World datelines

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 24, 2004 by Compiled

Britain

LONDON -- The former drummer for heavy metal band Judas Priest was convicted Friday of attempting to rape a teenager to whom he was giving drum lessons. David Holland had denied assaulting the 17-year- old boy, who has learning difficulties, at the drummer's English home in 2002.

Canada

MONTREAL -- A children's hospital has received nearly 4,000 calls after it asked 2,614 patients to be tested for HIV because a surgeon had contracted the virus, the hospital said Friday. Ste-Justine's Children's Hospital announced Thursday the infected doctor performed surgery between 1990 and 2003 at the hospital.

Chile

SANTIAGO -- Former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was hospitalized Friday after falling and breaking his shoulder.

China

BEIJING -- A possible suicide bombing at a train station in central China killed two people Friday and injured three others, the government said. The blast occurred at 6:01 a.m. in the ticket sales hall of the railway station in the city of Zhengzhou, an industrial center.

Georgia

TBILISI -- Sunday's inauguration of Mikhail Saakashvili as president of Georgia will mark the culmination of a tumultuous two months for the former Soviet republic, ushering in a new era after the peaceful ouster of the country's longtime leader.

Greece

ATHENS -- A Greek-owned cargo ship laden with cement sank early Friday near the Mediterranean island of Malta, Greece's Merchant Marine Ministry said. Two crewmen were rescued, but 15 were missing.

Hungary

BUDAPEST -- More than 1,500 Slovak folk songs compiled by Hungarian composer and pianist Bela Bartok will be released for the first time in May, officials said Friday.

India

MADRAS -- Panicked guests tried to fight their way through flames and stampeded down a narrow hallway after fire struck a makeshift wedding hall Friday in southern India, killing 45 people -- including the groom. The bride, one of about 60 people injured, was hospitalized in serious condition.

NEW DELHI -- Moderate separatists from Kashmir had a first-ever meeting with the Indian prime minister Friday and pledged to support efforts by India and Pakistan to end decades of hostility over the troubled Himalayan region.

Iran

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Friday that his government planned to put 12 al-Qaida suspects being held in the country on trial. The United States, which wants to try the suspects, said the Iranian plan was not acceptable to Washington.

Italy

ROME -- Snowflakes swirled in St. Peter's Square and the Trevi fountain Friday, a rare sight in the Italian capital, as well as in St. Mark's Square in Venice and other cities. Temperatures fell as low as 6 below zero in the Dolomites.

Japan

TOKYO -- Japanese and U.S. officials Friday reviewed steps by Washington to improve safeguards against mad cow disease, but the Americans failed to persuade the world's largest buyer of U.S. beef to resume imports.

Pakistan

ISLAMABAD -- A Pakistani court has sentenced three Islamic militants to die for killing four women as they prayed at a church near the capital last year, a police official said Friday.

Russia

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin's supporters Friday delivered 2.5 million signatures required for him to register as a candidate for re-election, while his potential rivals lagged behind.

Serbia-Montenegro

NIKINCI -- Serbia on Friday began destroying some 1,200 shoulder- fired missiles of the kind exported to Iraq and used by insurgents there to attack U.S. helicopters. Thousands of Strelas were exported from the former Yugoslavia, now renamed Serbia-Montenegro, to Iraq in the 1980s. They have been blamed for several attacks against U.S. helicopters.

Vietnam

HANOI -- Former South Vietnamese premier Nguyen Cao Ky, back in Vietnam after a 28-year exile in America, has dropped his vitriolic anti-communist rhetoric and is calling for peace and reconciliation.