World: Britain retakes power to govern N. Ireland

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- The struggle to keep a Catholic-Protestant administration for Northern Ireland suffered a potentially fatal blow Monday when Britain stripped its local politicians of power.

The move prevented resignations by the Ulster Unionists, the major Protestant party, because of alleged spying by the Irish Republican Army. An Ulster Unionist walkout would have killed the four-party coalition, the key achievement of the 1998 peace deal.

"This was the least-worst option," Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said after he ordered an indefinite return to sole British control as of midnight.

"There's going to be a lot of recrimination in the coming days, but my concern is to create a breathing space, so that we can focus on rebuilding the trust that's been lost," said Reid.

In a joint statement, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern pinned primary blame for the breakdown on the IRA and its allied party, Sinn Fein.

The leaders said the IRA would have to demonstrate "an unambiguous and definitive conclusion" to its activities before Protestants would be expected to resume cooperation with Sinn Fein.

Police said the IRA used Sinn Fein's access to government buildings to run a three-year spying operation, gathering intelligence on potential targets.

Son of Kenya's first president is nominated

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya's ruling party nominated the son of the country's first president to be its candidate in the next election, prompting senior members to quit and form their own party.

Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta won approval Monday to lead the Kenya African National Union.

A political novice, Kenyatta, 41, was favored by President Daniel arap Moi, who has said he is someone who "could be guided." Kenyatta is the son of Moi's predecessor, Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta.

But the choice alienated some of Moi's former Cabinet ministers, who staged a rally Monday in downtown Nairobi that attracted 50,000 people.

Moi is required under the constitution to step down at the end of the year, ending his 24-year tenure as Kenya's second president.

Accepting the nomination, Kenyatta thanked Moi for his support and praised him as "a great regional peacemaker and elder statesman."

Kenyatta also promised to fight corruption in Kenya, which he said had "contributed to the poor performance of our economy."

Australian archbishop cleared of abuse charge

SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Sydney Archbishop George Pell, has been cleared of sex abuse allegations, the church said Monday.

Pell was accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy in 1961 at a camp on the southern Phillip Island. He always denied the accusation.

An independent inquiry by former judge Alec Southwell dismissed the complaint by a man who claimed he had been sexually abused on several occasions by Pell, who was a trainee priest at the time.

The judge said it was impossible to produce forensic evidence backing up the allegation because of the delay between the alleged abuse and the complaint, which was made earlier this year.

Southwell also cited Pell's vehement denial of the allegation and "some valid criticism of the complainant's credibility," as reasons for clearing Pell.

Bomb suspected talked on Net about explosives

HELSINKI, Finland -- A quiet college student suspected of planting a bomb that killed himself and six others in a crowded suburban shopping mall chatted on the Internet about explosives days before the attack, authorities said Monday.

Petri Gerdt, 19, who is suspected of assembling the bomb with shotgun pellets and bits of metal shrapnel, participated in an Internet chat room called "bomb forum," on Oct. 8 -- three days before the explosion Friday in a shopping mall 10 miles north of Helsinki.

Gerdt, a chemical engineering student at a technical college, allegedly planted the bomb outside a McDonald's restaurant in one of Finland's largest shopping malls. The blast injured 80 people.

Gerdt had no criminal record or apparent political leanings and the motive for the bombing remained unknown.

Mexican troops reported tortured in drug inquiry

MEXICO CITY -- About 600 Mexican soldiers have been detained for 11 days and tortured during an investigation into alleged links to drug traffickers, a human rights group alleged Monday.

The soldiers are being held in facilities in the city of Guamuchil, Sinaloa, 680 miles northwest of Mexico City, said Benjamin Laureano Luna, president of the nongovernmental Mexican Front for Human Rights.

"They have been confined to the barracks, cut off from communication and subjected to torture and cruel and degrading treatment," Luna said in a telephone interview.

Officials from the Department of Defense would not confirm or deny the detentions or comment on the allegations of abuse.

Tropical depression forms south of Cuba

MIAMI -- Tropical storm warnings were issued Monday for the Cayman Islands and portions of western and central Cuba as a strengthening depression formed over the northwestern Caribbean Sea.

The Florida Keys and extreme southeastern Florida were placed under a tropical storm watch, extending from Golden Beach near Miami to Key West.

Monday evening, Tropical Depression 14 had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and was centered 300 miles south of Cuba's Isle of Youth. Forecaster Stacy Stewart said the depression could turn into a tropical storm later Monday or sometime today.

Stewart said the depression is expected to turn to the northeast as it approaches Florida. That could bring rains to the Keys and South Florida by this afternoon.

"If it goes to the northeast, that would keep the strongest winds and possibly even the tropical storm force winds away from the Keys and Florida" and put them over the northwestern Bahamas, Stewart said.

Elections . . .

YUGOSLAV DECISION CHALLENGED: Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's party vowed to challenge the annulment of the Serbian presidential elections, claiming Monday that voter lists were inflated with the names of dead or nonexistent people. Kostunica, a moderate nationalist, won 67 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, but the State Electoral Commission said polling will have to be repeated because the turnout was 45.5 percent, short of the required 50 percent minimum.

GREEK CONSERVATIVES GAIN: Conservatives made strong gains in local elections across Greece but fell short of the overwhelming victory they needed to force the long-governing Socialists to call early national elections, results showed Monday.

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