Italian police target foreigners in crackdown on illegal immigration

Rome

Italian police cracked down on street crime and illegal immigration, arresting nearly 400 people in a weeklong sweep. The sweep fulfills a pledge by Italy's new government, led by conservative Silvio Berlusconi, to improve safety following a spate of crimes in recent months blamed on foreigners.

Police have arrested 383 people, including about 270 foreign citizens -- mainly Romanians and North Africans -- since May 7, officials said Thursday. They also expelled 53 people, mostly Nigerians and Albanians. Most are suspected of robberies, illegal immigration, prostitution and drug trafficking, officials said.

Beirut, Lebanon

Lebanon factions to resume talks

Lebanese factions took another major step toward calming a flare-up of sectarian and political violence Thursday by agreeing to immediately resume long-stalled talks over a new government in a deal brokered by a visiting delegation of Arab diplomats.

It appeared to be a victory for the Shiite militia Hezbollah, which leads the opposition to the U.S.-backed government and whose fighters occupied parts of Beirut last week, forcing concessions from the administration of Prime Minister Fauod Siniora.

For decades, Lebanon's Christians, Druze, Shiites and Sunnis, along with foreign governments supporting the factions, have jostled for power. A 1975-90 civil war devastated the country.

Last week's fighting was triggered by a government decision to target Hezbollah's intelligence and communications networks, which the government rescinded Tuesday, setting the stage for Thursday's deal.

Santiago, Chile

Murder charge in singer's death

A retired army colonel has been charged in the killing of renowned Chilean folk singer Victor Jara following the 1973 coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

A judge said retired Col. Mario Manriquez was "responsible" for the death of Jara, part of Latin America's "New Song" folk movement of the 1960s and 1970s and a Communist Party political activist who backed Chile's elected socialist president, Salvador Allende.

Jara was arrested after the Sept. 11, 1973, military coup that overthrew Allende and he was taken to a soccer stadium used as a detention camp. Court papers indicate Jara was tortured -- his hands smashed with rifle butts -- and then shot to death.

The death turned him into an international symbol of resistance to the Pinochet government.

Also

Bombing claim: A previously unknown Islamic militant group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen claimed Thursday to have used explosive-laden bicycles to plant bombs that tore through the historic Indian city of Jaipur, warning in an e-mail of more attacks on popular tourists sites. The e-mail demands India stop working with the United States and Britain.

Double trouble: Chaiten, the town in Chile's Patagonia region abandoned by residents after a volcano erupted, has been almost entirely flooded by a rain-swollen river.

Seattle Times news services