WESTERN EUROPE

FORMER PONTIFF’S AIDE IGNORES DYING WISH

John Paul II’s former private secretary has ignored the late pontiff’s dying wish that his private papers be destroyed, saying the documents were a “great treasure” that should be kept for posterity.

The late pope said in his last will and testament, which was published a few days after his death, that he had asked Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz to oversee the burning of his personal documents and notes.

But the archbishop said over the weekend that he has so far refused to comply. “Nothing has been burned,” he told Polish state radio. “Nothing is fit for burning, everything should be preserved and kept for history, for the future generations – every single sentence.

“These are great riches that should gradually be made available to the public.”

Archbishop Dziwisz said he felt that his devotion to the memory of the late pope outweighed his responsibility to burn the papers. He suggested that they would contribute to the process of canonizing John Paul II as a saint.

His disclosure will trigger speculation about the contents of the documents, which could include the late pope’s reflections on international events and personalities as well as spiritual insights.

Many will also be surprised by Archbishop Dziwisz’s apparent act of disobedience to the late pope’s wishes. He worked alongside John Paul II for nearly 40 years and was regarded as his most trusted aide and confidant.

– The Daily Telegraph

MIDDLE EAST

OPPONENTS OF GAZA WITHDRAWAL USE SUPER GLUE ON OFFICE LOCKS

Opponents of Israel’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip gummed up the locks on scores of government offices over the weekend using glue.

It was the latest of a series of protests designed to disrupt everyday life in Israel, including blocking roads and chaining shut school gates.

Protesters said they sealed 150 buildings across Israel, although the police said the number was much smaller. TV showed lines of civil servants outside their offices while janitors struggled to open doors and gates.

The superglue attack was the latest ploy of a increasingly boisterous and mainly youthful protest movement, which is pushing the bounds of peaceful, nonviolent protest.

As the gluers struck, other protesters blocked the main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with burning tires.

The police fear that such acts of vandalism could spiral out of control and lead to serious accidents. They said they stopped an attempt to glue up office doors at the headquarters of the agency created by the Israeli government to coordinate compensation for settlers who will lose their homes in Gaza.

Five teenagers as young as 15 were arrested in Jerusalem on suspicion of planning to lock government offices. Offices targeted by the protest movement included the interior ministry, income tax authority, national insurance institute, and postal authority.

– The Daily Telegraph

CARIBBEAN

TWO MEN CHARGED IN DISAPPEARANCE OF AMERICAN TEENAGER

ORANJESTAD, Aruba – Two men were charged yesterday in connection with the disappearance last week of an Alabama teenager who was visiting the island with classmates to celebrate their high school graduation, Aruba’s attorney general said.

Authorities on the Dutch Caribbean island also requested a special diving team from the FBI because of rough currents in some areas, Attorney General Caren Janssen said. The arrests came nearly a week after 18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared during a five-day trip to Aruba with more than 100 other classmates from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Ala. The men – ages 28 and 30 – were arrested yesterday morning at two separate homes in the southeastern community of San Nicolas, Janssen said at a news conference in the capital. Ms. Janssen declined to provide specific charges, saying the case will go before a judge within 48 hours to determine whether they can be legally held. She said authorities had not found any of Ms. Holloway’s belongings at the suspects’ homes.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

SUSPECTED TALIBAN ATTACK IS FIRST LINKED TO FALL ELECTIONS

KABUL, Afghanistan – Suspected Taliban militants gunned down an Afghan working on an American-funded electoral project, officials said yesterday in the first killing of a worker linked to landmark legislative polls scheduled for September.

Authorities, meanwhile, revealed the names of 2,884 Afghans hoping to contest the parliamentary elections – the country’s next key step toward democracy after a quarter-century of war. Among those who have enrolled to participate in the polls are former warlords, at least two leaders of the ousted Taliban regime, and President Karzai’s main rival in presidential elections last year, Yunus Qanooni.

In a separate case, security forces arrested two alleged Taliban leaders, while fighting between suspected rebels and Afghan soldiers near the main north-south highway in southern Afghanistan left at least one insurgent dead, officials said yesterday. Six other suspected Taliban rebels were captured in Saturday’s fighting in Zabul province, the Afghan army commander General Muslim Amid said.

Intelligence officials arrested the two Taliban leaders as they were driving in western Farah province on Saturday, a defense ministry spokesman, General Mohammed Zaher Azimi, said.

– Associated Press