World Scene


March 25, 2008

RUSSIA

Bomb explodes in Ingushetia

NAZRAN — A car bomb exploded outside a bank in southern Russia's violence-plagued Ingushetia region yesterday, wounding at least five people, authorities said.

The bomb went off beneath a Mercedes parked on a central street in the regional capital, Nazran, the Ingush Interior Ministry and the regional emergency department said.

The blast occurred when a police officer used a remote control to unlock the car, which belonged to him, the regional Investigative Committee said. The officer and another policeman who was with him were seriously wounded along with three passers-by. The Emergency Situations Ministry's southern Russia branch said six people were wounded.

AFGHANISTAN

100 drug police killed in past year

KABUL — Around 100 police officers on Afghanistan's poppy eradication force were killed in the line of duty over the past year, an official said yesterday.
Gen. Doud Doud, who heads the Interior Ministry's counternarcotics police, also said that about 90 percent of the country's poppies are grown in dangerous regions where insurgents hold sway and the government has little reach.

Police poppy eradication teams — whose work brings them to remote and dangerous areas of the country — are often attacked by insurgents or farmers angry about their profitable crop being destroyed, leading to the force's high number of casualties.

HONG KONG

Ukrainian sailors feared dead

HONG KONG — Eighteen Ukrainian sailors were feared dead yesterday after they were trapped underwater in their capsized tugboat in Hong Kong for nearly 45 hours in strong currents, a salvage company said.

"Their chances for survival are very slim," spokesman Zhang Jianwen of China's Guangzhou Salvage Bureau told the Associated Press in a phone interview.

Strong currents were hindering recovery efforts, government spokeswoman Heidi Liu said.

PHILIPPINES

Aquino said to have cancer

MANILA — Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, 75, who sparked a wave of pro-democracy movements around the world by leading a 1986 "people power" revolt, has colon cancer, her daughter said yesterday.

Usually dressed in her trademark yellow in public, she has remained active in social and political causes. Most recently, she has been attending rallies calling for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

In a statement read on live television, Kris Aquino said her mother had gone in for tests after enduring high blood pressure, difficulty breathing and fever during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Then came a loss of appetite and weight. They showed "our mother is suffering from cancer of the colon," she said.

INDONESIA

Chicken trade to be banned

JAKARTA — Indonesia will ban the trade of live chickens in Jakarta beginning in 2010 to counteract bird flu in the world's hardest-hit nation, a official said yesterday.

Poultry will have to be killed at government-licensed slaughterhouses outside Jakarta before being transported to market, said Edy Setiarto, adding that authorities need two years to prepare regulations and business owners for the change.

The official said 70 percent of Indonesia's bird-flu cases occur in Jakarta and surrounding districts. Last year, city residents were told they could no longer keep backyard chickens, but the order appears to have been largely ignored.


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World Scene


March 26, 2008

VATICAN

Muslim denounces convert's baptism

VATICAN CITY — A Muslim scholar who participated in recent Vatican talks to improve Catholic-Muslim relations criticized as a "provocative" act Pope Benedict XVI's Easter baptism of Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born TV and newspaper commentator who has denounced Islam as violent.

Aref Ali Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan, criticized what he called "the Vatican's deliberate and provocative act of baptizing Mr. Allam on such a special occasion and in such a spectacular way."

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano denied that the baptism had been played up, saying it was kept secret until just before the ceremony. It described the baptism as a papal "gesture" to stress "in a gentle and clear way, religious freedom."

DENMARK

Two indicted on terror charges

COPENHAGEN — Denmark's public prosecutor yesterday charged two people believed to be linked to al Qaeda with attempted terrorism for manufacturing explosives and planning bombings in Denmark or abroad.
The pair, whose names and nationalities were not disclosed and who were arrested in September, were indicted for "manufacturing one or several bombs to be used in a terrorist attack in an undisclosed location in Denmark or abroad."

The public prosecutor also indicted a third man in attempted terrorism after he called for Danish nationals abroad to be kidnapped to pressure Danish authorities to release the two now charged with attempted terrorism.

SOUTH KOREA

Rights agency plans North Korea probe

SEOUL — South Korea's official human rights watchdog said yesterday it will investigate purported human rights abuses in North Korea for the first time by interviewing hundreds of defectors living in the South.

The state-run National Human Rights Commission will begin meeting defectors next month to learn how North Korea limits its 23 million citizens's basic human rights, spokesman Lee Myung-jae said.

International human rights advocacy groups have accused communist North Korea of having one of the worst human rights records in the world.

JAPAN

Recycling urged to cut garbage

TOKYO — Japan will urge citizens to carry their own chopsticks instead of using disposable ones and go shopping with their own bags instead of using plastic ones, in a bid to more than halve the garbage it produces.

The Cabinet approved plans yesterday to promote recycling, said Tsuyoshi Kawakami, an official in charge of recycling at the Environment Ministry.

Japan aims to reduce the total amount of garbage produced by industries and individuals to 40 percent of the amount produced in fiscal 2000 by fiscal 2015.


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World Scene


March 27, 2008

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban threaten spring offensive

KABUL — A car bomb exploded yesterday in a farmers market in southern Afghanistan, killing eight civilians, as the Taliban warned it will use new techniques and draw on years of fighting experience to increase attacks this spring.

The police chief of Helmand province said the bombing in the Gereshk district also wounded 17 persons, including five children.

The Taliban frequently target Afghan and international security forces, but this year have increased their attacks against civilians as well. A statement Tuesday attributed to Taliban senior commander Mullah Bradar threatened more attacks this spring using new techniques, and also warned Afghans working with the government to quit their jobs or risk being targeted.

ISRAEL

Palestinian wanted in hotel bomb held

JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers yesterday arrested the reputed Hamas mastermind of the bloodiest suicide bombing of the Palestinian uprising, an attack that killed 30 people and wounded 143 others during a Passover dinner celebration in 2002, the army said.
Omar Jabar planned the attack and dispatched the suicide bomber to the hotel in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, the military said. He was arrested early yesterday in the West Bank, the army said.

FRANCE

Church group backs dialogue with Islam

PARIS — The World Council of Churches, which groups the main non-Catholic Christian churches, urged its members yesterday to open a dialogue with Muslim scholars seeking interfaith cooperation to promote justice and peace.

The Geneva-based WCC said it wanted to organize discussions on theology and ethics with signatories of A Common Word, a call for Christian-Muslim dialogue issued by 138 Islamic scholars last October and welcomed by many Christian churches.

SYRIA

Egypt snubs Arab summit

DAMASCUS — Egypt plans to send a junior minister to the upcoming Arab summit in Damascus, effectively snubbing a meeting which is usually attended by heads of state, officials and media said yesterday.

Tension is running high ahead of the March 29-30 summit over a political crisis in Lebanon that has prevented rival parties from electing a new president. Egypt says Syria had not done enough to resolve the Lebanese crisis.

Egypt is the second major Arab country that is planning to send a low-level representative to the summit. Analysts say Syria is facing diplomatic isolation by Saudi Arabia and Egypt for its alliance with Iran in a regional jockeying for power against the United States.


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World Scene


March 28, 2008

BELARUS

Security agents detain journalists

MINSK — Security agents detained at least 16 journalists in Belarus and searched their homes and offices for materials that reportedly libel authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, activists said yesterday.

A Polish-funded radio broadcaster said 20 of its Belorussian employees had been detained. The Belarusian Journalists' Association counted at least 16 journalists who had been summoned for questioning by the KGB — the country's top security agency — or had their apartments searched.

The State Department put the number at 30 journalists detained in 12 cities.

SERBIA

World Court opinion sought on Kosovo

BELGRADE — Serbia hopes to challenge Kosovo's declaration of independence by asking the International Court of Justice about its legality, officials said yesterday.
Belgrade will seek the court's nonbinding advisory opinion about whether the Feb. 17 declaration of independence by Kosovo's parliament was a breach of international law, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told independent B92 television.

But in order to do that, Belgrade would have to persuade a majority of U.N. member states to vote to make such a request to the World Court in The Hague, which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations.

EGYPT

Editor jailed for stories on Mubarak

CAIRO — A journalist who reported on the president's purported health problems was sentenced to six months in prison, which rights groups criticized yesterday as media harassment by the government.

Ibrahim Eissa, 42, is the editor of the Al-Dustour newspaper and one of the most outspoken critics of President Hosni Mubarak and his government.

Judge Sherif Mustafa said Wednesday that the articles, published over a series of days in August, caused investors to withdraw their money from the country, the stock market to collapse and the economy to decline.

COMOROS

France pressed to extradite rebel

MORONI — Comoros demanded yesterday that France hand over a rebel leader wanted by the Indian Ocean archipelago for crimes against humanity and troops fired tear gas to stop protests against the former colonial power.

Mohamed Bacar, the 45-year-old self-declared leader of Anjouan island, fled to nearby French-run Mayotte during a lightning offensive by African Union and Comorian forces. The French government said he has asked for political asylum.

France, along with the United States, backed the operation to topple Bacar, a former gendarme who seized power in 2001 and clung on with an illegal election last year in Anjouan — one of Comoros' three islands.

BRITAIN

New terminal opens at Heathrow

LONDON — Heathrow Airport's gleaming Terminal 5 opened yesterday, launching operations with an early morning arrival of a flight from Hong Kong.

The $8.6 billion terminal, able to handle 30 million passengers per year, will be used exclusively by British Airways, which is moving many of its flights from the run-down, congested airport's other terminals to the new building.

A coalition of environmental protesters opposed to the further expansion of the sprawling airport plans a silent demonstration inside the terminal building to draw attention to its impact on climate change and noise pollution.


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World Scene


March 29, 2008

ZIMBABWE

Military on alert ahead of vote

HARARE — Soldiers took to the streets with armored cars and water cannons yesterday as Zimbabwe's security chiefs warned that they were ready to confront any violence during today's crucial presidential election in this economically wrecked African nation.

President Robert Mugabe, the 84-year-old leader, is facing his toughest challenge since he won power in 1980. Running against him are opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, who narrowly lost the disputed 2002 election, and former ruling party loyalist and finance minister Simba Makoni, 58. Preliminary results are not expected until Monday.

CHINA

Foreign diplomats visit Tibet

BEIJING — China yesterday allowed the first foreign diplomats to visit Tibet following deadly riots, as European nations appeared split on the idea of boycotting the Beijing Olympics opening.

Two weeks after protests in the Himalayan region turned deadly, diplomats from 15 embassies, including those of the United States, Britain, France and Japan, arrived in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, for a hastily arranged tour.
The United States welcomed the move but President Bush later urged China to hold talks on the situation with representatives of the Himalayan territory's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

COLOMBIA

Government offers rebels for hostages

BOGOTA — Colombia has offered to suspend the sentences of jailed guerrillas if rebels first free hostages including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said late Thursday that the liberation of some captives could jump-start the process of exchanging guerrillas for dozens of hostages, including three U.S. defense contractors.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest rebel group, released six hostages earlier this year to missions led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Red Cross. But the rebels have been quiet about a possible prisoner swap since March 1, when Colombian troops killed their chief spokesman and 24 others in a bombing raid in neighboring Ecuador.

LEBANON

U.N.: Criminal gang behind Hariri killing

NEW YORK — The chief U.N. investigator says former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a criminal network that is linked to other killings in Lebanon.

Daniel Bellemare said in his first report to the U.N. Security Council yesterday that evidence indicates the so-called "Hariri Network" existed before his assassination on Feb. 14, 2005.

He said the evidence also indicates it conducted surveillance of the former prime minister, and that at least part of the network continued to operate after he was killed along with 22 others in a bombing in Beirut.

CHINA

Hong Kong activist quits politics

HONG KONG — Hong Kong's best-known democracy advocate said yesterday he will end his political career but keep pressing for greater rights, a campaign that has already led Beijing to brand him a traitor.

Martin Lee, 69, said he will not run for re-election in the local legislature in September. His high-profile campaign for direct elections in Hong Kong has made him a champion of human rights to many in the West and a reviled troublemaker to China. He was first elected to the local legislature in 1985.


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World Scene


March 30, 2008

IRELAND

Cities worldwide switch off lights

DUBLIN — From Sydney's Opera House to Rome's Colosseum, floodlit icons of civilization went dark yesterday for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

The environmental group WWF urged governments, businesses and households to turn back to candle power for at least 60 minutes starting at 8 p.m. wherever they were.

The campaign began last year in Australia and traveled this year from the South Pacific to Europe in cadence with the setting of the sun. Several U.S. cities also planned symbolic blackouts or dimmings at monuments, including at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix were also to take part.

ISRAEL

Rice looks to ease West Bank curbs

JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday she would push for an easing of Israeli restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank as she began her latest Middle East mission aimed at reviving faltering peace talks.
Before heading to dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Miss Rice said she was looking for "real concrete progress" on several issues, including improving the movement and access of people and goods from the West Bank.

Miss Rice will hold talks today with Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

TURKEY

Military says raids killed 15 rebels

ISTANBUL — Turkey's military hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq with artillery and air strikes in a two-day operation that killed at least 15 rebels, the military said yesterday.

Turkish military shelled areas in northern Iraq on Thursday after it detected a group of Kurdish rebels preparing to attack Turkish targets from their bases in Iraq, the military said. Turkish warplanes hit rebel targets in a cross-border campaign the following day.

A spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, denied any rebels had been killed.

SLOVENIA

EU ministers hold talks with Serbia

BRDO — European Union foreign ministers yesterday vowed to find ways to boost Serbia's pro-European camp ahead of a May election in their first encounter with a Serbian leader since Kosovo's secession.

Even the Netherlands, which has vowed to block a pact on closer EU-Serbia ties until Belgrade hands over wartime Gen. Ratko Mladic to a U.N. tribunal, said it would be "creative" in helping Serbia move closer to the EU.

"It is very much in our interest to support the pro-European forces with all the means open to us," Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after the meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.

BRITAIN

100 flights hit by terminal chaos

LONDON — British Airways canceled more than 100 flights over the weekend following the chaotic opening of its new $8.6 billion terminal at London's Heathrow Airport.

The launch of the terminal has proved a public relations disaster for the airline, which said it had cut 66 short-haul and European flights yesterday and would cancel 37 more today after Terminal 5's grand opening on Thursday descended into farce when its new baggage handling system failed to cope.


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World Scene


March 31, 2008

SYRIA

Arabs concerned about 'Islamophobia'

DAMASCUS — Arab leaders gathered in Damascus for an annual summit expressed concern yesterday about what they said is rising Islamophobia around the world amid Muslim anger at a Dutch film linking Islam to terrorism.

"The growth of ferocious attacks against Islam and the rise of Islamophobia are a deep source of concern, particularly given that the offenses to Muslims are increasing in countries known for their pluralism and acceptance of difference," Arab leaders said in a final statement.

"The intense polarization the world has seen requires more work in order to reduce the increasing gap between cultures and civilizations," the statement said.

SOMALIA

Market blasts' death toll hits 17

MOGADISHU — Hospitals here overflowed with wounded yesterday and the death toll from mortar strikes on the city's sprawling main market reached at least 17.
Scores of civilians at the Bakara Market were hurt Saturday when troops positioned at the Villa Somalia presidential palace returned fire against Islamic insurgents who attacked it with mortar bombs, witnesses said.

CHILE

Protests leave 1 dead, 122 arrested

SANTIAGO — Violent clashes between police and protesters commemorating the killing of two leftists during Chile's dictatorship left one person dead, nine officers injured and 122 people arrested, police said yesterday.

The fatality was a 23-year-old man shot by masked demonstrators who claimed he was an infiltrator, Santiago Gov. Alvaro Erazo said.

The protests broke out Saturday night and lasted into yesterday morning in several working-class neighborhoods in Chile's capital. Police used tear gas and water cannons against hundreds of protesters commemorating the "Day of the Young Combatant," a day that marks the killing by police 23 years ago of two young brothers during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship.

CAMBODIA

Opposition leader wants FBI probe

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy yesterday called for the FBI to renew its probe into a grenade attack that killed at least 16 people more than a decade ago.

He addressed supporters outside Cambodia's parliament, where exactly 11 years ago four grenades were hurled into a crowd of anti-government protesters, wounding at least 120 people, including a U.S. citizen — after which the FBI opened a probe.

Despite the government's insistence that the case is still open, no one has been arrested in connection with the bloody attack.

SOUTH KOREA

Inmates no longer to strip when jailed

SEOUL — South Korea will drop its long-standing practice of stripping prison inmates naked before jailing them due to possible rights abuses, officials said yesterday.

The South's justice ministry said the controversial process would be dropped at all prisons nationwide beginning tomorrow, as recommended by the National Human Rights Commission.

The practice of stripping all inmates of clothes has served as more of a body search, rather than a medical check-up, ministry officials said.


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World Scene


April 1, 2008

CHINA

Tibet arson suspects reportedly arrested

BEIJING — Suspects accused of setting fire to shops in Tibet and causing the deaths of 12 persons during recent anti-government violence have been taken into custody, China's state-controlled press said yesterday.

The suspects are implicated in attacks on three shops in Lhasa — including a clothing outlet where five young women burned to death and one in nearby Dagze county, the Tibet Daily newspaper said.

The government has highlighted the deaths in an attempt to fend off global criticism of its handling of recent deadly political protests in Tibet, arguing that Tibetans themselves are responsible for the violence that mainly targeted ethnic-Han Chinese.

China says 18 civilians, most of them Han Chinese, died in the riots, but Tibet's government-in-exile said 140 Tibetans were killed during the protests.

CUBA

Hotels for foreigners opened to Cubans

HAVANA — President Raul Castro's government is allowing Cubans to stay at hotels previously reserved for foreigners, ending a restriction that had been especially irksome to ordinary citizens under the long rule of his brother Fidel.

"They have informed us that with a national ID card, anyone can stay here," said an employee at the Ambos Mundos Hotel in Old Havana. She insisted on anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to foreign reporters, but she said Cuban nationals who are not guests will be allowed to buy other hotel services.

Front-desk workers and managers at the Nacional, Valencia and Santa Isabel hotels in Havana said Tourism Ministry officials told them that Cubans can stay in hotels across the island starting today. Like other guests, they will be charged in convertible pesos worth 24 times the regular pesos earned by state employees.

Catering to tourists and foreign executives, many of Havana's best-known hotels charge more than $100 per night. A nightly stay during peak season at the four-star Ambos Mundos costs $173, more than eight times the average monthly state salary.

SERBIA

Vote planned in Kosovo enclave

BELGRADE — Serbia said yesterday it will open polling stations in Serb-dominated parts of Kosovo — in defiance of Kosovo's recent declaration of independence. The May 11 Serbian elections will be the first since Kosovo split from Serbia in February.

Kosovo Serbs, who constitute about 10 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, have voted in every Serbian election since Belgrade lost control of the province in 1999 following a NATO bombing campaign to protect ethnic-Albanian separatists.

Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said ethnic Serbs will participate in the vote despite the objections of U.N. authorities in Kosovo, who say they are the only ones who can organize elections in the former province.

AFGHANISTAN

NATO troops killed ahead of summit

KABUL — Two British Marines and a Danish soldier were killed in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, days before a NATO summit in Romania is to hear appeals for more forces to fight Taliban extremists.

The troops were slain in the southern province of Helmand, a region caught in the throes of the Taliban-led insurgency and the center of Afghanistan's massive drug trade — a source of funding for the rebels.

NETHERLANDS

Muhammad cartoon cut from film

AMSTERDAM — A Dutch lawmaker whose anti-Koran film drew worldwide condemnations from Muslims will edit out a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad after complaints of copyright infringement, his office said yesterday.

Geert Wilders used the cartoon by Danish artist Kurt Westergaard twice in his film, "Fitna." The drawing, which depicts Islam's prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse, provoked violent protests in Muslim countries when it was published by European newspapers two years ago.

BURMA

Army keeps control in new constitution

RANGOON — Burma's draft constitution perpetuates military domination of politics and protects junta members from prosecution for past actions, according to a copy of the document obtained yesterday.

The private draft was completed in February and will go before voters in a May referendum. A copy of the 194-page text was obtained by the Associated Press.

Among other provisions, it effectively bars pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president or running for parliament because she was married to a foreigner.


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World Scene


April 2, 2008

BRITAIN

Report seeks curbs on immigration

LONDON — Record levels of immigration have brought little or no economic benefit, a parliamentary report said yesterday, disputing the government's claim that immigration is good for the economy.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted, however, that British businesses had benefited substantially from immigration over the past decade.

The Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Lords called for new limits on the number of people allowed to enter Britain, where immigration has grown at an unprecedented rate in recent years.

AFGHANISTAN

Two police officers killed in attack

KANDAHAR — A suicide bomber hit a police compound in southwestern Afghanistan yesterday, killing two officers and wounding five others, an official said.
The bomber tried to ram a vehicle packed with explosives inside the police chief's compound in the town of Zaranj in Nimroz province, said provincial Deputy Police Chief Asadullah Sherzad.

The vehicle exploded at the compound walls, killing two policemen and wounding five others, Chief Sherzad said.

BOLIVIA

'Vampire' bomber dies in prison

LA PAZ — A convicted hotel bomber from California who modeled himself on a fictional vampire has died after becoming ill in prison, officials said yesterday.

Triston Jay Amero, 26, was serving a 30-year sentence for bombing two low-rent hotels in the Bolivian capital of La Paz in 2006. Two Bolivians died in one of the attacks.

Juan Carlos Limpias, a senior official in the national prison service, said Amero complained of stomach pains Monday night and was taken to a hospital, where he died. An autopsy showed he died of pulmonary edema — a swelling or fluid in the lungs — said Antonio Torres, chief medical examiner for the Bolivian police.

COLOMBIA

Raid hurt chances of release, FARC says

BOGOTA — Colombia's largest rebel group says a cross-border raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador last month "gravely" harmed efforts to win the release of ailing hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

Ivan Marquez, one of seven leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, said that after the raid by Colombian forces it was clear "there would be no meeting with the French delegation to explore the release of Ingrid."

Mr. Marquez's letter was published Monday by Venezuela's Bolivarian Press Agency, which has carried statements from the rebels in the past.

BOTSWANA

President steps down in smooth succession

GABORONE — Botswana's president stepped down yesterday, handing over power to his vice president in a smooth transition.

The Botswana Democratic Party, in power since the former British protectorate gained independence in 1966, virtually anoints the next head of state. The BDP is expected to continue its dominance in the face of a weak and divided opposition.

The new president, Seretse Ian Khama, said at his inauguration that "leadership changes can be a time of unease," but that it doesn't mean "radical changes." He said he shared the same objectives that Festus Mogae, 69, and the previous government had pursued.


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World Scene


April 3, 2008

IRAN

China gives IAEA data on nuke plan

VIENNA, Austria — China has recently given the International Atomic Energy Agency intelligence about Iran's nuclear program despite Beijing's opposition to harsh U.N. Security Council sanctions on Tehran, diplomats familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

China and Russia have acted as a brake within the Security Council, consistently watering down a U.S.-led push to impose severe penalties on Tehran for its nuclear defiance since the first set of sanctions was passed in late 2006.

A Chinese decision to provide information for use in the agency's attempts to probe Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program would appear to reflect growing international unease about how honest the Islamic republic has been in denying it ever tried to make such arms.

COLOMBIA

Court approves extradition to U.S.

BOGOTA — A feared far-right warlord can be extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking, the country's Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
President Alvaro Uribe quickly said he would sign the order to extradite Carlos Jimenez, 42, also known as Macaco.

Colombia's far-right paramilitaries have been in a peace process with the government since 2003; they voluntarily handed themselves over to be kept in prison, and more than 31,000 fighters laid down their arms. Last August, Jimenez became the first militia leader to lose his benefits under the peace deal when the government accused him of continuing to control paramilitary death squads and trafficking from behind bars.

FRANCE

Mission to help ill hostage begins

PARIS — France said yesterday it is working with Spain and Switzerland to get medical help for Ingrid Betancourt, a former politician being held hostage by Colombian rebels.

According to her son, she may be within hours of death if she doesn't get a blood transfusion.

Mrs. Betancourt — who is both French and Colombian — is among hundreds of hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, but her release has become a cause celebre in France. The former Colombian presidential candidate has been held in a jungle for more than six years.

THAILAND

Government revives its war on drugs

BANGKOK — Thailand launched a war on drugs yesterday, reviving a controversial project of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Critics said his 2003 drug war cost many innocent lives.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung defended the new campaign as he inaugurated it.

About 2,300 people were killed during Thailand's drug war. Human rights activists said there were many extrajudicial executions by police and other security forces. The government said drug gangs carried out most of the killings to eliminate informers or rivals.


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