WESTERN EUROPE

POLICE ARREST NINE TERROR SUSPECTS IN NORTHERN ITALY

ROME – Police arrested nine terror suspects yesterday during raids in northern Italy in what they said was a crackdown on extremist cells accused of planning attacks in Italy and abroad.

Some of the arrests were carried out with the help of suspects turned informants – a rare form of cooperation in probes into alleged Islamic terrorism in Italy and one that authorities hope will boost their success against militants.

Six suspects were arrested in Milan and three in Turin, police said, after investigations into alleged cells based in the two cities. Police in Milan said most of the suspects were Tunisian, and sought in connection with investigations stretching back several years. Those arrested in Turin are Moroccans.

Four of those arrested in Milan are believed to be part of a cell with links to terror groups including Ansar al-Islam, an organization active in Iraq that has ties to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.

– Associated Press

SOUTHERN AFRICA

MUGABE CONFESSES ZIMBABWE NEEDS INTERNATIONAL FOOD AID

President Mugabe abandoned his confident forecasts of a bumper harvest in Zimbabwe yesterday and confessed that international food aid was needed to avoid famine.

Mr. Mugabe, who declared last year that Zimbabweans would be “choked” if aid was “foisted” upon them, climbed down and agreed to meet the U.N. World Food Program. Having previously pledged that his seizure of white-owned farms would make Zimbabwe self-sufficient, Mr. Mugabe said he would accept outside help if it came without conditions.

The agriculture spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Renson Gasela, said the president should “eat humble pie, forget about the claim of a bumper harvest, and accept food from whoever can offer help.”

Last year, Mr. Mugabe hailed the “success” of his land seizures, saying they would yield a record maize harvest of 2.4 million tons, more than enough to supply Zimbabwe with its staple food. In fact, this year’s harvest was below 600,000 tons. The government has quietly admitted trying to import another 1.2 million tons to meet the annual demand for 1.8 million tons. But imports on this scale are only affordable and logistically possible with international help.

Yet Mr. Mugabe still refused to ask for food aid. It took a personal intervention from U.N. Secretary-General Annan before he agreed to yesterday’s U-turn.

– The Daily Telegraph

NORTH AMERICA

MEXICAN PRESIDENT APPEARS WITH JESSE JACKSON

MEXICO CITY – President Fox tried to smooth relations with the black community in America yesterday after saying Mexican immigrants take jobs that “not even” blacks want, promising to work with the Rev. Jesse Jackson to improve labor rights for minorities in America.

The meeting between Messrs. Fox and Jackson at the presidential residence was a sharp contrast from a few days ago, when Mr. Jackson called on the Mexican president to issue a public apology. Some 25 million people of Mexican heritage live in America. Mr. Fox met with Mr. Jackson for more than an hour, but didn’t participate in a news conference following the talks because he had to leave for a trip to northern Mexico. Mr. Fox has made no public reference to his comment Friday, instead issuing often inconsistent statements through his aides.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

NOBEL LAUREATES GATHER TO DISCUSS POVERTY, DISEASE, AND VIOLENCE

PETRA, Jordan – More than two dozen Nobel laureates from the Dalai Lama to Elie Weisel are gathering in this ancient city carved into the rose-red mountains of Jordan in a conference aimed at having some of the world’s greatest minds seek solutions to poverty, disease, and violence.

The two-day meeting that opened yesterday is co-sponsored by Mr. Weisel’s New York-based Foundation for Humanity and brings together politicians, scientists, economists, and humanitarians.

The 38 participants include 29 Nobel Prize winners and nine international figures – among them, President Clinton and the actor Richard Gere.

Participants will tackle poverty, disease, and violence, and foster international efforts to build “tolerance, peace, justice and coexistence,” according to a palace statement. Following an opening session addressed by Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Mr. Wiesel – a Holocaust survivor and the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner – participants will break into working groups behind closed doors in this city, built by Nabataean Arab nomadic bedouins some 2,000 years ago.

– Associated Press