World Digest
Indonesian leader's party clings to lead

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More than 147 million people in the world's fourth-most-populous country were eligible to vote in Monday's election, which sets the stage for a July 5 presidential ballot. Counting has proceeded slowly as returns trickle in from the vast archipelago, which spans three time zones.

The latest numbers show Megawati's party at 21 percent and Suharto's former party, Golkar, at 20 percent. The poor showing is in line with polls showing many voters feel Megawati's government has failed to live up to promises to fight graft and improve people's lives.

It appeared that the Democratic Party, headed by former Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, although in fifth place, would easily exceed the 3 percent threshold required to nominate him for president.

Yudhoyono is a retired four-star general, and many voters who backed other parties for Parliament have indicated they would support him for the presidency. Recent opinion surveys indicate he would be the front-runner in a contest with Megawati.

Top U.S. envoy to Taiwan quits, cites personal reasons

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. envoy to Taiwan resigned yesterday, but the State Department denied the move had anything to do with complaints about her from Beijing.

Therese Shaheen, managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan, which handles official business between the United States and the Asian island, cited personal reasons in submitting her resignation, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

The Washington Times reported yesterday that Shaheen's resignation was due in part to complaints by Beijing that she is pro-Taiwan and has said the Chinese government's claims that the U.S. opposes independence for the island are inaccurate.

At least six die, 20,000 flee Zambezi flooding in Namibia

 
WINDHOEK, Namibia — Flooding from the rain-swollen Zambezi River has killed at least six people in northern Namibia and forced 20,000 to be evacuated, officials said yesterday.

Authorities in the southwest African country said the floods are the worst since 1958, and the Red Cross has launched an appeal to aid 50,000 people.

Much of Namibia is arid or desert, but floods are a frequent problem when seasonal rains across the northeastern part of Namibia, Angola and Zambia pour into the upper reaches of the Zambezi.

Canada ban on sale, ads of baby walkers is a first

OTTAWA — Canada became the first country in the world to ban the sale, advertising and import of baby walkers yesterday, saying too many children were being injured by the devices.

Baby walkers, also called infant walkers, are much like a chair on wheels, designed for use by children who are able to sit up but not yet able to walk on their own. Children sit in the walker and propel themselves with their feet.

"Health Canada has determined that these children do not have the necessary skills, reflexes or cognitive abilities to safely make use of these products," the health ministry said in a statement.

Canadian retailers have imposed a voluntary ban on the sale of baby walkers since 1989, but the health ministry said more and more were being imported.

Suspected guerrillas trigger mine; 26 Indian policemen die

PATNA, India — Suspected communist guerrillas triggered a land mine that killed at least 26 policemen in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police said yesterday.

The policemen were returning from patrols last night when the rebels detonated the land mine in the Saranda forest, in the state's Chaibasa District, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

Militants of the outlawed People's War Group were suspected of involvement in the attack, police said.

More than 6,000 people have been killed since the rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, began fighting in 1981. The guerrillas are fighting for separate socialist regimes in five Indian states. They mostly target rich landowners and police.

British air force criticized for new copters' defects

LONDON — A parliamentary committee yesterday criticized the government for buying eight helicopters the Royal Air Force cannot use in cloudy weather because of software problems.

The Ministry of Defense would need to spend an additional $232 million to put the Chinook support helicopters into full service, said a report by spending watchdog the National Audit Office, and fixing the problem will take until 2007. The eight Boeing aircraft, ordered in 1995, are worth $474 million.

The chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, Edward Leigh, said the Chinook contract was "one of the most incompetent procurements of all time. ... Thanks to a massively botched job, they cannot be flown when there is a cloud in the sky."

Slaying of man in Russia believed to be ethnic crime

MOSCOW — A gang of about 50 youths killed a man, thought to be an Afghan, during a rampage through a clothes market in the Russian city of Volgograd, Itar-Tass news agency reported yesterday.

Five people were wounded in the attack, which targeted people from the Caucasus region and Central Asia, who frequently work in Russia's markets.

The killing was the latest in a string of apparently ethnic slayings of ethnic non-Russians in the world's biggest country, where nationalism has gone some way toward filling a void left by the collapse of communism 13 years ago.

Earlier this year, a 9-year-old girl from former Soviet Tajikistan was knifed to death in St. Petersburg and a student from Guinea-Bissau was killed in an attack.

Russian researcher gets 15 years in spying for U.S.

MOSCOW — A Moscow court sentenced a Russian arms-control researcher to 15 years in prison yesterday for spying on behalf of the United States.

Igor Sutyagin, a scholar at Moscow's respected USA and Canada Institute, was jailed in October 1999 on charges he sold information on nuclear submarines and missile-warning systems to a British company that Russian investigators claimed was a CIA cover.

He was convicted of treason in the form of espionage by a jury on Monday. Sutyagin has maintained that the analyses he wrote were based on public sources and that he had no reason to believe the British company was an intelligence cover.

Church criticizes visa delays by Israel for Catholic clergy

JERUSALEM — Israel has delayed granting visas to dozens of Roman Catholic clergy, church officials said yesterday, and Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah called it an issue of survival for the church in the Holy Land.

The Rev. Robert Fortrin, a church official, said the visa applications of 138 Catholic clergy — many of them Arabs — have been held up by Israel's Interior Ministry, a 60 percent increase since last year in the number of visas delayed.

On Monday, Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, said the visa delays were undermining the ability of the church to function. The Latin Patriarchate presides over about 400,000 Roman Catholics in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jordan.

Tova Ellinson, spokeswoman for Israel's Interior Ministry, said Arab visa applicants were undergoing special scrutiny.

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