EAST ASIA

LAWYERS FOR FISCHER SUE TO BLOCK DEPORTATION

TOKYO – Japan will not immediately deport former world chess champion Bobby Fischer to America, where he is wanted for violating international sanctions, Japanese and American officials said yesterday. The justice minister, Daizo Nozawa, rejected Mr. Fischer’s application for political asylum Tuesday and issued an order to deport him, but the chess legend’s lawyers immediately sued to block the order, winning him a temporary reprieve. “It should take a little while,” immigration office spokesman Itsuo Noto said about the deportation. Mr. Fischer was detained on immigration violations July 13 after allegedly trying to board a plane for the Philippines with an invalid American passport. He is wanted by America for violating international sanctions against Yugoslavia in 1992. He claims the charges against him are politically motivated and has tried a number of steps to thwart his deportation, such as saying he would renounce his American citizenship and getting engaged to a Japanese woman. He also has demanded to meet with American embassy officials.

– Associated Press

TYPHOON HITS MAINLAND CHINA

BEIJING – China evacuated 320,000 people from the east coast as Typhoon Aere hit the mainland yesterday, after a mudslide buried a family of four in northern Taiwan pushing the regional death toll to 16. Aere came ashore at 4:30 p.m. in Fujian province, south of Shanghai, state TV reported, showing footage of howling winds and driving rain. Cars plowed through flooded streets littered with uprooted metal barriers. No injuries or deaths were reported on the mainland. It was the second-strongest storm to hit China this season after Typhoon Rananim, which killed 164 people and devastated the southern Chinese coast. Earlier yesterday, Aere battered northern Taiwan, triggering a mudslide that buried a family of four in Hsinchu County, where roads had been washed away by torrential rain and at least 5,000 people were trapped in remote villages, disaster relief officials said. Two other people were missing in the landslide, they said. Other fatalities included a man killed by a falling utility pole in Hsinchu. A 72-year-old man was missing after being swept away by floodwaters in central Nantou county, while 15 others were injured by falling trees or other debris, officials said.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

GUNMEN ATTACK TOP PALESTINIAN OFFICER GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Gunmen opened fire at a convoy carrying the deputy Palestinian intelligence chief yesterday, seriously wounding him in the chest and killing two bodyguards, Palestinian Arab officials said. The shooting was the latest unrest in Gaza, which has seen a wave of kidnappings, protests, and other violence over the past month. The violence has been linked to growing criticism of Palestinian Arab leader Yasser Arafat, as well as a power struggle among rival Palestinian Arab factions ahead of a planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza next year. The Palestinian Arab officer, Tareq Abu Rajab, was traveling in a two-vehicle convoy in northern Gaza City when shots rang out, witnesses said. One of the vehicles flipped over. Palestinian Arab hospital officials said two bodyguards were killed in the shooting, and two others were wounded. Officials said that Mr. Abu Rajab would be transferred to an Israeli hospital with better facilities. There was no immediate word on who carried out the shooting. Security officials said they had opened an investigation.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL EUROPE

HUNGARIAN SOCIALISTS CHOOSE TYCOON AS PREMIER BUDAPEST, Hungary – The ruling Socialist Party chose one of Hungary’s richest businessmen yesterday to become the new prime minister, resolving a split with a smaller party that had threatened to undo the center-left governing coalition.

Ferenc Gyurcsany, a centrist reformer who was sports minister, still must be formally approved as head of government by Parliament, where the Socialists and the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats hold a narrow majority.

Mr. Gyurcsany replaces Peter Medgyessy, who announced last week that he was stepping down as prime minister after losing the parliamentary support of the Free Democrats.

The party withdrew its backing after Mr. Medgyessy tried to fire one of its members from the Cabinet.

Although the Free Democrats have only 20 seats in the 386-seat legislature, that bloc is the key to the Socialist-led coalition’s 10-seat majority.

Mr. Gyurcsany, who owns manufacturing and real estate companies, wasn’t backed by most of the Socialist leadership at the special party congress. But the Free Democrats had said they could work with him and he easily defeated his only competitor, moderate left-winger Peter Kiss, on a 453-166 vote.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

GREEKS PROTEST UPCOMING POWELL VISIT

ATHENS, Greece – Greek antiglobalization groups urged the government yesterday to call off a planned visit by Secretary of State Powell, saying he would try to exploit the Olympics for President Bush’s re-election campaign.

Mr. Powell plans to arrive in Athens on Saturday for talks with Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis and to attend the games’ closing ceremony the following night.

“He is a hawk, a war criminal, and an arch murderer…We do not want him here,” said Yiannis Sifakakis, who is organizing a protest march to the American Embassy on Friday. “Colin Powell is coming here while the Americans are killing people in Iraq.”

Mr. Sifakakis said Greek protesters have coordinated their actions with antiglobalization groups in America, who are planning a weekend march in New York in advance of the Republican National Convention.

Public protests are not banned during the Olympics but the government has warned demonstrators that they cannot close roads and lanes reserved for Olympic use.

The American Embassy in central Athens is not close to any of the current Olympic venues but it is near the hotel being used by the International Olympic Committee.

– Associated Press