WESTERN EUROPE

SCHROEDER FACES INQUIRY

BERLIN – Gerhard Schroeder is under criminal investigation over claims that he abused his office as German chancellor to secure a top job with the Russian energy giant, Gazprom. His conduct is to be investigated after seven private individuals lodged complaints against him, the Berlin prosecutor’s office confirmed yesterday. Days after Mr. Schroeder, 61, left office, it was announced that he would be chairman of the supervisory board of Gazprom’s North European Gas Pipeline company. Two weeks before leaving office in November, Mr. Schroeder had signed a $5.9 billion pipeline deal with President Putin for a gas link between Germany and Russia.

– The Daily Telegraph

LESS THAN 50% OF BRITONS BACK DEATH PENALTY

LONDON – Support for the restoration of the death penalty in Britain has fallen below 50% for the first time since its abolition 40 years ago, according to a YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph. Recent high-profile murders have prompted calls for the return of hanging for those who kill police officers.

– The Daily Telegraph

NORTH AMERICA

ZAPATISTAS MEET WITH INDIANS

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico – The Zapatista movement’s leader, Subcomandante Marcos, began his public meetings yesterday in a six-month national tour to form a new leftist movement, pledging to “listen to everybody” as he met with Indian groups and rights activists. Competing for the attention of Mexico’s 13 million Indians, President Fox yesterday began his own tour of the country’s indigenous communities.

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

KIDNAPPED JOURNALISTS RELEASED

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Two kidnapped American journalists, radio broadcaster Alain Maximilien, 33, and a freelance documentary filmmaker, Frank Eaton, who said their captors threatened to kill them were freed over the weekend after friends and family assembled a ransom for their release. The two said they were freed after a total of more than $40,000 in ransom, along with 10 pairs of sneakers and a radio, were handed over during the three-day long negotiation.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

SUICIDE CAR BOMB TARGETS U.S. SOLDIERS IN AFGHANISTAN

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car near an American military convoy yesterday in Kandahar, killing himself and slightly wounding an American soldier and two passers-by, a woman and a child. The convoy was attacked as it drove through the former Taliban stronghold and the site of a string of recent suicide bombings.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

FLOODING KILLS AT LEAST 34 IN INDONESIA

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Flash floods swept away hundreds houses and schools in central Indonesia early yesterday, killing at least 34 people. Villages were inundated when overnight rains triggered a landslide on a hill in a subdistrict of East Java province, Panti, and forced a river to burst its banks.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

N. KOREA REFUSES TO RETURN TO TALKS UNLESS U.S. LIFTS SANCTIONS

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said yesterday it cannot return to international nuclear disarmament talks unless America lifts sanctions imposed for its alleged currency counterfeiting and other illegal activities. “While under U.S. sanctions, it’s impossible to sit face-to-face and discuss abandoning our nuclear deterrent … with a counterpart who seeks to isolate and stifle us,” said the Rodong Sinmun, the North’s ruling Workers Party newspaper, in a Korean-language commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

– Associated Press