PERSIAN GULF

JOINT U.S.-IRAQI OPERATION LAUNCHED IN WESTERN IRAQ

BAGHDAD, Iraq – American and Iraqi troops launched a joint operation yesterday in an area west of Baghdad used to rig car bombs, while American soldiers rounded up 33 suspected insurgents in a sweep of southern parts of the capital. About 500 Iraqi troops joined 2,000 American Marines, soldiers, and sailors in a move to clear insurgents from an area on the eastern side of the Euphrates river near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, the American command said in a statement.

Also yesterday, a group of influential Sunni clerics, the Association of Muslim Scholars, called for the release of Westerners taken hostage last week, saying they should be granted their freedom as a humanitarian gesture. The five include four aid workers from the group Christian Peacemaker Teams – Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Va.; Norman Kember, 74, of London; and James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both of Canada – and German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, 43.

Elsewhere, gunmen opened fire on a minibus early yesterday in Baqouba, killing nine construction workers and wounding two, police said.

– Associated Press

SAUDI WOMEN ELECTED TO JIDDAH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Two businesswomen have become Saudi Arabia’s first female elected officials. Saudi officials said yesterday that Lama al-Sulaiman and Nashwa Taher had won election to the board of Jiddah’s chamber of commerce. Little information was available about the women, who could not be reached for comment. The chamber’s weekend elections were the first polls in Saudi Arabia in which women were allowed to run and to vote.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND ENTHRONES ITS FIRST BLACK ARCHBISHOP

LONDON – John Sentamu, 56, took his throne yesterday as the first black archbishop in the Church of England, declaring his hope of inspiring the shrinking church with the confident faith of his homeland. Archbishop Sentamu, who moved to Britain in 1974 after clashing with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, was installed as the 97th archbishop of York in a ceremony featuring dancers in leopard skin-print outfits performing a dance of rejoicing and thanksgiving.

– Associated Press

GERMAN LEADER SIGNALS CLOSER U.S. RELATIONS

BERLIN – In her first speech to parliament as chancellor yesterday, Angela Merkel pledged to put aside past differences between Germany and America even as she pressed for the Bush administration to take seriously European concerns about alleged CIA prisons in Europe.

The new leader also promised to stand firm in her first crisis abroad – the kidnapping of a German woman in Iraq. She said Berlin would not be blackmailed by captors’ demands that Germany stop all contacts with the Iraqi government.

– Associated Press

POLICE ARREST 15 WITH SUSPECTED LINKS TO FEMALE BELGIAN BOMBER

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Police in Belgium and France yesterday arrested 15 suspected militants believed to be linked to a Belgian woman who carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq last month. The 38-year-old convert to Islam blew herself up on November 9 on the outskirts of Baghdad in what security sources believe was the first ever suicide attack involving a European woman.

More than 200 heavily armed officers raided addresses in Brussels and three other Belgian cities, arresting 14 people. The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said that two Tunisians and three Moroccans were among those arrested.

The 15th suspect, a Tunisian, was arrested near Paris. The suspect, was taken into custody because he knew the husband of the dead suicide bomber. The husband, a Moroccan, is also believed to have died in Iraq, reportedly after being shot by American soldiers.

– The Daily Telegraph

YUGOSLAV WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL ACQUITS ALBANIAN SUSPECT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal acquitted a senior officer of the Kosovo Albanian rebels, Fatmir Limaj, yesterday of torturing and murdering ethnic Serbian and Albanian civilians at a prison camp during the 1998-99 war. A second defendant, Isak Musliu, was also acquitted, while the third, Haradin Bala, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for executing nine prisoners in the woods in July 1998. All three pleaded innocent on all charges.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

KOIZUMI: CONSTITUTION SHOULD CHANGE TO BEEF UP NATIONAL SECURITY

TOKYO – Prime Minister Koizumi said yesterday that Japan’s pacifist constitution should be changed so the country can legally maintain an armed military force and beef up its national security. Mr. Koizumi’s comments were in support of proposed changes introduced by his ruling party last week.

– Associated Press

CHINESE TOWN SHUTS DOWN WATER SUPPLY AS TOXIC SLICK ARRIVES

YILAN, China – Another town on a poisoned Chinese river shut down its water system yesterday after Communist Party members went door-to-door giving out bottled water in an effort to show that China’s leaders can protect the public from its latest environmental disaster. Running water to about 26,000 people in Dalianhe stopped at 6 p.m. as a slick of toxic benzene on the Songhua River approached.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL AMERICA

HONDURAN ELECTION TOO CLOSE TO CALL

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduras’s presidential election remained too close to call yesterday. With nearly half the votes in Sunday’s election counted, Manuel Zelaya of the opposition Liberal Party had 48%, compared with 47.6% for Porfirio Lobo Sosa of the ruling National Party, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

The electoral tribunal’s president, Aristides Mejia, declared Monday that Mr. Zelaya won the election. His statement, based on a sample of about 1% of precincts, outraged Mr. Lobo Sosa’s camp.

– Associated Press

NAKED BANK RAIDERS HELD AS THEIR TUNNEL COLLAPSES

Two naked robbers were arrested when the tunnel they were digging into a bank vault collapsed, leaving a large hole in the road. The thieves, who stripped down because of a heat wave, leapt from the hole and tried to run off but were captured by a police patrol in El Salvador. Authorities in the capital, San Salvador, said Miguel Crespin, 22, and Rafael Cerna, 18, had been digging for several days, and their 246-foot tunnel had almost broken into the bank.

– The Daily Telegraph

CARIBBEAN

DOMINICAN PRESIDENT DEFENDS DEPORTATIONS OF HAITIAN MIGRANTS

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – President Fernandez yesterday defended his government’s right to deport illegal immigrants, but said the process should be fair and humane. Local and international human rights groups have accused Mr. Fernandez’s government of rounding up illegal Haitian migrants in mass deportations and discriminating against Dominican-born children of Haitian descent. A recent poll found that 70% of Dominicans support deporting illegal immigrants.

– Associated Press

PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR BARBADOS TO REPLACE BRITISH QUEEN

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Barbados’s prime minister called yesterday for his compatriots to vote to make the country a republic – a move that would replace Queen Elizabeth II as the official head of state with a Barbadian president. A referendum on changing the head of state, which would require constitutional reform, will be held early next year in the former British colony, Prime Minister Arthur said.

– Associated Press

WEST AFRICA

BONGO TAKES RULE INTO FIFTH DECADE

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Riots erupted in Gabon yesterday after Africa’s longest-serving leader won a new seven-year term. President Bongo is the last survivor of a generation of francophone leaders Paris steered into power in its former African colonies in the 1960s.

Opponents cried foul yesterday as the Interior Ministry announced that Mr. Bongo had won 79% of the vote. Youths in the oil city of Port Gentil wrecked cars, set up barricades, and stoned police, who responded with baton charges and tear gas.

– The Daily Telegraph

NORTH AFRICA

EGYPTIAN POLICE LOCK UP OPPOSITION WORKERS ON EVE OF VOTE

CAIRO, Egypt – Police arrested hundreds of activists from the banned Muslim Brotherhood just before the final round of Egypt’s violence-marred parliamentary election, officials and activists said yesterday. More than 10 million Egyians are eligible to vote in today’s third round of the election with 136 parliamentary seats being contested by 1,774 candidates. Run-off voting will be Wednesday.

– Associated Press