MIDDLE EAST

SAUDI KING ORDERS DISSIDENTS’ RELEASE

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah last night ordered the pardon and release of three prominent political dissidents and their attorney who had been imprisoned for holding meetings and signing petitions advocating a new constitution for the kingdom.

The 18-month imprisonment of the four men – two university scholars, a poet, and their attorney – had galvanized protests from international human rights groups and prompted a rare public rebuke of Saudi Arabia’s autocratic political system from Secretary of State Rice.

Lawyers and associates of the reformers described the pardon as an encouraging signal that King Abdullah intends to relax the strictures on public debate about the kingdom’s political system and social problems, and that he might ease the interrogations, threats, and forced confessions routinely faced by Saudis who speak out about controversial issues. King Abdullah took the throne last week after the death of his half-brother, King Fahd.

Scholars Matrouk Faleh and Abdullah Hamed and poet Ali Dumaini were among a dozen reformers arrested in February 2004, following a meeting at a Riyadh hotel called to debate political change and advance a petition advocating a new constitution that would expand the rights of citizens in the kingdom. A fourth activist, lawyer Abdul-Rahman Lahem, was jailed soon after for denouncing the arrests.

The men’s release, announced in a brief statement on Saudi television, was accompanied last night by the pardon and release of an Islamic scholar, Saeed bin Mubarak Zaeer, who had been jailed on terrorism-related charges because of televised statements the Saudi government said had endorsed the violent tactics of Osama bin Laden.

The simultaneous releases appeared to be a typical act of political balancing by the Saudi government, which faces opposition from both dissidents seeking free speech and constitutional change and Islamic radicals who accuse the ruling royal family of subservience to the West.

– The Washington Post

EASTERN EUROPE

BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT ARRESTED

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro – A top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, indicted by a U.N. tribunal for some of the worst atrocities in the Bosnian war, was arrested yesterday in Argentina.

Milan Lukic was being held at a police station in Buenos Aires and was to be questioned by a judge after being arrested in the city on an “international request,” according to Argentine federal police.

Lukic was indicted by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2000 for crimes against humanity. He also has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Serbia for war crimes but has been on the run since the late 1990s. Lukic has been charged with abduction and the killing of 20 Muslims from Serbia that took place in 1993 at a border area.

Earlier this year, Lukic was sentenced in absentia by a Serbian court to 20 years in prison for his role in the abduction of 16 Muslims from a bus in eastern Serbia in 1992. As a member of a notorious paramilitary group – the Avengers – Lukic allegedly took part in the abduction of the Muslims, 15 men and a woman, who were later taken to Bosnia, tortured at a local hotel and executed before their bodies were dumped in the Drina River.

– Associated Press

SOUTHERN AFRICA

MUGABE REJECTS CALLS FOR TALKS WITH OPPOSITION

HARARE, Zimbabwe – President Mugabe yesterday rejected calls for talks with Zimbabwe’s opposition leader on resolving the country’s political and economic crisis.

In a clear reference to neighboring South Africa, Mr. Mugabe said he is getting pressure to hold talks with the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, from “quarters that should know better.”

Zimbabwe has asked South Africa for a $1 billion loan to pay arrears on its loan from the International Monetary Fund and to buy critically short supplies like food and fuel. South Africa is pressuring Zimbabwe to make economic policy changes and to take steps to resolve its political crisis as conditions for an emergency loan.

In his speech, Mr. Mugabe scoffed at critics of his human rights and governance record, including America and Britain. He also said his “Look East” policy toward China and other Asian countries was having “quantifiable results.” He made no direct reference to his reported failure to win Beijing’s backing for his ailing economy or to talks with South Africa on the loan that would prevent Zimbabwe’s possible expulsion from the IMF next month.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

CATHOLIC PILGRIMS DENIED ENTRY TO GERMANY

BERLIN – Hundreds of young Catholic pilgrims from around the world are being denied visas to visit World Youth Day in Cologne next week because of fears they might not return home. A simplified visa procedure was agreed on by organizers and the German foreign ministry last year, meaning a visa would be granted on production of certain paperwork, including a return ticket. But a priest in Limburg, Wolfgang Pax, says more than 600 of the 6,000 pilgrims from Cameroon and the Philippines for whom he was organizing accommodation are being denied visas for the event, attended by Pope Benedict XVI. “I am deeply disturbed by this development,” he said. “Our church parish has prepared for more than a year for this visit from foreign guests and has looked forward to it.” Other problems have arisen for pilgrims applying for visas at the German consulates in Togo, India, and areas of Central Africa, where, according to Catholic youth groups, diplomats are demanding to see proof of employment, bank account details, and even land ownership papers. Three years ago, World Youth Day was held in Toronto, Canada, and led to more than 2,000 young visitors overstaying. At least 1 million visitors are expected at the Cologne festival.

– The Daily Telegraph

SPAIN BATTLES WORST DROUGHT IN DECADES

MADRID, Spain – Spain is suffering its worst drought in more than half a century. Rivers are withering, vital crops have been scorched to death, and drinking water is being rationed just as the country hits its peak tourist season.

With poor water management the norm, the crisis is only going to worsen, experts and officials warn. Agricultural losses have already been put at nearly $2 billion, at least a quarter of that in the southern Andalusia region, where Spain’s olive groves are starting to suffer the same devastation that has caused the loss of tons of wheat, sugar beets, and other vegetables. Cows and sheep are also threatened, farm unions say, as are wild animals.

Portugal and parts of France and Italy also have been hit by drought this season. But the problems in Spain, which has one of the highest per capita water consumption rates in Europe, are compounded by a construction boom and big-business agriculture that experts say irrigates inefficiently. Sprawling apartment complexes, fancy resorts, and water-guzzling golf courses are sprouting along Spain’s arid southern coastlines at a frantic pace. A record 700,000 homes were reportedly built last year, and with them, thousands of illegal wells.

Spain’s water shortages are also a function of pricing. “Wasting water is cheap,” Julio Barea of Spanish Greenpeace said. “Nobody would leave a light on [in Spain] because electricity is expensive. But few care if they leave a hose running.”

Farms, not individual households, use most of Spain’s water. By most estimates, agriculture accounts for at least 75% of water use, but only a small fraction of the GDP.

– Los Angeles Times

CARIBBEAN

U.N. TROOPS RAID SLUM IN CAPITAL

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers stormed a gritty slum teeming with armed gangs yesterday, the latest in an ongoing effort to stabilize Haiti’s volatile capital ahead of fall elections.

No shots were fired as about 350 U.N. troops surrounded a four-block area of Bel-Air, a Port-au-Prince slum that has been a flashpoint of recent violence by armed loyalists of ousted President Aristide.

Peacekeepers arrested four suspected gang members during the operation, two of whom were spotted with rifles, a U.N. military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Smicelapo, said. The other two suspects were accused of being kidnappers by residents.

The 7,400-member peacekeeping mission is intensifying operations to stop a wave of shootings and kidnappings that could threaten October and November elections, meant to fill the power vacuum left after the February 2004 re bellion that forced Mr. Aristide into exile.

– Associated Press