World Scene
 

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[B][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Georgia"]February 13, 2008[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER] [/B]

[B]CHINA [/B]

Spielberg ends role as Olympic adviser

NEW YORK — Film director Steven Spielberg ended his involvement as an artistic adviser for the Beijing Olympics yesterday, hours after actress Mia Farrow and several humanitarian groups assailed him for working with the games' Chinese organizers.

At issue for both Miss Farrow and Mr. Spielberg is China's close relationship with Sudan, where thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the Darfur region.

China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports. In turn, China sells weapons to the Sudanese government.

[B]THAILAND [/B]

Government receptive to Muslim autonomy

BANGKOK — Thailand is considering granting partial autonomy to its Muslim-majority southern provinces, which for the past four years have been the scene of a bloody Islamic insurgency, the new interior minister said yesterday.

More than 2,900 people have been killed since early 2004 in nearly daily drive-by shootings and bombings in the three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

While conceding that some degree of self-rule in the south "is a possibility," Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobambrung said independence for the region was out of the question.

[B]GERMANY [/B]

Church loses suit against monitoring

BERLIN — A German administrative court yesterday upheld a lower court's ruling allowing the nation's domestic intelligence services to monitor activities of the German branch of the Church of Scientology.

The North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Administrative Court in Muenster said there was sufficient information to permit intelligence agencies to keep the organization under observation.

The court said, however, that it "specifically left open whether Scientology is considered a religious organization."

[B]BURMA [/B]

Suu Kyi followers demand democracy

RANGOON — Supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi protested yesterday to demand democracy in Burma, days after the military regime said it would hold elections in 2010 under a new constitution likely to entrench the junta's powerful position.

About two dozen members of Mrs. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, shadowed by plainclothes police, gathered peacefully outside the party's headquarters to complain that the junta's moves toward democracy are insufficient.

It was a rare display of public displeasure in the tightly controlled country.

[B]SOUTH AFRICA [/B]

Elite anti-crime unit being dissolved

JOHANNESBURG — The government is dissolving an elite graft-busting unit set up by prosecutors, the security minister announced yesterday.

Police had long considered the unit of the national prosecuting authority as invading their turf, and it has been linked by the governing African National Congress to a power struggle between the party's new leader and South Africa's president.

The elite force, known as the "Scorpions," filed graft charges against Jacob Zuma, who was elected ANC leader in December, and also brought a case against national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, who has temporarily stepped down.

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[CENTER][B][SIZE="4"][FONT="Georgia"]February 14, 2008 [/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

[B]SYRIA [/B]

Bush orders new sanctions

President Bush ordered new sanctions yesterday to punish Syria for its purported efforts to undermine stability in Iraq and undercut Lebanon's sovereignty and democracy.

Mr. Bush, in an executive order, said he was expanding penalties against senior government officials in Syria and their associates deemed to be responsible for — or to have benefited from — public corruption. The order did not specifically name any officials.

The White House said the order built on one Mr. Bush issued in May 2004 that banned all U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine.

[B]IRAQ [/B]

CBS interpreter freed in Basra

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi interpreter for CBS News kidnapped in Basra was freed yesterday, but a British journalist remained in captivity, police said.

The interpreter was handed over to authorities at the same hotel where he was seized in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, Police Brig. Gen. Shamkhi Jassim said.

The director of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Basra said negotiations were continuing for the British journalist's release. Iraqi police and witnesses said the two were seized Sunday from a hotel in Basra. CBS News said Monday that two journalists working for it were missing in Basra, but it did not identify them.

[B]CHINA [/B]

Hollywood movie blocked, official says

HONG KONG — China has blocked a Hollywood movie reportedly starring John Cusack and Gong Li from being shot in the country because of concerns about the script, a film official said yesterday.

Luan Guozhi, director of international cooperation at China's Film Bureau, declined to reveal the government's concerns about the story for "Shanghai," but said the filmmakers could make changes and reapply.

"Shanghai" is about an American who investigates his friend's death in World War II-era Japanese-occupied Shanghai.

[B]GREECE [/B]

Strike shuts down schools, hospitals

ATHENS — Thousands of demonstrators marched through Athens and Thessaloniki yesterday to protest social security reforms as a Greek general strike shut down schools, hospitals and all public services.

Port workers and air traffic controllers joined the second 24-hour general strike in about two months, forcing authorities to cancel all flights to and from Greek airports, and all regular ferry routes to the islands. Buses, trains and the Athens metro were running only for a few hours during the day.

Dentists, lawyers, construction workers and civil servants also walked off the job. Journalists went on strike, canceling all news bulletins and current affairs programs for the day.

[B]CAMBODIA [/B]

Eight Khmer Rouge suspects to be tried

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's genocide tribunal expects to try up to eight suspects over the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule, while seeking to nearly double its staffing levels to 530, according to a tribunal planning document.

The cap on the number of prosecutions was noted in a document that outlines the tribunal's proposal to increase its budget to $170 million — a sharp increase from the original $56.3 million.

The document with the revised budget estimate was obtained yesterday by the Associated Press.

[B]ITALY [/B]

Warrants issued in mafia sweep

ROME — Police raided sites in Calabria yesterday and issued arrest warrants for 57 persons — including politicians, bankers and businessmen — in the latest mafia sweep targeting drug trafficking and extortion rackets.

A local mayor and a tourism official were among those detained in early morning raids, Italy's ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported.

The raids were focused on the southern region of Calabria and Umbria, in central Italy, the Carabinieri paramilitary police said.


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[SIZE="4"]February 15, 2008[/SIZE] [/FONT][/CENTER][/B]

[B]PHILIPPINES [/B]

Officials report plot to kill president

MANILA — Security officials yesterday reported uncovering plots to kill President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and bomb foreign embassies, just as opposition leaders were calling for more protests urging the unpopular leader to resign.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza, head of the Presidential Security Group, said the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and its allies were behind the planned attacks.

Few details were announced, which sparked opposition claims that the government was using scare tactics in hopes of curtailing an anti-Arroyo demonstration today in Manila's financial district and a Sunday prayer rally involving the Roman Catholic Church and a democracy icon, former President Corazon Aquino.

[B]RUSSIA [/B]

Putin plans to stay powerful

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said yesterday he intends to become a powerful and long-serving prime minister after leaving the Kremlin but rejected suggestions that he would dictate orders to his likely successor.

Mr. Putin, giving his last annual press conference before his second term ends in May, said he fully trusted the Kremlin's candidate for president, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and would have no problems working with him.

Mr. Medvedev enjoys blanket coverage on state-controlled press and is widely expected to win a big election victory next month. Mr. Putin, 55, said he and Mr. Medvedev would "divide our responsibilities, and I can assure you that there will be no problem here."

[B]BRITAIN [/B]

Court orders pilot compensation

LONDON — The British government should reconsider its refusal to compensate an Algerian-born pilot wrongly imprisoned on a warrant from the United States, which sought his extradition as a suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks, a court said yesterday.

The Court of Appeal ruling sharply criticized police and prosecutors' handling of the case of Lotfi Raissi, who was held for nearly five months in a high-security prison until a British judge refused to order his extradition, saying there was no evidence to link him with terrorism.

[B]CHAD [/B]

President declares 15-day emergency

N'DJAMENA — Chad's president declared a nationwide state of emergency yesterday, telling citizens that tightened controls are needed to restore order after recent rebel attacks.

In a speech broadcast on national radio and television, President Idriss Deby said he signed a decree increasing the government's powers for 15 days, beginning today, as provided for in Chad's constitution.

Forces loyal to Mr. Deby battled rebels Feb. 2 and 3 in and around the capital of this former French colony in Central Africa. The Red Cross said more than 160 people were killed and 1,000 wounded in the fighting.
[B]
SPAIN [/B]

U.N. nuke inspector's briefcase stolen

BARCELONA — Spanish police said yesterday that they were investigating the theft of a briefcase belonging to an inspector of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency and which may contain classified information.

The theft occurred at Barcelona airport on Aug. 2 as the inspector was about to board a flight to Vienna, Austria, site of the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, police said.

Local press said the briefcase may have contained secret information about nuclear energy, as well as the inspector's passport and personal items such as a cell phone, a camera and a navigating device.


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[B][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Georgia"]
February 16, 2008 [/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/B]

[B]State drops ban on HIV diplomats [/B]

Under pressure from a lawsuit, the State Department is changing rules that had disqualified HIV-positive people from becoming U.S. diplomats.

Effective yesterday, the department removed HIV from a list of medical conditions that automatically prevent foreign service candidates from meeting an employment requirement that they be able to work anywhere in the world.

The change was made after consultation with medical experts and in response to a lawsuit filed by an HIV-positive man who was denied entry into the foreign service despite being otherwise qualified, the department said.

Prospective diplomats with HIV will now be considered for the foreign service on a case-by-case basis, along with those with other designated ailments like cancer to determine whether they meet the "worldwide availability" standard, it said.

[B]CUBA [/B]

At least 4 dissidents to be freed

HAVANA — Cuban officials are preparing to release at least four political prisoners who will be sent to Spain, according to a veteran human rights activist and Spanish officials.

Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, citing family members of the four and other prisoners, identified those being released as Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, Omar Pernet Hernandez, Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo and Alejandro Gonzalez Raga.

They were among 75 dissidents arrested in a government crackdown on the opposition in 2003. With new releases, 20 of the 75 will have been freed, leaving 55 behind bars.

[B]MEXICO [/B]

Bomb kills man near security ministry

MEXICO CITY — A bomb exploded yesterday in Mexico City near the security ministry headquarters, killing one man, police said.

Police Chief Joel Ortega said a device planted near the ministry building in the city center appeared to have set off two explosions. A woman and young man were severely hurt. The explosion broke windows in the immediate vicinity and shook high-rise buildings blocks away along the capital's tony Reforma Avenue.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed the army in a year-old battle with Mexico's powerful drug cartels. Mexico was also hit last year by a series of nonfatal bomb attacks by a left-wing guerrilla group on oil installations.
[B]
GAZA STRIP [/B]

Islamic Jihad leader killed in blast

GAZA CITY — A powerful blast rocked the house of a senior Islamic Jihad activist yesterday, killing him, his wife and daughter, along with three neighbors, medics and an Islamic Jihad spokesman said.

Islamic Jihad claimed Israeli warplanes struck the home of Ayman Atallah Fayed. Israel denies it launched an air strike on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza where Mr. Fayed lived.

[B]ITALY [/B]

Canada extradites Nazi war criminal

ROME — An 83-year-old former SS prison guard who was sentenced to life in jail in Italy for Nazi war crimes was extradited by Canada to Rome yesterday, officials said.

Canadian authorities handed Michael Seifert over to Italian police in Toronto and a special military flight departed late yesterday afternoon.

Seifert, known as the "Beast of Bolzano," was convicted in absentia in 2000 by a military tribunal in Verona on nine counts of murder — committed while he was an SS guard at a prison transit camp in Bolzano, northern Italy.

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[B][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Georgia"]February 17, 2008 [/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER]

CUBA

Castro hints at surprise [/B]

HAVANA — Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro yesterday fueled suspense about his political future by strongly suggesting he is preparing an announcement for his next print column.

"I shall address an issue of interest to many compatriots," Mr. Castro, 81 and recovering for more than 18 months from major intestinal surgery, wrote coyly in the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Mr. Castro's brother and acting president, Raul, said the National Assembly would elect Cuba's next president on Feb. 24, in the face of speculation that ailing Fidel Castro might not be its choice for the first time in almost five decades.

Meanwhile, dissident Cuban sources in Madrid said yesterday that four journalists are among the seven political prisoners expected to be freed soon in Cuba.

[B]NETHERLANDS [/B]

Nazi-era singer sings despite protests

AMSTERDAM — Several dozen people protested outside a theater yesterday where a 104-year-old singer who once performed for Adolf Hitler took the stage in the Netherlands for the first time in four decades.

Johannes Heesters was never accused of being anything other than an actor willing to perform for the Nazis, and the Allies allowed him to continue his career after the war. But in his native country, he is viewed by some as irredeemable.

"He kept singing for the Nazi regime, for the Wehrmacht, and he earned millions," said Piet Schouten, a representative of a committee formed to protest Mr. Heesters' performance at De Flint theater in Amersfoort.

[B]INDONESIA [/B]

Bird flu kills 3-year-old boy

JAKARTA — A 3-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, a health official said yesterday, announcing the country's second death from the illness in one day.

The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105.

[B]IRAN [/B]

Police detain female activists

TEHRAN — Iranian police have detained two women's rights campaigners and accused them of spreading propaganda against the Islamic state, a fellow activist said yesterday.

Raheleh Asgarzadeh and Nasim Khosravi were detained Thursday in a Tehran park while collecting signatures in support of a campaign to demand greater female rights, activist Sussann Tahmasebi told Reuters news agency.

[B]UNITED ARAB EMIRATES [/B]

License plate '1' sold for $14 million

ABU DHABI — A license plate with nothing but the number "1" on it went for a record $14 million at a charity auction yesterday.

Saeed Khouri, a member of a wealthy Abu Dhabi family, wouldn't say how many automobiles he owned or which of them might carry the record-breaking single-digit plate.

The oil-rich UAE began auctioning off vanity license plates last May. Ordinary automobile license plates issued to drivers here — and even most other vanity series plates — carry both Arabic and Western numerals and script, defining the issuing city and country.

The record sale surpassed the $6.8 million that was paid for an Emirati license plate at an earlier auction with the Western number 5 on it — also without Arabic numerals or letters.

Proceeds from the auctions, which are held in a lavish hotel here, go to a rehabilitation center for victims of traffic accidents.

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[B][CENTER][FONT="Georgia"][SIZE="4"]February 18, 2008 [/SIZE][/FONT][/CENTER][/B]

[B]CUBA [/B]

Four dissidents freed from prison

HAVANA — Four imprisoned Cuban dissidents were released yesterday and headed to Spain with their families, dissident sources on the island told Reuters news agency yesterday.

They said the four men flown to Spain were Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, Omar Pernet Hernandez, Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo and Alejandro Gonzalez Raga.

Spain announced on Friday that Cuba would free seven of 59 dissidents imprisoned since 2003.

[B]IRAQ [/B]

Former official faces terror rap

BAGHDAD — A former deputy health minister accused of involvement in Iraq's sectarian violence will go on trial this week, the first senior official charged with terrorism since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, his attorney said yesterday.

Hakim al-Zamili will appear at the Criminal Court of Rusafa in Baghdad tomorrow along with the former head of the security force that provides protection to the Health Ministry, his attorney, Abu Firas al-Mutairi, told Reuters.

[B]EAST TIMOR [/B]

Man arrested in attacks on leaders

DILI — A man with dual Timorese-Australian citizenship has been arrested in connection with the attacks last week on East Timor's two leaders, the prosecutor-general said today.

The man was not among 17 for whom arrest warrants were issued last week and for whom international police and troops are looking.

Prosecutor-general Longuinhos Monteiro, who identified the suspect as having the initials "AP," said yesterday it was not certain what charges he would face, but "possibly conspiracy to commit crimes against the state and the attempted murder of the head of state and government, because the citizen had information [about a crime] but did not report it."

President Jose Ramos-Horta was in serious but stable condition in Australia yesterday after he was shot several times during a clash with rebels at his Dili home, in which rebel boss Alfredo Reinado was killed. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unharmed from a separate attack.

[B]SOUTH KOREA [/B]

Prosecutors query president-elect

SEOUL — A special prosecutor's team questioned South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak yesterday over charges of financial fraud a week ahead of his inauguration, a press report said.

Mr. Lee was questioned for about three hours at an unidentified location in Seoul over claims that he was involved in a 2001 stock manipulation case, Yonhap news agency said.

The unprecedented investigation of a president-elect was prompted by accusations, made by Mr. Lee's liberal rivals in parliament, that Mr. Lee was directly involved with an investment firm at the center of an purported stock manipulation case.

[B]SOMALIA [/B]

President unharmed in mortar attack

MOGADISHU — Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf was unharmed yesterday after Islamist insurgent suspects hit his official presidential complex in Mogadishu with mortar bombs for a second day, one of his aides said.

Witnesses said the shelling wounded at least five persons, but a presidential aide told Reuters that Mr. Yusuf was safe and the mortars did not land anywhere near his private quarters.

Mr. Yusuf's interim government and its Ethiopian military allies are battling an insurgency that was triggered when the allied forces ousted Islamist leaders in January 2007 who had ruled Moga-dishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006.

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[B][CENTER][FONT="Georgia"][SIZE="4"]February 19, 2008 [/SIZE][/FONT][/CENTER][/B]

[B]BRITAIN [/B]

Intelligence report on Iraq released

LONDON — Britain's Foreign Office yesterday released an early version of a 2002 dossier of prewar intelligence on Iraq that became vital to Tony Blair's case for war.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband published a draft of the document on Iraq's weapons capabilities following a request under Freedom of Information laws.

The document includes references to intelligence claims that Iraq had acquired uranium and had equipment necessary to produce chemical weapons.

But the file does not contain a claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes — a charge that was later discredited but became crucial to Mr. Blair's push to back the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

[B]VATICAN [/B]

Road to sainthood to become tougher

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is making it tougher to become a saint.

New procedures were announced yesterday calling for more "rigor" and "sobriety" by bishops when deciding to begin the process of beatification and in determining the required miracles.

Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Vatican's sainthood office, recently suggested that the Vatican was overwhelmed by causes following the pontificate of the late Pope John Paul II, who elevated more people to sainthood than all his predecessors combined.

[B]PERU [/B]

Deal reported in Fujimori trial

LIMA — An imprisoned former member of a military death squad said yesterday in the murder and kidnapping trial of Alberto Fujimori that he was offered a lighter sentence to testify against the former Peruvian president.

Mr. Fujimori is facing up to 30 years in prison for purportedly authorizing the death squad to kill 25 persons in two 1990s massacres. The squad was formed to kill subversives in Peru's war against Maoist Shining Path rebels.

Defense witness Angel Pino Diaz said that while he awaited trial in 2001, he received a message through a jailed naval officer that he would receive a seven-year sentence if he testified that Mr. Fujimori was at the top of the military command, and therefore authorized the squad's actions.

[B]ITALY[/B]

Police capture top mafia boss

ROME — Police yesterday captured the top boss of a powerful organized crime syndicate whose clan feuds have bloodied southern Italy for years, authorities said yesterday.

Pasquale Condello, 57, was arrested in an apartment in the center of the regional capital, Reggio Calabria, after nearly two decades as a fugitive, police said. There was a pistol in the residence, but Mr. Condello offered no resistance, police said.

Mr. Condello was known as "the supreme one" for his reported role at the top of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate. He was No. 2 on the police list of Italy's most dangerous fugitives, the Apcom news agency said.

[B]EGYPT [/B]

Palestinians sent to Gaza

ISMAILIA — Egypt has deported about 350 Palestinians, rounded up in North Sinai over the past four days, to Gaza, security sources told Reuters news agency yesterday.

"The Salaheddin border gate was opened this evening, and the Palestinians were transported in buses to the city of Rafah and then to Gaza," one security source said.

Egyptian security forces said earlier that police had rounded up about 500 Palestinians and was holding them at a youth hostel in the provincial capital El Arish.


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February 20, 2008 [/SIZE][/FONT][/CENTER][/B]

[B]AFGHANISTAN [/B]

U.S. jails reporter for talking to Taliban

KABUL — A media advocacy group says a journalist with Canadian television station CTV has been held without charge by the U.S. military in Afghanistan since October.

Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan who worked for the network, is being held at the military compound in Bagram north of Kabul.

His brother, Siddique Ahmad, says he is accused of having improper contact with Taliban officials because he had Taliban phone numbers and a video of Taliban materials.

The U.S. military confirmed Mr. Ahmad's detention but declined to comment on the case.

[B]BELGIUM [/B]

Thieves steal reliquary cross

BRUSSELS — Thieves have stolen a 1,000-year-old gold and gem-encrusted Byzantine Cross from the cathedral in the Belgian city of Tournai, authorities said yesterday.

The robbers attacked church attendants and a few tourists Monday before crashing through protective glass to take the cross and several other 17th-century artifacts, city officials said.

The cross is said to contain a relic from the original cross of Jerusalem. So valuable, it is ensured for $37 million when removed for services or celebrations and is so well known it will be impossible for the thieves to sell.

[B]KENYA [/B]

State airline suspends flights

NAIROBI — Kenya's flagship airline suspended flights between Nairobi and Paris yesterday due to the dwindling number of passengers flying to this once-stable African nation, the latest economic fallout from a violent political crisis.

Kenya's wildlife and beaches have made it one of Africa's most-popular travel destinations, but there has been a major drop in visitors — and the money they bring in — since results of a Dec. 27 election unleashed weeks of violence in which more than 1,000 people have been killed.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday increased pressure on Kenya's rival politicians to share power, but there were no immediate signs of a deal at deadlocked peace talks, which resumed yesterday.

[B]POLAND [/B]

Communist leader sick with pneumonia

WARSAW — Poland's last communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, was hospitalized with pneumonia and heart problems, a report said yesterday.

Gen. Jaruzelski, 84, has been in a Warsaw hospital for the past week and is in serious condition, the head of his office, Grazyna Rogowska, told the Polish news agency PAP.

The general, who has had health problems in recent years, is a divisive figure in Poland for his decision to impose martial law on Dec. 13, 1981, to crack down on the fledgling Solidarity free-trade union led by Lech Walesa. He later became president.

[B]SOMALIA [/B]

Troops battle rebels in capital

MOGADISHU — Heavy fighting killed at least six persons in the Somali capital overnight, sparking search operations by government troops and their Ethiopian allies, witnesses said yesterday.

Local resident Asha Yusuf said he saw four soldiers among the dead.

The insurgents could be seen firing rocket-propelled grenades at one of the city's main intersections before the fighting became heavier, residents said.

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[B][CENTER][SIZE="4"][FONT="Georgia"]February 21, 2008 [/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][/B]

[B]SERBIA[/B]

[FONT="Georgia"]Rally in capital to vent on Kosovo

BELGRADE — Serbia plans to stage a mass protest rally in Belgrade today against Kosovo's declaration of independence, underlining Serb anger at the loss of their religious heartland.

But analysts say it would be wrong to interpret Serbia's reaction as a return to the virulent nationalism that stoked war in the Balkans in the 1990s under the leadership of the then-President Slobodan Milosevic.

Although Kosovo is an emotional issue for them, the bitterness felt by Serbs does not alter the fact that more than 70 percent see their future in the European Union.

[B]SOUTH KOREA [/B]

Incoming president cleared of fraud

SEOUL — A special prosecutor cleared South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak of financial-fraud charges today, allowing him to take office next week with his mandate untarnished.

The announcement ended a probe over suspicions that Mr. Lee colluded in a 2001 stock case, a controversy that plagued him throughout last year's campaign.

"The president-elect was not involved in the stock-price manipulation," special prosecutor Chung Ho-young said in a televised announcement of the outcome of a 38-day investigation.

[B]BRITAIN [/B]

Intelligence agency denies killing Diana

LONDON — The former head of MI6 denied yesterday that the British intelligence agency is responsible for killing Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, in 1997.

Richard Dearlove, who was MI6's director of special operations at the time of Diana's Paris death, testified at the inquest into the pair's death that he also thought an operation by rogue agents would have been impossible.

Mr. Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, accused MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, of engineering the death of his son and the princess at the behest of Prince Philip.

[B]RUSSIA [/B]

U.S. rights group official denied visa

MOSCOW — The executive director of Human Rights Watch said yesterday he was denied a visa to enter Russia, where he was to present a report accusing the Kremlin of using onerous regulations to block the work of independent activist groups.

Speaking to reporters by telephone from New York, Kenneth Roth said Russian authorities cited "a changing array of technical reasons" for denying the visa.

[B]FRANCE [/B]

Sarkozy's son, 21, enters politics

PARIS — The son of French President Nicolas Sarkozy took the first step toward a political career yesterday, announcing he will seek a local council seat in his father's former fiefdom.

Jean Sarkozy, 21, told the Le Figaro newspaper he will seek endorsement of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, to be councilor in the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

[B]CHINA [/B]

Tibetan language neglected, group says

BEIJING — The Chinese government is neglecting and actively undermining the Tibetan language as part of continuing efforts to dilute the region's unique culture, a human rights group said today.

Schools are forcing Tibetan children to learn China's national language, Mandarin, at a younger and younger age and are failing to support the use of Tibetan in official fields, the Free Tibet Campaign said in a new report.[/FONT]

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[SIZE="4"]February 23, 2008 [/SIZE][/FONT][/CENTER]

VENEZUELA
[/B]
46 killed as plane slams into mountain

MERIDA — All 46 persons on board a Venezuelan passenger plane died when the plane slammed into the sheer face of a foggy Andean mountain after veering off course following takeoff, officials said yesterday.

Rescuers rappelled from helicopters to search for remains in the shattered wreckage lodged 13,000 feet above sea level on a craggy, rock wall known as "Indian Face."

The plane, operated by the small local airline Santa Barbara, crashed 6 miles from the tourist city of Merida after taking off for the capital Caracas on Thursday.

[B]UGANDA [/B]

Rebels, government sign peace deal

KAMPALA — Rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army signed a deal yesterday with the Uganda government on major steps to end a brutal 20-year insurgency — a step forward in ongoing peace talks that have progressed in fits and starts for more than a year.

The two sides have been meeting in Sudan-mediated peace talks since July 2006 in an effort to resolve two decades of insurgency in northern Uganda.

Yesterday's deal is the second this week, suggesting the pace may be picking up. On Tuesday, the two sides signed an agreement on how to prosecute purported war criminals.

[B]TURKEY [/B]

President approves headscarves law

ANKARA — Turkey's president yesterday approved a pair of constitutional amendments that would allow female students to wear Islamic headscarves at universities.

The legislation, which has polarized Turkey and exposed the deep gap between the Islamic-rooted government and the military-led secular establishment, is expected to face a legal challenge from opponents on grounds the amendments violate Turkey's secular constitution.

Turkey's parliament — dominated by members of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party — voted 411-103 on Feb. 9 to approve two amendments adding paragraphs to the constitution.

[B]SIERRA LEONE [/B]

War crimes court upholds convictions

FREETOWN — A U.N.-backed court yesterday upheld the convictions of three former rebel leaders sentenced last year to half-century prison terms for rape, murder and other war crimes committed during Sierra Leone's decade-long conflict.

The three were leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, a junta that overthrew an elected government in 1997 and was ousted by Nigerian-led peacekeepers the following year.

Their convictions in July were the first handed down by Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal.

[B]GUATEMALA [/B]

Mob kidnaps 30 police officers

GUATEMALA CITY — An angry mob took about 30 police officers hostage in Guatemala and threatened to kill them unless authorities release a jailed farm leader, police said yesterday.

The crowd surrounded the police station in the Caribbean coastal town of Livingston on Thursday night, disarmed the officers and took them in small boats to their remote village of Maya Creek, the Associated Press reported.

The villagers demanded the government free Ramiro Choc, who was arrested Feb. 14 on charges of illegal land invasion, robbery and illegally holding people against their will.

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