WESTERN EUROPE

CAR BOMB EXPLODES IN MADRID, INJURING 43 PEOPLE

MADRID, Spain – A car bomb blamed on Basque separatists exploded in a Madrid office park yesterday near where King Juan Carlos later appeared, injuring at least 43 people in the worst terrorist attack in the Spanish capital since last year’s bombing of commuter trains. The bomb exploded at about 9:30 a.m., less than an hour after a warning call purportedly made by the Basque separatist group ETA. It shattered thick panes of glass in buildings – spraying shards over a wide area – and damaged cars.

Police did not have time after the call to the Basque newspaper Gara to fully cordon off the area or fully evacuate workers and visitors at the sprawling convention center nearby, where the king later met President Fox to inaugurate an art show that includes Mexican works.

The latest bombing came hours after police arrested 14 suspected members of ETA and a week after Spain’s Parliament overwhelmingly rejected a plan giving the Basque region broad autonomy bordering on independence. In recent years, police have weakened the separatists with arrests, but the bombing is a reminder they retain the ability to use violence.

– Associated Press

BLAIR APOLOGIZES TO MEN WRONGLY CONVICTED OF IRA BOMBINGS

Prime Minister Blair issued a public apology yesterday to members of two families whose wrongful imprisonment for IRA bombings three decades ago was dramatized in the film “In the Name of the Father.” Members of the Conlon and Maguire families were jailed in connection with Irish Republican Army bombings in Guildford and Woolwich in England in 1974. The attacks killed seven people and injured more than 100.

Eleven people convicted in connection with the attacks were subsequently acquitted, and the case is regarded as one of Britain’s biggest miscarriages of justice. Gerry Conlon was one of four people found guilty of two IRA bombings of Guildford pubs on October 5, 1974, which killed five people and wounded 54. During his interrogation, Mr. Conlon implicated seven others as alleged bomb-makers, including his own father, Guiseppe, who died in prison in 1980. Mr. Conlon says police coerced false confessions by beating and disorienting him. Gerry Conlon and three others were acquitted on appeal in 1989 after authorities concluded their confessions to police had been fabricated and forensic evidence favorable to their defense had been suppressed. The other seven, including Guiseppe Conlon, were acquitted in 1991, long after they had served their sentences, when the forensic evidence used to convict them was discredited.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

MOSCOW TO LIMIT PORTABLE MISSILES

MOSCOW – The chief of Russia’s state arms-trading company said yesterday that Moscow will sign a deal with America to tighten control over portable anti-aircraft missiles but won’t restrict sales of other weapons to countries out of favor with Washington.

Russian officials have said the deal will be signed by the Russian defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, and Secretary of State Rice during the February 24 summit between Presidents Bush and Putin in Bratislava, the Slovak capital. The head of Rosoboronexport, Sergei Chemezov, said the American-Russian agreement will restrict sales of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to “hot spots” and envisage “tight control over the use of every unit sold.”

Mr. Chemezov said his company was strictly observing international law while selling weapons abroad, but warned that it wouldn’t obey American recommendations.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL AFRICA

U.N. CHIEF SEEKS ADDITIONAL POLICE FOR CONGO MISSION

Secretary-General Annan urged the Security Council yesterday to add at least 100 military police to a Congo peacekeeping mission to help prevent sex abuse of women by the U.N. forces.

In a letter to the 15 council members, Mr. Annan reiterated his “personal outrage” at the allegations of sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13 by U.N. peacekeepers in Congo. He said the United Nations is actively working to root out the problem, which has tarnished the reputation of the world body and the nearly 65,000 peacekeepers serving in 16 global hotspots.

“I reiterate my stance – one which I know the members of the council share – that we cannot tolerate even one instance of a United Nations peacekeeper victimizing the most vulnerable among us,” Mr. Annan said. Mr. Annan appealed to the council for at least 100 military police to help the mission’s self-monitoring and enforcement programs. He said there is also an urgent need for French-speaking investigators with special skills in sexual-abuse cases.

– Associated Press

WEST AFRICA

TOGO’S NEW PRESIDENT OFFERS AMNESTY, TALKS WITH OPPOSITION

Togo’s new president addressed the nation yesterday for the first time since succeeding his father in a move that drew international condemnation, and he offered talks with the exiled opposition and promised general elections as soon as possible.

Faure Gnassingbe’s speech on state TV and radio yesterday came as a partial strike against his rule entered a second day in the capital and as West African leaders met in Niger to discuss how to foster democracy in Togo.

The 53-nation African Union has threatened to slap sanctions on Togo after the army declared Mr. Gnassingbe president Saturday, hours after the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, Africa’s longest-reigning ruler.

– Associated Press