World Scene


April 4, 2008

KOSOVO

U.N. court clears ex-prime minister

THE HAGUE — The U.N. war crimes tribunal cleared Kosovo's former prime minister yesterday of persecuting Serbs in a 1998-99 separatist war, a move expected to fan tensions simmering over Kosovo's secession.

Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) considered a hero by Kosovo Albanians, was acquitted of torture, murder, rape and deportation after judges found prosecutors had failed to prove a deliberate campaign to kill and expel Serbian civilians from Kosovo.

Kosovo's 90 percent Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in February. The ruling was met with anger in the Kosovar Serbian stronghold of north Mitrovica. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica condemned the acquittal.

JAPAN

U.S. sailor arrested on murder charge

TOKYO — Police arrested a U.S. sailor yesterday in the stabbing death of a taxi driver near an American naval base outside Tokyo, officials said. It's the latest in a series of cases that have set off a furor about crimes purportedly committed by U.S. servicemen.
Olatunbosun Ugbogu, a 22-year-old Nigerian national serving in the U.S. Navy, was arrested on murder and robbery charges, police said. He confessed to the March 19 killing and police plan to send him to prosecutors tomorrow for his indictment. Police say the sailor, a crew member on the USS Cowpens, failed to pay the $190 taxi fare.

The sailor had been in U.S. custody since Navy authorities apprehended him in Tokyo on March 22 on a desertion charge. He was handed over to Japanese authorities just before the arrest under a bilateral security pact.

CUBA

TV channel planned with foreign content

HAVANA — Cuba's state-run television broadcaster will start a 24-hour channel with mostly foreign content in a move to provide Cuban audiences with more variety.

The Cuban Institute of Radio and Television made the announcement Wednesday at a conference of the Cuban writers and artists guild, where intellectuals have criticized the poor television programming in the socialist state.

The opening up to additional foreign content on television comes at a time when Cuban President Raul Castro, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel Castro, has begun lifting "excessive prohibitions" in the country, allowing Cubans to buy cellular phones, DVD players and computers, and stay at tourist hotels reserved for foreigners.

LEBANON

Army chief gives election ultimatum

BEIRUT — Lebanon's army commander warned feuding political factions yesterday that he would quit this summer and bow out of presidential contention if the wrangling rivals do not elect him as head of state before then.

Gen. Michel Suleiman's threat, in a newspaper interview, was viewed here as giving an ultimatum to the parliamentary majority and the opposition to break the deadlock that has left Lebanon without a president since President Emile Lahoud's term ended in November. The two opposing sides have supported Gen. Suleiman, 59, as a consensus candidate.

KENYA

Rivals end deadlock over Cabinet

NAIROBI — Kenya's political rivals yesterday said a power-sharing Cabinet would be named this weekend, ending a deadlock that had threatened the country's chances of peace and economic recovery.

President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga announced the agreement after a two-hour meeting over the size and membership of the Cabinet, a key part of a deal to end Kenya's bloody post-election crisis. Mr. Odinga said the Cabinet would be sworn in on April 12.


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World Scene


April 5, 2008

QATAR

U.S. B-1 bomber explodes on landing

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A U.S. B-1 bomber caught fire after landing at an air base in Qatar yesterday but the crew evacuated and is safe, the U.S. Air Force said.

The incident occurred at 9:10 pm local time as the plane was taxiing at Al-Udeid Air Base, 22 miles south of the capital, Doha.

A Defense official earlier said the bomber hit something while taxiing, causing an explosion. Four crew members were aboard.

CHINA

8 reported dead in Tibetan violence

BEIJING — New violence has broken out in a volatile Tibetan region of western China, leaving eight people dead, an overseas Tibet activist group said yesterday. China's official Xinhua News Agency said a government official was seriously injured.
The London-based Free Tibet Campaign said police opened fire on hundreds of Buddhist monks and lay people who had marched on local government offices to demand the release of two monks detained for possessing photographs of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader.

AFGHANISTAN

Canadian soldier killed in blast

KANDAHAR — A roadside bomb killed a Canadian soldier in southern Afghanistan yesterday, while a suicide attack in the same region left three policemen and a civilian dead, officials said.

Canadian Pvt. Terry John Street, 24, of Hull, Quebec, died as the explosive detonated near his vehicle, said Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, the commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan.

In the suicide attack, a bomber blew himself up near a police vehicle on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

BRITAIN

Queen's husband admitted to hospital

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, was hospitalized with a chest infection and is undergoing a series of tests, Buckingham Palace said yesterday.

Philip, 86, suffered from a bad cold that worsened in recent days, palace officials said. Doctors at London's King Edward VII hospital were trying to determine the cause of the infection.

Philip was strong enough to walk into the hospital without assistance and was able to read and answer letters from his bed, a spokeswoman said. He traveled to the hospital by private car, not ambulance, another Buckingham Palace spokesman said.

NORTH KOREA

Nuke negotiators to meet in Singapore

TOKYO — The top U.S. and North Korean nuclear negotiators will meet Monday in Singapore to advance stalled six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program, Kyodo News agency quoted a senior U.S. government official as saying yesterday.

U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill will hold the talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan.

The six-party talks have been deadlocked since North Korea missed an end of 2007 deadline to declare its nuclear programs, as it was required to do under a deal with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.


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World Scene


April 6, 2008

FRANCE

Le Monde newspaper to cut 130 jobs

PARIS — The new management team at France's establishment newspaper, Le Monde, has proposed shedding 130 staff, including a quarter of its journalists, in an effort to stem heavy losses.

Eric Fottorino, who was recently appointed chief executive of the Le Monde group, told staff Friday the tough restructuring plan was needed to keep the paper afloat.

Unions said the proposed cuts were unacceptable.

The group's journalists hold a blocking stake in Le Monde and could veto the plan.

IRAQ

Contractor charged under new law

BAGHDAD — A civilian contractor working for the U.S. military in Iraq was charged with aggravated assault under military law, the first such prosecution since the Vietnam War, the U.S. command said yesterday.

Alaa "Alex" Mohammad Ali, who holds dual Iraqi-Canadian citizenship, is the first person to face criminal charges since Congress in 2006 gave the military authority to prosecute crimes committed by civilians working for the armed forces.

Mr. Ali, a U.S. Army translator, is accused of stabbing another contractor during a fight Feb. 23 at a base near Hit, a town 85 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province.

KENYA

Bickering delays new Cabinet

NAIROBI — The announcement of Kenya's new coalition Cabinet, expected today, has been delayed indefinitely over disagreements on its composition, both sides said yesterday.

Bickering over the Cabinet started almost immediately after the announcement Thursday that President Mwai Kibaki's allied parties and opposition leader Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement would split 40 ministries evenly.

Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga, who will become the prime minister under a peace deal brokered in February by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, were under international pressure to break a monthlong deadlock on the Cabinet.

WEST BANK

12 fugitives urged to return to jail

NABLUS — A senior Palestinian official urged a dozen fugitive Palestinian gunmen yesterday to return to a local prison, where they had been serving time as part of an amnesty deal with Israel.

The 12 members of the members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade fled the Palestinian-run Jneid Prison in the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, complaining that guards had pummeled them with clubs following a fight among the detainees.

The governor of the Nablus district, Jamal Muhaisen, appealed to the fugitives over a local radio station yesterday to return to prison voluntarily, expressing fears they could be killed by Israeli troops.

JAPAN

Oldest person dies at age 113

TOKYO — Japan's oldest person has died in central Japan, officials said yesterday. She was 113.

Kaku Yamanaka died at a hospital where she was taken early yesterday after falling ill at a nursing home in Yatomi City in Aichi prefecture (state), an official at her nursing home said.

Born on Dec. 11, 1894, Mrs. Yamanaka became Japan's oldest person when Tsuneyo Toyonaga, 113, died in February.

Japan has one of the world's longest average life spans. The number of Japanese living beyond 100 has almost quadrupled over the past 10 years. There were 32,295 centenarians in 2007, according to the Health Ministry.


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World Scene


April 7, 2008

IRAQ

More graves found in killing field

ZAHAMM —The number of bodies found in shallow graves northeast of Baghdad neared 70 yesterday as volunteers from eight villages near the town of Himbus continued to excavate an abandoned pomegranate orchard said to have been an al Qaeda killing field.

The remains of seven people who appeared to have been executed late last year were found in two graves in the orchard on the outskirts of Zahamm village. One grave contained three bodies, the other four.

Like decomposing bodies or skeletal remains found earlier, the victims showed signs of having been bound and then shot in the head. Nine remains were found on Wednesday in the orchard.

AFGHANISTAN

Karzai hints at second term

KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai hinted yesterday that he plans to run for a second term, saying he still has goals to accomplish.
The comments were his first public indication that he will run for re-election next year despite discontent over his government, which is widely seen as weak.

Mr. Karzai, who was elected in 2004 to a five-year term in Afghanistan's first post-Taliban vote, told a news conference that "every human" wants to complete the work that he has started.

YEMEN

Explosion hits foreigners' complex

SAN'A — An explosion shattered windows late yesterday at a housing complex used by foreign companies in Yemen's capital, but no one was hurt, security officials said.

The blast went off on the southern side of San'a in an upscale neighborhood that houses Western diplomats, including Americans, said three security officials.

An official who described himself as the head of security in the area said the blast was caused by multiple "projectiles." The only damage was broken windows, he said, adding that no one was injured.

NORTH KOREA

Kim Jong-il praises military

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-il touted his country's "invincible" army during a visit to a military base, state media reported yesterday as tensions with neighboring South Korea heightened.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Mr. Kim expressed satisfaction with the military's combat readiness, saying his soldiers could "beat back the enemy's invasion at a single stroke."

Mr. Kim also called his isolated country a fortress and urged soldiers to become warriors during another inspection to a military boot camp, the news agency said in a separate report. It did not say when Mr. Kim visited the unit.

SUDAN

Civilian killed in soldiers' protest

KHARTOUM — Angry Sudanese border guards killed one civilian and wounded three others in a market yesterday after opening fire indiscriminately in Darfur's political capital, the local governor said.

Members of a notorious border guard unit, drawn from local Arab tribes, protested for about two hours at the local army headquarters in Al-Fasher and then drove downtown, firing into the air, furious about delayed wages.

The governor said military police escorted the protesters back to army headquarters, where commanders and tribal leaders persuaded them to surrender their weapons. The soldiers were then paid, he added.


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World Scene


April 8, 2008

RUSSIA

Putin to become party leader, too

MOSCOW — Russia's biggest party will invite Vladimir Putin to become its leader, the party's chief said yesterday, a role that would further bolster Mr. Putin's influence after he steps down from the presidency next month.

Mr. Putin is expected to become prime minister when his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is sworn in on May 7, but leadership of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party would effectively give him control of parliament, where the party has a large majority.

"If Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin headed United Russia, it would be the very best option," Boris Gryzlov, the head of United Russia and the speaker of the lower house of parliament, told reporters.

KENYA

Bickering delays power-sharing deal

NAIROBI — Kenya's rival politicians blamed each other yesterday for delaying a power-sharing agreement to end the country's postelection crisis, the latest sign that the reluctant partners will struggle to heal a battered nation.
Raila Odinga, who is the prime minister-designate under the peace deal, said President Mwai Kibaki's party is going to "astonishing lengths ... to ensure that it monopolizes power." Mr. Kibaki accused his rival of failing to "engage constructively" in talks.

Both men claimed victory in the Dec. 27 presidential election, which sparked weeks of violence that killed more than 1,000 people and drove some 300,000 people from their homes before the two agreed in February to share power.

AFGHANISTAN

Coalition forces hit insurgent site

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. and Afghan forces attacked a remote village in a mountainous region of northeastern Afghanistan following reports that an infamous insurgent leader was in the area, a governor said yesterday. At least 16 people were killed.

Gov. Tamim Nuristani said U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces thought Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was meeting with top deputy Kashmir Khan in the Dohabi district of Nuristan province on Sunday, sparking a fierce bombardment that included air strikes.

Mr. Nuristani said it was too early to know if any of the 16 killed were civilians.

MOROCCO

9 terrorism convicts escape from prison

PARIS — Nine people convicted in cases linked to 2003 terrorist attacks in Casablanca have escaped from prison, Morocco's state news agency reported yesterday.

The Moroccan Justice Ministry said in a statement that officials discovered yesterday morning that the nine had escaped from a prison in Kenitra, some 25 miles northwest of the capital, Rabat, the MAP news agency reported.

Suicide bombings in Casablanca in May 2003 killed 45 people, including the attackers. The attacks stunned this relatively moderate Muslim nation and U.S. ally, waking it up to the threat of terrorism.

NETHERLANDS

Court ruling backs anti-Islam lawmaker

THE HAGUE — A Dutch lawmaker who sparked protests across the Muslim world with a film criticizing the Koran is entitled to express his anti-Islamic views, a court ruled yesterday, rejecting a request to muzzle him.

The court ruled that the views expressed by legislator Geert Wilders do not exceed the legal boundaries against inciting hatred or violence.

The short movie, which links terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists with texts from Islam's holy book, triggered angry street protests in Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as calls in other countries to boycott Dutch goods.


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World Scene


April 9, 2008

KENYA

Cabinet delay triggers protests

NAIROBI — Kenya's opposition suspended talks with President Mwai Kibaki's party yesterday and police fired tear gas to scatter opposition supporters protesting against deepening deadlock over a power-sharing Cabinet.

Mr. Kibaki and rival Raila Odinga delayed naming a Cabinet on Monday after disagreeing on how to share ministries, and they traded blame over who was responsible for the deadlock.

In Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum, residents said youths looted shops and burned tires. Some ripped up railway lines connecting the Kenyan port of Mombasa, the region's largest, with Uganda. Protests spread to the western opposition stronghold of Kisumu, where police closed in on angry crowds.

EGYPT

Monitors detained during elections

CAIRO — Egyptian police detained independent monitors and barred rights groups from voting stations yesterday during local elections that generated little enthusiasm from Egyptians, the groups said.
The ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak won 70 percent of the 52,600 seats by default before polls even opened because the candidates faced no opposition, the state-owned Middle East News Agency reported.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the country's most powerful opposition group, withdrew from the elections Monday and called on Egyptians to boycott the vote in protest at the disqualification of most of its candidates by the authorities.

KAZAKHSTAN

Korean astronaut blasts into space

BAIKONUR — As a Russian Soyuz spacecraft rose into the bright blue sky yesterday, spectators held their breaths, South Koreans celebrated their first astronaut and the astronaut's mother fainted.

The flight itself — launched from the same pad that sent Yuri Gagarin and Sputnik into space — seemed flawless. The Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to deliver Sergei Volkov, 35, the commander of the mission, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, 43, and Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old South Korean bio-engineer, to the International Space Station tomorrow.

ZIMBABWE

Pro-Mugabe veterans evict 60 farmers

HARARE — More than 60 mostly white Zimbabwean farmers have been evicted from their land by war veterans loyal to President Robert Mugabe since the weekend, a farmers union said yesterday.

The veterans have been used as political shock troops by the president. The opposition party argued in the High Court yesterday that the results of the presidential election on March 29 should be released immediately to end a 10-day political stalemate.

The veterans said last week they would invade all remaining white-owned farms after reports that white farmers were preparing to grab back farms seized under Mr. Mugabe's land reforms.

AFGHANISTAN

17 road workers killed in attack

KABUL — Militants killed 17 road workers in Afghanistan's lawless south yesterday, part of a spike in violence that left 40 people dead over two days.

Sixteen other construction workers were wounded in the attack in Zabul's Shinkay district, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Afghan and international security forces responding to the ambush killed seven militants and wounded 12.

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World Scene


April 10, 2008

ECUADOR

Military leaders quit in protest

QUITO — Ecuador's top four military commanders resigned yesterday to protest President Rafael Correa's criticism of their performance and his charges Washington influenced his intelligence agencies.

Tensions have simmered between Mr. Correa and the armed forces since the left-wing reformer criticized their handling of a crisis last month after Colombian military forces killed a top rebel hiding in a camp across the frontier inside Ecuador.

Mr. Correa earlier fired Defense Minister Wellington Sandoval and appointed in his place Javier Ponce, a close personal aide, the defense ministry said.

The country's top four officers include the chief of staff and the commanders of the army, navy and air force.

BRITAIN

Court stops extradition

LONDON — A preacher accused of having ties with al Qaeda and militant groups should not be extradited from Britain to his native Jordan, a court ruled yesterday on the grounds that evidence obtained by torture might be used against him there.

The government said Abu Qatada, who has been jailed in Britain since 2002, would remain in prison while it appealed the ruling.

The Court of Appeal told the government to stop extradition proceedings against Abu Qatada and also said two Libyan terrorist suspects should not be deported because they face the threat of torture.

The rulings are a major blow to government plans to send foreign-born terrorist suspects back to their homelands.

COLOMBIA

Mission to save Betancourt fails

BOGOTA — Colombia's most famous hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, faces more time chained in a jungle prison while suffering from illness after France abandoned a multinational mission in the face of a snub from leftist rebels.

A delegation that tried to meet with Mrs. Betancourt and her rebel captors flew out of Colombia in a French government jet. The rebels said in a statement posted Tuesday on the Internet that they would no longer unilaterally free captives.

EGYPT

Pro-democracy activist arrested

CAIRO — A key leader of Egypt's main pro-democracy group was arrested last night during a raid on his home in Cairo, police and group officials said.

George Ishaq, director-general of Kifaya, was taken away by security officers who stormed the home around 8 p.m., one of the group's founders, Abdel-Halim Qandil, told the Associated Press. He said more than 50 members of the movement had been arrested this week.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian court convicted five men yesterday on charges of homosexual behavior and sentenced them to three years in prison, officials said.

BURMA

Referendum set for May 10

RANGOON — Burma's military government has scheduled a referendum on an army-drafted constitution for May 10, state television said yesterday.

Copies of the charter — which Western governments have dismissed as a sham to entrench more than four decades of military rule — would go on sale immediately, the announcement also said.

The constitution is a key step in the junta's seven-point "road map to democracy" meant to culminate in multi-party elections in 2010.


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World Scene


April 11, 2008

AFGHANISTAN

Convoy attack kills eight

KANDAHAR — A suicide car bomber attacked a Canadian military convoy yesterday, killing eight civilians and wounding 22 people, among them three Canadian soldiers, authorities said.

There was no claim of responsibility, but the Taliban have vowed to intensify their war to expel foreign troops and bring down the Western-backed government. Intermittent fighting has been picking up recently after a traditional winter lull.

Among those killed in the blast were three children of a roadside vendor, the Interior Ministry said.

BRITAIN

Big Ben turns 150

LONDON — One of Britain's last bell foundries yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of its biggest creation, the massive bell that marks the hour at the Houses of Parliament.
It was made by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, which also made Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and the Bell of Hope, given to New York by Londoners on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The 15-ton Big Ben was cast on April 10, 1858, at the foundry in East London, although it was another year before it first rang out from Parliament's clock tower.

GERMANY

Parliament marks Hitler's ascent

BERLIN — Germany's parliament yesterday remembered the Nazis' swift destruction of democracy after Adolf Hitler took power 75 years ago, and paid tribute to lawmakers who held out against the Nazis' drive to extinguish political opposition.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Koehler attended a solemn hour-long session in Berlin's restored Reichstag building. The burning of the Reichstag in early 1933 was one of the events that let Hitler consolidate his grip on power.

"We bow today before all the victims of the National Socialist dictatorship," Parliament President Norbert Lammert said in a speech to lawmakers.

BRITAIN

Ending probe is called illegal

LONDON — A decision by Britain's anti-fraud agency to end an inquiry into a lucrative arms deal between Saudi Arabia and a U.K. defense and aerospace company was illegal, two judges ruled yesterday.

The High Court judges did not immediately order the investigation into BAE Systems PLC to be reopened, but said they would hear further arguments on the issue.

The U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation last year into BAE Systems, one of the world's largest arms makers, which has been accused of funneling money to a Saudi prince to help win a multibillion-dollar weapons deal.

UGANDA

Rebel delays peace deal signing

RI-KWANGBA — Uganda's fugitive rebel leader delayed the signing of a peace deal yesterday that seeks to end one of Africa's longest wars, saying he needs clarification on terms of the deal, a senior Sudanese official said.

Rebels and negotiators had gathered in a jungle clearing waiting for Joseph Kony, leader of the notoriously vicious Lord's Resistance Army, to emerge from hiding to sign the accord.

Mr. Kony, however, wants clarification on how the government will address charges of atrocities against rebels and army soldiers, said Riek Machar, the vice president of Southern Sudan, who is the chief mediator between the government and the rebels.


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World Scene


April 12, 2008

CHINA

Taiwan official to meet President Hu

BOAO — Taiwan's vice president-elect, Vincent Siew, will sit down today with Chinese President Hu Jintao for a historic meeting on the sidelines of a business conference in this southern Chinese resort city.

The gathering would make Mr. Siew — who takes office next month — the highest-ranking elected figure in Taiwan to meet with a Chinese leader.

It's a huge diplomatic coup for Mr. Siew and President-elect Ma Ying-jeou. Although they won last month's election by promising smoother relations with China, few expected the incoming leadership to get an audience with a Chinese president so soon.

Mr. Siew's meeting could also mark the beginning of a thaw in China-Taiwan relations.

UNITED NATIONS

Agency: Food-price surge will persist

ROME — Soaring food prices that have sparked violence and unrest around the world are likely to persist despite an expected increase in production, threatening millions of people worldwide who live on a dollar or less a day, a U.N. agency said yesterday.

Prices of bread, rice, milk, oil and other basic foodstuffs have sharply increased in the past months in many developing countries, according to a report by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization. Prices of wheat and rice have doubled compared with last year, while those of corn are more than a third higher.

Cereal prices have risen as a result of steady demand, especially from China and India, supply shortages and new export restrictions, the FAO said.

THAILAND

Trafficked Burmese face expulsion

RANONG — Dozen of migrants from Burma who narrowly escaped suffocation while being smuggled through Thailand in a locked, stifling truck were convicted of illegal entry yesterday and will be sent home, authorities said.

Fifty-four migrants died in the tiny truck headed for the resort town of Phuket after the driver abandoned the vehicle — normally used for transporting seafood — when its air conditioning failed Wednesday night.

Fourteen of the 67 survivors were minors who were almost immediately returned to Burma. The adult survivors were tried and convicted of entering the country without permission. Those who can't pay a $63 fine will be jailed for two months and then deported.

CHINA

Ex-Shanghai party boss jailed in graft

SHANGHAI — China yesterday sentenced the former Communist Party chief of the country's financial capital to 18 years in prison, but spared him the usual punishment for serious economic crimes — death.

Chen Liangyu, who had been a member of China's powerful 24-seat Politburo, was the highest-level Chinese official to be purged in a decade. He had been accused of being at the center of a scandal involving the misuse of a third of Shanghai's pension funds.

NORWAY

Israeli dissident seeks asylum

OSLO — Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has asked for asylum in Norway for a second time, Norwegian officials said yesterday, but they held out no hope that he would be accepted.

Mr. Vanunu, whom Israeli authorities have prevented from leaving Israel, sent his application directly to Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. His first asylum application to Norway in 2004 was rejected.


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World Scene


April 13, 2008

IRAN

Bomb explodes in mosque, 9 killed

TEHRAN — A bomb exploded yesterday in a mosque in southern Iran, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 100, Iranian media reported.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency said the bomb exploded during an address by a cleric in the Shohada mosque in the city of Shiraz.

Fars news agency said that on Saturday nights the cleric usually gave speeches on the Baha'i faith, an offshoot of Islam considered heretical by Iran's Shi'ite Muslim establishment and its members claim they face discrimination and persecution in Iran.

KENYA

Leaders report accord on Cabinet

NAIROBI — Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga struck a deal on a power-sharing Cabinet yesterday after secret one-on-one talks to end a six-week impasse, sources close to the talks said.
The formation of a coalition Cabinet is the crux of a deal to end the East African nation's post-election crisis. Once the Cabinet is named and sworn in, Mr. Odinga will become Kenya's prime minister.

The two leaders had agreed to announce a 40-member coalition Cabinet on April 6, but the deal fell apart at the last minute.

CHINA

Taiwanese, Hu hold historic meeting

BOAO — Taiwan's next vice president sat down with Chinese President Hu Jintao for a brief but historic chat yesterday, raising hopes that the rivals would begin to ease six decades of hostilities.

The meeting between Mr. Hu and Vincent Siew marked the first time such a high-ranking elected figure from Taiwan visited a Chinese president since the two sides split in 1949, when communists took over Beijing and Taiwan refused to be ruled by the new government.

The 20-minute talk at a tropical island resort was largely symbolic, focusing on boosting economic ties. Beijing appears to favor Mr. Siew and his Nationalist Party political partner, President-elect Ma Ying-jeou. They were elected last month after promising voters they would soothe relations with China.

IRAN

Nuclear official to meet ElBaradei

TEHRAN — A top Iranian official will discuss his country's disputed nuclear program with the U.N. atomic watchdog boss Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna this week, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported yesterday.

IRNA said the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, would meet tomorrow with Mr. ElBaradei, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany will meet Wednesday in Shanghai to discuss whether to sweeten the incentives they offered Iran in 2006 to curb its nuclear program.

TURKEY

Secularists protest government

ANKARA — Thousands rallied yesterday in the Turkish capital, accusing the Islamic-rooted government of under-mining the country's secular laws.

A power struggle is growing in Turkey between the secular establishment and supporters of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party, which has origins in Turkey's Islamic movement. Last month, Turkey's highest court agreed to hear a case to close down Mr. Erdogan's party on charges that it is taking steps to impose Islamic law.


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