World in brief

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 5, 2002

Powell pledges more U.S. aid in Colombia drug war

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Denouncing leftist guerrillas in strong terms, Secretary of State Colin Powell praised the peace efforts of President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday and said, "The United States stands with Colombia in this struggle."

Powell spent five hours meeting with Uribe and other Colombian officials and discussed ways in which the United States might broaden its assistance to this beleaguered country, wracked by civil war for more than three decades.

The Bush administration is betting heavily on Uribe, especially as problems fester in neighboring Venezuela, nearby Brazil and in Haiti. Powell's trip, and his warm words for Uribe, signaled that the Bush administration sees a boost in assistance to Colombia as part of its global war on terrorism. Colombia also is the source of most of the world's cocaine and as much as 90 percent of the heroin consumed in the Eastern United States.

As part of an increasingly ambitious plan to battle narcotics traffickers, Powell said that early next year the United States hopes to resume antidrug surveillance flights over Peru and Colombia -- which could lead to the shooting down of planes flown by suspected traffickers.

Haitian businesses, schools close in government protest

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Shops and schools were bolted shut Wednesday during a general strike called to protest President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government a day after police and mobs broke up antigovernment demonstrations.

Nearly 200 businesses, including banks and gas stations, closed in the capital of Port-au-Prince, while others in the northern provinces were shuttered in solidarity. Business leaders said other strikes would follow if government reforms weren't made.

The call for the general strike came hours after whip-wielding Aristide partisans and police firing tear gas broke up antigovernment demonstrations across the country Tuesday.

N. Korea snubs request to dismantle nuclear program

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea rejected a call by the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency for the communist country to abandon its nuclear weapons program and allow foreign inspections.

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun said the resolution passed Friday was "extremely unilateral," the North Korean official news agency KCNA reported Wednesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's resolution urged North Korea to "give up any nuclear weapons programs expeditiously" and open "all relevant facilities to IAEA inspection and safeguards."

At the White House, press secretary Ari Fleischer called North Korea's defiance of the IAEA "another disappointing example of North Korea's isolationism, which will only hurt the people of North Korea."

Venezuelan crisis worsens as strike, protests spread

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Marches aimed at ousting President Hugo Chavez's leftist government spread across Venezuela on Wednesday, with tens of thousands of people banging on pots and waving flags to support a general strike.

Under international pressure, strike leaders suggested they were ready to resume talks on early elections as the walkout began to affect production in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Strike organizer Carlos Fernandez, head of Venezuela's largest business group, said opposition and government delegates were meeting with Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria to explore resuming three-week-old talks on an electoral solution to the crisis.

The OAS, the United Nations and the United States have urged both sides to avoid more political violence and resume talks. Pope John Paul II appealed Wednesday for calm and "authentic justice based on truth and solidarity."

Winds fan fires on edge of Australian capital

SYDNEY, Australia -- Hundreds of firefighters battled into the night Wednesday as fires raged through suburban bush land on the outskirts of Sydney, destroying at least 20 homes.

Strong, hot winds blowing out of the drought-stricken Outback west of Sydney were forecast to continue today, and Australia's most populous city braced for more devastation.

Late Wednesday afternoon 1,100 firefighters were battling 39 fires around the state. Three firefighters were injured.

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