World in brief

Truck-boat Cubans apply to enter U.S.

HAVANA - The Cubans who sailed a pickup truck converted into a boat to within 40 miles of Florida drove a different truck to the U.S. Interests Section on Wednesday, making a legal bid to reach the United States.

"Let's see if God wills it this way," said Ariel Diego Marcel as he and the other 11 relatives, friends and neighbors who made the foiled attempt last week stood outside the American mission.

The U.S. Coast Guard sent the group back to Cuba after a U.S. Customs plane spotted their unusual, bright-green truck-boat floating in the Florida Straits.

TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in police custody this month was murdered, Iran's vice president said Wednesday in the first official admission that Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death.

Earlier government statements, including a report from a presidential committee, had acknowledged that Kazemi, 54, died July 10 from head injuries but suggested it could have been an accident. "The murder was caused by brain hemorrhage due to a blow inflicted on her," Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said.

DELAY SOUGHT ON N. KOREA: South Korea said Wednesday that it opposes an early discussion of North Korea's nuclear threats at the U.N. Security Council, and urged the United States to first try to bring the communist state to negotiations. Security Council deliberations on the nuclear threats could eventually lead to economic sanctions against the North, an action Pyongyang has said it would consider a "declaration of war."

PERU SEEKS EXTRADITION: Peru asked Japan today to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who fled to the Asian nation more than two years ago amid the collapse of his scandal-ridden government.

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