SOUTHEAST ASIA

AMERICA CLOSES ALL DIPLOMATIC OFFICES IN INDONESIA

JAKARTA, Indonesia – America closed all its diplomatic offices in Indonesia yesterday because of an unspecified security threat, and it issued fresh warnings of possible terrorist attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim country.

Police also said two of the country’s most-wanted terror suspects may be planning more attacks. The two Malaysian suspects – Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top – are believed to have masterminded the attacks on the Australian Embassy last year and on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003. They are also suspected of involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.

The American warning was sent by e-mail to American citizens in Indonesia. The message said the government had closed its embassy in Jakarta, its consulates in Surabaya, Medan, and the island of Bali, and all other American government offices in the country until further notice.

“Attacks could occur at any time and could be directed against any location, including those frequented by foreigners and identifiably American and other Western facilities or businesses in Indonesia,” the statement said.

The American actions came a week after Australia urged its citizens to avoid traveling to Indonesia because of a warning by police in Jakarta about possible suicide bombings, particularly at embassies, international schools, office buildings, and shopping malls.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

TWO CHECHENS ARRESTED IN MURDER OF THEO VAN GOGH

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Authorities have arrested two Chechen citizens in France and the Netherlands in connection with the November slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, prosecutors said yesterday.

One of the suspects was arrested May 18 in Tours, France, and was identified under Dutch privacy rules only as Bislan I., 25, a prosecution spokesman, Rob Meulenbroek, said. The second suspect, identified as Marad J., 22, was arrested April 19 in Amsterdam. Both are believed to have ties to a group of Islamic fundamentalists that prosecutors have dubbed the Hofstad network, Mr. Meulenbroek said. A 27-year-old Dutchman, Mohammed Bouyeri, is awaiting trial on a charge of murdering Van Gogh and belonging to the Hofstad network.

Van Gogh was shot and stabbed on an Amsterdam street on November 2. The filmmaker was an outspoken critic of the treatment of women under Islam and that was the subject of his last film, “Submission.” He also wrote a weekly newspaper column and hosted a TV talk show that he sometimes used to provoke and insult religious Muslims, as well as Jews and Christians.

– Associated Press

EAST AFRICA

INTERNATIONAL DONORS PLEDGE $200M TO DARFUR

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – International donors pledged an additional $200 million yesterday to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Sudan’s western Darfur region during a conference to discuss the ongoing violence.

The chairman of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, said officials were still analyzing the pledges but that it appeared enough money was raised to bolster the force currently in Darfur. “There is a clear will. Many states and countries are willing to bridge the gap,” Mr. Konare told reporters.

Canada made the largest new pledge, promising $134 million. The State Department’s senior representative on Sudan, Charles Snyder, said Washington was adding an additional $50 million to the $95 million already pledged to end what he called “acts of genocide” in the ongoing conflict.

The union has 2,270 peacekeepers in western Sudan trying to stop the fighting between rebels and Arab militias. The African Union plans to increase that number of troops to more than 12,300. The organization has asked for $723 million to help finance and equip the Darfur operation, but was $350 million short at the beginning of yesterday’s conference.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

CLINTON URGES ‘MORE FLEXIBILITY’ ON AIDS PREVENTION

NEW DELHI – President Clinton urged America yesterday to show more flexibility in allowing money pledged for AIDS prevention to be used for low-cost generic drugs, and he criticized American pharmaceutical companies for pressuring the government to restrict use of those funds.

Mr. Clinton also said donor nations must provide more funds to scale up the global fight against the epidemic. Although America has pledged more money to fight AIDS than any other nation, its policies often forbid using those funds to purchase low-cost generic drugs from companies in India and Brazil. This has slowed efforts to fight the epidemic in poor countries, where some 6.2 million AIDS patients cannot afford expensive drugs patented by Western firms.

“We need greater flexibility in the money that the U.S. has appropriated,” Mr. Clinton told a meeting of business leaders in New Delhi. “American companies have been too harsh” in lobbying the American government to restrict the use of those funds. Mr. Clinton, who has made the battle against AIDS a focus of his post-presidential life, said he had recently discussed the issue with President Bush.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

VOTERS CLEAR WAY FOR MULTIPARTY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

CAIRO, Egypt – Voters overwhelmingly cleared the way for Egypt’s first contested presidential election, according to referendum returns released yesterday. Government opponents dismissed the results. It was a day of mixed news for President Mubarak as the White House denounced the beating of protesters during Wednesday’s vote. “The idea of people expressing themselves in opposition to the government, then getting beaten, is not our view of how a democracy ought to work,” President Bush said. “It’s not the way that you have free elections.”

Six opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, had called for a boycott of the referendum, but the Interior Ministry said 54% of the 32 million registered voters – about 16.4 million Egyptians – participated. Of that, 83% approved the referendum.

– Associated Press

SYRIA ARRESTS MORE THAN 1,200 TRYING TO CROSS IRAQ BORDER

UNITED NATIONS – Syria has arrested more than 1,200 people trying to cross the border into Iraq in recent weeks and sent many back to their home countries because of suspicions they were trying to join the insurgency, Syria’s U.N. ambassador said.

Fayssal Mekdad also denied rumors that terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may be seeking shelter in Syria. Mr. Mekdad said Syria suspected that those arrested – mostly foreigners – intended to carry out illegal activities in Iraq. They were sent back to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and other countries, he said.

“We gave a lot of information to the United States on these issues, which prevented many attacks, but regrettably, the United States did not recognize such kind of help,” he said in an interview.

Syria’s ambassador to America, Imad Mustafa, said Tuesday that Syria had stopped security and military cooperation with America in the past few months after Washington failed to respond to repeated Syrian overtures. Mr. Mekdad said contacts continued “until a few weeks ago.”

– Associated Press

SOUTHERN AFRICA

COMMISSION CHANGES NAME OF SOUTH AFRICAN CAPITAL

One of South Africa’s most famous names was cast into history yesterday when an official commission decided that the capital Pretoria should become Tshwane.

A city built as a monument to the white Afrikaner heroes – and a symbol of resistance to the British during the Boer War – will soon carry the name of an African chief who once ruled the area.

Critics said the change was designed to obliterate the symbols and folk memories of the country’s 3 million Afrikaners.

But Ben Mncube, 28, said whites should learn to live with the new name. “It was the whites who introduced all these names when they came here,” he added. “There should be African names for African cities.”

By the same logic, many more changes could take place. Durban was named after Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the British governor of Cape Colony. Port Elizabeth was named after the wife of Sir Rufane Donkin, another British governor.

F.W. de Klerk, the last white president, said the death knell for Pretoria showed that South Africa’s spirit of “reconciliation” had been replaced by a “new insistence on imposing majority agendas and symbols on the whole country.” The decision by the national commission on “geographical names” will now go to Pallo Jordan, the culture minister, for approval. After that, $255 million will be spent on striking “Pretoria” from every sign, map, and official document.

Whites do not conceal their anger. Ruben Van Staeen, 37, said: “They’re getting back at us because of what happened under the old apartheid system.

“We are all willing to cooperate with the new South Africa. But it feels like the new government is pushing the whites aside and trying to build the country with the blacks alone.”

– The Daily Telegraph