Inquiry in Yugoslavia ends badly for everyone

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Grilling political and military leaders before television cameras was supposed to help Yugoslavs establish truth about a political scandal shaking their country.

Instead, everyone came out looking bad -- including Yugoslavia President Vojislav Kostunica and his rival Zoran Djindjic, premier of Yugoslavia's main republic of Serbia. Once united in overthrowing Slobodan Milosevic, they now don't communicate.

The inquiry, which ended Saturday after six days, was set up to investigate allegations that Kostunica and his aides tried to incite the army to raid a Serbian government building suspected of eavesdropping on Kostunica.

Scores of top officials, including intelligence chiefs and security agents, showed up for the week of unprecedented televised parliamentary inquiry.

"In this affair, nobody looks good, especially in the eyes of the foreign investors," Djindjic said Saturday, while denying any wrongdoing but laying open the political rift at the nation's helm.

"President Kostunica and I have had virtually no communication for months," he told the inquiry.

Kostunica refused to appear in front of the committee, along with several aides, implicated in the affair.

"The inquiry looks miserable. It's a theater," he told reporters.

South American leaders want free trade with U.S.

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador -- South American leaders ended a two-day summit Saturday with an agreement to strengthen regional cooperation to better negotiate with the United States a free-trade zone for the hemisphere.

In the summit's final document, the 10 presidents said it was important to fortify cooperation between the region's two major trade blocs to permit South America to proceed successfully with negotiations for a hemispheric-wide free-trade zone.

The two trade groups are Mercosur, made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, with Chile and Bolivia as associated members, and the Andean pact, composed of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

The presidents also urged a campaign against corruption and drug trafficking and expressed support for Colombia in its war against leftist guerrilla groups.

Ecuadorean President Gustavo Noboa replied testily when asked about specific measures the region could take to combat drug trafficking.

"If the idea is that countries where drugs are sown develop alternative crops, that is magnificent. But just as they ask us not to plant drugs, they should buy those alternative crops," he said.

French prime minister visits rebellious Corsica

AJACCIO, Corsica -- French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin made a surprise visit to Corsica to boost his government's efforts to bring peace to the troubled Mediterranean island.

Raffarin's trip came as Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech to Corsican lawmakers laying out the new center-right government's plans for the French island's future.

Since the mid-1970s, Corsican separatists have waged a campaign of low-level violence for greater autonomy or independence, bombing French public buildings, summer homes and vacation resorts.

Raffarin told reporters in southern Corsica's largest city, Ajaccio, he made the journey because he felt the island had shown a desire for a dialogue.

"I wanted to make clear the determination of the government in favor of that dialogue," he said, before sitting down for lunch with local officials.

Attempts to rescue beached whales fails

PERTH, Australia -- Nearly 60 whales stranded on an Australian beach have died or were euthanized after failed attempts to return them to the water.

Local fisherman found the 58 false killer whales stranded late Friday on Tooregullup Beach, about 360 miles from Perth, said Keiran McNamara, spokesman for the Conservation and Land Management department.

McNamara said the fishermen managed to return six of the whales to the water, but 44 of the animals had already died.

Attempts to rescue the remaining eight whales were hampered by the sighting of a white pointer shark in the area.

Wildlife officers and a veterinarian tried to stabilize the whales overnight and planned to rescue them in the morning. However, by Saturday two of the animals had died, and the rest were weak and distressed and were killed.

Indonesian bomb blast injures 53 in marketplace

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A bomb exploded in a crowded marketplace in Indonesia's religiously divided province of Maluku, injuring 53 people, police said.

The 9 a.m. blast ripped through a market packed with shoppers in a Christian neighborhood of Ambon, a provincial capital that is divided between warring Christian and Muslim sides.

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