to increase this year by 1,000 to 4,500.

SPAIN

Court acquits 14 of terrorism

MADRID | Spain's Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted on appeal 14 of the 20 men who were sentenced jail in February for belonging to an Islamic terrorist group suspected of planning to blow up a courthouse.

The National Audience, Spain's top anti-terrorism court, had sentenced the 14 to prison terms from seven to 11 years for membership in an al Qaeda-inspired cell.

The Supreme Court also reduced the sentence of another man from nine to two years. It acquitted him of belonging to a terrorist cell but upheld a conviction for document forgery.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Jerome Corsi, author of "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," was deported Tuesday from Kenya for not having a work permit, just hours before the debut of his book there.

The men were arrested in 2004, several months after the Madrid train bombings of March 11 that killed 191 people.

KENYA

Anti-Obama book author deported

NAIROBI | The American author of a controversial book accusing Sen. Barack Obama of seething with "black rage" and of being unfit for the U.S. presidency was expelled from Kenya on Tuesday.

The deportation of Jerome Corsi came just hours before he was to launch his book in a country where the U.S. Democratic candidate for president is wildly popular.

Mr. Corsi, who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," was detained at immigration headquarters in Nairobi for not having a work permit before being ordered to leave Kenya, said Joseph Mumira, head of criminal investigations at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

UNITED NATIONS

Calls to review biofuel subsidies

ROME | A U.N. agency on Tuesday called for an urgent review of agriculture and biofuel subsidies and trade barriers, saying their removal would increase opportunities for developing countries to take advantage of rising biofuel demand.

Imposing price controls and export bans prevents markets from adjusting and may prolong and deepen the food crisis, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said in a newly released report.

Growing demand for biofuels, which are made from crops such as sugar cane and corn, will contribute to food price increases, but can also promote rural development in poor countries - provided that small farmers gain access to markets and receive support to boost their production.


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October 9, 2008

NEPAL

Plane crash kills 18 near Everest

KATMANDU | A small airplane crashed and caught fire Wednesday as it tried to land in foggy weather at a tiny mountain airport near Mount Everest, killing 18 people, including 16 tourists from Germany, Australia and Nepal, officials said.

Witnesses raced onto the tarmac in search of survivors, but there was only one - the pilot.

The 19-seat Yeti Airlines plane, which had taken off from the capital, Katmandu, snagged its wheels on a security fence during its landing at Lukla airport, about 40 miles from Mount Everest, said Mohan Adhikari, general manager of the Katmandu airport.

LEBANON

2 U.S. journalists missing in north

BEIRUT | Two American journalists vacationing in Lebanon have not been heard from since Oct. 1 and are believed missing, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday, appealing for information on their possible whereabouts.

The embassy said Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, reportedly left Beirut en route to the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli.

The city is a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, where militants and Islamic fundamentalists are known to be active. It has witnessed sectarian fighting in the past few months as well as two car bombs targeting Lebanese troops that killed 25 people and left dozens of others wounded.

Earlier this week, the embassy had issued a statement to U.S. citizens about potential violent actions targeting Americans in Lebanon and called on its nationals to increase their security awareness.

SOUTH AFRICA

Mbeki supporter aims to split ANC

JOHANNESBURG | Former South African Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota threatened Wednesday to split the ruling African National Congress and form a new party following last month's overthrow of former President Thabo Mbeki.

His threat was the latest move in the worst political crisis since the end of apartheid, unleashed by the ousting of Mr. Mbeki at the climax of a power struggle with ANC leader Jacob Zuma.

Mr. Lekota did not announce a new grouping as had been predicted, although he said the dominant ruling party was near a split.

It was not clear how much support Mr. Lekota, a former ANC chairman, has, although he said hundreds of local party supporters have resigned and that regional and provincial ANC branches are contemplating leaving.

FRANCE

Medvedev says U.S. hurts security

EVIAN | Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday the United States' self-styled role as the world's dominant power was undermining international security.

"A desire by the United States to consolidate its global domination led to it missing a historical chance ... to build a truly democratic world order," Mr. Medvedev said of U.S. actions since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He said Russia's war with Georgia in August showed that the security mechanism in Europe, which he said was based around NATO and the United States, needed a major overhaul.

The Kremlin leader proposed a new security pact that would ban the use of force or the threat of its use, and it would make clear no single country, including Russia, would have a monopoly on providing security for the continent.

MALDIVES

Election marks a democratic first

MALE | Thousands of voters waited in snaking lines in the pouring rain Wednesday to vote in the Maldives' first democratic presidential election, even as opposition officials complained of widespread voting irregularities.

The election has been seen as a referendum on President Mamoun Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving ruler, who won six previous elections as the only candidate on the ballot.

But opposition officials reported widespread problems at ballot stations across this nation of 1,190 islands scattered in the Indian Ocean.

MACEDONIA

Gates seeks more Afghanistan troops

OHRID | Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Wednesday urged Eastern European leaders to shift their military efforts from Iraq to Afghanistan, where their forces are more urgently needed.

Speaking at a meeting here of the Southeast European Defense Ministerial, Mr. Gates said that as the security situation in Iraq continues to improve, countries should considered filling the "urgent need" for trainers in Afghanistan.

Combined, the 11 members of the group not counting the United States - have nearly 5,100 troops already in Afghanistan. Just one of the member nations, Bosnia-Herzegovina, has no troops there.

AUSTRIA

President bypasses far-right parties

VIENNA | Austria's president on Wednesday asked the leader of the Social Democrats to form a new coalition government, a blow to two far-right parties who together won almost as many votes.

Werner Faymann's center-left party won the most votes in Sept. 28 elections with 29.3 percent of the ballots. In second place was the People's Party, with 26 percent. But the far right made significant gains.

The Freedom Party came in third place and the Alliance for the Future of Austria fourth. Their combined results - 28.2 percent - placed them on nearly equal footing with the Social Democrats.

Mr. Faymann, however, has ruled out forming a government with either of them.

JORDAN

Rights group says torture common

AMMAN | The torture of prisoners remains widespread in Jordanian jails despite efforts to reform the system, a U.S. rights group said Wednesday, adding prison officials were rarely held accountable for abuses.

The findings released by Human Rights Watch were based on visits to seven of Jordan's 10 prisons and interviews with 110 inmates and senior prison officials. The majority of prisoners complained of abuse.

Jordanian security officials have denied any systematic violations of prisoners' rights. A close U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, Jordan borders Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.


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October 10, 2008

IRAQ

Truck bomb kills leading lawmaker

BAGHDAD | An Iraqi lawmaker loyal to anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was killed Thursday when a bomb struck his convoy in Baghdad, officials said.

The explosion hit the convoy carrying Saleh al-Auqaeili and other Shi'ite lawmakers from Mr. al-Sadr's parliament bloc as it passed about 200 yards from an Iraqi army checkpoint in a heavily secured area near Baghdad's main Shi'ite district of Sadr City, one of his colleagues said.

The victims' allies blamed U.S. and Iraqi forces for the blast. Suspicion also fell on Shi'ite splinter groups - some with suspected links to Iran, which has sheltered Mr. al-Sadr for nearly 18 months.

UKRAINE

Yushchenko sets date for vote

KIEV | Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko set a Dec. 7 date for new parliamentary elections Thursday after dissolving the legislature following failed efforts to replace his shattered pro-Western coalition.

The decision was likely to deepen political turbulence in the former Soviet republic, with estranged ally Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's camp and some members of Mr. Yushchenko's own party vowing to challenge the move.

The dissolution of parliament Wednesday marked a tactical victory for Mr. Yushchenko in a fierce power struggle with Mrs. Tymoshenko, his partner in the 2004 Orange Revolution.

The parliamentary vote will be the third in as many years, adding to debilitating political turmoil in a country battered by the global financial crisis.

MONTENEGRO

Nod to Kosovo angers Serbia

BELGRADE | Montenegro recognized the independence of Kosovo on Thursday in defiance of staunch opposition from its traditional ally Serbia, which expelled Montenegro's ambassador.

The parliament of a second former Yugoslav country, Macedonia, made a similar move later Thursday.

On Wednesday, the United Nations' General Assembly supported Serbia's initiative to seek an International Court of Justice opinion on the legality of the independence declaration by Kosovo in February, which is recognized by 48, mostly Western, states.

LIBYA

Payment to fund for victims begins

Libya has started making payments into a nearly $2 billion fund to compensate the families of American victims of Libyan-linked terrorist attacks in the 1980s, another step in the full normalization of long-strained ties between Washington and Tripoli, the State Department said Thursday.

The "substantial amount" deposited overnight into a U.S. government account is not the full amount needed to fulfill a compensation agreement reached earlier this year, but officials said it demonstrated Libya's willingness to resolve outstanding claims over the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the 1986 bombing of a German disco.

The agreement calls for the creation of a $1.8 billion fund, with $1.3 billion for those attacks and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner, and $500 million to Libyan victims of U.S. air strikes ordered in retaliation for the disco bombing.

Libya has sought donations from private businesses to help cover its share of the fund.

GEORGIA

Houses burned in ethnic rampage

Hundreds of houses in ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia were torched in August after Russian troops took control of the area, according to an analysis of satellite images released Thursday.

The analysis, done by the American Association for the Advancement of Science on behalf of Amnesty International, did not show who was responsible for the damage but Amnesty International said it may be evidence of war crimes.

Human rights activists have criticized Russia for ignoring the looting of ethnic Georgian villages by armed South Ossetian militias during and after the war.

Georgia says the looting amounted to "ethnic cleansing." Russia says Georgia's shelling of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali - which sparked the war - amounts to a genocide against the Ossetians. Each denies the other's accusations.

ZIMBABWE

Inflation touches 231 million percent

HARARE | Zimbabwe's annual inflation hit a record 231 million percent and prospects for rescuing the ruined economy dimmed Thursday after the opposition said no progress had been made on forming a power-sharing Cabinet.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he had made compromises on many issues but both sides remained divided on sharing ministries. He was nonetheless still hopeful of eventual agreement.

The yearly inflation figure raced to 231 million percent in July from 11.2 million percent in June. A loaf of bread, which cost 500 Zimbabwe dollars when the central bank redenominated the Zimbabwe currency on Aug. 1, now costs 7,000 Zimbabwe dollars.

INDIA

Dalai Lama hospitalized

NEW DELHI | The Dalai Lama was hospitalized in New Delhi, his spokesman said early Thursday, just two days after a medical checkup cleared the Tibetan spiritual leader to resume foreign travel.

In August, the 73-year-old Dalai Lama was admitted to a Bombay hospital and underwent tests for abdominal discomfort. Doctors advised him to cancel a planned trip to Europe and rest, saying he was suffering from exhaustion.

SOMALIA

NATO to battle pirates offshore

NAIROBI, Kenya | NATO agreed Thursday to send ships soon to protect vessels off Somalia's dangerous coast as bandits holding a Ukrainian ship laden with weapons softened their ransom demands in response to mounting international pressure.

Other pirates in Somalia released 15 Philippines seamen and four other crewmen seized when a Japanese-operated chemical tanker was hijacked nearly two months ago, officials said Thursday. But pirates still hold 67 Philippines seamen on four different ships.

Despite his willingness to negotiate about the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali vowed to "cause a lot of problems for the world" if foreign powers use force to end the two-week standoff on the MV Faina.

NATO defense ministers meeting in Hungary have agreed to send ships to the area soon, a diplomat said in Budapest.

VATICAN CITY

Wartime pope gets boost to sainthood

VATICAN CITY | Pope Benedict XVI gave World War II pontiff Pius XII a push toward possible sainthood and defended his memory from accusations that he did little to spare Jews from the Holocaust.

Benedict contended that Pius XII acted silently to save as many Jews as possible and he expressed hope that efforts toward beatification would proceed smoothly.

Beatification is the last formal step before sainthood.

Benedict, wearing red vestments, celebrated a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Pius, who became pontiff in 1939.

THAILAND

Protest leaders to surrender

BANGKOK | The leaders of Thailand's anti-government protest said Thursday they will surrender to police after a court dropped treason charges against them, but vowed to continue their occupation of the prime minister's office after posting bail.

Sondhi Limthongkul said he and other leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy would report to police and apply for bail as early as Thursday afternoon.

Two protest leaders who had been detained were released late Thursday, although they remained charged with less severe but still serious crimes that could result in several years' imprisonment.

Arrest warrants were issued for the alliance's nine leaders Aug. 27, the day after they led thousands of protesters into the main government office complex, Government House, where they have been camped ever since to demand electoral changes and an end to corruption in Thai politics.

MALDIVES

Leader to face election runoff

MALE | President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom celebrated his top showing Thursday in the Maldives' first democratic election, but the nation's longtime ruler failed to win a majority and will now face his chief nemesis in a runoff.

Mr. Gayoom, who ruled this Indian Ocean archipelago unchallenged for 30 years, came in first in the field of six candidates in Wednesday's election with 41 percent of the vote.

Maldivian Democratic Party leader Mohamed Nasheed came in second with 25 percent. He received a quick boost as results were being announced Thursday, when Hassan Saeed, a former attorney general who came in third, threw his support behind the pro-democracy activist.

More than 84 percent of the 208,000 registered voters cast their ballots in the first multiparty election ever held in this Sunni Muslim nation of 350,000.

SRI LANKA

Cabinet minister escapes blast

COLOMBO | A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew herself up Thursday near a convoy carrying a senior Sri Lankan Cabinet minister, killing one bystander and wounding the minister's deputy, the military said.

Maithripala Sirisena, the agricultural development minister, was not hurt in the blast in Boralwegamuwa, about 9 miles from the capital, Colombo, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Mr. Sirisena's junior minister, Siripala Gamlath, was wounded, Brig. Nanayakkara said, blaming separatist Tamil rebels for the blast.

On Monday, a suicide blast blamed on the rebels killed a former army general, Janaka Perera, and 26 others in the northern town of Anuradhapura.

Government troops, meanwhile, closed in on the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi in the north, where heavy fighting Wednesday killed 48 rebels and eight government soldiers.

PHILIPPINES

Australia urged to donate helicopters

MANILA | The Philippines has asked Australia to donate a dozen UH-1H "Huey" helicopters to beef up the military's efforts to defeat Muslim and Maoist guerrillas, officials said Thursday.

Manila has said it needs more helicopters to prevent Islamist militants from neighboring states seeking sanctuary on a southern island where Muslim rebels have been fighting for nearly 40 years to gain self-determination.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is visiting the Philippines. Officials said he and his Philippine counterpart, Alberto Romulo, discussed counterterrorism, defense and security issues at a meeting Thursday.

The Philippines has only 40 helicopters, mostly secondhand, donated by the United States as part of military assistance to fight communist New People's Army rebels and Muslim militants with ties to Jemaah Islamiah.


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World Scene


October 11, 2008

NORTH KOREA

U.S. to take N. Korea off terror list

The Associated Press has learned the Bush administration plans to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist on Saturday after getting assurances that the Stalinist nation has agreed to a plan to inspect its nuclear facilities.

Diplomats briefed on the matter say President Bush signed off on the move Friday in a bid to salvage a faltering disarmament accord aimed at getting North Korea to abandon atomic weapons. But they say North Korea will be put back on the list if it doesn't comply with the inspections.

The diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because the State Department had not yet announced the step. It comes as North Korea [Note] moves [/NOTE] moved to restart a disabled nuclear reactor and take [Note] s [/NOTE] other actions that threaten the agreement.

Earlier, U.S. officials said the Bush administration was trying to build consensus among its negotiating partners before removing North Korea from the blacklist. The administration consulted with China, South Korea, Russia and particularly Japan on the move.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the matter with the foreign ministers of China, South Korea and Japan on Friday.

Japan had balked at removing North Korea from the terror list until it resolves the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and '80s.#

YEMEN

150 migrants thrown off ship

SAN'A | Dozens of bodies washed ashore Friday in Yemen after smugglers threw nearly 150 Somali migrants overboard in shark-infested waters, the latest such tragedy in one of the most lawless stretches of ocean in the world.

Smugglers are known to cram dozens of men, women and children onto small boats and often beat and abuse the migrants during the journey through the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, which can take up to three days. To avoid Yemeni patrols, the smugglers often dump their passengers far from shore and force them to swim the rest of the way.

In the latest instance, about 150 migrants departed Somalia on Monday, and when their vessel reached about three miles off Yemen's southern Shabwa coast, the smugglers ordered everyone off, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. Twelve of the passengers were put on a smaller boat to take them ashore, while the rest were forced to swim. He said 47 people were thought to have survived, but about 100 were missing and feared drowned.

SOMALIA

Pirates threaten to blow up ship

NAIROBI, Kenya | The pirates who hijacked an arms-laden Ukrainian tanker off Somalia issued an ultimatum Friday and threatened to destroy the ship if no ransom is paid, a spokesman for the bandits said.

The MV Faina is surrounded by U.S. warships, and a Russian frigate is heading toward the scene, raising the stakes for a possible commando-style raid on the ship. Pirates have seized more than two dozen ships this year off the Horn of Africa, but the hijacking of the Faina has drawn the most international concern because of its dangerous cargo. The vessel is carrying 33 tanks and other heavy weapons.

The pirates' spokesman, Sugule Ali, gave the ship owners until Monday night to pay. He had said Thursday that he was willing to negotiate the ransom demand of $20 million, after nearly two weeks of insisting that they would never lower the price.

UKRAINE

Prime minister defies decree on vote

KIEV | Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Friday that there will be no early parliamentary elections, defying a presidential decree and raising the stakes in her fierce political battle with the president.

President Viktor Yushchenko set the early vote for Dec. 7 earlier this week, burying attempts to revive his shattered pro-Western coalition with Mrs. Tymoshenko.

But Mrs. Tymoshenko called his decision unconstitutional and said the election will not happen. She said Ukraine has no money for an early election and predicted that parliament will not pass the necessary legislation.

Members of Mrs. Tymoshenko's party have said they would challenge Mr. Yushchenko's order in the courts.

VENEZUELA

Tax agency closes McDonald's for 2 days

CARACAS | The Venezuelan government has ordered all McDonald's restaurants in the country closed for 48 hours for what it calls irregularities in the financial books of the fast-food chain.

The order stands for Thursday through Saturday, affecting all 115 McDonald's restaurants nationwide, the state-run Bolivarian News Agency reported.

The left-leaning government of President Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington, has regularly cracked down on U.S. companies that have purportedly fallen behind on tax payments. Last year, it shut down the Venezuelan subsidiary of Coca-Cola Co. for 48 hours.


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World Scene


October 12, 2008

PERU

Leftist governor named prime minister

LIMA | A leftist provincial governor said Saturday that he has accepted an offer to become Peru's new prime minister, after President Alan Garcia fired his entire Cabinet over a widening corruption scandal involving oil and gas contracts.

By picking Yehude Simon, governor of the northern province of Lambayeque who was imprisoned a decade ago for his links to a guerrilla group, Mr. Garcia may be trying to place greater emphasis on social programs, neutralize critics on the left and regain support in the provinces, where he is especially unpopular.

He faced calls from opposition leaders to reshuffle his Cabinet after audiotapes emerged that linked members of his APRA party to a plan to steer lucrative petroleum contracts to favored bidders in exchange for bribes.

RUSSIA

Military test-fires ballistic missile

MURMANSK | Russia test-launched a strategic missile to the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean for the first time on Saturday, at a time when Moscow's growing assertiveness is fueling tension with the West.

President Dmitry Medvedev, who watched the launch from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, has said problems caused by global financial turmoil would not hurt Russian plans to revive its armed forces, a symbol for Moscow's resurgence.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stands aboard the cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov in the Barents Sea, northern Russia, on Saturday. Associated Press

Russia's newest missile, the Sineva, was launched by the nuclear-powered submarine Tula from an underwater position in the Arctic Barents Sea and hit an unspecified area about 7,200 miles away near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, a navy spokesman said.

IRAQ

Christians flee 'liquidation' effort

MOSUL | Nearly 1,000 Christian families fled their homes in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul after the worst wave of violence against them in five years, Iraqi officials say.

The minority Christians have taken shelter over the past 24 hours in schools and churches in the northern and eastern fringes of Nineveh province after attacks that have killed at least 11 Christians since Sept. 28.

Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako said Iraq's Christians were facing a campaign of "liquidation" and called on the U.S. military to do more to protect them.

RUSSIA

Strong earthquake kills 12, injures 100

MOSCOW | A strong earthquake centered in the restive Russian region of Chechnya killed at least 12 people, injured more than 100 others and caused widespread havoc on Saturday.

The quake, which struck at about noon, reverberated through the Caucasus mountains, causing severe damage to infrastructure including roads, power supplies and communications, Russian news agencies reported.

Measuring magnitude 6.3, according to Strasbourg observatory estimates, the earthquake was felt in five regions of the Russian north Caucasus and as far away as neighboring Georgia and Armenia.


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October 13, 2008

LEBANON

Army arrests terrorist suspects

BEIRUT | Lebanese authorities on Sunday arrested members of a "terrorist network" suspected of involvement in deadly bomb attacks in the northern city of Tripoli, the army said.

"Several members of a terrorist cell involved in the recent explosions in Tripoli have been arrested," the army said in a statement carried by the official news agency NNA.

Four soldiers and three civilians were killed when an explosion ripped through a military bus in the port city on Sept. 29. A similar attack in mid-August killed 14 people, including nine soldiers and a child.

The army said an explosives belt for use in a future attack was found during the arrest operation carried out by a joint unit of soldiers and internal security forces.

KAZAKHSTAN

American tourist reaches for stars

BAIKONUR | An American computer game designer reached space Sunday, fulfilling a long-deferred childhood dream that began with the flight of his astronaut father.

The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft carrying Richard Garriott and two crewmates and the digitized DNA sequences of some of the world's most famous minds hurtled into a clear blue sky from the Baikonur facility on the Kazakh steppe.

Mr. Garriott, 47, a multimillionaire from Austin, Texas, is the sixth paying space traveler and the first American to follow a parent into orbit.

The Soyuz is due to dock Tuesday with the international space station, where British-born Mr. Garriott will spend about 10 days conducting experiments - including some whose sponsors helped fund his trip - and photographing Earth to measure changes since his father snapped pictures from the U.S. station Skylab in 1973.

The eclectic DNA list ranges from famed physicist Stephen Hawking to comedian Stephen Colbert and Matt Morgan, best known as the "Beast" from the U.S. television show "American Gladiators."

AFGHANISTAN

Commander rejects talk of losing war

KABUL | The top NATO general in Afghanistan on Sunday rejected the idea that NATO is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.

But U.S. Gen. David McKiernan also said he needs more military forces to tamp down the militants, and he depicted a chaotic Afghan countryside where insurgents hold more power than the Afghan government seven years after the U.S.-led invasion. He said better governance and economic progress were vital.

"It is true that in many places of this country we don't have an acceptable level of security. We don't have good governance. We don't have socio-economic progress. We don't have people that are able to grow their produce and get it to market. We don't have freedom of movement," he told a news conference in Kabul.

"We don't have progress as evenly or as fast as many of us would like, but we are not losing Afghanistan," he said.

NORTH KOREA

Pyongyang pledges to disable nuke unit

SEOUL | North Korea said Sunday it will resume disabling its key nuclear complex after the U.S. dropped the country from a terrorism blacklist - a breakthrough expected to help energize stalled talks aimed at ending the country's atomic ambitions.

The spat was the latest of many between Pyongyang and Washington that threatened to scuttle progress before eventually being settled since the international talks aimed at dismantling the communist country's nuclear program began five years ago.

This weekend's developments raised hopes that stalled international nuclear talks could quickly resume and help improve ties between Washington and Pyongyang - Cold War adversaries, still technically at war.

Experts still predict a long, bumpy road ahead before North Korea's nuclear program is ever dismantled.

SOMALIA

Breakaway forces kill two pirates

MOGADISHU | Forces from the Somali breakaway region of Puntland on Sunday attacked pirates holding a Somali cargo freighter, triggering clashes that killed two pirates and a soldier, an official said.

Four others, including another Puntland soldier, were wounded when the forces attempted to rescue MV Awail, owned by a Somali trading company with a crew of 13 Syrians and two Somalis, which was seized Thursday off the region's shores.

The fighting comes amid mounting pressure over piracy in the waters around Somalia, with U.S. and international navies blockading a kidnapped Ukrainian vessel loaded with tanks and weapons.

Meanwhile, delicate negotiations were placed on hold earlier Sunday over a $10 million ransom demand by pirates holding a Ukranian arms ship off the Somali coast.

IRAN

Market merchants protest sales tax

TEHRAN | Merchants in Tehran's main market have closed their shops in protest of a new sales tax despite the government's announcement that it would suspend the measure for two months.

Gold, carpet and textile merchants participated in Sunday's strike against the 3 percent value-added tax that was imposed in September.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his government to suspend the new tax for two months on Thursday, a day after a rare strike by merchants worried about how the new measure would affect their business.

Merchant strikes have been rare in Iran over the past three decades. A series of merchant strikes helped lead to the 1979 Islamic revolution, with store owners joining clerics to help topple King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

ISRAEL

High-tech scanner cuts airport hassle

LOD | Israel has introduced a step-on scanner that spares airline travelers the nuisance of having to remove their shoes so they can be X-rayed for hidden weapons, though the new device cannot yet sniff out explosives.

Only the shoes of passengers deemed suspicious by Ben-Gurion Airport staff are removed, X-rayed and swabbed for bomb residues. Most people can now keep their shoes on.

Installed next to the walk-through scanners at Ben-Gurion, "MagShoe" announces within two seconds whether the footwear of the passenger contains unusual metal that might be a knife for a hijacking or a bomb detonator part.

"This innovation brings enormous logistical value as it significantly cuts down the discomfort and delays associated with standard shoe searches," said Nissim Ben-Ezra, security technologies manager for Israel's Airports Authority.

But he said MagShoe must be used in conjunction with other precautions, especially as it would not spot hidden explosives - a major concern after the botched 2001 "shoe bombing" by al Qaeda sympathizer Richard Reid aboard a Paris-Miami flight.

A bomb-sniffing version of the suitcase-sized MagShoe is in the works, an Israeli security source said. The current version, produced by Israeli firm Ido Security Ltd., costs about $5,000.

AUSTRIA

Haider speeding before fatal crash

VIENNA | Far-right politician Joerg Haider was speeding at more than twice the posted limit before the car crash that killed him, investigators said Sunday as his grief-stricken party appointed a successor.

Flowers, notes and other tributes piled up at the scene of the crash that killed the former leader of the Freedom Party, whose anti-immigration stance and provocative praise of the Nazi era once led the European Union to slap Austria with diplomatic sanctions.

Police reconstructing Saturday's accident in the southern province of Carinthia, where Mr. Haider was governor, said the speedometer in the wreckage of Mr. Haider's high-powered Volkswagen Phaeton limousine was stuck at 88 mph.

The speed limit at the crash site is 43 mph, and it drops to 31 mph just 100 yards farther down the road in the direction Mr. Haider was heading.

LITHUANIA

Opposition party takes lead in vote

VILNIUS | A conservative opposition party and a populist group led by an impeached ex-president made strong gains in Lithuania's election Sunday, while the centrist government faltered, an exit poll indicated.

The poll, released on Lithuania's TV3 network moments after voting ended, suggested the government could be ousted by a conservative-led coalition or a rival populist bloc.

It showed the conservative Homeland Union winning 21 percent of the vote, and two allied populist parties - led by ex-president Rolandas Paksas and Russian-born businessman Viktor Uspaskich - mustering a combined 25 percent.

Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas' Social Democrats received 14 percent of the vote, while their four partners in the coalition government failed to break the 5 percent barrier to remain in parliament, according to the survey by the Rait pollster.

The final result was unclear because the survey included only the party list vote, which covers 70 of the 141 seats in parliament. The remaining 71 seats are decided in individual races in single-mandate constituencies, many of which will require a runoff on Oct. 26.

The vote also featured a nonbinding referendum on whether to keep a flawed, Soviet-era nuclear plant operating beyond its scheduled closure in 2009.

FRANCE

No extradition for ailing terrorist

ASSOCIATED PRESS Tributes amass at the site of the fatal automobile crash of Joerg Haider near Klagenfurt, Austria. The far-right politician was speeding at more than twice the posted limit.

PARIS | France has decided not to extradite a former member of the Italian left-wing Red Brigades terrorist group to Italy because she is in poor health, the president's office announced Sunday. It stressed that the measure does not weaken French resolve to fight terrorism.

Marina Petrella's weakened state and "profound depression" are potentially life-threatening, the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy said, announcing that the French chief of state had annulled an extradition decree for humanitarian reasons.

The statement confirmed a report in Sunday's Journal du Dimanche and comments by Petrella's attorney.

Petrella, who is hospitalized, was convicted in absentia in Italy in 1992 of complicity in the murder of a police chief a year earlier. She was sentenced to life in prison.

In France since the 1990s, Petrella, now 54, was imprisoned last year, but a court ordered her freed in August because of severe depression.

CROATIA

Bosnian Serb charged in shelling

ZAGREB | Croatia said Sunday it was charging a former Bosnian Serb politician with war crimes over the shelling of Dubrovnik during the 1990s war between Croatian forces and Serbian-backed rebels.

Bozidar Vucurevic, 72, a former mayor of Trebinje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, faces charges of "war crimes against the civilian population" and "destruction of historical and cultural property" in the southern Croatian coastal city, officials said.

An estimated 91 civilians were killed in October 1991 and about 200 injured when the Yugoslav army (JNA) bombarded the city, listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the surrounding area, according to the prosecutor's office.

From Bosnia, Mr. Vucurevic told the Bosnian Serb news agency Srna that the charges did not concern him.

VATICAN

Pope names four new saints

VATICAN CITY | Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday gave the Roman Catholic church four new saints, including an Indian woman whose canonization is seen as a morale boost to Christians in India who have suffered Hindu violence.

Thousands of faithful from the homelands of the new saints, including a delegation from India, where Catholics are a tiny minority, turned out for the ceremony in St. Peter's Square.

The honor for Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, the first Indian woman to become a saint, comes as Christians increasingly have been the object of attacks from Hindu mobs in eastern and southern India.

Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, had beatified Alphonsa during a pilgrimage to India in 1986. Beatification is the last formal step before sainthood, the Church's highest honor for its faithful. Alphonsa, a nun from southern India, was 35 when she died in 1946.

The other new saints are: Gaetano Errico, a Neapolitan priest who founded a missionary order in the 19th century; Sister Maria Bernarda, born Verena Buetler in Switzerland in 1848, who worked as a nun in Ecuador and Colombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran, a 19th century laywoman from Ecuador who helped the sick and the poor.


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