World datelines

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Feb 24, 2005 | by Compiled

Canada

TORONTO -- Canada's tenuous minority government pledged to pump $11.2 billion into the military and anti-terrorism efforts, determined in the budget presented Wednesday to burnish the country's credibility as a global peacekeeper and fend off opposition threats of early elections.

Colombia

BOGOTA -- Colombia's Supreme Court on Wednesday authorized the extradition to the United States of Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, who along with his brother Gilberto helped found the Cali drug cartel, the court's spokesman said. The extradition approval for Rodriguez Orejuela comes less than three months after brother Gilberto was flown to Miami, becoming the most powerful Colombian trafficker ever extradited to face U.S. justice.

Indonesia

Indonesia's government and separatist rebels made headway Wednesday in talks in Helsinki, Finland, aimed at ending nearly 30 years of fighting in the oil- and gas-rich province of Aceh with both sides agreeing to outside involvement and the insurgents scrapping, at least publicly, a desire for independence.

Israel

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- After three days of political impasse, the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, secured support within his Fatah party late Wednesday for a new Cabinet composed largely of professionals and technocrats supposed to institute changes in Palestinian political life, Palestinian legislators said.

Netherlands

AMSTERDAM -- Dutch customs police have seized a shipment of African elephant body parts, including 22 feet, eight tusks, eight ears, three tails, a skull and an entire hide, officials said Wednesday. The cargo, originating in Zimbabwe and bound for Germany, was halted at Schiphol airport in October without proper licenses.

North Korea

China and the United States have agreed that multiparty talks aimed at halting North Korea's nuclear weapons program should resume as early as possible, and North Korea is open to the negotiations, Chinese officials said Wednesday.

Paraguay

ASUNCION -- President Nicanor Duarte sacked his interior minister and 31 police officers, shaking up his security forces a week after the kidnapped daughter of a former Paraguayan leader was found dead.

Russia

MOSCOW -- Prosecutors on Wednesday charged an ethnic Chechen with murder in last year's slaying of an American journalist, according to Russian news reports, an attack that raised concerns about the continuing use of violence in Russia to settle scores. Muslim Ibragimov, who also is known as Kazbek Dukuzov, was accused of involvement in the contract slaying of Paul Klebnikov, 41, the editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition, the Interfax and ITAR- Tass news agencies reported, citing the Prosecutor General's Office.

Saudi Arabia

Women may be allowed to vote in future Saudi Arabian elections, but such political reforms must be implemented "gradually," the kingdom's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said Wednesday in London. The Gulf nation, an absolute monarchy, recently held its first regular election, for city council members. But the vote was open only to men.

Switzerland

GENEVA -- Chronic lack of clean water and sanitation in the developing world kills as many people every month as last year's Indian Ocean tsunami, the international Red Cross said Thursday. More than 3 million people die annually from diseases spread though dirty water and poor sanitation facilities, but their plight rarely gets the same publicity as a single natural disaster, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The humanitarian agency launched a 10-year plan aimed at providing clean water and sanitation to the world's poor.

Vatican City

Pope John Paul II, appearing somewhat gaunt and wheezing as he spoke, made his longest public appearance Wednesday since his hospitalization, but it was broadcast by video hookup after the Vatican canceled his planned appearance at his apartment window after rain and winds lashed Rome. The change was in line with the caution the Vatican has been showing since the 84-year-old pontiff was rushed to the hospital Feb. 1 with breathing difficulties.