World scene


October 14, 2008

BRITAIN

Lords reject detention plan

LONDON | Britain's House of Lords rejected a controversial plan to extend the amount of time that police can hold terror suspects without charge from 28 to 42 days, and the government said it would abandon the proposal.

The 309-118 vote came after an impassioned debate Monday, dealing the government a significant defeat. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said hours after the vote that the government would drop the 42-day clause from the government's counterterrorism bill.

But Ms. Smith said a different version would be put into new legislation even though it wouldn't be automatic - prosecutors would have to apply to a court each time they wanted a terror suspect held for that long and Parliament would then have to vote on each case if the court agreed to it.

The government had said the initial proposal - endorsed by the House of Commons in June by a margin of only nine votes - was needed to fight the complex international terrorist threats facing Britain.

The government's effort to strengthen counterterrorism provisions gathered backing after suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in London in July 2005.

BELARUS

EU suspends travel ban

LUXEMBOURG | The European Union suspended travel bans on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of other officials Monday as a reward for freeing political prisoners, but kept some sanctions in place.

In a further move to warm relations with former Soviet republics key to the bloc's aim of diversifying its energy supply routes, EU ministers also ended most sanctions against gas-rich Uzbekistan after citing human rights progress in the Central Asian state, and pledged deeper ties with Moldova.

Associated Press British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, standing in front of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, announces that their bill will not include a proposal to hold terror suspects for 42 days.

EU foreign ministers suspended for six months the visa ban imposed on Mr. Lukashenko after he was accused of rigging his 2006 re-election, together with restrictions on other officials.

PAKISTAN

American arrested in border region

PESHAWAR | A 20-year-old American man was arrested late Monday at a checkpoint near the Afghan border in a tribal region where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants, police said.

Officers were investigating what the man was doing in the border area, which is thought to be a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and other foreign extremists, said one officer, Pir Shahab.

He said the man - identified on his passport as Juddi Kenan, a resident of Florida - did not have permission to be in the region, as required by Pakistani law. He was arrested at a checkpoint trying to enter the Mohmand agency area.

Another police official, Marjan Khan at the station in Sarrokali, said the man was wearing traditional Pakistani clothes and appeared to be a civilian.

SOUTH AFRICA

ANC to suspend dissident ex-minister

JOHANNESBURG | South Africa's ruling African National Congress has decided to suspend former Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota after he threatened to form a breakaway party, the ANC's national working committee said Monday.

Mr. Lekota, who quit as defense minister in protest at the party's ousting of former President Thabo Mbeki last month, has indicated that the African National Congress is close to a split and that he may form a new party ahead of next year's elections.

The ANC said it would also suspend Mr. Lekota's former deputy, Mluleki George, who joined him in threatening to split from the ANC, and said other dissidents would face the same fate.

IRAQ

Christian latest killed in Mosul

BAGHDAD | A Christian music store owner was fatally shot in Mosul, Iraqi police said Monday, the latest in a series of killings that has caused thousands of members of the religious minority to flee the northern city.

Religious leaders have called for action to stop the apparent Sunni insurgent campaign against Christians. Government officials have responded by announcing new security measures and plans to send troop reinforcements to the area.

Gunmen stormed into the businessman's store late Sunday in an eastern part of the city, killing him and wounding his teenage nephew, according to police.

THAILAND

Queen weighs in with protesters

BANGKOK | Thailand's Queen Sirikit attended the funeral Monday of a protester killed in clashes with police last week, giving explicit royal backing to a five-month street campaign to oust the elected government.

After chants of "Long Live Her Majesty" from thousands of members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the queen told Jinda Radappanyawuthi, father of 28-year-old victim Angkana, that his daughter had died in a noble cause.

The woman died from chest injuries after police fired tear gas into a crowd of PAD protesters blockading parliament on Tuesday. Another man died in a car bomb and nearly 500 were hurt in the worst street violence in Bangkok in 16 years.

Mr. Jinda's emotional account of his conversation with the queen is likely to damage the government, especially his revelation that King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whom many Thais regard as semi-divine, was behind the donation of $29,150 to treat those injured in the unrest.

CHINA

U.S. asked to end Taiwan military links

BEIJING | The United States should end all its military links with Taiwan and scrap a recent arms sale deal with the island, Chinese state media on Monday quoted the defense minister as telling a visiting U.S. senator.

China claims Taiwan, ruled separately since 1949, as a part of its sovereign territory and says the self-ruled, democratic island must accept eventual reunification, by force if necessary.

Beijing has already denounced the $6.5 billion Taiwan package, which includes 30 Apache attack helicopters and 330 Patriot missiles.


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World Scene


October 15, 2008

IRAQ

U.S. soldier killed in Baghdad

BAGHDAD | An American soldier was killed Tuesday by gunfire in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said, the first U.S. combat death in the capital in two weeks.

A U.S. statement said the soldier, whose name was not released, was wounded when gunmen opened fire on a U.S. patrol late Tuesday afternoon. The soldier was rushed to a hospital by helicopter but died of the wounds.

It was the first combat death suffered by American forces in the capital since Sept. 30, when the military said a soldier was killed by small-arms fire in northern Baghdad. Seven U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month, five of them in combat.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani reviewed the "final draft" of the security pact with the United States — a first step in a process that could finally end in an agreement governing U.S. troops in Iraq.

RUSSIA

Military top brass faces cuts

MOSCOW | Russia's defense minister announced Tuesday a sweeping reform of the military that will cut hundreds of generals and disband nine of every 10 army units.

Though downsized to 1.13 million from the 4 million-member Soviet army, the military has done little to reduce its number of officers. It maintains almost the same number of military units as in the Soviet era, though many exist only on paper.

By 2012, Russia will reduce its armed forces to 1 million, including about 150,000 officers, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said. He said the Russian military now has 355,000 officers - about one-third the total strength of the military.

SPAIN

Zapatero to visit Cuba next year

MADRID | Spain's prime minister accepted an invitation to visit Cuba next year, the foreign minister said Tuesday, setting him up to become the first European leader to travel to the communist-run island in nearly a decade.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government has played a key role in persuading the European Union to lift diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, a step taken in June, and in pressing the island to improve its human rights record.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero yesterday acknowledged supporters after his Socialist party's win at party headquarters in Madrid. (Associated Press)

The sanctions were imposed in 2003 after Cuba jailed 75 dissidents. Twenty have since been released, but more than 200 dissidents are still serving prison terms in Cuba.

SOMALIA

Troops rescue cargo ship

MOGADISHU | Soldiers from the semiautonomous Somali region of Puntland, their guns blazing, freed a cargo ship from pirates Tuesday as other pirates failed to act on their threat to blow up an arms-laden Ukrainian ship if no ransom was paid.

The Panama-flagged vessel and its 11 crew members - nine Syrians and two Somalis - were freed after a gunbattle, in which one soldier was killed and three wounded. The 10 pirates who had held the ship since Thursday surrendered when they ran out of ammunition.

Relatives of crew members of the Ukrainian vessel, which is carrying battle tanks and other heavy weapons, have asked Ukraine to pay the ransom pirates have demanded. The demand started at $20 million but appeared to have been reduced.

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October 16, 2008

BRITAIN

Database planned on phone, e-mail

LONDON | Britain is considering setting up a database of all phone and e-mail traffic in the country as part of a high-tech strategy to fight terrorism and crime, its top law-and-order official said Wednesday.

Opposition politicians and civil liberties groups immediately condemned the idea, and the country's terrorism-law ombudsman said the government must not be allowed to set up a vast "data warehouse."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Britain's police and security services need new ways to collect and store records of phone calls, e-mails and Internet traffic.

Her department, the Home Office, said one option being considered was a database that would store the phone numbers dialed, the Web sites visited and the e-mail addresses contacted by every one in Britain.

Officials stressed such a database would not store the content of phone calls or e-mails.

PAKISTAN

Pakistani American rearrested

KHAR | Pakistani intelligence agents rearrested an American detained in the country's volatile border region and were questioning the man, police said Wednesday.

The man, identified by Pakistani police as Jude Kenan, was carrying a laptop computer when he was arrested Monday at a checkpoint in the northwestern district of Mohmand, near where Pakistani security forces have battled Islamic militants for two months.

District police Chief Waqif Khan said the 20-year-old was released from custody Tuesday, but was picked up hours later at his home in the nearby city of Peshawar. He said the man had dual American-Pakistani citizenship.

AZERBAIJAN

President set to win 2nd term

BAKU | The president of oil-rich Azerbaijan headed for re-election Wednesday with the opposition boycotting the vote and accusing the West of ignoring Azerbaijan's democratic shortfalls while seeking its energy riches.

Six candidates were running against President Ilham Aliyev, although none was considered a true challenge.

An exit poll pointed to an overwhelming victory for Mr. Aliyev, showing him receiving 80.5 percent of the vote, with the second-place candidate trailing far behind with just 5.4 percent.

RUSSIA

Lawyer suspects mercury poisoning

MOSCOW | A Russian lawyer said Wednesday she suspects she and her family were poisoned by mercury found in her car, keeping her away from the start of the trial of three men accused in the slaying of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Karinna Moskalenko, who has represented several Kremlin foes and is an attorney for Ms. Politkovskaya's family, said she and her husband found balls of mercury in their car Sunday in Strasbourg, France.

Several Russians who have criticized or angered the Kremlin have been victims of attacks in recent years.

Ms. Politkovskaya fell seriously ill with food poisoning after drinking tea on a flight from Moscow in 2004, which prevented her from covering the hostage crisis in Beslan, in which more than 330 people were killed. Former KGB officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko died in Britain in 2006 after ingesting radioactive polonium 210, weeks after Ms. Politkovskaya was fatally shot.

VATICAN CITY

Aide: Pope hurt in '82 stabbing

VATICAN CITY | The late Pope John Paul was wounded by a knife-wielding priest in 1982, a year after he was shot in St. Peter's Square, but the injury was kept secret, his former top aide says in a documentary film.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who is now cardinal of Krakow, Poland, was John Paul's private secretary and closest aide for nearly 40 years. The documentary, "Testimony," narrated by British actor Michael York, is a film version of a memoir published last year.

On May 12, 1982, the pope was visiting the shrine city of Fatima in Portugal to give thanks for surviving a first assassination attempt a year earlier on May 13, 1981, when he was shot in St. Peter's Square by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.

A crazed Spanish priest, Juan Fernandez Krohn, lunged at the pope with a dagger and was knocked to the ground by police and arrested. The fact that the knife actually reached the pope and cut him was not known until now.

AUSTRIA

Haider was drunk in fatal crash

VIENNA | Austrian right-wing politician Joerg Haider, 58, was drunk at the time of his fatal car crash, his spokesman said Wednesday.

Stefan Petzner said Mr. Haider's blood alcohol level was significantly above the legal limit when he crashed his car early Saturday in the southern province of Carinthia, where he was governor. Police said the former Freedom Party leader's high-powered Volkswagen Phaeton was speeding at twice the posted limit when it veered off the road, crashed and flipped.

TURKEY

Drunk sparks hijack alert

ISTANBUL | A drunk man sparked a hijack alert on a Turkish Airlines plane on Wednesday after passing a note to the pilot saying he had a bomb, the airline said.

Passengers on the aircraft, which had taken off from the Turkish resort of Antalya bound for St. Petersburg in Russia, disarmed the man. No bomb or weapon was found on him.

The Turkish Airlines plane, carrying 164 passengers - mostly Russian tourists and a crew of seven, landed safely in St. Petersburg.


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October 17, 2008

ZIMBABWE


Talks deadlocked, opposition says

HARARE | The Zimbabwe opposition declared power-sharing talks with President Robert Mugabe deadlocked Thursday, but added it hoped the South African mediator could make progress.

Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai walked out after hours of talks Thursday, directing reporters questions to his spokesman, Nelson Chamisa.

"We have reached a deadlock on all issues," Mr. Chamisa said, estimating that at least 10 Cabinet posts remained in dispute. He said they included the powerful ministries in charge of finance, police and the army - Mr. Mugabe is accused of using the latter two institutions to crush dissent.

Mr. Chamisa also said the factions could not agree on how to allot some governorships. Mr. Chamisa said his faction hoped the mediator, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, could make headway.

AZERBAIJAN

Leader re-elected by landslide

BAKU | The president of oil-rich Azerbaijan has been re-elected to a second five-year term by landslide, according to early official returns released Thursday.

With 70 percent of precincts counted, Ilham Aliyev won 89.04 percent of Wednesday's vote, Central Election Commission chief Mazahir Panahov said.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which sent more than 400 election observers, has criticized the government for election campaign irregularities, including a ban on public opposition meetings and apparent efforts to coerce students and government workers into attending pro-Aliyev rallies.

Mr. Aliyev has led oil-rich Caspian nation since 2003. He succeeded his late father.

SPAIN

Judge starts probe of Civil War crimes

MADRID | A Spanish judge opened a criminal investigation Thursday into atrocities committed during the Spanish Civil War and ensuing right-wing dictatorship, launching the first official probe into one of the darkest chapters of the nation's history.

Judge Baltasar Garzon of the National Court said in a 68-page statement that he has jurisdiction to probe the execution or disappearance of tens of thousands of civilians during the 1936-39 war and under the rule of Gen. Francisco Franco.

An estimated 500,000 people died in the civil war and both sides committed atrocities against civilians: supporters of Franco, the general who rose up against an elected, leftist Republican government and ultimately ousted it, and those who backed that government.

CANADA

Second attack on gas pipeline

VANCOUVER, British Columbia | There has been a second attempt in less than a week to bomb a natural gas pipeline in northeastern British Columbia, police said Thursday.

The pipeline, near the town of Dawson Creek, was damaged in the incident but did not rupture, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. The pipeline is owned by EnCana Corp.

Details remained sketchy, but police said the incident happened late Wednesday or early Thursday, and appeared to be similar to an attempt to bomb a pipeline in the Dawson Creek area Saturday.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Britons get jail for sex on beach

DUBAI | A British couple charged with having sex on the beach were sentenced to three months in jail Thursday in a case that has caused controversy in this Persian Gulf boom town.

The judge did not provide any details about his verdict, as is customary in Dubai, so it is not clear whether Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors were found guilty of engaging in intercourse, or some lesser offense.

The two Britons, who are both in their 30s and met at an all-you-can-drink champagne brunch before the purported incident occurred, were arrested in July and later charged with sex outside of marriage, public indecency and drunkenness.

In addition to the three-month jail sentence, Judge Hamdi Mustafa Abu el-Khair levied a 1,000 dirham ($272) fine against each of the defendants and ordered them to be deported from Dubai after serving their prison time. Both previously admitted they were drunk but denied having sex.

Public displays of affection are illegal in Dubai - a city that has worked hard to cultivate an image as a haven for Western tourists and businesses in the Middle East but has a conservative legal code based on Islamic laws and tribal rules.

CAMBODIA

Armies meet after border battle

PREAH VIHEAR | Thai and Cambodian army commanders held talks across their disputed border Thursday after the most serious clash in years killed two Cambodian soldiers and left 10 Thais in Cambodian hands.

Hundreds of Cambodian civilians fled the border area after Wednesday's 40-minute exchange of rockets and gunfire, as both sides rushed armor and troops to the conflict zone.

The 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple has stirred nationalist passions in both countries for generations, but escalation did not appear inevitable as officials avoided belligerent rhetoric.

"Our policy to resolve this conflict is through negotiations," Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat told reporters in Bangkok as the talks got under way near the temple.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has said nothing since the clash, in which two Cambodians and five Thais were wounded. His foreign minister said it was "not an invasion by Thailand."

The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, a ruling that has rankled Thais ever since. However, the court failed to determine the ownership of 1.8 square miles of scrub next to the stunning but remote Hindu ruins, which have been off-limits to tourists for months.

MALAYSIA

Court orders ex-king to pay debt

KUALA LUMPUR | A Malaysian court ordered the country's former king Wednesday to settle a $1 million debt to a bank in a landmark verdict that ended a centuries-old tradition shielding the country's royal sultans from legal prosecution.

The case brought by Standard Chartered Bank against Tuanku Jaafar Tuanku Abdul Rahman was the first trial involving a Malaysian monarch since a 1993 constitutional amendment dissolved the immunity of state rulers from criminal and civil lawsuits.

A special panel of Malaysia's top five judges unanimously ruled that Mr. Tuanku Jaafar was liable for a $1 million credit provided by the bank in a 1999 business contract involving him and the U.S.-based Connecticut Bank of Commerce. Mr. Tuanku Jaafar was Malaysia's king at the time.

Mr. Tuanku Jaafar, the 86-year-old royal head of southern Negri Sembilan state, served as Malaysia's constitutional monarch between 1994 and 1999 in a unique system that allows nine hereditary state rulers to take turns being king for a five-year term.

Malaysia's monarchy has a largely ceremonial role but it commands wide public respect, particularly among the ethnic Malay Muslim majority, who regard the king as the supreme upholder of Malay tradition and the symbolic head of Islam.

Sultans had long remained above the law until the government made dramatic changes in the constitution in 1993 after a state ruler's purported assault of a hockey coach. However, Standard Chartered's 2005 lawsuit marked the first successful attempt to take a ruler to trial.

INDIA

Magazine gains access to suspects

NEW DELHI | A court in New Delhi on Wednesday asked the city police to explain how a leading magazine managed to interview Muslim men arrested for purported involvement in deadly serial bombings, a lawyer said.

The weekly India Today magazine had published interviews with the terrorism suspects in which the men reportedly confessed to planting bombs that killed more than 20 people and injured about 100 in New Delhi on Sept. 13.

"If Allah wants, I'll bomb the market where my mother buys vegetables. She will be sent to paradise," the magazine quoted suspect Zia-u Rehman as saying.

The other two men also spoke freely about their apparent roles in the bombings, the magazine said.

Police allowed access to the media for the interview, while not letting the accused meet with their attorneys, leading attorney Prashant Bhushan said.

"This amounts to criminal contempt of court and defamation," Mr. Bhushan told Agence France-Presse.


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October 19, 2008

GERMANY

Steinmeier selected chancellor candidate

BERLIN | Germany's center-left Social Democrats on Saturday crowned as their candidate for chancellor next year the country's popular foreign minister, who said his party is best-placed to deal with the fallout from the global financial crisis.

A special party convention formally nominated Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to challenge conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel by a 469-15 margin with nine abstentions. He ran unopposed.

The Social Democrats are keen to end an uneasy "grand coalition" under Mrs. Merkel next year, but polls show them facing a difficult battle to win back the chancellery.

Mr. Steinmeier, currently Mrs. Merkel's vice chancellor, suggested the global financial crisis would create a favorable climate for his party. It has championed a national minimum wage and called for curbs on perceived excesses in managers' pay.

CYPRUS

Turkey in U.N. council irks government

NICOSIA | Cyprus voiced objections on Saturday over Turkey's election to the United Nations Security Council, accusing it of violating the world body's own resolutions against its occupation of part of the island.

"Certainly it does not please us that a country which occupies a part of the Cyprus Republic and violates the human rights of the Cypriot people is elected as a member of the Security Council," President Demetris Christofias told reporters.

Turkey's seat on the council for 2009-10 is its first since 1961. The NATO and prospective European Union member has been taking a more active diplomatic role in the region in recent months.

The country has had an estimated 40,000 troops in Cyprus since it occupied its northern third in response to a 1974 Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece.

It has no relations with the internationally recognized Cyprus government, maintaining ties instead with the breakaway state that Turkish Cypriot leaders declared in 1983.

BRITAIN

Restrictions eyed on immigration

LONDON | Britain will impose tougher restrictions on immigration as the global financial crisis lifts unemployment to the highest rate in nearly a decade, the country's new immigration minister said Saturday.

"If people are being made unemployed, the question of immigration becomes extremely thorny," Phil Woolas told the Times of London.

In a dramatic change of policy, the Labor government intends placing a limit on immigration, according to the daily.

The minister said his government would not allow Britain's population to grow to 70 million people. Britain's population grew by about 3.4 percent to almost 61 million people between 2001 and 2007 fueled by expansion of the European Union.

IRAQ

11 bodies found in mass grave

SAMARRA | Iraqi and U.S. forces have found a mass grave containing 11 decomposed bodies of men thought to have been kidnapped by al Qaeda militants last year, officials said Saturday.

The mass grave was found in Al-Jillam, 15 miles east of the central city of Samarra, said Sheik Khaled Fleyih Hassan, leader of an anti-al Qaeda group that discovered the corpses.

Sheik Hassan said that one of the victims was the son of the Samarra municipality chief and that two others were bodyguards of the city's mayor. All the 11 men were kidnapped during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in October 2007, he said.

VATICAN CITY

Pope holds off beatifying Pius XII

VATICAN CITY | Pope Benedict XVI has held off taking the first steps toward the canonization of one of his predecessors in order to maintain good relations with Jews, a backer of sainthood for Pius XII said Saturday.

Jewish groups accuse Pius, pontiff from 1939 to 1958, of having failed to protest the Holocaust and having been passive toward persecution of Jews.

Father Peter Gumpel, the promoter of the case for sainthood for Pius, told the Italian news agency ANSA that the procedure for beatification, the first step towards canonization, has been completed. But Benedict had not signed the decree "because he wants good relations with the Jews."

"The pope has not yet signed the decree, considering a time of reflection opportune," the Vatican spokesman said.

INDIA

Navy starts joint exercises with U.S.

ON BOARD INS MUMBAI, OFF THE INDIAN COAST | The Indian and U.S. navies on Saturday began a weeklong series of joint exercises, looking to increase cooperation at a time of heightened fears about maritime piracy.

Codenamed "Malabar," the sea exercises in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Goa state in western India include the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, and a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy submarine.

Some 8,500 personnel are involved in the exercises, the Indian navy said.


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October 20, 2008

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban stop bus, kill 30 passengers

KANDAHAR | Taliban militants stopped a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway through a dangerous part of the country's south, seized about 50 people on board and killed about 30 of them, officials said Sunday.

A Taliban spokesman took responsibility for the attack but said militants killed 27 Afghan soldiers. Afghan officials said that no soldiers were aboard and that all the victims were civilians.

Militants stopped the bus traveling in a two-bus convoy in a Taliban-controlled area about 40 miles west of Kandahar, said provincial police chief Matiullah Khan.

He said two buses had been traveling together, and the militants had tried to stop the first one but failed. He said the insurgents fired at the first bus, killing a child on board.


SUDAN

9 Chinese workers kidnapped

KHARTOUM | Kidnappers have snatched nine Chinese oil workers in central Sudan, the third such incident of the past year in the oil-producing region, the Sudanese government and diplomats said Sunday.

The government blamed a Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, for the kidnapping. Diplomats, however, said the captors were probably local tribesmen.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Raymond Yu said the kidnappers abducted the workers on Saturday in South Kordofan, source of a large part of Sudan's oil wealth. China is the biggest foreign investor in the African country.

NETHERLANDS

Government injects $13 billion in ING

AMSTERDAM | The Dutch government said Sunday that it will inject $13.4 billion into ING Groep NV to shore up the bank and insurance company amid market rumors it was running out of capital.

Finance Minister Wouter Bos said the deal was necessary given the recent extreme volatility of global financial markets.

The move is the latest case of a government stepping in to help shore up the books of a financial company hammered by the worldwide credit crisis. Among moves in the U.S., the Federal Reserve is loaning American International Group $123 billion, while the government plans to buy about $250 billion in major bank stocks. In Europe, the German government helped bail out mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate, and Britain partially nationalized lender Bradford & Bingley.

CHINA

Ex-Beijing official sentenced in graft

BEIJING | A former Beijing vice mayor in charge of overseeing Olympic construction projects has been given a suspended death sentence for corruption, a court said Sunday, in a stern warning to wayward communist officials.

The Intermediate People's Court in Hengshui, a city outside Beijing, delivered the sentence Saturday after finding Liu Zhihua guilty of taking bribes.

The sentence will be commuted to life in prison in two years if Liu shows good behavior.

Before his sudden dismissal in 2006 for unspecified corruption, Liu was in charge of urban development in the Chinese capital and headed the office overseeing the $40 billion being spent by the city on Olympics-related infrastructure projects.

VENEZUELA

Power blackout hits capital

CARACAS | A large power blackout hit Venezuela on Sunday in the latest of a series of electricity grid failures that have become a political liability for President Hugo Chavez.

Oil operations in one of the world's largest crude exporters were unaffected by the outage because they use separate grids from residential networks, a state oil company spokesman said.

Sunday's blackout hit areas in and around the capital Caracas, at least three other major cities and a tourist coastal region, residents said. A top electricity official told state television that eight central states were affected, although power was gradually being restored in some areas.

CUBA


Russian Orthodox cathedral opens

HAVANA | Cuba's first Russian Orthodox cathedral was consecrated Sunday amid church bells, liturgical chants and the presence of President Raul Castro, in a sign of good will toward the island's former chief benefactor.

Russian diplomats and members of Cuba's dwindling Russian community crowded into the whitewashed seaside cathedral, which is topped by a gleaming gold dome.

Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Mr. Castro attended the opening but left before the liturgical service that followed. His good relations with Russian officials date to Soviet times, and his older brother, Fidel, attended the consecration of a nearby Orthodox church for Greek and other non-Russian Orthodox Christians in 2004.

SOUTH AFRICA

Ex-minister set to form new party

JOHANNESBURG | South Africa's former defense minister has announced that a breakaway party will be launched, splitting the ruling African National Congress and challenging its years of dominance.

"We are going to go and set up a party," Mosiuoa Lekota said in remarks broadcast on South Africa's SAfm radio. It would be set up at a national congress that he has called for Nov. 2, he said.

The move, which was expected, is likely to raise tensions in the biggest political shake-up in the 96-year history of the ANC, which has ruled since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Mr. Lekota, who was suspended from the ANC for threatening to form a new party, has made a wide appeal to South Africans to attend the national congress to discuss what he says are major flaws in the ANC leadership and plan future strategy.

SOMALIA

Pirates get ransom, release Thai ship

MOGADISHU | It's been a busy, profitable week for Somali pirates: They hijacked one South Korean bulk carrier Wednesday, released another South Korean cargo ship Thursday and let a hijacked Thai ship go Saturday after getting a ransom.

Somali official Ali Abdi Aware reported the release of the Thai ship, but said Sunday it was not clear exactly how much money was paid.

Mr. Aware, the minister for foreign affairs for the semiautonomous northern Somali region of Puntland, said Puntland forces will be hunting for the pirates. Earlier this week, Puntland forces freed a Panama-flagged cargo ship from pirates in a gunbattle that killed one soldier.

Nearly a dozen ships and more than 200 crew members remain in the hands of pirates, including the hijacked Ukrainian arms ship MV Faina, for which pirates have demanded an $8 million ransom.

U.S. warships still surround the Faina to keep the pirates from unloading its cargo of battle tanks and heavy weapons.


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October 21, 2008

ISRAEL

Livni gets 2 weeks to form coalition

JERUSALEM | President Shimon Peres on Monday extended the deadline for Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni to form a parliamentary coalition, giving her two more weeks to establish a government or face the prospect of a new election.

The move was largely a formality. But it highlighted the difficulties faced by Mrs. Livni as she tries to create a stable government capable of realizing a far-reaching peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Mrs. Livni was elected leader of the ruling Kadima party last month, giving her 28 days to put together a government. Unsuccessful after weeks of negotiations, she asked Mr. Peres for the two-week extension Monday.

Under Israeli law, if Mrs. Livni does not muster a parliamentary majority in the next two weeks, the country will likely face early elections, more than a year ahead of schedule.

An early election could prevent Mrs. Livni from becoming Israel's first female prime minister in more than 30 years. Opinion polls have indicated that the hawkish Likud party would sweep to power if new elections were held.

Kadima held its leadership race to choose a successor to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is leaving office to fight corruption charges. Mrs. Livni is trying to keep Olmert's previous coalition intact.

BRITAIN

Botswana's Mogae wins Africa prize

LONDON | Botswana's former President Festus Mogae won the $5 million Mo Ibrahim Prize for African leadership on Monday for steering his country along a stable, prosperous path and leading the fight against AIDS.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared Mr. Mogae the winner of the world's largest individual award at an event at London's City Hall. Mr. Mogae handed over power earlier this year in a smooth transition after nearly a decade in power.

The prize is awarded to a democratically elected former leader of a sub-Saharan African country who served his constitutional term and left office in the past three years.

TURKEY

Chaos mars trial in coup plot

ISTANBUL | Chaos erupted Monday as a group of 86 people, including former army officers, a best-selling author and an ultranationalist lawyer, crowded into a prison courtroom for trial on charges of conspiring to overthrow Turkey's Islamic-oriented government.

A panel of judges adjourned the proceeding after defendants and lawyers jamming the courtroom complained they could not hear. The proceedings later resumed with only the 46 jailed suspects and their lawyers. The other 40 suspects in the case are free pending trial.

The defendants are charged with seeking to destabilize Turkey with attacks ahead of a planned coup in 2009.

CHINA

Tainted feed kills 1,500 fur dogs

BEIJING | Some 1,500 dogs bred for their raccoonlike fur have died after eating feed tainted with the same chemical that contaminated dairy products and sickened tens of thousands of babies nationwide, a veterinarian said Monday.

The raccoon dogs - a breed native to east Asia whose fur is used to make trim on coats and other clothing - were fed a product that contained the chemical melamine and developed kidney stones, said Zhang Wenkui, a veterinary professor at Shenyang Agriculture University. All of the dogs died on farms in just one village.

Meanwhile a British sex shop chain has suspended sales of a chocolate body spread manufactured in China that was found to contain small quantities of melamine, Britain's food regulator said Monday.

FRANCE

Sister Emmanuelle dies at age 99

PARIS | Sister Emmanuelle, a nun who lived for years among scavengers in Cairo's slums and who won wide acclaim for defending the rights of the poor and marginalized, died Monday at age 99.

A spokeswoman for her association, Sandrine de Carlo, said the Belgium-born nun died in her sleep at a retirement home in Callian, a town in southeastern France.

Sister Emmanuelle spent more than two decades working with Cairo's zabbaleen, or garbage collectors, who eke out a living through scavenging.

SOUTH KOREA

6 killed in arson, stabbing spree

SEOUL | A financially strapped South Korean man went on an arson and stabbing rampage in Seoul on Monday, leaving six people dead and seven others wounded, police said.

The 31-year-old suspect, identified only by his surname, Jeong, first set fire to his room in a low-cost lodging facility in southern Seoul and then stabbed other residents with a sashimi knife while fleeing the fire, police said.


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October 22, 2008

BOLIVIA

Congress backs Morales' statute

LA PAZ | Bolivia's Congress ratified President Evo Morales' draft constitution Tuesday and sent it to a nationwide vote on Jan. 25, granting the leftist leader a hard-fought victory in his push to remake South America's poorest country.

Mr. Morales wiped away tears as he waded into a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters packed into the narrow streets of the capital to celebrate passage of the document designed to empower Bolivia's long-oppressed indigenous majority.

The popular Mr. Morales agreed Monday to seek only one more five-year term in exchange for opposition lawmakers' support of the framework, expected to easily pass a referendum.

The proposed constitution has been embraced by the president's poorer, largely Indian supporters, but has met fierce resistance from the middle and upper classes in the lowland east who say it expands Mr. Morales' powers and ignored their demands for greater provincial autonomy.

However, last-minute negotiations brought compromises curbing several of Mr. Morales' more ambitious reforms, as well as a key edit on the articles outlining provincial autonomy.

INDIA

Trade route opened across Kashmir

SALAMABAD | Trucks laden with fruit, honey, garments and spices crossed the heavily armed frontier in the Himalayan region of Kashmir on Tuesday as India and Pakistan opened a trade route between the two sides of the divided region for the first time in six decades.

The opening of the trade route is meant to bolster a 2004 peace agreement between the South Asian rivals. The truce has appeared increasingly fragile in recent months amid dozens of cross-border shootings and charges from New Delhi that Islamabad backed attacks in India.

Separatists on the Indian side, who have stepped up demands for a trade route between India- and Pakistan-controlled sections of Kashmir during recent mass protests against Indian rule, also hailed Tuesday's trade opening as a victory.

TAIWAN

Protesters attack Chinese envoy

TAIPEI | Angry protesters in southern Taiwan assaulted an envoy from rival China on Tuesday, part of an escalating reaction by the pro-independence opposition to President Ma Ying-jeou's policy of greater engagement with Beijing.

About a dozen protesters surrounded Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait at a Confucian temple in the southern city of Tainan, then knocked him to the ground while shouting anti-communist and pro-independence slogans.

"Taiwan does not belong to China," protesters shouted.

Mr. Zhang is a well-recognized figure in Taiwan. He was formerly the spokesman for Beijing on Taiwan affairs, often depicted on Taiwanese television as making strident comments that many Taiwanese regarded as offensive.

RUSSIA

6 Russian police killed in Dagestan

MAKHACHKALA | Militants ambushed a Russian police contingent in the province of Dagestan on Tuesday, killing six officers and wounding nine others, officials said.

Dagestan, a Caspian Sea province, is located east of Chechnya. It is among several volatile provinces in the North Caucasus that have been troubled by violence linked to Chechen rebels, an official crackdown on Islamic militancy, clan rivalries and internal power struggles.

The militants first killed a police officer and then ambushed a police convoy, killing five others in a mountainous area about 40 miles south of the provincial capital, Makhachkala.

AFGHANISTAN

Journalism student spared death

KABUL | An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence Tuesday for a journalism student accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women's rights under Islam. But the judges still sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

The case against 24-year-old Parwez Kambakhsh, whose brother has angered Afghan warlords with his own writings, has come to symbolize Afghanistan's slide toward a hardline view on religious and individual freedoms.

The case can be appealed to the Supreme Court, the highest court in Afghanistan.

Mr. Kambakhsh was studying journalism at Balkh University in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and writing for local newspapers when he was arrested in October 2007.

INDIA

Arrest sparks protests in Bombay

BOMBAY | Police in western India arrested the head of a local political party Tuesday after attacks on migrant workers, sparking violent protests and the shutting of some businesses in the financial hub of Bombay.

Raj Thackeray, who heads the small but vocal Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, was arrested in Maharashtra state on charges of rioting, police said, and was brought to Bombay. He will be held in jail for at least two weeks.

Police in Bombay fired tear-gas shells and beat protesters with batons after the arrest of Mr. Thackeray, the nephew of Hindu nationalist leader Bal Thackeray, who founded the Shiv Sena party.

INDIA

Blast kills 14 in northeast

GUWAHATI | A bomb exploded outside a training center for police commandos in northeastern India on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 20 more, police said.

The bomb was apparently planted on a motorcycle and placed outside the center in the city of Imphal, police said.

Dozens of militant separatist groups are active in India's northeast, an isolated region wedged between Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Burma, with only a thin corridor connecting it to the rest of India. Imphal is the capital of India's Manipur state, which borders Burma.


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October 23, 2008

BRITAIN

Stem cell research scope widened

LONDON | British plans to allow scientists to use hybrid animal-human embryos for stem cell research won final approval from lawmakers Wednesday in a sweeping overhaul of sensitive science laws.

The House of Commons also clarified laws that allow the screening of embryos so parents can produce babies with specific characteristics to help a diseased older sibling through tissue or organ donation.

It was the first review of embryo science in Britainalmost 20 years.

The lawmakers voted 355-129 to authorize the proposals after months of sometimes bitter debate that has pitted Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government and scientists against religious leaders, pro-life campaigners and others anxious about medical advances.

Mr. Brown has said he thinks that using mixed animal-human embryos for stem cell research into diseases such as Parkinson's will help improve — and save — millions of lives.

GEORGIA

$4.55 billion pledged for war recovery

BRUSSELS | International donors pledged a higher-than-expected $4.55 billion Wednesday to help Georgia recover from its war with Russia, and Washington called it an extraordinary sign of solidarity at a time of financial turmoil.

The European Commission said the sum pledged at a one-day conference in Brussels included $3.7 billion in public loans and grants and $850 million from the private sector.

The United Nations and the World Bank had estimated that Georgia, an energy transit route, would need $3.25 billion over the next three years to help tens of thousands of people forced from their homes and repair and develop infrastructure.

MEXICO

Drug cartel chief held in gun battle

MEXICO CITY | A drug cartel leader who directed cocaine trafficking through Mexico City's international airport was arrested after a shootout in the capital, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Jesus "The King" Zambada was among 16 Sinaloa cartel members arrested Monday after a gunbattle with police in which an apparent grenade explosion destroyed a car, Attorney General Eduardo Medina said. Mr. Zambada's son, his nephew, two federal police officers and one state police officer were also among those arrested.

Mr. Zambada was identified as the brother of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who purportedly heads the cartel along with one of Mexico's most wanted men, Joaquin Guzman.

Mr. Medina described Jesus Zambada as one of the top four leaders of the cartel.

BRITAIN

Lebanese woman granted asylum

LONDON | A Lebanese mother and her child who fled to Britain to avoid being separated under their country's Islamic law should be allowed to remain in the country, Britain's highest court ruled Wednesday.

The divorced woman, identified only as EM, sought asylum in Britain for herself and her 8-year-old son after fleeing Lebanon on false papers in December 2004. She told immigration officials that her abusive ex-husband would gain custody of their child under Lebanon's Shariah law.

While religious laws are not applied in Lebanon's criminal code, Shariah applies to Lebanese Muslims on civil issues such as marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. Christian communities have their own religious courts.

Shariah only allows divorced mothers custody of their children until their seventh birthday, at which point custody reverts to the father.

Neither the woman, 36, nor her son, now 12, have been identified, out of concern for their safety.


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October 24, 2008

MEXICO

Energy reform passes Senate

MEXICO CITY | The Mexican Senate on Thursday passed a controversial energy reform meant to revitalize the nation's flagging oil industry - the third largest supplier to the United States.

The bill now goes to the lower house.

Riot police surrounded Senate offices to hold back protesters as the lawmakers voted to allow more private and foreign investment in the state-run oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, to help boost sagging production by Mexico's oil industry.

President Felipe Calderon says the plan will help Pemex tackle deep-water drilling and put more profits in exploration.

But analysts say the diluted bill will do little to halt the company's slide. Leftists rallied support to limit openings to private investment in an industry that was nationalized in 1938.

Former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the most outspoken critic, mobilized supporters for massive street protests Thursday to try to stop approval of the plan he said could lead toward privatization.

IRAN

American student held at Evin Prison

CAIRO | An American university student in Iran to visit family and research women's rights has been arrested and held in prison for more than a week, rights group Amnesty International said.

Esha Momeni, a student at California State University at Northridge, was driving on a highway in Tehran when she was stopped by authorities who said they were traffic police, London-based Amnesty said.

Iranian officials said Miss Momeni was arrested Oct. 15 for a traffic offense. But Amnesty said Tuesday she was taken to her family's home where her computer and other materials related to her research on the Iranian women's movement were confiscated.

Miss Momeni was later taken to Evin Prison, the Tehran facility notorious for holding political prisoners, Amnesty said.

CUBA

EU signs accord on hurricane aid

HAVANA | Cuba and the European Union ended a five-year standoff Thursday by signing an agreement that calls for EU members to send the island $2.6 million in immediate hurricane recovery aid and up to $38.8 million more in financing next year.

The agreement signed by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and EU Commissioner Louis Michel restarts dialogue and cooperation that stalled in 2003, when the communist government launched a crackdown and sentenced 75 dissidents to long prison terms.

The agreement was made possible by the EU's June decision to eliminate the last remaining diplomatic sanctions imposed after the crackdown. Twenty of the original 75 prisoners have since been released for health reasons.

CROATIA

Prominent journalist killed by bomb

ZAGREB | A car bomb killed Ivo Pukanic, a prominent Croatian journalist, and a colleague in downtown Zagreb on Thursday, and the country's president called it an assassination.

State-run Croatian TV showed footage of Mr. Pukanic's burned-out Lexus and two covered bodies outside his NCL Media Group office in the capital, and police identified the victims as Mr. Pukanic and his marketing director, Niko Franjic.

Six months ago, Mr. Pukanic said someone tried to kill him in front of his house in downtown Zagreb, showing police what he described as a bullet hole in a nearby shop window. Police protection ended in August at his request, Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko said.

Croatian President Stipe Mesic condemned what he called the "assassination" of Mr. Pukanic, the owner and editor-in-chief of Nacional, the No. 2 political weekly in Croatia.

TURKEY

Court refuses to free coup-plot suspects

ISTANBUL | A panel of judges refused on Thursday to grant bail to 46 people being tried for purportedly conspiring to overthrow Turkey's Islamic-oriented government in a case the Turkish media have dubbed the "trial of the century."

The judges rejected the defense attorneys' request, ruling there was no ground to free the defendants, then adjourned the trial until Monday, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

The judges also scrapped an earlier decision to try the 46 separately from the 40 other defendants in the case who are free on bail, saying all 86 people accused in the complex and politically charged case will now be tried together.

The defendants - including former army officers, a best-selling author, journalists, a former university dean and a lawyer - are accused of belonging to a ultranationalist group that prosecutors say was trying to destabilize Turkey with a string of attacks ahead of a coup planned for 2009.

NORTH KOREA

North rips reports on Kim's well-being

SEOUL | North Korea's state media said Thursday that recent news reports about the country's leader Kim Jong-il's health were false, in their first direct comment on the reclusive ruler's suspected illness.

U.S. and South Korean officials said last month Mr. Kim may have suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about leadership in Asia's only communist dynasty.

"The army and people of [North Korea] hold the prestige of their top leader dearer than their lives and will never tolerate any act of defaming it," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper had reported that North Korean diplomats were told to stay close to their missions and await "an important message." The paper speculated that it may be an announcement about Mr. Kim's health.

KCNA called the Japanese newspaper report "a whopping lie."


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