World Digest
Egypt's president is target of a rare protest

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The Popular Campaign for Reform issued a petition signed by 689 people, including students, journalists and teachers. "It has become clear in ... President Mubarak's rule that this system has put an obstacle in the path of the change and development our country needs to challenge the economic and social threats it faces," the petition said.

Mubarak, 76, is expected to either stand for a fifth term or appoint a successor, possibly his son, who would then be approved by a referendum in which few Egyptians traditionally bother to vote.

Kabul, Afghanistan

As count nears end, Karzai holds big lead

Interim President Hamid Karzai has clinched a majority of the votes cast in Afghanistan's first presidential election, near-complete results showed yesterday, leaving him all but certain of becoming his war-wrecked nation's first democratically elected leader.

His chief rival, former Education Minister Yunus Qanooni, said he was willing to accept the election result despite accusations of fraud. "For the national interest and so the country does not go into crisis, we will respect the result of the election," said Syed Hamid Noori, spokesman for Qanooni. With 94.3 percent of the votes counted, Karzai had 55.3 percent, 39 percentage points ahead of Qanooni.

Barranquilla, Colombia

Land mines exploded in eradication drive

Colombia's armed forces blew up 6,800 stockpiled land mines yesterday, beginning an effort to eventually rid the country of the weapons. Anti-personnel mines have killed or injured some 560 people in Colombia this year.

The land mines were destroyed in eight explosions, a move aimed at underscoring Colombia's commitment to destroying all state-owned mines even though Marxist rebels who have battled the government for 40 years have increasingly used them.
 
Land mines have become a huge problem in Colombia, where government troops and allied militia fighters are battling two leftist rebel groups. The Andean nation has the fourth-largest number of annual casualties from mine blasts, behind Chechnya, Afghanistan and Cambodia.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

U.N. forces, police try to regain control

Using armored cars and earthmovers, U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police moved yesterday into an area controlled by militants loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, protecting workers who were removing burned-out cars used as roadblocks.

One police officer was shot and killed, apparently in early resistance that ended when scores of troops moved in, said Brazilian Col. Luiz-Felipe Carbonell.

Violence has left some 56 people dead in recent weeks.

Teotíhuacan, Mexico

Protest of Wal-Mart held in ancient ruins

More than 300 demonstrators streamed into the ancient ruins of Teotíhuacan yesterday and climbed part way up the towering Pyramid of the Sun, the latest in a string of protests against the construction of a Wal-Mart-owned store nearby.

Lugging huge banners and waving signs decrying Wal-Mart and other international corporations, protesters surprised tourists and visitors at the ruins 25 miles northeast of Mexico City.

The store will be almost a mile from the national park. The Paris-based International Council On Monuments and Sites said the store wouldn't harm the ruins.

Beijing

Powell calls North Korea a "terrorist state"

Secretary of State Colin Powell, on a mission to Asia to restart talks on North Korea's nuclear program, yesterday branded North Korea a "terrorist state" that shows "no respect whatsoever for human rights."

Asked by Japanese reporters about the North's abduction of more than a dozen Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to serve as language teachers, Powell said, "A state did this, not terrorists. ... A terrorist state did this."

Also, noting that scores of North Koreans have fled their country in recent years, Powell said the refugees were trying to get away from poverty and a government that has "no respect whatsoever for human rights."

Pitcairn Island

Six men convicted in series of sex attacks

Six men, including the island's mayor, have been convicted of a string of sex attacks on the isolated Pacific territory that is home to descendants of the 18th-century Bounty mutineers.

Mayor Steve Christian, who claims to be a direct descendant of mutiny leader Fletcher Christian, was convicted of five rapes, New Zealand's TVNZ network reported today. The men were tried for a string of 55 sex attacks dating back up to 40 years on women and girls on the island, which has a permanent population of 47.

None of the victims of abuse still live on the island; they all testified via a video link from Auckland, New Zealand.