SanLuisObispo.com: World

Cambodia warns Thailand to stop trespassing

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:57 PDT

Cambodia's prime minister warned Thailand on Monday that "armed clashes" will erupt if Thai troops continue to trespass over the border.

Prime Minister Hun Sen's comments came after he met Thailand's foreign minister in the latest effort to ease tensions over a territorial dispute that earlier this month sparked a brief exchange of gunfire at the border.

"We told them that if they do not stop (trespassing), armed clashes will break out," Hun Sen told reporters.

Sudan to conduct its own Darfur trials

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:17 PDT

Sudan will conduct its own trials for suspects implicated in crimes in the war torn Darfur region, the country's Justice Minister said Monday, without specifying when they might take place.

Abdel Basset Sabdarat told reporters during a visit to Cairo a special prosecutor is nearly finished with a number of reports on unspecified crimes committed in Darfur where rebels are battling government forces and civilians are caught in the crossfire.

Rights groups say Sudan's legal system is not equipped to handle genocide and war crime trials, while rebels say any Sudanese-held trial would be a sham and no substitute for international justice.

Swiss find melamine in Thai, Sri Lankan biscuits

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:37 PDT

Swiss authorities say they have found high concentrations of melamine in biscuits from Thailand and Sri Lanka and have called on other European countries to withdraw the products.

Authorities in the canton (state) of Geneva say tests have shown high melamine levels in the Thai biscuits Milk Cookies S&P and the Sri Lankan candies LemonPuff Munchee.

Melamine in milk has been blamed for the deaths of four infants and for sickening more than 54,000 others in mainland China.

Israeli official says Livni closer to PM post

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:02 PDT

Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni's Kadima Party initialed a partial agreement Monday on bringing the Labor Party into a new governing coalition, but several issues remained to be settled before a formal pact, a Labor official said.

Livni also will need to attract support from smaller parties to form a new government to replace the one headed by former Kadima leader Ehud Olmert, who resigned as prime minister under the cloud of a corruption investigation.

If Livni fails to put together a coalition in the coming weeks, early elections would have to be called, further disrupting Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

China lawmaker quits beauty contest after outcry

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:12 PDT

An ambitious young Chinese politician has withdrawn from a Hong Kong beauty pageant following withering criticism from commentators online, state media reported Monday.

Yuan Jing, a member of Jiangsu province's rubber-stamp parliament, had been accused of conduct unbecoming a lawmaker and of exploiting her official titles in seeking the Miss Chinese International crown, Xinhua reported.

Yuan, who is also an alternate member of the Chinese Communist Youth League's Central Committee, said she was dropping out due to time constraints, Xinhua said.

Dispute over participation affects Georgia talks

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:42 PDT

Talks on the Caucuses region's stability following the Georgian-Russian war have been downgraded to a "technical" session because of a dispute over participation, diplomats said Monday.

The meeting on Wednesday had been expected to bring ministers or high-ranking officials to Geneva for substantive discussions.

According to a Russian diplomat, the main reason for downgrading was the refusal to allow the participation of representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - both breakaway regions of Georgia.

Dalai Lama to leave Indian hospital after surgery

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:12 PDT

The Dalai Lama was recovering Monday from surgery to remove gallstones and was likely to leave a New Delhi hospital early this week, a senior aide said.

The Tibetan spiritual leader underwent surgery on Friday. He had gallstones for more than a decade.

"He walked around in the hospital and didn't feel any pain," said Tenzin Takhla, the Dalai Lama's spokesman.

Iraq: Christian businessman killed in Mosul

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:57 PDT

A Christian music store owner was shot to death in Mosul, Iraqi police said Monday - the latest in a series of killings that has caused thousands of members of the religious minority to flee the northern city.

Religious leaders have called for action to stop the apparent Sunni insurgent campaign against Christians. Government officials have responded by announcing new security measures and plans to send troop reinforcements to the area.

Gunmen stormed into the businessman's store late Sunday in an eastern part of the city, killing him and wounding his teenage nephew, according to a police officer in the regional security operations center.

Former global leaders in Iran to support Khatami

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:12 PDT

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is hosting a high-profile conference uniting former U.N. chief Kofi Annan and other dignitaries this week - a rare visit seen as a reformist effort to position him for a comeback ahead of crucial elections.

Long an opponent of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khatami has stepped up his criticism in recent months. And he is under increasing pressure from moderates to challenge Ahmadinejad in June's presidential elections.

Khatami's supporters believe a victory by a political moderate would help Iran out of international isolation.

Germany, France, U.K. launch major financial-rescue plans

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:27 PDT

PARIS - With anxious markets looking for leadership, Britain, Germany and France unveiled massive financial-rescue plans Monday that will pump a startling $1 trillion into their troubled banking systems.

In coordinated announcements, the nation's three leaders took the first concrete steps in the financial crisis that helped restore some confidence in global stock markets. The unified steps helped fend off a second straight week of stock market losses that threatened to send the global economy into a steep recession.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy made simultaneous announcements of their separate plans to guarantee bank loans and recapitalize their countries' commercial banks.

American man arrested in Pakistani border region

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:47 PDT

A 20-year-old American man was arrested late Monday at a checkpoint near the Afghan border in a tribal region where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban and al-Qaida militants, police said.

Officers were investigating what the man was doing in the border area, which is believed to be a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and other foreign extremists, said one officer, Pir Shahab.

He said the man - identified on his passport as Juddi Kenan - did not have permission to be in the region as is required by Pakistani law. He was arrested at a checkpoint trying to enter Mohmand agency, Shahab said.

Poll: Support for Japan PM falls to 46 percent

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:47 PDT

Tepid public support for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has fallen further in the weeks since he took office and voters now want help for the country's economy to take priority over domestic politics, according to a poll published Monday.

Support for Aso's administration has fallen to 46 percent, down almost 4 percentage points from a survey taken just after he took power and picked his Cabinet three weeks ago, reported the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper by subscribers.

It also showed that 70 percent of voters feel a stimulus package for Japan's lagging economy should take priority over parliamentary elections. Earlier polls had shown broad support for quick elections.

Actor Guillaume Depardieu dead at 37

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:42 PDT

Guillaume Depardieu, the often-troubled son of renowned French film star Gerard Depardieu who gained praise for his own career as an actor, died Monday, hospital officials said. He was 37.

Guillaume Depardieu died at Raymond-Poincare hospital in Garches, west of Paris, from complications related to a sudden case of pneumonia, the Paris area hospitals authority said.

He had been rushed to the hospital late Sunday. Family lawyer Jean-Yves Lienard said the actor flew to France on Sunday from Romania, where he contracted a pulmonary illness while filming.

5 more Taliban killed in Afghanistan clash

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:12 PDT

The U.S. coalition says its troops have killed five Taliban militants in a raid in central Afghanistan.

A coalition statement Monday says troops targeted a militant involved in the movement of foreign fighters in Andar district of Ghazni province.

The statement says five militants, including the target of the raid, were killed.

France's first lady involved in ex-terrorist case

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:02 PDT

France's first lady has become personally involved in the case of a former leftist terrorist from Italy, visiting the severely depressed woman in a hospital, the president said Monday.

It was an unusual political foray for France's first lady - a former fashion model known more for her folk music and designer wardrobe than her involvement in political issues.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy visited former Red Brigades member Marina Petrella in a hospital last week to tell her she would not be sent to Italy to serve her life sentence for complicity in the 1991 murder of an Italian police chief, the daily Liberation reported Monday.

Al-Maliki: British troops not necessary in Iraq

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:02 PDT

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Times of London that the 4,100 British troops in southern Iraq are no longer necessary to provide security, though he said there may be a need for a few British troops to remain for training and technical issues.

"Definitely, the presence of this number of British soldiers is no longer necessary. We thank them for the role they have played, but I think that their stay is not necessary for maintaining security and control," al-Maliki said in the interview, published Monday.

"There might be a need for their expertise in training and some technical issues, yes, but as a fighting force, I do not think it is necessary," he said.