Other world news in brief
Bomb kills 40 at mosque in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD – A suicide bomber has killed about 40 people at a mosque in northwest Pakistan, as US special envoy Richard Holbrooke consulted the country’s leaders on what needs to be done once the army eliminates the Taliban in Swat valley.
“The death toll is 40. We have no idea as yet how many have been wounded,” said Atif-ur-Rehman, senior government administrator in the Upper Dir district, close to Swat Valley, where the army has been conducting a major offensive against the Taliban.
The bomber struck as worshippers poured out of the mosque in Hayagai village, about 200km northwest of Islamabad, after Friday prayers. Twelve of the 38 bodies identified by police were children.
The military says more than 1,200 militants and 90 soldiers have been killed since the army swung into action in late April, while the militants have carried out attacks in Lahore, Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan.
Prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has asked Mr Holbrooke to write off Pakistan’s debt to the United States, which stood at $1.55 billion (€1.07 billion) at the end of March, and expedite the supply of military hardware. – (Reuters)
20 die in Amazon oil well clashes
LIMA – At least 20 people have been killed and 50 were injured in clashes between Peruvian police and Amazon tribes opposed to foreign companies opening oilwells and mines in the rainforest.
Indigenous leaders yesterday accused police of shooting at hundreds of protesters from helicopters to end a road block on aremote jungle highway 1,400km from Lima, the capital. – (Reuters)
Presidential supporters fight
TEHRAN – Thousands of supporters of hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main moderate challenger have clashed in Tehran, a week before Iran’s presidential election.
After sporadic fist-fights and shoving yesterday between supporters of Mr Ahmadinejad and former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi, police forced the demonstrators to disperse.
No one was badly hurt, one witness said. – (Reuters)
UN reports find of uranium in Syria
VIENNA – The UN nuclear watchdog has said it has discovered traces of “man-made” uranium at a second site in Syria, heightening concern about possible undeclared atomic activity in the Arab state.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been examining US intelligence reports that Syria had almost built a North Korean- designed nuclear reactor meant to yield bomb-grade plutonium before Israel bombed it in 2007. – (Reuters)
Challenge to Bosnian vote laws
SARAJEVO – A Bosnian Jew and an ethnic Roma have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn laws that prevent them from running for president.
Under the Dayton peace agreement that ended the Bosnia war, only Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats may run for the office. – (Reuters)
Hague restart to Serb war tribunal
THE HAGUE – The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague says it will restart the trial of two former Serbian intelligence chiefs next Tuesday after suspending the trial last year due to the ill health of one the suspects.
Jovica Stanisic, head of the secret service of the late Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, and Franko Simatovic, a commander of elite Serb forces, are accused of arming and training militias who committed atrocities against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia between 1991 and 1995. – (Reuters)