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World in brief
Compiled from Times wires Gas supply runs low as crisis grips VenezuelaCARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent troops to force gas stations to open and threatened to take over private gas delivery companies Sunday amid increasing signs of scarcity due to a strike that has shut down production by the world's fifth-largest oil producer. Lines of cars stretched for blocks in Caracas on Sunday as panic-buying at gas stations began on the general strike's seventh day. Shoppers emptied store shelves, worried about political unrest and Chavez's threat to declare martial law if needed. Last week, Chavez sent soldiers to protect oil wells and refineries from possible sabotage by strikers. On Sunday, he sent soldiers to gasoline stations to ensure continued service and delivered a warning to striking gasoline truck drivers. "They are failing to provide a public service, and that's a crime. We can seize those vehicles," Chavez said during a five-hour-plus edition of his weekly television program, Hello President. More than 30 percent of gas stations in Venezuela's major cities ran out of fuel, said Horacio Medina, one of the strike leaders. The strike has forged a deep divide between supporters of Chavez and those who want him toppled. It has stopped shipments of crude to the United States, which purchases more than 10 percent of its imported oil from Venezuela. Inquiry begins into blasts after 18 die in BangladeshDHAKA, Bangladesh -- Authorities questioned movie theater employees Sunday after a string of deadly bomb explosions at four crowded cinemas, and the government ruled out al-Qaida involvement in the attacks. The blasts Saturday night tore through movie houses during a 30-minute period, killing 18 people and injuring more than 200 in Mymensingh, a small town 70 miles north of the capital, Dhaka. The government ordered heightened security at mosques, temples, churches, shopping malls and theaters and appointed a retired judge to launch an inquiry. Low turnout again dooms Serbian presidential voteBELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Low voter turnout on Sunday invalidated Serbia's third attempt to elect a president since September, deepening political uncertainty in Yugoslavia's major republic. Just 45 percent of the electorate voted, below the 50 percent required by the constitution for the results to stand. On Sunday, as in the election in September and the first runoff in October, the winner was Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, who picked up about 58 percent of the vote. The speaker of Parliament will now stand in as president while politicians debate changes to the constitution. 24 years later, Carter to receive Nobel honorOSLO, Norway -- Jimmy Carter gets the Nobel Peace Prize on Tuesday in a ceremony that the chairman of the Norwegian committee behind the award says is 24 years overdue. Carter, now 78, would have been included in the 1978 Peace Prize for mediating the Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, but he was nominated after the deadline. So the former U.S. president is being honored "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." South Africans grapple with rising food pricesDIEPSLOOT, South Africa -- Skyrocketing food prices have many South Africans who once made a decent living struggling to feed their families. Food prices have doubled and, for some goods, tripled since January. The increases have been particularly steep for staples such as corn meal that comprise a good part of the diet of the poor. The surge has been blamed in part on the depreciation of South African rand, and also on the demand for grain because of food shortages in six nearby countries.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
