World Scene


October 25, 2008

RUSSIA

Gunmen kidnap up to 15 people

NAZRAN | Armed men drove into Russia's Ingushetia region and abducted up to 15 people, including police officers, from a checkpoint and a slot machine parlor, police and witnesses said on Friday.

Witnesses said the gunmen, dressed in camouflage, entered Ingushetia from neighboring Chechnya late on Thursday and presented themselves as police officers. Chechen authorities said they had nothing to do with the raid.

Islamist groups fighting an insurgency in Ingushetia against Moscow's rule frequently target gambling halls and shops selling alcohol, saying they contradict Islam.

The Kremlin has been struggling for decades to suppress armed rebellions in its North Caucasus region. Unrest in Chechnya, the scene of two wars, has been largely quelled but the violence has now shifted to Ingushetia, where shootouts and ambushes are common.

ZIMBABWE

Tsvangirai agrees to attend summit

HARARE | Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will attend a summit in Harare next week aimed at saving an agreement to form a unity government with President Robert Mugabe, a spokesman said Friday.

"We are not boycotting Monday's meeting," opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

"It is our hope that this meeting will bring closure and finality to this issue of power sharing and enable Zimbabwe to respond to the dire situation which the people are facing," he said.

Mr. Tsvangirai had refused to go to Swaziland for a meeting with Mr. Mugabe and four other regional leaders on Monday, in protest that he was only given emergency travel documents at the last minute.

After Mr. Tsvangirai failed to show up, the regional leaders -- including South African President Kgalema Motlanthe -- agreed to hold a new summit next Monday in Harare.

JAPAN

Aso rules out snap elections

BEIJING | Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday ruled out calling a snap election for now despite mounting speculation, saying voters want him to concentrate on handling the financial crisis.

"I've been repeating the same thing," Mr. Aso told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Asian and European leaders in Beijing.

"Now is the time of an unprecedented financial crisis," he said. "[And] corporate managers are becoming aware that the crisis in finance is expanding to the whole economy."

The former foreign minister took over as prime minister on Sept. 24 from Yasuo Fukuda, who resigned amid sagging popularity.

CROATIA

EU membership threatened by crime

ZAGREB | Croatia was warned Friday that its chances of European Union membership were threatened by organized crime, the day after a car bomb killed a prominent journalist and a colleague.

"I am deeply worried," about the situation in the country, Hannes Swoboda, the European parliament's rapporteur on Croatia told national radio. "It is a shock which pushes Croatia back in its ambitions to become a member of the EU."

Mr. Swoboda was speaking the day after Ivo Pukanic, founder and owner of the Nacional independent weekly, was killed outside his paper's offices in downtown Zagreb in the third gangland-style homicide in the capital since the beginning of the month.

Mr. Pukanic's car exploded as he and marketing director Niko Franjic approached the vehicle, police said. They both died and two others were injured in the blast.

CHINA

Japan, China agree to set up hot line

BEIJING | Tokyo and Beijing agreed Friday to establish a hot line between their leaders to build mutual trust, in Prime Minister Taro Aso's first meeting as Japanese leader with his Chinese counterparts.

Mr. Aso agreed in separate talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao to use the hot line "to conduct frequent and timely exchanges of opinion," the Japanese government said in a statement.

Mr. Aso, a former foreign minister who has boasted of his record as a diplomat to show his experience in managing Tokyo's difficult relations with its Asian neighbors, was speaking in Beijing.

"It's important to create a situation where top leaders can communicate any time," Mr. Aso said.

RUSSIA

Man sparks alert on Russian flight

MOSCOW | A passenger who threatened to blow up a Russian airliner Friday had been released earlier in the day from psychiatric treatment that was ordered after he killed his mother, authorities said according to Russian news agencies.

The Boeing 737 belonging to Russian airline Sky Express was heading from the Black Sea resort city of Sochi with about 130 people aboard when the passenger gave a note to a stewardess saying he would blow up the plane unless it rerouted to Vienna, Austria. The plane landed safely at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport and the man was arrested, reports said.

The man, in his early 30s, was convicted in 2002 of killing his mother and was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment, Interfax reported.

"Today he was released by court order, and he immediately bought a ticket for this flight," the Federal Security Service was quoted as saying in a report.


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World Scene


October 26, 2008

ISRAEL

Livni weighs early elections

JERUSALEM | Israel moved closer to holding early elections, with Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni due to inform President Shimon Peres on Sunday whether she intended to go to the polls or attempt to rule with a potentially fragile coalition.

Mrs. Livni's point man on coalition talks said in a local television interview Saturday that the final decision had not been made.

Mrs. Livni on Thursday announced an ultimatum, giving potential partners three days to join a government under her leadership or face the prospect of going to the polls.

Her Kadima party has the backing of the center-left Labor Party and is likely to keep the small Pensioners party in the government, but needs to get the ultra-Orthodox Shas party on board to secure a solid majority in the 120-seat parliament.

On Friday, however, Shas said it would not join Mrs. Livni because she had refused to pledge that the future status of Jerusalem would not be on the agenda in negotiations with the Palestinians.

SOUTH KOREA

2 Koreas to hold military talks

SEOUL | South Korea accepted a North Korean proposal to hold military talks, a Defense Ministry official said Saturday, amid continuing tensions on the divided peninsula.

Ties between the two countries, which are still technically at war, have soured since South Korea's pro-U.S. conservative president, Lee Myung-bak, took office in February with a pledge to get tough with North Korea.

In protest, North Korea suspended reconciliation talks and threatened to cut any remaining relations if Seoul continues a policy of "reckless confrontation."

IRAQ

Party suspends ties with U.S. over raid

BAGHDAD | Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab political party suspended all dealings with U.S. civilian and military personnel on Saturday after U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out a raid in which a man was killed.

The incident could increase tensions in a part of Iraq that was once the heartland of the insurgency against U.S. forces but has become among the quietest parts of the country over the past two years.

U.S. forces said one man had been arrested and one had been killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid against a suspected militant on Friday in the town of Fallujah.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, headed by Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, said the targets of the raid were senior party officials. Five people had been detained and one killed "in his bed," it said in a statement.

TAIWAN

500,000 march against Ma, China

TAIPEI | Close to 500,000 people marched in Taiwan on Saturday to protest the government's growing ties with China, where a tainted powdered-milk scandal has fueled fresh distrust toward Beijing among island citizens.

In the strongest display of opposition so far to President Ma Ying-jeou, demonstrators flooded central Taipei, demanding that Mr. Ma step down over his friendly approach to Chinese officials.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own and has threatened to use force, if necessary, to bring the island under its rule.


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World Scene


October 28, 2008

AFGHANISTAN


U.S. copter downed;bomber kills 2 GIs

KABUL/| Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter after exchanging fire with its crew in central Afghanistan on Monday, while a suicide bomber in the north killed two American soldiers inside a police station, officials said.

The crew of the helicopter, forced down in a province neighboring Kabul, were rescued and troops were "in the process of recovering the aircraft," said Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a U.S. military spokesman.

"The helicopter crew exchanged fire with the enemy before the damage brought the helicopter down," Cmdr. Matthews said.

At least four militants were killed in the exchange, said Fazel Karim Muslim, the chief of Sayed Abad district.

IRAN

Nuclear inspectors blocked from sites

UNITED NATIONS | The U.N. nuclear chief said Monday that Iran is blocking his watchdog agency from verifying whether the nation has any ambitions for nuclear weaponry.

"I regret that we are still not in a position to achieve full clarity regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran," Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the U.N. General Assembly.

He urged Iran to do more to ensure "transparency," but emphasized the Vienna-based IAEA "does not in any way seek to pry into Iran's conventional or missile-related military activities."

Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee countered that the U.N. Security Council's demand that his nation suspend uranium enrichment is "illegal."

MEXICO

Government workers help drug traffickers

MEXICO CITY | Mexican prosecutors said Monday that employees of the federal attorney's general's office worked for a drug cartel, passing sensitive information to traffickers in the worst known case of drug infiltration of law enforcement in a decade.

The Mexico City newspaper El Universal reported on Monday that one cartel informant said he had infiltrated the U.S. Embassy.

It said the informant told Mexican prosecutors that he had worked as a "criminal investigator" at the embassy and that he had passed along information on U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operations in Mexico. The embassy had no immediate comment on the report.

AUSTRALIA

Lord's Prayer tradition debated

CANBERRA | The speaker of Australia's Parliament has called for a public debate about whether the country's lawmakers should end the practice of starting each session with the Lord's Prayer.

Lawmakers have started every day of Parliament with the Christian prayer for more than a century - a tradition inherited from Britain during colonial rule.

But some are now questioning whether a prayer adopted by the first Australian Parliament in 1901 remains relevant in an increasingly secular and religiously diverse nation.

Dumping the prayer is unlikely to happen anytime soon, though, because Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull said Sunday they wanted to keep the prayer.

More than 65 percent of Australians still identify themselves as Christians, and there are no Muslims or Aborigines among Australia's 226 federal lawmakers.

GEORGIA

President fires prime minister

TBILISI | Georgia's president has dismissed his prime minister and recommended the country's ambassador to Turkey as the replacement.

Mikhail Saakashvili made the announcement in a live television address late Monday. He did not immediately provide a reason for the move.

The outgoing prime minister, Vladimir Gurgenizde, was appointed in November after a series of anti-government protests. Mr. Saakashvili said Mr. Gurgenizde would now head a government finance commission.

Parliament must confirm the 35-year-old Grigol Mgaloblishvili, before the prime minister appointment can take effect.

CONGO

Protesters stone United Nations

GOMA | Thousands of civilians threw rocks at four United Nations offices in eastern Congo on Monday, venting outrage at the organization's inability to protect them from rebel forces advancing on the provincial capital of Goma.

Peacekeepers opened fire at one downtown office and people may have been injured, a U.N. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

People in eastern Congo are angry that a 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force has been unable to protect them from a rebel attack just 25 miles north of the city. Tens of thousands of civilians have abandoned their homes.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Congolese soldiers pulled back Monday from the front in tanks, jeeps, trucks and on foot in what appeared to be a major retreat of government forces. Soldiers honked their horns angrily as they struggled to push through throngs of refugees pouring onto the main road.

SOMALIA

NATO protects ship from pirates

NAIROBI, Kenya | NATO warships safely escorted a cargo of supplies through the pirate-infested waters off Somalia on Monday, and hijackers holding an arms-laden Ukrainian vessel said its operators do not want to negotiate for the weapons.

The NATO escort for a ship supplying African Union peacekeeping troops in Somalia was the first such mission for the alliance's seven-ship flotilla, which arrived in the region over the weekend to conduct anti-piracy patrols and guard World Food Program aid shipments.


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World Scene


October 29, 2008

SYRIA

Soil samples back nuclear suspicions

VIENNA, Austria | Freshly evaluated soil and air samples from a Syrian site bombed by Israel on suspicion it was a covert nuclear reactor provide enough evidence to push ahead with a U.N probe, diplomats said Tuesday.

The findings are important after months of uncertainty about the status of the investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Preliminary results regarding environmental samples collected from the site by an IAEA team and made public earlier this year were inconclusive, adding weight to Syrian assertions that no trips beyond the initial IAEA visit in June were necessary.

But the diplomats told the Associated Press that the IAEA's final evaluation, completed a few days ago, has the agency convinced it needs to press on with its investigation.

The agency feels "there is enough evidence there to warrant a follow-up," said one of the diplomats. He and a colleague from another IAEA country demanded anonymity in exchange for divulging confidential information, which is not meant to be made public until the IAEA's meeting of its 35-nation board of governors next month.

RUSSIA

Banker guilty of hit on bank investigator

MOSCOW | A Russian banker was found guilty Tuesday of organizing the murder of a Central Bank official who oversaw efforts to clean up the country's murky banking industry, a court spokeswoman said.

A Moscow City Court jury decided that Alexei Frenkel, the former chairman of VIP Bank, ordered the September 2006 murder of Andrei Kozlov, spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said. Six others were found guilty of involvement in the murder, she said.

Mr. Kozlov, 41, was fatally shot as he left an indoor soccer game in northeastern Moscow.

Mr. Frenkel, 36, has denied any involvement in the murder. He was so confident of being cleared that he had ordered a taxi from the courtroom to take him home, state television reported.

JAPAN

Quake drill shows shortage of toilets

TOKYO | Japan's disaster-prevention panel said hundreds of thousands of people would be unable to find a toilet if a major earthquake were to hit Tokyo on a weekday.

The panel studied a simulation that imagined a magnitude-7.3 quake striking Tokyo at noon on a workday. A temblor of that size would send 12 million people spilling out of their offices, forced to walk home from the city center.

Assuming that each of those fleeing will need to stop for the bathroom every two hours, the report said 810,000 people will be desperately looking for a toilet within hours of the quake, even if half of the public facilities remained intact. Some might wait 17 hours before finding a toilet, the simulation said.

CONGO

Rebels target provincial capital

KILIMANYOKA | Rebels vowing to take Congo's eastern provincial capital of 600,000 people advanced toward Goma on Tuesday as Congolese troops and U.N. tanks retreated, while tens of thousands fled to a makeshift shelter.

The sudden influx tripled the size of the camp in Kibati in a matter of hours, said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency. A hundred refugees a day, mostly women and children, were also fleeing across the border into Uganda, that country's Red Cross said.

In Kibati, a few miles from the front line, young men also lobbed rocks Tuesday at three U.N. tanks with Uruguayan troops heading away from the battlefield.

On Monday, peacekeepers fired into the air at one U.N. compound that came under a hail of rocks, and city leaders said three people were killed. Mobs hurled the stones to protest the U.N.'s failure to protect them from the rebels, despite having 17,000 peacekeepers in its Congo mission.

BRITAIN

List of banned preachers to be published

LONDON | Britain's law and order chief says the government will publish lists of radical preachers and other extremists banned from entering the country.

Jacqui Smith told lawmakers Tuesday that identifying those refused entry to the country would help stop "those who foster, encourage or spread extremism."

Since 2005, around 230 people have been turned away by Britain's government, including radical Muslim clerics, neo-Nazis and radical animal rights activists.

Among those who've been refused entry is Lebanon-based cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed. He is the former head of the now-disbanded group al-Muhajiroun, which gained notoriety for praising the Sept. 11 hijackers.

CUBA

Detainee accused of video recruitment

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE | A Yemeni detainee made videos glorifying al Qaeda's attacks to lure new recruits to the terrorist network, a military prosecutor said Tuesday in opening statements at the second Guantanamo war-crimes trial.

One of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul's videos depicted the 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen and was shown at terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, said Army Maj. Daniel Cowhig, the lead prosecutor in the case.

Al-Bahlul, who is boycotting the trial, sat silently without offering any defense as prosecutors launched their case. His Pentagon-appointed attorney, Air Force Maj. David Frakt, has joined his client's protest and refused to answer questions from the judge.

The 39-year-old prisoner has not denied his allegiance to Osama bin Laden, but he has dismissed the military tribunals as a "legal farce."

MALDIVES

Vote inaugurates multiparty system

MALE | Maldivians crowded polling booths across the Indian Ocean archipelago Tuesday in their first multiparty election, deciding whether to give democratic legitimacy to President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's three-decade reign or to bring it to an end.

Mr. Gayoom, 71, is seeking a seventh term in a runoff against Maldivian Democratic Party leader Mohammed Nasheed, a former political prisoner who has promised deeper democratic reforms for one of Asia's top luxury-tourism spots.

Polling went more smoothly than during a chaotic first round earlier this month when six candidates were on the ballot, but hundreds in this island state of 370,000 still complained that they had not made it onto polling lists while the names of some dead relatives had.

As the polls closed, Elections Commissioner Mohammed Ibrahim said slightly more than 1,000 complaints had been received and were being processed. Anyone waiting in line was to be permitted to cast a vote, Mr. Ibrahim said.


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World Scene


October 30, 2008

PAKISTAN

Government seeks missile-strike halt

ISLAMABAD | Pakistan's government summoned the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday to urge an immediate halt to missile strikes on suspected militant hide-outs near the Afghan border.

Missile strikes have killed at least two senior al Qaeda commanders in Pakistan, putting some pressure on extremist groups accused of planning attacks in Afghanistan -- and perhaps terror strikes in the West.

However, the increasing frequency of the strikes has strained America's seven-year anti-terrorism alliance with Pakistan, where rising violence is exacerbating economic problems that threaten the nuclear-armed Islamic republic's stability.

Having called in U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson on Wednesday, "a strong protest was lodged on the continued missile attacks by U.S. drones inside Pakistani territory," the Foreign Ministry said.

In Washington, the State Department confirmed that Mrs. Patterson had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry, but refused to discuss details of the meeting.

CANADA

Conviction tests anti-terror laws

TORONTO | A Canadian accused of plotting with a group of British Muslims to bomb buildings and natural-gas lines in the United Kingdom was convicted Wednesday of financing and facilitating terrorism.

Momim Khawaja was the first person charged under Canadian anti-terrorism laws passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His case is considered to be the first major test of those laws.

A 29-year-old Canadian of Pakistani descent, Khawaja was accused of collaborating with a group of Britons of Pakistani descent in a thwarted 2004 plan to attack London's Ministry of Sound nightclub, a shopping center and electrical and gas facilities in Britain. Prosecutors painted Khawaja as an extremist who, along with conspirators in Britain, was determined to sow havoc.

Though he pleaded not guilty to all charges, his attorney acknowledged that Khawaja created a remote-control device for setting off explosives. But the lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, insisted that it was meant for use against military targets in Afghanistan - not for a homemade fertilizer bomb being constructed by the plotters in London.

RUSSIA

Jesuit priests killed; probe ordered

MOSCOW | Two Jesuit priests were killed in their apartment near Moscow's police headquarters, officials said Wednesday, in an attack that one religious leader condemned as a brutal slaying.

As Russian officials launched an investigation, no information was immediately available about who had carried out the attack or what may have motivated it. Ties between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox patriarchy have long been strained in Russia, but officials said it did not appear the rift was behind the killings.

The Rev. Igor Kowalewski, the general secretary of the Catholic Russian Bishops Conference, said the priests' bodies were found late Tuesday in an apartment on Petrovka Street in downtown Moscow.

"They were brutally murdered," Father Kowalewski told the Associated Press.

Father Kowalewski said he was unaware of any threats against the priests: Otto Messmer, a Russian citizen, and Victor Betancourt, a national of Ecuador.

CHINA

New talks planned with Dalai Lama aides

BEIJING | China's government is planning a fresh round of talks with Dalai Lama's envoys, state media said Wednesday, days after the spiritual leader expressed dismay over the prospects of progress for greater autonomy in Tibet.

The meeting between the two sides will take place "in the near future," Xinhua news agency said, without giving a specific date.

Discussions had originally been scheduled for last October, but it was not clear whether they would move forward after the remarks by the Dalai Lama, who is often demonized by Beijing.

Thupten Samphel, spokesman for the self-proclaimed Tibetan government-in-exile in northern India's Dharmsala, said he had no immediate comment.

Quoting an unnamed official, Xinhua said discussions will take place despite anti-government riots this spring in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and "some serious disruptions and sabotages to the Beijing Olympic Games by a handful of 'Tibet independence' secessionists."

NORTH KOREA

Kim Jong-il suffers new health problem

SEOUL | New South Korean intelligence indicates that ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered a serious setback in his recovery from a stroke and has been hospitalized, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The report in the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper cited an unnamed government official in saying intelligence obtained Sunday suggested "a serious problem" with Mr. Kim's health. The report did not elaborate, and South Korea's National Intelligence Service and Unification Ministry said Wednesday that they could not confirm it.

Mr. Kim, 66, reportedly suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery in August. A Japanese TV station says his eldest son went to Paris to recruit a neurosurgeon, who was flown back to Asia to treat Mr. Kim.

The chief of the National Intelligence Service had told lawmakers Tuesday that Mr. Kim was "not physically perfect," but still able to rule the country.

North Korea denies Mr. Kim is ill.

SYRIA

Cooperation treat follows U.S. raid

DAMASCUS | Syria threatened Wednesday to stop cooperating with the U.S. and Baghdad on security along its Iraqi border if there are more American raids on Syrian territory like the weekend attack that killed eight people.

The government also demanded Washington apologize for Sunday's cross-border helicopter strike by American special forces, which U.S. military officials said killed a top al Qaeda in Iraq operative who was about to conduct an attack in Iraq.

Syria's earlier order for the closure of an American school and cultural center and an embassy warning to be vigilant raised concerns among Americans living in Damascus.

A huge protest against the raid was called for Thursday in Damascus. Although Americans have generally been welcomed in Syria, protests in the past have turned violent against U.S. and European targets.


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Friday, October 31, 2008

PAKISTAN

Quake survivors seek food, shelter

WAM | Children begged for food from trucks passing through Pakistan's quake zone Thursday as the death toll rose to 215 and survivors prepared for another frigid night camped out amid wrecked mountain villages.

Provincial government minister Zamrak Khan said 215 people died and hospitals were still treating dozens of people who were seriously injured in the 6.4-magnitude quake that struck before dawn Wednesday.

Soldiers and foreign aid groups distributed blankets, warm clothes and tents, in Baluchistan province, near the Afghan border, but many among the estimated 15,000 homeless complained of receiving little help.

A poorly managed aid effort in Baluchistan could add to anti-government sentiment as the country's new leaders battle violence by Islamic extremists and try to fix mounting economic problems.

The region is home to a separatist movement but has been spared the level of militant influence and violence seen in other tribal areas along the Afghan border.

FRANCE

Sarkozy bank raiders charged with fraud

PARIS | Preliminary fraud charges have been filed against three men who purportedly belonged to a gang that secretly withdrew money from French President Nicolas Sarkozy's personal bank account, an official said Thursday.

Wednesday's court action raised to six the number of people in the gang who have been charged with opening telephone line subscriptions using stolen bank information.

Once the subscription was fraudulently established in another person's name, the gang members would sell the mobile phones, with the subscription being paid directly from their victims' bank accounts without their knowledge.

A government spokesman has said Mr. Sarkozy reported the theft from his personal bank account in September after noticing the unauthorized withdrawal of 170 euros.

NIGER

Aid group leaves country in protest

NIAMEY | An international aid group will leave Niger because the government unexpectedly terminated its medical and nutritional program in one of the country's drought-prone districts, an official announced Thursday.

The president of Doctors Without Borders told reporters the government of Niger had closed down its program in the district of Maradi in July. The French branch of the aid agency has been working in Niger since 2001 and also runs a smaller health center in the country's north.

In protest, the French branch of the organization will leave Niger, resulting in the closure of the smaller center as well as the one in Maradi. The Swiss, Spanish and Belgian branches of the aid agency will continue to operate in Niger.

IRAQ

Rail to bypass traffic jams

BAGHDAD | Baghdad commuters have a new way to bypass the city's checkpoints and congested, dusty streets with the launch of a commuter rail that travels 15 miles through Sunni and Shi'ite neighborhoods in the heart of the capital.

The new service, which began Wednesday and costs the equivalent of 80 cents, comes as public irritation is mounting over traffic congestion - a result of better security but also caused by numerous police checkpoints that help stop bombers but also slow down cars and trucks.

Starting in the morning, the commuter train pulls out of the Baghdad's blue-domed main station and runs north to the mostly Shi'ite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, then cuts down through central Baghdad to the mainly Sunni suburb of Yousifiyah in the south. It makes a handful of stops.

Still, transport officials say they are unsure just how popular the new service will be as Iraqis adjust to the idea of rail travel in Baghdad, and it may face an uphill struggle in winning passengers.

The Associated Press Television News footage showed only a few people riding the train Thursday morning.

VATICAN CITY

Guidelines issued for seminarians

VATICAN CITY | The Vatican issued new psychological screening guidelines for seminarians Thursday — the latest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to be more selective about its priesthood candidates following a series of sex-abuse scandals.

The church said it issued the new guidelines to help church leaders weed out candidates with "psychopathic disturbances." The scandals have rocked the church in recent years, triggering lawsuits that have cost hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said the Vatican needs to go beyond screening seminarians to end what the group calls the church's "virtually unchanged culture of secrecy and unchecked power in the hierarchy" that left dangerous priests in parishes.

SWITZERLAND

Brothers convicted of drug smuggling

BELLINZONA | Two brothers from Kosovo were convicted Thursday of running a massive drug smuggling ring that prosecutors said supplied Western Europe with up to half of its heroin.

Ragip and Kemal Shabani channeled 1.5 tons of heroin through Europe from the mid-1990s until 2003, when they were shut down, prosecutors said.

The trial — considered one of Switzerland's largest-ever drug cases — was held under high security in the southern town of Bellinzona, with only some relatives and journalists allowed into the courtroom.

Ragip Shabani, 42, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and his 28-year-old brother received a two-year suspended sentence for participating in a criminal organization.


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Monday, November 3, 2008

PAKISTAN

Petraeus arrives to talk with leaders

ISLAMABAD | Gen. David H. Petraeus, newly tasked with responsibility for the two U.S. wars, arrived in Pakistan on Sunday as part of his first international trip as head of the U.S. Central Command.

Gen. Petraeus' trip signals Pakistan's crucial role in the fight against terrorism, particularly the escalating war in neighboring Afghanistan.

But it also comes amid tensions over suspected American missile strikes in Pakistan, a U.S. ally threatened with financial ruin, torn by an Islamic insurgency and armed with nuclear weapons.

Acting embassy spokesman Wes Robertson declined to provide specifics of the schedule for the two Americans but said they would meet with government and military officials.

In Pakistan's northwestern border region, a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle at a checkpoint on Sunday, killing eight troops just hours before Gen. Petraeus' arrival.

AFGHANISTAN

Minister's brother kidnapped in Pakistan

KABUL | Gunmen in Pakistan kidnapped the brother of Afghanistan's finance minister while he was walking to his mother's home after praying at a mosque, Afghan officials said Sunday.

Zia ul-Haq Ahadi was abducted in the city of Peshawar on Friday, said Haziz Shams, an Afghan Finance Ministry spokesman. The kidnapped man's brother is Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahadim.

Mr. Shams said it wasn't known who kidnapped Mr. Ahadi. No demands had been made and the kidnappers had not contacted officials or the Ahadi family, he said.

Mr. Ahadi is a businessman who lives in Afghanistan and was in Peshawar to visit his mother, who is ill, said Abdul Razaq, an assistant to the finance minister.

A police chief in Peshawar, Kashif Alam, said officials were investigating. "We have no clues so far," he said.

MEXICO

Suspected leader of cartel arrested

MEXICO CITY | Police in Mexico have arrested a man they describe as the leader of the violent Gulf drug cartel in the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

Federal police said in a statement Saturday that Antonio Galarza was arrested in the northern city of Monterrey on suspicion of weapons violations and money laundering.

Reynosa is a major shipping point for cocaine heading to the U.S. market, and is dominated by the violent hit squad known the Zetas.

Also Saturday, drug cartel messages were strung on banners along roadsides in the Pacific coast resorts of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo. The messages appeared to have been written by the Zetas and accused federal officials of protecting a rival cartel.

VIETNAM

Flood continues to cover capital

HANOI | Much of Vietnam's capital remained under water Sunday as the death toll from the city's worst flooding in two decades climbed to 18, disaster officials and state media reported.

Floods caused by heavy rain have killed at least 50 people across northern and central Vietnam in the past week and sent food prices skyrocketing in Hanoi as much of the capital's transportation system ground to a standstill.

Rain halted Sunday morning but resumed in the afternoon in Hanoi, where many streets remained submerged under up to 3 feet of water. More rain was expected in the city in the next few days, according to the national forecast center.

Officials warned that the flooding could worsen.

JAPAN

Dalai Lama doubts progress from China

TOKYO | The Dalai Lama said Sunday that the situation in his native Tibet is deteriorating and he has little faith that ongoing negotiations with the Chinese government will lead to greater autonomy for the region.

The exiled spiritual leader has followed a "middle way" approach with Beijing in which he seeks some form of autonomy that would allow Tibetans to freely practice their culture, language and religion.

But he has grown increasingly frustrated and vocal about the lack of progress, despite the departure of two of his envoys for new talks with China last week.


Tensions increased this year when demonstrations in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, turned violent and 22 people were killed, according to Beijing.

China responded with a massive crackdown in Tibet and the surrounding region in which exile groups say at least 140 people were killed and more than 1,000 were detained.

IRAQ

Sunni leader killed after backing U.S.

BAQOUBA | An Iraqi Sunni tribal chief who led a U.S.-financed militia battling al Qaeda militants was killed by a roadside bomb on Sunday along with his wife and their four children, police said.

The blast that killed Sheik Abbas al-Tami and his family near Buhriz, in the southern part of the city of Baqouba, the capital of the volatile province of Diyala, was the latest in a series of deadly attacks across Iraq.

Sheik al-Tami was the head of the Majmaa tribe and led a Sahwa, or Awakening group, that is paid by American forces to battle al Qaeda jihadists.

He was driving the family car when the attack took place, police said. Sahwa members are mostly former insurgents who fought U.S. and Iraqi forces after dictator Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, but helped to curb violence after they sided with the Americans and government in late 2006.

RUSSIA

Medvedev hosts Azeri-Armenian talks

MEIENDORF CASTLE | President Dmitry Medvedev sought to underline Russia's influence in the Caucasus on Sunday by bringing together the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia for talks on the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh's mostly ethnic Armenian population broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed. It now runs its own affairs, with support from Armenia.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, hastily shook hands before Mr. Medvedev opened talks at the Meiendorf Castle official residence outside Moscow.

After the talks, all three presidents signed a declaration pledging to continue working on a political resolution to the conflict.

Fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the area ended in 1994 when a cease-fire was signed. The two sides are still technically at war because no peace treaty has been signed.

SWEDEN

Syrian singer held on drug charges

STOCKHOLM | Syrian-Lebanese crooner George Wassouf was arrested in Sweden at the weekend on drug charges just hours before he was due to perform a concert, police told Agence France-Presse on Sunday.

Mr. Wassouf "has been held in police custody since [Saturday] on drug charges," a police officer in the western Stockholm district, Martin Holm, told Agence France-Presse.

He was arrested after a police raid at a hotel in the Swedish capital, Mr. Holm said.

According to the online version of daily Aftonbladet, Wassouf, 46, was in possession of 30 grams of cocaine when he was arrested.

Mr. Holm would not comment on the report. No formal charges have been pressed against Wassouf yet, and a prosecutor was to ask a Stockholm court to remand him in custody on Monday pending an investigation, Mr. Holm said.

SPAIN

Queen celebrates 70th birthday

MADRID | Spain's Queen Sofia celebrated her 70th birthday Sunday with a private family gathering as a controversy continued to swirl in the press over a new biography that quotes her as criticizing gay marriage.

Top-selling daily newspaper El Pais said the Greek-born monarch, a cousin of Britain's Prince Philip, was "very upset" over the flap over her statements and "the birthday dinner which her family planned for today will be really sad."

In excerpts of the new biography, "The Queen Up Close," published Thursday in the left-leaning newspaper, Queen Sofia was quoted as opposing the word marriage to describe same-sex unions and criticizing gay pride marches.

The Royal Palace did not deny that the encounters took place but issued a statement deploring "the inexactitude" of the remarks attributed to the queen, which it said were made in private.

A Barcelona-based gay rights group demanded Sunday that the book be removed from bookshelves. In 2005, Spain became only the third member of the European Union, after Belgium and the Netherlands, to allow same-sex marriages giving couples the same rights as married heterosexuals.

VATICAN

Pope to host talks with Muslims

VATICAN CITY | Two years after Pope Benedict XVI sparked controversy during a speech on Islam in Bavaria, the Vatican prepares to host the first Catholic-Muslim forum to improve dialogue between the two religions.

About 50 Catholic and Muslim figures will participate in a private three-day seminar entitled "Love of God, Love of Neighbor," that includes women from both faiths according to the Catholic News Service (CNS).

The forum's schedule has not been made public, but the participants will examine the positions of the Roman Catholic Church and Islam on spiritual love and charity and issues of "human dignity" and "mutual respect," CNS reported.

Benedict is expected to give a speech before the seminar ends Thursday, during which he may attempt to draw a line under controversial remarks he made in 2006.

The pope caused a stir when he quoted a Byzantine emperor who equated Islam with violence in a speech at Regensburg University. Benedict later apologized by claiming that he had been misunderstood.


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World Scene


Tuesday, November 4, 2008

AFGHANISTAN

French aid worker kidnapped off street

KABUL | Gunmen kidnapped a French aid worker off the streets of Kabul on Monday, and killed an intelligence agency employee who tried to intervene, in the latest attack against Westerners in the Afghan capital.

Three assailants in a red car blocked the roadway, then tried to grab two French aid workers on their way to work, officials said. After a scuffle, they got away with only one, said Mohammad Daud Amin, a neighborhood police commander.

A witness, Mohammad Shafi, said the man who intervened lived across the way.

"He grabbed the machine gun of one of the kidnappers, who opened fire, burning his hand. After that the kidnapper shot him three times in the chest," Mr. Shafi said.

The Interior Ministry said the dead Afghan was the driver for the provincial intelligence chief.

Etienne Gille, president of AFRANE, a French aid group focusing on education, said the kidnapping took place as a member of its staff and a man from a second French aid group were being driven from a residence rented by AFRANE to its offices.

SYRIA

American school closes its doors

DAMASCUS | An American school in Damascus closed its doors and told students to go home Monday after the Syrian government ordered it shut down in response to a deadly U.S. cross-border raid near the Iraqi border.

A voice message on the school's answering machine said the Damascus Community School was closed to comply with the government's decision. Students and teachers were seen leaving the school grounds Monday afternoon.

Syria ordered the school closed to days after U.S. troops in four helicopters attacked a building inside Syria near the Iraqi border. Washington hasn't formally acknowledged the raid, but U.S. officials say the target was a top al Qaeda in Iraq figure.

The school and the cultural center, which are linked to the U.S. Embassy, cater to a small American community in the Syrian capital and other foreign residents.

Officials at the school declined to comment.

IRAN

Children bused in for anti-U.S. protest

TEHRAN | Hundreds of Iranian children bused in for the occasion crowded outside the former U.S. Embassy on Monday, burning American flags and chanting slogans to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the building's seizure by militant students.

Equal parts school holiday and angry demonstration, Monday's commemoration came on the eve of the U.S. presidential election and was marked by anti-U.S. and anti-Israel chants and the burning of flags.

In 1979, militant Iranian students who believed the embassy was a center of plots against the Persian country held 52 Americans hostage 444 days. The U.S. severed diplomatic ties in response, and the two countries have not had formal relations since.

Iran blames the CIA for helping topple the elected government of Mohammad Mosaddeq in the 1950s and blames the United States for openly supporting the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi against the 1979 Islamic revolution that led to the collapse of the dynasty.

IRAQ

Bombing wave kills 10 people

BAGHDAD | A series of bombings struck Baghdad and a neighboring province Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 40, including a deputy oil minister who was injured when a bomb went off in front of his house as he was leaving for work.

Most of the six blasts occurred in Baghdad, reinforcing U.S. military warnings that extremists remain capable of launching attacks in the capital despite an overall improvement in security.

The attacks took place on the eve of the U.S. presidential election between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, who hold differing views on the war in Iraq.

CONGO

Convoy delivers aid to rebel east

KIBATI | A 12-vehicle U.N. aid convoy rumbled past rebel lines Monday in eastern Congo, carrying medical supplies for clinics looted by retreating government troops. It was the first humanitarian aid delivery behind rebel lines since fighting broke out in August.

U.N. peacekeepers escorted the trucks north from the provincial capital of Goma, past the village of Kibati, where tens of thousands have sought safety from the fighting of the past week, to Rutshuru, a village 55 miles north of Goma.

Both the Congolese army and the rebel leader it has been battling assured the convoy's safe passage, said Gloria Fernandez, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in eastern Congo.

Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda went on the offensive Aug. 28 and brought his fighters to the edge of Goma last week before declaring a unilateral cease-fire.

SOMALIA

Bodies found on Yemeni beach

NAIROBI | Sixty corpses of would-be refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia were found on a beach in Yemen over the weekend after smugglers forced many of them overboard, an international aid agency said on Monday.

Doctors Without Borders said the latest victims on the notoriously perilous smuggling route had came across the Gulf of Aden from the Somali port city of Bosasso, fleeing war and poverty in their homelands.

In one of two incidents that caused the deaths, smugglers tipped the refugees into the sea at night after noticing lights on land and fearing they would be spotted by the coast guard, Doctors Without Borders quoted survivors as saying.

PANAMA

No bidders found for Noriega mansions

PANAMA CITY | No one wants to buy two crumbling mansions that once belonged to former strongman Manuel Noriega.

Panama's government says it received no bidders for the two properties, valued at $6.1 million. It is not clear why no one registered to take part in the auction held late last week.

The failed auction was a surprise given that Panama is in the midst of a real estate boom.

The sale represented the first time Panama's government had received permission to put Noriega's homes on the auction block since he was ousted by the 1989 U.S.-led invasion.

Noriega's family has spent years trying to recover the homes.

Noriega was convicted of drug racketeering in a Miami federal court. He served his sentence and is fighting extradition to France.

MEXICO

Drug gangs kill 11 policemen

TOLUCA | Eleven policemen were fatally shot near Mexico City in a three-day string of drug-gang attacks, prosecutors said.

Mexico state prosecutor Alberto Bazbaz said 10 suspects thought linked to drug gangs have been arrested in the killings, which mainly occurred on highways and at police checkpoints in the state that loops around Mexico's capital. Some of the suspects were carrying rifles and grenades at the time of their arrest.

Mr. Bazbaz said Sunday that many of the suspects were from the neighboring state of Michoacan, a hotbed of drug violence dominated by a drug gang known as "The Family."

But he said evidence indicates that low-level traffickers and criminals, rather than organized cartel hit squads, were responsible for the attacks.

It was not clear if the killings were coordinated.

Mexico state police commander German Garciamoreno said police patrols will be beefed up to confront the violence. The state, like many others across the country, has faced increased drug trafficking and threats against local authorities.

Meanwhile kidnappers killed a 5-year-old boy by injecting him with acid after his family sought police help. Mexico City Attorney General Miguel Mancera said assailants injected the acid into the boy's heart and buried him on a hill outside the capital. A kidnapper seized the child at a street market in the gritty borough of Iztapalapa on Oct. 26 and the boy was killed three days later.

CANADA

Herpes kills baby elephant

TORONTO | A baby elephant died at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada, over the weekend after a brief battle with a virus that has killed dozens of captive elephants around the world in the past two decades, zoo officials said.

The 15-month-old pachyderm, named Malti, collapsed and died Saturday afternoon, one day after being diagnosed with elephant herpesvirus, a disease that can cause internal bleeding, zoo officials said in a press release.

"The disease, which has also been diagnosed in the wild, is responsible for the death of nearly a dozen young North American elephants in the past 20 years," the zoo said. "Over 40 cases have been documented in North America, Europe and Asia."

A string of animals have died at the Calgary Zoo since 2004, including a hippopotamus, several gorillas, more than 40 stingrays, and another young elephant who was rejected by her mother.

BRAZIL

Ministry publishes cocktail standards

RIO DE JANEIRO | So how do you make Brazil's national cocktail?

Maybe you'd better call a lawyer.

Brazil's government has published legal guidelines insisting that a caipirinha must be made just so: It's mostly the sugarcane liquor called cachaca. And you can add at least 1 percent crushed lime. But that had better be real sugar in the glass.

The Agriculture Ministry rules published in Friday's official gazette are meant to set "standards of identity and quality" for the drink.

The ministry has failed to say what punishment awaits those responsible for illicit caipirinhas.


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World Scene


Wednesday, November 5, 2008

PHILIPPINES

Ferry overturns; at least 40 dead

MANILA | A ferry packed with commuters that was buffeted by sudden monsoon winds and huge waves overturned Tuesday, killing at least 40 people including 11 children, officials said.

Regional army commander Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sodusta said 76 people were rescued from the Don Dexter Cathlyn, which capsized shortly after leaving port in central Masbate Island.

The ship's manifest listed 119 passengers and a crew of six on board, though ferries frequently carry more people than officially listed.

CONGO

Rebels say countries mobilizing troops

GOMA | A rebel spokesman charged Tuesday that Angola and Zimbabwe were mobilizing troops to back government forces against the rebels, triggering concern about possible expansion of the conflict.

Rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa offered no proof of the accusation, which Zimbabwe denies. Angola, a longtime ally of Congo's government, has not yet commented. Congo appealed last week for Angola's help.

The conflict is fueled by tensions left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in neighboring Rwanda. The 1998-2002 war drew in a half-dozen countries. Angola and Zimbabwe fought for Congo in exchange for access to copper and diamond concessions. Rwanda and Uganda backed rival rebel factions in the mineral-rich east, and also fought each other.

NORTH KOREA

Missile launch site may show advances

SEOUL | A new North Korean missile launch site under construction is designed to fire rockets even more advanced than those already capable of reaching the western U.S., South Korea said Tuesday.

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told parliament that construction on the new site on North Korea's west coast began eight years ago and is about 80 percent complete.

The site in the village of Dongchang-ni appears to be designed to launch "a bigger-sized missile or satellite projectile" than rockets deployed from the North's east coast facility.

In 2006, the North launched a long-range missile, the Taepodong-2 - considered the country's most advanced rocket - from its east coast site in Musudan-ni. The test was considered a failure because the missile fell into the sea.

SOMALIA

Raped girl stoned for adultery

NAIROBI | The United Nations said Tuesday that a Somali stoned to death by Islamists on accusations of adultery was a 13-year-old girl who had apparently been raped while visiting her grandmother.

In the first such public killing by the militants in about two years, the girl was placed in a hole and stoned to death on Oct. 28 in rebel-held Kismayu port in front of hundreds of spectators after local leaders said she was guilty under Shariah law.

Witnesses said at the time that the victim was a 23-year-old woman, but according to rights groups, it later emerged that she was only 13.

U.N. children's agency UNICEF said the girl had been raped by three men while traveling on foot to visit her grandmother in the war-torn capital Mogadishu. She sought protection from the authorities, who then accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death.

AFGHANISTAN

Petraeus gauges military progress

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Congolese children ask for food vouchers outside the Mercy Corps clinic where UNICEF and the International Medical Corps distributes high-nutrition cookies near Kibati. A rebel spokesman Tuesday said that Angola and Zimbabwe were joining government forces in the conflict.

KABUL | Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new chief of the U.S. Central Command who is credited with turning the tide in Iraq, took a firsthand look at the war in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

With U.S. deaths at an all-time high in Afghanistan and attacks against Westerners on the rise, Gen. Petraeus arrived from neighboring Pakistan on his first visit to the region since taking charge of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Gen. Petraeus will meet with Afghan leaders and top U.S. military officials, including U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, the head of the NATO-led force. His stop in Afghanistan follows a two-day visit to neighboring Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.

GEORGIA

President fires military chief

TBILISI | Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili replaced the country's military leader Tuesday, saying "shortcomings" during a war with Russia need addressing.

Mr. Saakashvili has not previously criticized the military's performance despite Russia driving the Georgian army from breakaway South Ossetia in just a few days in August's war.

Mr. Saakashvili told a meeting of Defense Ministry officials he had replaced Chief of Staff Gen. Zaza Gogava. Career soldier Lt. Col. Vladimer Chachibaia will replace Gen. Gogava who becomes head of the Georgian border police.

Mr. Saakashvili replaced the prime minister last week, saying the government needed new energy after the war. The reshuffled Cabinet contains only four changes.

COLOMBIA

Army chief quits over killing scandal

BOGOTA | Colombia's army chief has resigned in the wake of a scandal over killing civilians to boost body counts.

Gen. Mario Montoya did not mention the scandal in announcing his retirement. Gen. Montoya's resignation Tuesday follows a clamor in Colombia's media over an army policy - now rejected by the government - of promoting officers whose units kill the most leftist rebels.

Human rights groups say scores of civilians have been killed in recent years and presented as guerrillas slain in combat.

Last week, Colombia's government fired 20 army officers for negligence in failing to prevent or investigate the killings.

SPAIN

Bin Laden's son seeks asylum

MADRID | A son of Osama bin Laden who grabbed headlines by marrying a British woman last year has flown to Spain and requested asylum, the Spanish government said Tuesday.

Omar Osama bin Laden, 27, is a metals trader who had been living in Cairo with his British wife. He has not renounced his father, but has said he wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between the Muslim world and the West.

His wife said, however, that he was denied a British residency request this year after officials there said he had demonstrated continuing loyalty to his father.

Omar Osama bin Laden is one of the al Qaeda leader's 19 children.

UNITED NATIONS

Seoul backs rights rap of North

SEOUL | South Korea has co-sponsored a U.N. resolution condemning North Korea's purported human rights abuses for the first time, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.

The move represents a clear departure from a decade of liberal rule in South Korea during which the government largely avoided taking a stand on the issue at the United Nations, for fear it would strain ties with the North and efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff.

IRAN

Parliament impeaches Ahmadinejad ally

TEHRAN | Iran's parliament impeached a Cabinet minister Tuesday after he admitted having a fake degree from Oxford University - a vote widely seen as a defeat for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The dismissal of Interior Minister Ali Kordan was the first high-profile confrontation between the new parliament and Mr. Ahmadinejad. It was seen a vote of no confidence in the president and a sign that the leader's popularity is ebbing, even with his conservative allies.

The powerful Interior minister is in charge of holding elections and local administrations throughout the country.

During Mr. Kordan's confirmation debate, numerous lawmakers argued he was unqualified, some claiming that his Oxford degree was a fake. Mr. Kordan was approved Aug. 5 by a relatively slim margin of 160 of the 269 lawmakers present.

Mr. Kordan initially argued that his degree was real. The Interior Ministry put out a certificate, with an Oxford seal and dated June 2000, meant to prove the degree's authenticity, but the certificate was riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes.

Oxford denied it had ever awarded an honorary doctorate of law to the minister, who then admitted the degree was a fake.


Mr. Ahmadinejad defended Mr. Kordan, dismissing degrees in general as "torn paper" and not necessary for serving the people.

The president was already under attack from both reformers and conservatives, who brought him to power but now complain the he spends too much time on fiery anti-U.S. rhetoric rather than managing the country.

IRAN

U.S. student faces security charges

TEHRAN | A female student from the United States who was arrested in Tehran last month while visiting the Islamic Republic has been accused of acting against national security, the judiciary said Tuesday.

Women's rights activists say Esha Momeni lives in the United States and was in Iran for research on the women's movement in the Islamic Republic as part of her university studies when she was detained in the capital on Oct. 15.

In the first comment by judicial authorities on the case, judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said Ms. Momeni was being held in Tehran's Evin prison.

"The charge against her is crime against national security and her case is currently under preliminary investigation," Mr. Jamshidi told reporters, referring to a common charge against dissenting voices in Iran.

Iranian women's rights campaigners said Ms. Momeni was working on a film and had interviewed activists in Tehran as part of her studies in California. She came to Iran about two months ago. Activist Sussan Tahmasebi said Ms. Momeni was born in the United States and held both Iranian and U.S. citizenship.

IRAQ

Blasts in Baghdad kill 15, wound 29

BAGHDAD | Bombs exploded at a bus station and a small market in Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 29 others Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.

A bomb hidden under a car exploded at a bus depot in the predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood of Mashtal on the capital's east side, killing 11 people. Twenty-one others were wounded in the attack, authorities said.

In the northern Shi'ite-dominated district of Qahira, four people were killed and eight others injured when a roadside bomb exploded near a market, police said.

Also Tuesday, one person died when a roadside bomb targeted a convoy in central Baghdad of a Shi'ite government official and former member of the Iraqi Governing Council.

Ahmed Shiyaa al-Barak, head of a government real estate commission, escaped the attack without injury. Five of his guards and four bystanders were injured in the bombing, police said.

TURKEY

Lebanon signs deal on terror, crime

ANKARA | Turkey and Lebanon on Monday signed an accord on cooperation against terrorism, drug-trafficking and organized crime, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The deal, details of which were not disclosed, was inked after talks between prime ministers Fuad Siniora of Lebanon and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

Mr. Siniora thanked Ankara for its recently intensified efforts to resolve long-standing conflicts in the Middle East, especially hosting informal talks between Israel and Syria. Mr. Erdogan hailed reconciliation efforts between Lebanon and Syria.

Last month, Syria and Lebanon announced the establishment of diplomatic ties for the first time since they became independent 60 years ago. The two neighbors are expected to open embassies in each other's capitals before the end of the year.


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World Scene


Sunday, December 7, 2008

ALGERIA

OPEC predicts output cuts

ALGIERS | Oil markets should brace for a surprise decision on output cuts when OPEC meets Dec. 17, the cartel's president said Saturday, suggesting that reductions could be deeper than expected.

"A consensus has formed for a significant reduction of production levels" by the 14-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said.

The OPEC head would not discuss how deep the output cut would be, but he said it could be "severe" and noted that some analysts are predicting cuts of as much as 2 million barrels per day.

An output decision that startles markets would help bolster plunging oil rates, Mr. Khelil said. Oil prices settled Friday at a four-year low of $40.81 a barrel. In July, prices peaked at record highs above $140 a barrel.

PAKISTAN

Khelil

Possible hoax call fueled tensions

ISLAMABAD | A man pretending to be India's foreign minister called Pakistan's president and talked in a "threatening" manner during the Mumbai terror attacks, prompting Pakistan to put its air force on high alert, a security official and a news report said Saturday.

The call by a man identifying himself as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was put through to President Asif Ali Zardari on Nov. 28, said the security official, who declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

A day after the call, two Pakistani security officials warned that the government would pull its troops from the anti-terrorism fight along the border with Afghanistan in order to respond to any Indian military mobilization.

But Information Minister Sherry Rehman said in a statement Saturday that the call had been "placed from a verified official phone number of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs."

SOMALIA

Islamist militia seizes town

MOGADISHU | A hard-line Islamist militia seized control Saturday of a central Somali town, raising fears that the al Qaeda-linked insurgents may expand their territory before the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops supporting the crumbling government.

The militant victory in the trading town of Gurael, 230 miles north of the capital, Mogadishu, adds to the recent gains of the al Shabab militia. Islamic fighters have seized control of most of southern and central Somalia in recent months, with the Shabab faction making the greatest gains.

After several days of clashes, the residents' militia withdrew, leaving the militants controlling the town center.

PANAMA

Russian warship uses Panama Canal

COLON | A Russian warship on Saturday used the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II, after taking part in joint Russian-Venezuelan maneuvers symbolizing Moscow's growing military presence in the region.

The anti-submarine ship Admiral Chabanenko entered the canal at the Caribbean port city of Colon late Friday and docked at the former U.S. naval base of Rodman in Panama's capital Saturday afternoon, a Russian diplomatic source said.

It was the first time a Russian warship had entered the canal since 1944, when the waterway was under U.S. control and Russia and the United States were wartime allies.

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